TDM FM Review: Awaiting the Storm

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): HappyCheeze
Version: 1.0
Date released: 2010-05-22
Theme: City

HappyCheeze has so far made one TDM map, and it’s this one - “Awaiting the Storm”. Quite self-explanatory in the title, the thief must wait until dark, before setting out under the cover of a storm outside. One could imagine that this would impair the hearing capabilities of the city watch patrolling the streets, and allow for a stealthy entry in to the tavern. The reason why you want to make it inside is to relieve some artefact trader of his possessions, and snatch some loot in addition to this.

There are two ways in: you can try the front door, but the electric lighting on the streets, plus a patrolling city watchman with a torch will make things difficult for you. You’re much better off using the storm cellar doors that lead in to the basement. From here you can easily make it up to the ground floor and begin your search. There’s a few rooms on this floor, including a locked one which has a spare inn key – this will allow easy access to most doors on the first floor above. Using the staircase could be a little hazardous as there’s at least one guard watching the landing at the top. It’s a much better idea to use the dumb waiter in the kitchen to, once again, quickly and painlessly reach the floor above.

 

Hover mouse over pictures for captions, if available.

The first floor has a big room which is used for the guests to dine in, naturally, and once you’ve made it past here, it’s on to the guests’ rooms. The one you’re looking for is easy to find – the last one in the corridor (or the first one, depending on which side you come from).

Like taking candy from a baby.

From here on it’s just a matter of getting in to the other rooms with the spare inn key and robbing the other people blind, before slipping back out the way you came.

Overall, this mission is simple, and perfect for a beginner. There’s not a lot of challenge, even on higher difficulties, and even the aforementioned hazards of inextinguishable light sources and guards are easy to avoid for the most part. The level design is simple too, and not much is appealing. The most eye-catching area would be the road which goes through the tunnel – this is flooded and the door by the side barely opens under the force of the flowing water. It looks good.

There could have been more to explore in this small map to make it feel somehow “more”, but not a lot of effort was made to accomplish this. I understand it’s a first and only map by an author, however, and I couldn’t find much technically wrong with it, like I often do with bigger maps. There’s a silver lining in every cloud. Oh, except the guard in Archibold’s room wasn’t too consistent with patrols and often walked around in circles. Yeah, that’s about it. Some AI trouble, but that’s quite common, I find.

Pros:

+ Good for beginners.

+ Weather and water effects.

Cons:

- Too plain and simple for anyone looking for a challenge.

FM score: 7/10