Back in August I decided to take a hiatus from Team Fortress 2 for awhile, which was going to be something like a month, but then I have enough stuff to be busy with in October (this should be a post of its own honestly).

Still having that FPS itch, I went back to playing Doom again. I've always loved the game, but usually only play it around when the annual Cacowards come outwhere I just grab some random high-quality stuff that sounds good, and don't get through half of it. This time though it's been sticking a bit more.

Anyway, one that I recently finished is Deep Breath, a cramped 7-map WAD taking place in an underwater techbase by EduardoAndFriends. I really enjoyed it! For the most part I like my Doom maps vanilla or vanilla-adjacent, and in terms of gameplay this is exactly that. The default enemies, weapons, and behaviors of everything, just fiendlishy arranged and with a great aesthetic of iron, caution strips, and windows to the deepest parts of the ocean floor.

One of the smarter things I've done with Doom years back was to start becoming an in-game photographer. I set an unused side button on my mouse to save a screenshot so even in wild fights I can still take a moment (hopefully) and get something that shows off the maps at their best.

Doom screenshot with a sign reading DANGER: EXTERIOR AIRLOCK, a cascade of water leading outside is to the left, while a number of sets of scuba equiment are on a shelf to the right

The gimmick is in how the game takes advantage of being able to make any floor damaging. Eduardo uses this to create outside sections, which in this setting means exploring the ocean floor. You'll find diving pools like this one with Doom's radition suit being reskinned to appear as diving equipment. When the suit runs out of air, the oceans' floors serve to inflict drowning damage.

A heavily blue-tinted screenshot ouf an underwater space in Doom with plants, fishbones, and zombie corpses visible

These sections all use a blue tint to give the impression you're underwater. Though the gameplay is no different than normal, no actual swimming or altered physics. Underwater you'll still have to fight demons, and the blue filter can make it challenging to find the way out, leading to some tense moments when your suit is about to run out and you haven't found another or an entrance back into the base.

The encounters down here are really some of the highlights as you never know how far away the next suit/exit is, leaving you trying to get through encounters as quickly as possible, which can lead to sloppy play and your demise.

A zig-zagging caution stripped lined hallway, glass walls and ceilings with reinforced beams running across give a look at the ocean outside and above A dark room with red emergency lights on the walls. A sign reads FLOOD DANGER. Water is pouring in and a number of partially submerged barrels, imp corpses, and light fixtures stick out of the water

The underwater motif is used for more than just timed combat. The WAD can be showy at times with glass tubes that would make for great viewing before things went awry down here. Luckily it's sturdy, as there are plenty of fights in such halls as well. The indestructible glass means sometimes getting to see an away around a corner up ahead in advance, which can really change where you try to move and what enemies you prioritize in fights. Locking eyes with an archvile is never pleasant.

There are also a few places where damage to the base has led to flooding, pickups are hidden under a layer of water, and thankfully nothing is small enough to hide down there.

The start of a later level, the Doomguy is behind two zombiemen and a shotgunner that are all looking away, but a Spider Mastermind is visible ready to awaken when he fires his first shot A fight after getting the BFG9000 with a blast heading towards two arachnotrons with a large number of revenants behind them while a cacodemon on the right shoots at the player.

It had its share of really good fights too! I was pistol starting and doing my best to avoiding saving mid-level, but giving in at times to make sure I was actually making progress. I'm trying to finish my plate more with these WADs now and the most common reason for stopping is getting to a large level and having to repeat the beginning over and over as I die in the same place.

Cramped spaces are the standard for the maps, but EduardoAndFriends does a number of unexpectedly large spaces with some pretty massive firefights. Sometimes you get small spaces with massive firefights, as in the start of one level where you begin surrounded by hitscanners facing away from you and have to decide if you want to move towards armor, a chaingun, or an ssg.

A gory experiment that took place in the base. The pentagram teleporter texture is on the ceiling, while the chamber's walls are splattered with blood and mangled body parts cover the floor suggesting it didn't work as intended. Two glass tubes with an imp in one and a demon corpse in another being suspended in liquid. Bubbles rise within.

Deep Breath also has some neat environmental storytelling hinting at the kinds of experiments being ran in the base, making it more than just a monster playground with UAC logos slapped around. I don't think the player ever takes a teleporter other than to escape from lava pits should they fall, but you see that pentagram texture and a bunch of gore and it's pretty clear what happened.

Good maps. The WAD can be found on idgames.