Friday, February 14, 2020

Doom Musings: Five great Icon of Sin battles (and five that were terrible)

Hooray, another Doom musings post, and yet another one that is about five things that were good and five that weren't good. So the Icon of Sin, a giant goat face on a wall that shoots spawn cubes that summon enemies non-stop until you shoot its brain out. A fantastic idea, trying to figure out how to get this thing to finally stop shooting and to rid the Earth of the Hell that has taken over. Then with custom WADs which will generally have a final level with dealing with the so-called "boss shooter" new arenas and scenarios were made. This will cover five great Icon of Sin battles and five that were not so great.

Note that this list will cover levels that have Icons of Sin for end bosses. These don't have to be MAP30's, although at the end this list was all MAP30 except for one (oops). This list will not cover any level that doesn't have the Icon of Sin on them.

Great: Icon of Sin (Doom II)

I mean what else should be listed as the first great one? The arena is pretty simple, large, but simple enough to work with what gets thrown at the player. Solving the puzzle to get the platform to rise, then using it and shooting rockets into the brain in order to win, yet you're under constant pressure from monsters as well as the damaging floor below. The famous Romero Head easter egg of course also originated here for those who wish to use no clipping to see it.

Terrible: Last Call (TNT: Evilution)

The torch maze with the voodoo doll instadeath teleporter gimmick is a wonderfully innovative idea. Plus it's the first IWAD map to make use of dummy sectors. It's a shame that much of the level's combat before the boss isn't impressive. It's there in spades, but nothing too amazing. The real kicker is that in most other boss shooters, you aim for the brain. In this one, aiming for the brain won't work, you have to aim below the brain. Although you can do this with any weapon and damage the boss, the counter-intuitive way of actually finishing this level threw off many players, and that's why it is terrible.

Great: The Forgotten God (Revolution!)

Fighting a big goat face has become a staple of Icon of Sin battles. But in Revolution!, we are treated to something that looks much more sinister. It's a big humanoid which functions like a boss shooter, but far cooler. The arena is small and simple, but the ideas present were excellent. A split-second rocket for each round trip in order to damage the thing make this one frantic fight. And the ending afterwards shows what you probably desired.

Terrible: Nucleus (Icarus: Alien Vanguard)

I don't know how three mappers can make an Icon of Sin level seem bad, but here we are. The simple arena has you thinking you must blow some rockets towards the center, but nothing will ever happen. The strategy here was also counter-intuitive, heading into the arena, running along the outside perimeter, then heading back to the south end to find a skull switch and a target to shoot. Even worse, the actual boss is at a far side, requiring the rocket launcher, but the whole thing feels awkward. And the arena looks awkward too!

Great: The Gatewatcher (Plutonia 2)

Thomas Van Der Velden is the mapper to thank for The Forgotten God above, and he is also to thank for this one, The Gatewatcher. Yet another great instance of Icon of Sin art, the goat face this time has more hollow eyes and just feels much more sinister, with the music track Cataclysmic Impact further making the whole thing much more harrowing. Urgency is needed, kill the cyberdemons at the switches, then aim for those hollow eyes. This is truly one of the nastier Icon of Sin fights.

Terrible: Point Dreadful (Alien Vendetta)

For those who play it, you probably only get one shot at defeating the boss shooter, which basically means studying a speedrun tactic used for the original Icon of Sin. Point Dreadful is terrible because the distance between the lowest switch and the lift from which it triggers is too big for the short amount of time to reach it, requiring wall-running, which for those who never got acclimated to it will never be able to reach. And it's not a very impressive Icon of Sin battle visually, just somewhat standard. It's just such a dreadful point to end Alien Vendetta with.

Great: Píča (Kama Sutra)

The fruits of Doomguy's labour in Kama Sutra pay off in this amazingly memorable final map. The beginning has you choosing a path, Kids or Adults? Choosing kids is the lamer option, though it's still difficult as you have to wait for an exit to lower while cyberdemons assault you with rockets. But the Adults route? Yeah, that's the kind of thing every guy's fantasy never would have imagined. Is there really much more to say?

Terrible: Amenthes (Epic 2)

One of the main caveats of the MAP30 slot is that monsters gain the ability to telefrag. Though this doesn't just apply to the player, it applies to other monsters as well, and it works for both spawning enemies and teleporting enemies. So what's the deal with the adventurous Epic 2 and its lame final level? Well it's pretty much segmented setpieces before the boss shooter, and one particular setpiece has you going on rising pillars and shooting a far switch. What happens next is a weird sight, a bunch of enemies teleport onto a teleporter behind you and telefrag each other. And this happens twice. It's so odd that this would happen. And the actual boss shooter itself is honestly underwhelming and easy to beat.

Great: Worlds Collide (Hellbound)

Worlds Collide is a great example of a gauntlet run Icon of Sin, making players go through the first few trials while enemies continue to spawn in the level well before you reach the boss itself. And the settings, like the rest of Hellbound, work wonders for this particular map, with the lava-flooded cities and the dilapidated structures taking huge precedence over the damning landscapes. The swift will be able to win this one, but even the slower players shouldn't have too much trouble as long as they are reasonably quick in figuring out what to do.

Terrible: Release Me (Cleimos 2)

So you run through a bunch of fences while the Icon of Sin spawns stuff, climb some stairs and find the boss sprite to shoot. That's basically it. Not much to say about it. It's too short to be exciting and too lame combat-wise. It's also MAP26, with a few bonus maps appearing in the final slots. Is there really much else to say? Requiem's MAP30 (Nevermore) at least had more meat to deal with before its lame boss.

Honorable mentions:

Hatred (Requiem): The whole level is fantastically tough to this very day for a Requiem map, the Icon of Sin being a somewhat pleasant surprise.
Darkness Without End (Speed of Doom): Speed of Doom was released in 2010, and this final level had 2010 monsters to deal with. It was a survival gauntlet, but an exploit allows you to wait for the pillar to lower without having to worry about fighting a horde of slaughter.
The Verge of Revelation (Whispers of Satan): Whispers of Satan has the settings of Hell done amazingly well, and the buildups to the Icon of Sin are great. The Icon of Sin battle tries to be as innovative as it gets too.
Megiddo (NOVA: The Birth): Five authors create five distinct sections before you get to the final boss. The boss itself isn't as good as it should be though.
In the Eye of the Beholder (Plutonia Revisited: Community Project): As you might expect, Thomas Van Der Velden delivers a unique-looking Icon of Sin in the form of a huge cacodemon. It's just not as memorable as the others.

Dishonorable mentions:
1994 Revisited (Whispers of Satan): Geez, what good does it to wait for the Icon of Sin to get repeatedly crushed by a single switch?
The North Pole (H2H-XMAS): None of the spawned monsters will ever show up in this map.
Nevermore (Requiem): It's a simple yet small arena preceded by a few battles, which actually saves it from being too lame.
Game Over (Going Down): Gotta figure out what to do, then just wait a bit, then let a monster open a door and run for the elevator. Easy.

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