E2M8: Tower of Babel (Doom)

E2M8: Tower of Babel (MAP23 in PSX/Saturn, E2M5 in SNES) is the final map of The Shores of Hell in Doom. It features a boss battle with the Cyberdemon. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and it uses the music track "Nobody Told Me About Id".

This map is not to be confused with MAP16: Hell Gate, which is titled "Tower of Babel" in the Jaguar, 3DO, and Game Boy Advance versions of Doom.

Babel is a location or region in Hell somewhere in or near the Umbral Plains in Doom (2016)/Doom Eternal. The Tower of Babel is apparently located there.



Walkthrough
You start the level in a small octagonal room. Pick up the combat armor here before you do anything else. There is a short pillar in the center of this room with a switch on each of it four sides. Pressing one causes the stairs in front of it to raise. Press all four switches. Walk up any of the four sets of stairs until the wall with the tortured Baron of Hell ahead of you opens, but do not walk through yet. Open the three remaining baron-walls in this manner as well -- this allows you to re-enter the starting area if you need to. Once they have all been opened, exit to the huge outdoor area. There are a number of lost souls outside; you might want to destroy them so they do not get in your way later, but it is not necessary. Walk around the building until you find the Cyberdemon -- or he finds you. Use the pillars for protection if you need to. He occasionally wanders into one of the four supply rooms adjoining the main building; lure him out if necessary. In addition to a rocket launcher, these four rooms contain a total of 150 rockets and a pair of soul spheres to replenish you. If you are playing the Playstation or Saturn version, use the rocket launcher on the cyberdemon so that you can use the supply rooms to replenish your ammo afterwards; you'll need plenty of it in the levels that follow. If playing the PC or Super Nintendo version, do not be afraid to waste ammo, because this is the last level of the episode anyway. In particular, if you have a plasma gun with energy cells, do not hesitate to use it. Mastering circlestrafing will greatly increase your effectiveness. One additional trick that takes a little bit of setup is to open all the doors, have the cyberdemon go into one room, then race around to the room on the opposite side. If you got over there quickly enough, he will stay in "his" room, unable to approach you. So long as you pay attention to when he shoots at you, you'll be able to dodge his shots, and shoot at him with relative impunity. Once the Cyberdemon is destroyed, the level will end.

Secrets
There are no official secrets in this level.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia

 * In Doom 2016 it is said that a 'small compendium was retrieved from the crypt of a destroyed tower of unknown construction (artifact reference PL E2M8). This is a nod to the Tower of Babel and the level of the same name.
 * The level is named after a Biblical story in which a united human race attempts to build a tower to Heaven. As punishment, God not only destroys the unfinished tower but also causes all humans to suddenly speak different languages, rendering them unable to understand one another, and then scatters them around the world.
 * The "Tower of Babel" is an ironic Biblical reference (Genesis 11:1-9), told in the Bible as a physical pathway to Doom Eternal eaven. In Doom, however, the level is the pathway to Hell, as explained in Episode 2's ending text. See Tower of Babel.
 * On the Episode 2 intermission screen, the tower can be seen being built as the player progresses through the episode.
 * This was removed from the Doom 3 BFG Edition version of Doom for unknown reasons.
 * This is the first level in Doom to not include any Imps; while E1M8 technically includes Imps, they are only behind the teleporter that strips you of your weapons.
 * This is also the only level in the episode to not have a plasma gun available.
 * In the PlayStation/Saturn port of Doom, this is at the end of the Inferno stages, taking place chronologically after E3M7: Limbo. Several Mancubi also populate the main courtyard where the player does battle with the Cyberdemon.
 * Much like Phobos Anomaly, killing the Cyberdemon opens up a room, at the bottom of the map, containing the teleport to the next level.
 * The reason why the music track for this level is titled "Nobody Told Me About Id" is because the Doom manual warns in the bestiary section (which covers all enemies from the Former Human to the Baron of Hell), "Some of the monsters you'll face aren't shown here. Don't say we didn't warn you." The Cyberdemon, which makes its first appearance as the Shores of Hell episode boss, is the first enemy NOT mentioned in the bestiary that the player meets
 * The music for this level is inspired by the tracks "La Ballade des Pendus" by Little Nemo.
 * A reference to E2M8 and the fallen tower is made in Codex/Monsters: "The first Project Lazarus Tethering Operation (MTC 2146/351) retrieved a small compendium from the Umbral Plains in the crypt of a destroyed tower of unknown construction (artifact reference PL E2M8)."
 * Doom Eternal's codex entry for the Tyrant (an enemy completely modeled after the classic Cyberdemon) references E2M8, mentioning Babel by name: "Demon Lords to the black soul pits of Babel, the Tyrants have long served as wardens and slavers of the infernal pits."