Thy Flesh Consumed

Thy Flesh Consumed is the fourth and final episode in Ultimate Doom.

All the level names, and the episode title, are phrases taken directly from the Bible. The list was compiled by Kevin Cloud, and John Romero assigned names to the individual levels. This episode was also Tim Willits' first contribution to the Doom series, as he joined id Software after the release of the original Doom (version 1.666) and Doom II.

Story-wise, the episode is both a sequel to Doom and a prequel to Doom II. It chronicles the Doomguy's battles against the legions of demons that the Spider Mastermind had sent through the doorway between Hell and Earth, the very same gateway that the player had earlier used to return to his home planet. (It is presumed that that there are two distinct regions of "Hell". The first is what the Deimos moon floats over and where Episode 3: Inferno takes place. The second is the marine's home of Earth which will undergo terraformation at the hands of demons and become a Hell in is own right.) Ultimately, though the player is victorious and avenges the death of his pet rabbit Daisy, it turns out to be a Pyrrhic victory as the demons eventually overrun the major cities and the stage is set for Hell on Earth.

It is set on Earth, with the background sky being a light brownish-yellowish with white hazes (clouds), similar to the ending cutscene of Inferno and the starport levels of Doom II. The graphical style is generally hellish, though there are a handful of techbase themes used. While there are some features carried over from Doom II, such as switches that require keys, otherwise all of the music, textures, monsters, and weapons are of the original Doom.

The levels are considered much harder than the levels of the three other episodes and Doom II. However, within Thy Flesh Consumed, the difficulty does not follow the expected learning curve as one progresses through the levels. It could be argued that E4M2: Perfect Hatred is the most difficult, not only of the entire episode but also the whole Doom series, as the player faces a large number of monsters all at once, while having little cover. By contrast, E4M7: And Hell Followed and E4M8: Unto the Cruel are tricky but relatively straightforward, as the monsters are more dispersed and can be dealt with piecemeal.

Levels

 * E4M1: Hell Beneath
 * E4M2: Perfect Hatred
 * E4M3: Sever the Wicked
 * E4M4: Unruly Evil
 * E4M5: They Will Repent
 * E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly
 * E4M7: And Hell Followed
 * E4M8: Unto the Cruel
 * E4M9: Fear

Current records
The Compet-N records for the episode are: