This is actually the last of his levels. Most of Craniums maps are tedious but I think he had good ideas (TEETH, the Sea of Blood, also the overarching story). Black Tower is very long, but I like the idea of climbing this tower (even though you teleport to different areas it still feels like you're making your way to the top, I just wish you didn't have to go back after you kill the cyber demon.
@@sergrojGrayFace it's been a while since I've been enveloped I'm DOOM, but I'm pretty sure I was referring to his last chronological level in the Master Level package
@@LOPESYT266 how can you not like mods. there are tons and tons of amazing mods for doom. and technically speaking this map is also a mod. its a modded level for doom. but there are tons of amazing mods for doom though.
To this day, the only official Doom map that I literally gave up on my first try, after an hour of trying to find where to go. Ironically, I rather like this level now, or at least parts of it... Though the parts that I don't like, I REALLY don't like XP
Responding to an ancient message - but that's Doom fandom! I am only a bit of the way through the level, but I am liking the ideas. Just a few annoying parts, and less annoying if you aren't going for 100%.
Hey just finished this love/hate map. I had to restart because I had invincibility glitch on a spectre which caused other enemies to be completely invisible. If a enemy glitches through the floor you can hit some of them with a rocket and it will kill them. Thank goodness for the guide!
I've heard that many people hate this level, but for me, it is my favorite of all master levels. Sure it is fuckin hard and long but it is the most memorable at the same time and while it is very hard I still don't think it is unfairly hard like some other levels (mephisto). It seems pretty epic to me and I must wonder why didn't you spare it for later since according to the description, it is the final one of the cranium series.
Omg, tricky map indeed! Well nothing better than listening to the brilliant AIC whilst Combating this challenging map! Great choice in music there! 🎶 🎵 ❤ 👏 😊
36:40 The switch lowers a supercharge in the exit area apparently I played this map a few times too. Not too fond of the switchporn to get to the third floor
Actually, it's pronounced "Shaag-rinn" for that Chagrin, it takes a good Northeast Ohioan to know how to pronounce it correctly (after all, we have a city called Chagrin Falls, and there's the Chagrin River, so...yeah). ;)
@@maddal1705It's not about it being a difficult map, which it is, but it's just a chore to get through. Mephisto's Mosuleam is hard because of the Revenats combined with those narrow platforms with holes that you can fall into.
My guess, about the imps falling through those stairs sometimes (and the sergeant falling through the platform), it might be a bug related to the Blockmap lump in the .wad itself, or something close to it. Some error that crept in due to a tool Cranium was using at the time. I know, back in my old map-making days (which didn't produce much of anything to speak of), when I had finished editing something, I would rebuild the BSP nodes, and sometimes there would be weird errors in my maps, too, akin to that. Just depends on what tool I used, so a similar thing could have happened here. As for the 75 health bonuses, you can stack an insanely-large amount of items inside each other (monsters included) and the game will still render all of them (though the original DOS engine had stricter limits on just how much stuff a map could have in it, level geometry included).
I remember this being another one of the maps that didn't work well in co-op, since once you raise the stairway inside the tower, the entrance into the tower from the starting area is blocked, so if you die and respawn, you're stuck.
Thought I was the only one. I wasted so many hours thinking I needed to get the walls to lower before raising the staircase so I could get back into the building from the side door. Smh. I hate this level on co-op.
I'm not from Doom times, but I recognize it's a great and hard game. I'm playing all the series and your videos help me a lot. Thanks for helping us and sharing your opinions and feeling about these maps. I can't play in nightmare or ultra-violence without cheating, so it looks amazing see how you manage to do it step-by-step.
I grew up playing doom (born in 91) but I always played on easy as a kid. After watching some of these walkthroughs I thought, ultra violence doesnt look that hard? So I tried it... and holy shit is it hard 😂 BMD makes it look so easy man, but its not at all
Really enjoyed the game-play. Btw, that "bald headed demon" face is actually the face of Arch-vile. I remember you used to say that in your old doom walkthroughs i.e. Doom 2 map 15. I thought you already knew about that after all these years.
I'm back watching your videos after my job issues. Kind of lost motivation, and the Coronavirus outbreak in my country and healing people has had (and still does) me focused on the task, but I'm gladly back and catching up after all these months! I missed your content :) This map is among my favorites in Master Levels, the only. The only annoying part is the Cacodemon window room, it usually makes me go IDCLIP through each window and finish the strugglers (one or two per window), the rest is very nice. Ttrap is very nice too. Kranium has the hardest maps here, and they've grown on me after a while (except Bloodsea, that one still can go to hell), this one being among my favorites in ML as said, and it's probably his easiest (excluding Bad Dream). Mephisto is very difficult, Bloodsea is a bit stupid-like difficult and even unfair at some points due to the lava and Lost Souls badly spread, and TEETH is, in my opinion, the hardest map in the whole WAD, but it's satisfying to complete. I'll watch those videos later, I'm going in order here.
In the room at 6:48 and I DEFINITELY see what you mean with big, open areas. One of the Revenant's projectiles chased me around that field for 2 minutes as I desperately lapped the perimeter, trying to open the door without letting that golden snitch get too close.
Ok I beat this level from hell. 1:15 ugh wayyy too long for a Doom map IMO. Well, my thoughts haven't changed. If it wasn't for really weird design choices this could've been a classic. Imagine if it was modern with silent teleporters. We really could've made our way up this tower. Someone should remake this map and have it live up to its true potential!
33:52 damn I got trapped by the pillars, thanks for explaining that, I thought I was softlocked, this map is a dun mess, haven't finished it cuz its very long but what you showed seems cool
Great playthrough, Big Mac! I too used to play the bejeezus out of any Doom wad back in the 90s, although I was in my 40s back then, not a teen. Never liked a lot of the Master levels., including this one, but watching this vid I'm realizing it isn't half as bad as I remember. BTW absolutely love your channel, you and decino are my favorite Doomers!
There are actually some inescapable holes in GZDoom on this map. Glad you didn't fall though. 20:59 In GZdoom you can actually go through these hanging corpses and (I believe) you will fall inside a hole with a chaingunner with no way to escape. Chaingunners are raised latter and I think these pits are blocked with that hanging corpse in vanilla, but not in GZDoom. I'm not 100% sure, haven't played this map for more than a year, but iirc that's the case.
@@BigMacDavisyeah, that makes sense too. Looks like that's the actual reason. I remember these pits because I actually fell down in one them on my first GZdoom playthrough. Also, I think AltimaMantoid had an imp in the floor on this map in one of his videos or streams. This map is actually harder in GZDoom, than Vanilla, because I think you can try and kill those stuck cacodemons in the windows by infinite height splash damage of rockets, but in GZDoom with Z axis it doesn't work.
The 90 second par time for this level popping up next to my 40+ minutes genuinely made me laugh out loud. I actually quite like Cranium's levels in this pack but they're certainly not quick or straightforward affairs.
Thank you for your video, BigMacDavis! I do enjoy it! The analogy I like to bring up about this map is that it is like having a glass half full and half empty. While yes, there is a progression that it is half full which is better than nothing and on the other hand, it's a bummer that it is half empty where you could've drunk the whole glass. It just depends on how you look at it. For the Black Tower map, there are some positive things that I like which are the gameplay and the design of this map, on the other hand, I do not like the tedium where you have to constantly worry about enemies getting in rooms you don't have access to, you have to id clip in order to get 100%, if that's the case. But overall, I like this map, it is unique. Also, I like to note that the other playthrough touches this map here and other Cranium maps which is LightningBoltForever. He covers all the maps and he does a pretty good job doing the gameplay, similar to what you do. But to put it simply, here are the maps that are good (according to LightningBoltForever): Bloodsea Keep and Bad Dream, and the bad maps: Mephisto's Mausoleum, Black Tower, and The Express Elevator to Hell (TEETH). So, it's a mixed reaction to these maps. To me personally, here are the good maps: Bloodsea Keep, Black Tower, and Bad Dream, and the bad maps: The Express Elevator to Hell (TEETH) and Mephisto's Mausoleum. We'll get to that when we get to it. So, basically, the Cabal series has a mixed reception where some people like it, others do not. But one series in the Master Levels that everyone agrees is the best is Dr. Sleep's maps. What's interesting about this series is that it is inspired by Dante's Inferno which is an epic poem based on hell outlining the circles given to how grave the sin is. And the word cantos is basically a section in which a long poem is divided. There are 34 cantos in the poem and Dr. Sleep only did five of them (Cantos 3-7 [III-VII]), which is a lot to look forward to. Anyway, I write long enough. Sorry about the length, there is a lot to discuss, all I did is to get the highlights. That's all there is, I want to know what you think, thank you for reading this comment! 😊
@@BigMacDavis That's fine. I have to agree that Mephisto's Mausoleum is probably the least favorite map in the Cabal series. Mainly, there is a lot to do especially running around and there is a bunch of revenants. Oh boy, that is something! What maps do you like in Dr. Sleep's Inferno series?
I'm playing through the Master levels as part of a Megawad club playthrough on Doomworld - I really could have used this video about a week ago when I was playing this map! Really strange level.
Hey, I really like this map BMD. It's almost old-school DOOM. Did you notice that after you go through the yellow door (at about 22:47) and kill all the shotgunners, the only enemy left is a chaingunner, but when he first fires as you back out the door, it's a shotgun blast, not a chaingun blast. What a looooong map. Reminds me of the Administration Center. The mysterious switch....yeah I think there's only one switch you and I don't know what it does....and I think it's The Citadel and it's in the room before you get the Blue Key. Thanks for the great playthrough. :)
The plot sounds so much like Blood. In both cases, you were a high ranking bad guy who was betrayed by "The Cabal" and your entire motivation is only revenge.
demon attackin arch-vile? whaat?? its hard-wired in the doom source code that no monster can ever target arch-viles? what is going on? did cranium somehow broke the source-code of doom :D
33:50 Solution if you've killed the cyberdemon and are blocked from returning to the tower. Thanks for this video just for getting me past this point. It seems to me like a pretty lame bit of level design to require the player to either know NOT to flip a switch or find something that's hidden like a secret in order to complete a level.
with the release of Doom + Doom II I played the master level for the first time and I had to came back here to get some help on this lvl, this is by far the hardest level I've played so far
21:44 "The corner of the wall that's not like the others". I sure wish I had known about that! I survived in that tiny room, I don't know how. I was playing on Hurt Me Plenty, but still...
I did that just now, too... and when the lava killed me, the level completion screen came up. In other words, I didn't even need the red key to complete the level (though I did re-load and find the red key just to beat it properly). Maybe it's a GZDoom bug.
Oh, God Cranium, Black Tower is actually one of the two good maps he created, the other one was Bad Dream, anything else either tedious and annoying, or straight Garbage, like TEETH.WAD.
1:30 BigMacDavis:"We are doing these in the wrong order." I wonder what is the right order, I'm thinking Black Tower might the last level of Master Levels but I never played them before.
I just played through this map for the 2nd time, and while it took me about the same amount of time as you, I didn’t dislike it. I was not too fond of it when I first played it or the other Cranium maps, but after playing through Mephisto, Bloodsea keep, and Black Tower, this was my favorite. With Bloodsea being my least favorite. Mephisto isn’t great. I still haven’t played Express Elevator to Hell or Bad Dream yet. Either way, great video. For some reason, the last 4 Caco Demons wouldn't trigger, so I had to use IDCLIP. As others have said, the map has an intricate design.
After u kill the cyberdemon, when u went back to the dancing monsters room, u can stay near the teleport and from there kill all the pain elemental in a very safer way. But its take a little more time.
In my run I actually encountered the black step which is actually a hole. I was running low on ammo so I ran down the stairs and lured the Barons. Two Barons fell in the hole :)
In the end did anyone tell you what that switch does that you didn't know what it did? I think I know. I think it lowers that supercharge that you collect right at the very end when finishing this map. In the exit tunnel. Maybe it's not super important if you play this map alone, but since it's now a part of the new Doom + Doom II pack and became a part of a normal episode, it's good to have.
@@BigMacDavis Responding to ancient comment, but you have a lot of videos and I haven't gone through them all. Have you done the whole heretic series? What about Blood and Duke Nukem?
It's a decent level. The gameplay/challenge feels quite trivial by modern Dooming standards. Heck it pales in difficulty compared to most vanilla Doom 2 levels. The level design is commendable for the imagery he was going for, feeling like you're traversing this tower, but there's just way too many areas that ought to be secrets but are actually necessary to find in order to progress through the map. If you missed them, you'll be lost at where to go. The one that got me was the invulnerability/megasphere room inside the Baron cube. I actually like how you teleport from one Baron cube to another. but I just assumed that was a secret. Hidden powerups behind a wall? Obviously must be a secret, right? Why would I think you're supposed to press use to make the wall fall? That should've happened automatically (by walking over a linedef) or there should've been a switch to let the player know. Lots of switches too that don't look like switches. The automap will help with this one, but it won't help with everything.
Okay, that was a long map. And it is actually a reference to "Blood". "Blood Death Wish" to be exact. Episode 2 the last map of it is called something like "Black Tower" and it looks a bit like this map here. Interesting :D The next map sounds not very pleasent :D
Someday, you'll play a SHADESmaster level for Doom 2! ;) Or get into Heretic / HeXen games (mind the latter's convoluted progress, but custom maps are a fix for that)
tried to finish Hexen countless times but always gets to the point of becoming such a chore... Heretic is fine though, long maps that feel like a journey for those who like that kinds of maps
Bigmacdavis... I don't know if this is a bad bug or a good bug... but, inside the black tower it is possible to press the switch that lowers all the walls around the tower BEFORE it is revealed, it's the same glitch/bug that is in Map 01 of DOOM 2, Entryway, it is the bug that allows you to press the switch even after it has lowered into the ground. except you press the switch in the black tower before it is revealed, not after it is hidden. Edit: NVM you explained it later in the vid
I was one of the unfortunate (lost) souls who flipped that switch at the top of the tower. :( Anyway, I thought this map had a pretty neat idea - create a tower-like map in an era before people figured out how to simulate the Z axis with the Doom engine. But the execution left a lot to be desired: too much backtracking, some confusing layouts, etc. I personally like Blood Sea better. BTW are you reviewing Plutonia 2 or Doom The Way Id Did It anytime soon?
You have this sort of a love-hate relationship with this map. I personally don't like it cuz it's too tedious and stuff gets stuck like that 1 Cacodemon. Bloodsea Keep is kinda decent and it's not the worst Cranium map, I'd say it's the 2nd best Cranium map.
I played this on Doom 1+2 for Steam on Hurt Me Plenty and there were only 284 monsters on the count, but there were way more monsters in the level it seemed like, especially on the way back. I skipped a lot of them, but was able to get 100% kills by just killing the guys near the ending and some demons from the tower at the ending.
What should I play after I complete all the Master Levels to say I now have completed the Doom 2 experience? I already did No Rest For The Living. Should I do Doom 2 The Way ID Did or move to the Final Doom megawads and then to Doom 64? Are there any definitive Doom 2 mods that like everyone has to play before taking a break from Doom 2?
Always hated that hole in the inner stairwell, since the imps inside can still claw you besides denying you a kill. I actually think this level is more tedious than TEETH, albeit more accessible.
I think you're just supposed to run further up to the rising pillar after pressing that dumb switch and snatch it before it is way up. But you can just do it your way ofc.
How can you do that my friend?? How did you kill the last monster Did you change the some things or did Something allowed you to go through walls and come down and kill him?? Most importantly, I love watching you do it and I am happy to follow your videos I love you my BigMac❣❣❣
36:14. Ok I've had a look at this map with SLADE's map editor and that switch actually lowers down the supercharge by the exit of the level.
i guess it's pretty off topic but does anybody know a good site to watch new series online?
@Kristian Silas Lately I have been using FlixZone. You can find it by googling :)
@Kristian Silas i would suggest FlixZone. You can find it on google =)
@Kristian Silas I use flixzone. Just google for it :)
@Austin Fox Definitely, I have been watching on flixzone for years myself :)
Hah, betrayed by the Cabal? What is this, Blood?
Well, ya know, there IS a reason he's called "Cranium" of sorts, he kinda expects you to be a genius to know how to finish his maps.
This is actually the last of his levels. Most of Craniums maps are tedious but I think he had good ideas (TEETH, the Sea of Blood, also the overarching story). Black Tower is very long, but I like the idea of climbing this tower (even though you teleport to different areas it still feels like you're making your way to the top, I just wish you didn't have to go back after you kill the cyber demon.
What do you mean? His last levels to date are echtex (2020) and Echelon (2016) before it.
@@sergrojGrayFace it's been a while since I've been enveloped I'm DOOM, but I'm pretty sure I was referring to his last chronological level in the Master Level package
@@joshclough4789 Oh, indeed, you were referring to order in which it's below Bloodsea in BigMacDavis' play order, but comes after chronologically
I actually needed this for a platinum trophy on ps5... ty.
Bigmacdavis: I am not good at maneuvering.
*I reason to believe that you are wrong about that*
I agree, and one of these reasons is 41:27 which was pretty cool to see!
17:30 It's an energy cell pack.
13:54 BMD:"Just because he's annoying"
Archvile: "Why ..."
This is the best map I've ever played.
then you havnt played much doom mods. master levels are very very poorly made.
@@metalvideos1961 i Don't like mods ✌
@@LOPESYT266 how can you not like mods. there are tons and tons of amazing mods for doom. and technically speaking this map is also a mod. its a modded level for doom. but there are tons of amazing mods for doom though.
@@metalvideos1961 Because I don't play on the PC XD
It's the best out of the master levels I guess. Titans Manor, and Mephisto are really good ones too.
To this day, the only official Doom map that I literally gave up on my first try, after an hour of trying to find where to go.
Ironically, I rather like this level now, or at least parts of it... Though the parts that I don't like, I REALLY don't like XP
Responding to an ancient message - but that's Doom fandom! I am only a bit of the way through the level, but I am liking the ideas. Just a few annoying parts, and less annoying if you aren't going for 100%.
Hey just finished this love/hate map. I had to restart because I had invincibility glitch on a spectre which caused other enemies to be completely invisible. If a enemy glitches through the floor you can hit some of them with a rocket and it will kill them. Thank goodness for the guide!
that saved my 100% run, thanks
I've heard that many people hate this level, but for me, it is my favorite of all master levels. Sure it is fuckin hard and long but it is the most memorable at the same time and while it is very hard I still don't think it is unfairly hard like some other levels (mephisto). It seems pretty epic to me and I must wonder why didn't you spare it for later since according to the description, it is the final one of the cranium series.
I am doing each author's maps in alphabetical order.
I kind of like the idea of a Cyberdemon being turned into a human, wanting revenge on the demons he use to rule over.
Omg, tricky map indeed! Well nothing better than listening to the brilliant AIC whilst Combating this challenging map! Great choice in music there! 🎶 🎵 ❤ 👏 😊
36:40 The switch lowers a supercharge in the exit area apparently
I played this map a few times too. Not too fond of the switchporn to get to the third floor
I was stuck at 33:52. Thank you for explaining this to us.
Actually, it's pronounced "Shaag-rinn" for that Chagrin, it takes a good Northeast Ohioan to know how to pronounce it correctly (after all, we have a city called Chagrin Falls, and there's the Chagrin River, so...yeah). ;)
I lived in Chesterland and love this! (A city 11 miles northeast of Chagrin). I'm not sure why he referred to Chagrin in the first place!
I'd like to hear about NE Ohio. Sounds legit!
Im from the most irish place outside of ireland and i have never pronounced it differently
Must have felt nice to telefrag a Pain "in the ass" Elemental and it's Lost Soul spawns.
Now we can put that on your portfolio
BigMacDavis playing Doom, which is always a good thing :)
Oh holy hell, been waiting for this...whatever it is. Is it good? No. But it's so damn ambitious. I don't love it, but I love what it tries to be.
This would've been an all time classic map if just executed a bit better.
Yaay , now surely I'll get a score band of 8 on my IELTS test tomorrow! Thanks for the good luck charm bigmacdavis =D
I hope you did well. :)
this map has the most monsters in it of all official doom maps
This map is a chore to get through.
Which is never a good thing.
It is quite a difficult map. Not as hard as Mephisto's Maosoleum though. That map is a killer to do.
@@maddal1705It's not about it being a difficult map, which it is, but it's just a chore to get through. Mephisto's Mosuleam is hard because of the Revenats combined with those narrow platforms with holes that you can fall into.
@@HigHrvatski true. But imagine trying to do Mephisto's Maosoleum on the Doom mod Clusterfuck! That would be absolutely insane!
My guess, about the imps falling through those stairs sometimes (and the sergeant falling through the platform), it might be a bug related to the Blockmap lump in the .wad itself, or something close to it. Some error that crept in due to a tool Cranium was using at the time. I know, back in my old map-making days (which didn't produce much of anything to speak of), when I had finished editing something, I would rebuild the BSP nodes, and sometimes there would be weird errors in my maps, too, akin to that. Just depends on what tool I used, so a similar thing could have happened here. As for the 75 health bonuses, you can stack an insanely-large amount of items inside each other (monsters included) and the game will still render all of them (though the original DOS engine had stricter limits on just how much stuff a map could have in it, level geometry included).
Thanks for the explanation. You are awesome. :)
@@BigMacDavis No problem. ;)
Wow this map is complicated. In my case I had a glitch of an immortal zobieman and he followed me everywhere, it made me nervous. very good video.
I remember this being another one of the maps that didn't work well in co-op, since once you raise the stairway inside the tower, the entrance into the tower from the starting area is blocked, so if you die and respawn, you're stuck.
Thought I was the only one. I wasted so many hours thinking I needed to get the walls to lower before raising the staircase so I could get back into the building from the side door. Smh. I hate this level on co-op.
I'm not from Doom times, but I recognize it's a great and hard game. I'm playing all the series and your videos help me a lot. Thanks for helping us and sharing your opinions and feeling about these maps. I can't play in nightmare or ultra-violence without cheating, so it looks amazing see how you manage to do it step-by-step.
I grew up playing doom (born in 91) but I always played on easy as a kid. After watching some of these walkthroughs I thought, ultra violence doesnt look that hard? So I tried it... and holy shit is it hard 😂 BMD makes it look so easy man, but its not at all
Really enjoyed the game-play.
Btw, that "bald headed demon" face is actually the face of Arch-vile. I remember you used to say that in your old doom walkthroughs i.e. Doom 2 map 15. I thought you already knew about that after all these years.
I was probably reading the doom wiki back then a lot. I just forgot.
@@BigMacDavis Just chill dear, nothing serious. Btw next time call the portrait "The bald-headed A**hole" hahaha.
Yes! Baron of Hell, so glad to see you!
I'm back watching your videos after my job issues. Kind of lost motivation, and the Coronavirus outbreak in my country and healing people has had (and still does) me focused on the task, but I'm gladly back and catching up after all these months! I missed your content :)
This map is among my favorites in Master Levels, the only. The only annoying part is the Cacodemon window room, it usually makes me go IDCLIP through each window and finish the strugglers (one or two per window), the rest is very nice. Ttrap is very nice too.
Kranium has the hardest maps here, and they've grown on me after a while (except Bloodsea, that one still can go to hell), this one being among my favorites in ML as said, and it's probably his easiest (excluding Bad Dream). Mephisto is very difficult, Bloodsea is a bit stupid-like difficult and even unfair at some points due to the lava and Lost Souls badly spread, and TEETH is, in my opinion, the hardest map in the whole WAD, but it's satisfying to complete. I'll watch those videos later, I'm going in order here.
Welcome back, my friend, it has been a few months! I recognize your name and your profile picture for sure! ;D
@@BigMacDavis Good to know :)
39:12 got some PTSD flashbacks from my attempt to finish this map with fastmonsters ON, ngl.
Also missing lower texture at 39:53.
Lol, yeah, good catch.
You grabbed an energy cell pack! Always nice to stock up on plasma. 😊
In the room at 6:48 and I DEFINITELY see what you mean with big, open areas. One of the Revenant's projectiles chased me around that field for 2 minutes as I desperately lapped the perimeter, trying to open the door without letting that golden snitch get too close.
Ok I beat this level from hell. 1:15 ugh wayyy too long for a Doom map IMO. Well, my thoughts haven't changed. If it wasn't for really weird design choices this could've been a classic. Imagine if it was modern with silent teleporters. We really could've made our way up this tower. Someone should remake this map and have it live up to its true potential!
I would rank this among my favorite DOOM levels of all time, alongside Vivisection, and Monster Condo. I am looking forward to your NRFTL vids!!!
33:52 damn I got trapped by the pillars, thanks for explaining that, I thought I was softlocked, this map is a dun mess, haven't finished it cuz its very long but what you showed seems cool
370 monsters. What an absolutely fantastic slaughtermap
Great playthrough, Big Mac! I too used to play the bejeezus out of any Doom wad back in the 90s, although I was in my 40s back then, not a teen. Never liked a lot of the Master levels., including this one, but watching this vid I'm realizing it isn't half as bad as I remember. BTW absolutely love your channel, you and decino are my favorite Doomers!
So awesome to hear, glad you still enjoy Doom all these years later! Keep on Dooming! :)
There are actually some inescapable holes in GZDoom on this map. Glad you didn't fall though.
20:59
In GZdoom you can actually go through these hanging corpses and (I believe) you will fall inside a hole with a chaingunner with no way to escape. Chaingunners are raised latter and I think these pits are blocked with that hanging corpse in vanilla, but not in GZDoom.
I'm not 100% sure, haven't played this map for more than a year, but iirc that's the case.
21:30 oh, you almost fell down here. That's what I'm talking about.
In vanilla, I think you CANNOT fall in these pits, because you cannot run on top of an enemy. In GZDoom ports (and ports like it), you can.
@@BigMacDavisyeah, that makes sense too. Looks like that's the actual reason. I remember these pits because I actually fell down in one them on my first GZdoom playthrough. Also, I think AltimaMantoid had an imp in the floor on this map in one of his videos or streams. This map is actually harder in GZDoom, than Vanilla, because I think you can try and kill those stuck cacodemons in the windows by infinite height splash damage of rockets, but in GZDoom with Z axis it doesn't work.
40:40 - Probably that confusing switch lowered these pillars and opened these switches?
Oh, yeah, you thought the same thing later, I see.
12:27
it's like mrburns being indestructible because the germs block each other from entering
The 90 second par time for this level popping up next to my 40+ minutes genuinely made me laugh out loud. I actually quite like Cranium's levels in this pack but they're certainly not quick or straightforward affairs.
Bodies are switches. Got it! Thanks for getting me unstuck
Thank you for your video, BigMacDavis! I do enjoy it! The analogy I like to bring up about this map is that it is like having a glass half full and half empty. While yes, there is a progression that it is half full which is better than nothing and on the other hand, it's a bummer that it is half empty where you could've drunk the whole glass. It just depends on how you look at it. For the Black Tower map, there are some positive things that I like which are the gameplay and the design of this map, on the other hand, I do not like the tedium where you have to constantly worry about enemies getting in rooms you don't have access to, you have to id clip in order to get 100%, if that's the case. But overall, I like this map, it is unique.
Also, I like to note that the other playthrough touches this map here and other Cranium maps which is LightningBoltForever. He covers all the maps and he does a pretty good job doing the gameplay, similar to what you do. But to put it simply, here are the maps that are good (according to LightningBoltForever): Bloodsea Keep and Bad Dream, and the bad maps: Mephisto's Mausoleum, Black Tower, and The Express Elevator to Hell (TEETH). So, it's a mixed reaction to these maps.
To me personally, here are the good maps: Bloodsea Keep, Black Tower, and Bad Dream, and the bad maps: The Express Elevator to Hell (TEETH) and Mephisto's Mausoleum. We'll get to that when we get to it. So, basically, the Cabal series has a mixed reception where some people like it, others do not. But one series in the Master Levels that everyone agrees is the best is Dr. Sleep's maps. What's interesting about this series is that it is inspired by Dante's Inferno which is an epic poem based on hell outlining the circles given to how grave the sin is. And the word cantos is basically a section in which a long poem is divided. There are 34 cantos in the poem and Dr. Sleep only did five of them (Cantos 3-7 [III-VII]), which is a lot to look forward to.
Anyway, I write long enough. Sorry about the length, there is a lot to discuss, all I did is to get the highlights. That's all there is, I want to know what you think, thank you for reading this comment! 😊
The maps of Cranium's I like are Black Tower, TEETH, and Bad Dream. I despise Bloodsea Keep and Mephisto's Mausoleum.
@@BigMacDavis That's fine. I have to agree that Mephisto's Mausoleum is probably the least favorite map in the Cabal series. Mainly, there is a lot to do especially running around and there is a bunch of revenants. Oh boy, that is something!
What maps do you like in Dr. Sleep's Inferno series?
I'm playing through the Master levels as part of a Megawad club playthrough on Doomworld - I really could have used this video about a week ago when I was playing this map! Really strange level.
Damn The Hole, The Hole Playthrough is a Must Have to Watch
All this talk of holes then you fist a bunch of Demons! Ohhhh myyyyyy!!
And the power of the 69 flowing through him....
Hey, I really like this map BMD. It's almost old-school DOOM. Did you notice that after you go through the yellow door (at about 22:47) and kill all the shotgunners, the only enemy left is a chaingunner, but when he first fires as you back out the door, it's a shotgun blast, not a chaingun blast.
What a looooong map. Reminds me of the Administration Center. The mysterious switch....yeah I think there's only one switch you and I don't know what it does....and I think it's The Citadel and it's in the room before you get the Blue Key. Thanks for the great playthrough. :)
Administration Center, from TNT? That map felt like a fever dream.
The plot sounds so much like Blood. In both cases, you were a high ranking bad guy who was betrayed by "The Cabal" and your entire motivation is only revenge.
Sounds like Blood ripped off Cranium's maps, since these maps came out first. ;)
@@BigMacDavis But more likely its just a quite basic plot that anyone could've come up with.
This map is tough, but it is solid. I like it!
its always fun telefraging enemies. but can they telefrag you?
By default no (Unless its HeXeN) though there are both monster and map flags that can be set so they can telefrag both players and each other.
The only cases I found where enemies can telefrag you are the skull cubes from Doom II Map30 (and any other Icon of Sin style map).
actually in barrels o' fun i've been telefragged by lost souls more than once
demon attackin arch-vile? whaat?? its hard-wired in the doom source code that no monster can ever target arch-viles? what is going on? did cranium somehow broke the source-code of doom :D
let's ask Decino
@@FeelingShred well. has anyone yet asked? because i have not..
33:50 Solution if you've killed the cyberdemon and are blocked from returning to the tower. Thanks for this video just for getting me past this point. It seems to me like a pretty lame bit of level design to require the player to either know NOT to flip a switch or find something that's hidden like a secret in order to complete a level.
26:54-27:20 Great noise. It sounds like you're using a mega-drill.
Worth the waiting :3
47 minutes of BigMacDavis! OMGWTFYES!
"Hey Cranium! Show me your TEETH.They need a cleaning with my metal toothbrush.
Then rest forever in your BLACK TOWER! "
😉
Amazing playthrough.
BMD has always been a master in punching out demons, except the zombies in Doom 3 of course.
I know, right? I have almost no practice in Doom 3.
@@BigMacDavis Do you ever play new games, or are you 100% into classics?
with the release of Doom + Doom II I played the master level for the first time and I had to came back here to get some help on this lvl, this is by far the hardest level I've played so far
Ohhhh yes, this level....
28:48 Hey man, nice gun
21:44 "The corner of the wall that's not like the others". I sure wish I had known about that! I survived in that tiny room, I don't know how. I was playing on Hurt Me Plenty, but still...
Didn't Layne Stayley write the guitar riff for Angry Chair? I think Jerry Cantrell made a mention about that in an interview
Such a visually cool map but my lord what a pain in the arse
Take a shot when you hear "Hole"
33:25 that potato 🥔 got fried 😂 BOOOOOOOM!!!!! Lol
Eviternity is part of doom with amazing maps
I jumped down the hole at the level exit without the red key when I played this map for the first time. Feels bad man
I did that just now, too... and when the lava killed me, the level completion screen came up. In other words, I didn't even need the red key to complete the level (though I did re-load and find the red key just to beat it properly). Maybe it's a GZDoom bug.
@@Osprey850 Can anyone confirm whether that's a valid way to beat the level or a bug?
Well done BMD! I can't stand stuck or unreacheable enemies/secrets :-) But the concept of getting up and down the tower is good!
Thank you, my friend, glad you enjoyed. :)
Oh, God Cranium, Black Tower is actually one of the two good maps he created, the other one was Bad Dream, anything else either tedious and annoying, or straight Garbage, like TEETH.WAD.
1:30
BigMacDavis:"We are doing these in the wrong order."
I wonder what is the right order, I'm thinking Black Tower might the last level of Master Levels but I never played them before.
"Utmost humilation [sic]". Lol.
Map looks like fun, although I can see how the switch puzzles would annoy me back then
I just played through this map for the 2nd time, and while it took me about the same amount of time as you, I didn’t dislike it. I was not too fond of it when I first played it or the other Cranium maps, but after playing through Mephisto, Bloodsea keep, and Black Tower, this was my favorite. With Bloodsea being my least favorite. Mephisto isn’t great. I still haven’t played Express Elevator to Hell or Bad Dream yet. Either way, great video. For some reason, the last 4 Caco Demons wouldn't trigger, so I had to use IDCLIP. As others have said, the map has an intricate design.
After u kill the cyberdemon, when u went back to the dancing monsters room, u can stay near the teleport and from there kill all the pain elemental in a very safer way. But its take a little more time.
In my run I actually encountered the black step which is actually a hole. I was running low on ammo so I ran down the stairs and lured the Barons. Two Barons fell in the hole :)
In the end did anyone tell you what that switch does that you didn't know what it did? I think I know. I think it lowers that supercharge that you collect right at the very end when finishing this map. In the exit tunnel. Maybe it's not super important if you play this map alone, but since it's now a part of the new Doom + Doom II pack and became a part of a normal episode, it's good to have.
we live to see you with cam ON ;.;
39:20 has me dying! This map is too much. My reaction to nearly every cluster of enemies! "Oh my gosh!"
This level has some serious flaws but cranium made excellent use of the teleports!
This level is just a few tweaks away from all timer status.
Will you make a walkthrough for Hexen?
Yes! I do plan on it, but first, I will do Heretic.
Cool! The game of my childhood :) Also want to say that I get an aesthetic pleasure from your English in videos :)
@@BigMacDavis Responding to ancient comment, but you have a lot of videos and I haven't gone through them all. Have you done the whole heretic series? What about Blood and Duke Nukem?
Blacktwr is my fav master levels map. I still dont know how i figured out how to beat it.
It's a decent level. The gameplay/challenge feels quite trivial by modern Dooming standards. Heck it pales in difficulty compared to most vanilla Doom 2 levels. The level design is commendable for the imagery he was going for, feeling like you're traversing this tower, but there's just way too many areas that ought to be secrets but are actually necessary to find in order to progress through the map. If you missed them, you'll be lost at where to go. The one that got me was the invulnerability/megasphere room inside the Baron cube. I actually like how you teleport from one Baron cube to another. but I just assumed that was a secret. Hidden powerups behind a wall? Obviously must be a secret, right? Why would I think you're supposed to press use to make the wall fall? That should've happened automatically (by walking over a linedef) or there should've been a switch to let the player know. Lots of switches too that don't look like switches. The automap will help with this one, but it won't help with everything.
Okay, that was a long map. And it is actually a reference to "Blood". "Blood Death Wish" to be exact. Episode 2 the last map of it is called something like "Black Tower" and it looks a bit like this map here. Interesting :D The next map sounds not very pleasent :D
This came out before Blood though...
Someday, you'll play a SHADESmaster level for Doom 2! ;) Or get into Heretic / HeXen games (mind the latter's convoluted progress, but custom maps are a fix for that)
tried to finish Hexen countless times but always gets to the point of becoming such a chore... Heretic is fine though, long maps that feel like a journey for those who like that kinds of maps
Morning made
Bigmacdavis... I don't know if this is a bad bug or a good bug... but, inside the black tower it is possible to press the switch that lowers all the walls around the tower BEFORE it is revealed, it's the same glitch/bug that is in Map 01 of DOOM 2, Entryway, it is the bug that allows you to press the switch even after it has lowered into the ground. except you press the switch in the black tower before it is revealed, not after it is hidden.
Edit: NVM you explained it later in the vid
Great video as always.
I followed this for the Doom II (Classic) on xbox. Somehow I wound up with 101% kills by the end of it?
I was one of the unfortunate (lost) souls who flipped that switch at the top of the tower. :(
Anyway, I thought this map had a pretty neat idea - create a tower-like map in an era before people figured out how to simulate the Z axis with the Doom engine. But the execution left a lot to be desired: too much backtracking, some confusing layouts, etc. I personally like Blood Sea better.
BTW are you reviewing Plutonia 2 or Doom The Way Id Did It anytime soon?
Martin Alther what is “Doom The Way Id Did it”? Never heard of it but it sounds cool. Is it another wad?
Jon Bourgoin Yep. doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_the_Way_id_Did
BMD should do a face reveal. I want to see what the legend looks like!
Just like the average person you see all the time. Normal looking, nothing interesting. :)
BigMacDavis have you heard of the Okuplok slaughter map wad?
You don't have to fight the Cyberdemon, and so I didn't, saving ammo .🤣
You have this sort of a love-hate relationship with this map. I personally don't like it cuz it's too tedious and stuff gets stuck like that 1 Cacodemon. Bloodsea Keep is kinda decent and it's not the worst Cranium map, I'd say it's the 2nd best Cranium map.
I played this on Doom 1+2 for Steam on Hurt Me Plenty and there were only 284 monsters on the count, but there were way more monsters in the level it seemed like, especially on the way back. I skipped a lot of them, but was able to get 100% kills by just killing the guys near the ending and some demons from the tower at the ending.
Also, I somehow beat this without the red key. I think the floor may be a damaging ending floor or something, oddly.
on the cyberdemon's part i just circled around until he killed everyone while everyone killed each other lol
Fab!
What should I play after I complete all the Master Levels to say I now have completed the Doom 2 experience? I already did No Rest For The Living. Should I do Doom 2 The Way ID Did or move to the Final Doom megawads and then to Doom 64? Are there any definitive Doom 2 mods that like everyone has to play before taking a break from Doom 2?
I have no idea. That's up to you. That's the beauty of Doom.
Always hated that hole in the inner stairwell, since the imps inside can still claw you besides denying you a kill. I actually think this level is more tedious than TEETH, albeit more accessible.
I think you're just supposed to run further up to the rising pillar after pressing that dumb switch and snatch it before it is way up. But you can just do it your way ofc.
Yeah I ran up and caught it before it went too high. One of the only Doom puzzles I ever solved without watching a walkthrough haha
How can you do that my friend?? How did you kill the last monster Did you change the some things or did Something allowed you to go through walls and come down and kill him??
Most importantly, I love watching you do it and I am happy to follow your videos
I love you my BigMac❣❣❣
Long, challenging, always in action though a bit tiring since you are always on your edge