Review: Doctor's Crypt

Screenshots

Sir Robin is one generous level designer - Doctor's Cyrpt was a gift from Sir Robin to a Doomer named Doctor Crypt after he was the twenty thousandth visitor at Sir Robin's Doom Castle. It's also going to be level 14 in a yet to be completed TC.

If you plan to play the level correctly, you'll have to run it with Lee Killough's brilliant MBF . Boom isn't enough, as Sir Robin has placed numerous friendly (multicoloured) marines throughout the level. More on that later.

The objective of the level is simple enough - fight your way through an Alien Military Base, freeing your marine buddies as you go. The military base is quite large, with a large outdoor area and a number of buildings to clear out. Unfortuantely most of the buildings are very plain looking from the outside - windows and supports would have been nice. The indoor areas are inconsistent, with some areas featuring a high amount of detail with both well created objects and lighting, whereas others are quite bare.

For a level so big, there were too few monsters. Early on with no armour, shotgun guys proved frustrating, but where a tougher monster did appear it was usually in small numbers. There is a one on one fight with a Cyberdemon which is easier than you would expect, and you will come out of it with a lot of ammo making the rest of the level quite straightforward. Later parts of the level are more action orientated with larger groups of monsters, but not enough to justify the wide open spaces!

The Majority of Doomers should have no problem finishing the level on Ultra Violence, but probably not on the first try. Lower the skill level, and as well as a few monsters missing you'll find a lot more ammo and armour to pick up.

The friendly marines do not have as large an impact on the game as I expected. First appearing in groups of four, the marines don't prove to be of any great importance, perhaps taking a few bullets for your benefit. One later fight sees a group of 12 or so marines fight it out with several Barons of Hell. A few should survive if you stick with them. The marines might not be so lucky in the final room though...

Sir Robin has given the level a distinct 3D feel (by Doom's Standards at least). There are a lot of 3D bridges, not quite enough to say they were overused. There are also all the regular Boom tricks on show - including an interesting 3D drop which might surprise you.

Doctor's Crypt is above average, but it doesn't manage to overly impress as a stand-alone level. If the buildings were smaller and more compacted, with a larger amount of monsters to kill, the level would have been easier to detail and the marines could have proved more useful. Despite this, definitely an original level worthy of your attention.

Overall: 7.5/10

Reviewed by Chief