Well, although I’m busy playing “Amid Evil: The Black Labyrinth” (2023) at the moment, I wanted to make sure that at least one “Doom II”/”Final Doom” WAD review appeared here this month.
And, after clicking the “random file” button on the /idgames Archive a few times, I stumbled across a WAD from 1996 called “Dark Club ver 1.0” by Gianluigi Forte. The map’s title was the exact sort of thing that I’ve used for… at least… two or three gothic paintings when I couldn’t think of a better idea, so there was an instant feeling of connection with it.
As usual, I used version 4.8.2 of the GZDoom source port whilst playing this WAD. Though, given its age, it will probably run on pretty much any source port – and possibly even the original DOS/Win95 version of “Doom II” and/or “Final Doom” too, but I haven’t tested this (my PC may be “old”, but it isn’t THAT old…). The WAD also comes with a “demo” (it’s what people used before “Let’s Play” videos and back when 56k internet was considered “fast…”) – but I don’t really know how to run these.
Anyway, let’s take a very quick look at “Dark Club ver 1.0”. This WAD contains – relatively slow – FLASHING LIGHTS during one room.
Don’t judge this WAD by the first couple of minutes, it gets better…
This is a medium-sized single-level “vanilla” WAD (eg: no custom stuff) and it is better than I initially thought that it was 🙂 During the first few minutes, I was ready to write this WAD off as an easy, linear and “basic” level… but it improves A LOT as it progresses.
Fun fact: The difficulty of this boss battle depends a lot on whether you’ve bothered searching the nearby area for both a plasma cannon and a soulsphere…
Whilst you’ll start out on a pre-set path, gently capping a few weak monsters with the pistol, the level is from 1996 – and people knew how to make FPS games back then. It’s why “boomer shooter” games have had a revival these days… well, that and the fact that everyone just kept modding the old games until they got good enough to make their own.
Whilst it probably isn’t the most visually or technically impressive level from 1996, “Dark Club” is still a pretty cool level for the time. There’s a reasonable difficulty curve, two boss battles, some cool lighting, a cool stairway that almost seems to have curved walls, a semi-hidden Arch-vile battle and some good level design as well.
Yes, this is classic-style lighting design, but it’s done really well here and this random semi-hidden corridor impressed me more than I expected.
Not only is there a cool maze area that – through clever design – appears to have two floors despite the limitations of the “Doom” engine, but there is also the titular “dark club”. Yes, this is just one small room with flashing lights, a few imps and some Revenants on podiums, but its still a fun flourish.
Not to mention that the word “DISCO” is written on the ground outside it in forty-foot letters. And, yes, people still sometimes used the word “disco” to refer to parties in 1996, even if the musical genre was as dead as a dodo by then.
And, despite the linear beginning, this is an old-school level 🙂 In other words, you’ll actually have to explore a bit if you want to complete it. As well as some fun secret areas and the fact that you can easily miss the plasma cannon if you don’t take a second or two to observe your surroundings, the door to the maze I described earlier also requires observation to find. It isn’t “hidden” as such, but it can be easy to mistake the door for just a different wall texture. Still, given the medium size of the level, you won’t ever really get “stuck” for too long.
All in all, this is a reasonably solid mid-1990s level with some fun flourishes. Just don’t judge it by the first couple of minutes though.
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a four.
PekoeBlaze - the official blog 