MAP28: The Spirit World (Doom II)

MAP28: The Spirit World (MAP30 in GBA) is the twenty-eighth map of Doom II. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and uses the music track "Getting Too Tense".



Walkthrough
At the start go towards the west opening and follow the hall down towards a large room with some isolated lava (A). In the east wall of the room you will see a small opening, big enough to go through it. Follow the narrow path towards a huge room with spiders (B); incidentally, this is the only level designed by id Software that features more than one Spiderdemon (on Hurt Me Plenty and higher). Go towards the south side and run. Near the yellow door (C), go to the south and climb the stairs to a room with pillars and a chair (D). Walk on the chair and back up to a platform that had lowered. Hit the south switch (E) and get the yellow key behind a door.

Return to the lava area and go through the yellow door (F) and return to the small pathway you came from before. At the end, lower the small lift and run through the large room. At the end, ride the lift up (G) and return to the start of the level.

Enter the yellow door and grab the red key (H). Immediately return to the large room with the small lava lakes. This time go to the southwest corner of the room and pass the fake wall (I). You will be in small room with a pillar at the center (J). Shoot the west wall and go through the newly open door. Open the red door (K) and exit but watch out for the Arch-viles beside the door (L).

Secrets

 * 1) In the room with five pillars at the northern end of the level, there are three alcoves that open. The east wall of the northern alcove (containing a Mancubus) opens (M), revealing a secret alcove containing another Mancubus and a berserk pack.
 * 2) The north wall of the eastern alcove (containing some Revenants and Imps) opens (N), revealing a secret alcove containing a Revenant and several backpacks.
 * 3) And the east wall of the southern alcove (containing several Lost Souls) opens (O), revealing a soul sphere.
 * 4) In the "throne room" at the south end of the map (P), step onto the "throne" to lower the circular platform (Q) in the center of the room.
 * 5) While on the circular platform from secret #4, hit the skull switch on the north wall (R) to lower a wall behind the throne (as well as the four pillars). Take the teleporter behind the throne (S) to reach the powerups (T) at the far side of the room.
 * 6) In the "ribbed" hall containing the yellow skull key, there are a pair of "fake" walls (U). The first is in the corner of the L-shaped hall. The Arachnotron inside should give it away (it is also visible on the automap). Walk through the wall to get a plasma rifle (V).
 * 7) The second fake wall (W) is about halfway through the north-south running leg of the corridor, on the eastern wall. Inside are several Zombiemen and Heavy Weapon Dudes. It is invisible on automap even if found, except in the textured mode of ZDoom-based source ports.

Non official:

 * 1) Go to the room with the pillar and shoot the center wall. The pillar will open up and you can get the rocket launcher.

Bugs

 * 1) In version 1.666, there were only two Deathmatch start spots, making this level unplayable in deathmatch mode.
 * 2) The exit room contains three pits with a Hell Knight and two Revenants, which will all rise when you obtain the megasphere. However, the Revenants are not present on Hey, Not Too Rough or lower, meaning that on that skill level, it is possible to fall into the empty pits, and become unable to escape. The same problem can also arise by if the player kills the enemy in one of pits and then falls down into them, before obtaining the megasphere and triggering the floors to rise.
 * 3) Three Linedefs in Sector 103 are not textured.

Routes and tricks

 * 1) You can go through the fake wall that brings you to the room with the pillar from the start of the map. If you shoot the east wall you'll go to the "ribbed" room (see secrets 6 and 7). Same door is opened normally from the backside, so you don't have to return back to the lava pit when you take the yellow key. This alternative way may spare you some time when speedrunning.
 * 2) It's possible to make the two Spider Masterminds to infight each other (HMP and up).

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Video
es:MAP28: The Spirit World (Doom II)