MAP23: Barrels o' Fun (Doom II)

MAP23: Barrels o' Fun (MAP50 in PSX/Saturn, MAP24 in GBA) is the twenty-third map of Doom II. It was designed by Sandy Petersen and uses the music track "Bye Bye American Pie". Indeed, MAP23 of all three official Doom2-type IWADs use this track. The map is notable for containing countless barrels of both types, as its title suggests.



Walkthrough
You start out in front of some barrels. Turn around and run as fast as you can to the door at the opposite end of the hallway before the Mancubus causes a chain reaction of explosions (A). Go through the teleporter behind the door to be taken to another area (B). Again, run to the end of the hall before the chaingunners cause all the barrels to explode. Once all the barrels have been detonated, you can go back and pick up all the goodies you left behind (C). When ready, go through the second teleporter (D). In the next area, quickly kill the pain elementals before you're swamped with lost souls, and flip the switch at the end of the room (E). This raises a platform across the starting hall (if for some reason the wall in this room does not rise when the switch is pressed, shoot it and it will open). Run across the platform to the other newly revealed room across the way and follow it to the opposite end, where you'll find two passages (F; see secret #1).

After dropping from either passageway, you'll find yourself on a platform floating in a pool of blood. First, kill the enemies overlooking the platform to make things easier. Once they've been disposed of, drop into the blood and go through the teleporter in the southeast corner of the blood pool (G). This takes you to an area with two wide tunnels (H). Go through either (they lead into each other) and into the smaller rocky tunnels at the far end (I). Here you'll find to caches of rockets as well as secret #2. Entering these tunnels releases several arachnotrons and a Spider Mastermind back outside, however, so make sure you're prepared for a big fight. Once they've been dealt with, pick up the yellow skull key (J) in the newly opened cave outside and go through the nearby teleporter (K).

Once on the other side, turn around and follow the cavernous tunnel to its end, where you'll find a BFG9000 and an army of pinky demons (L). Take the teleporter on the left (M) and immediately start running again before the chaingunners cause the barrels around you to explode. Head through the exit door at the end of the hall and open the yellow door to the left/east (N). Shoot the barrels you can see to clear the way to the exit teleport (O).

Secrets

 * 1) After raising the triangular platform allowing you to cross the long corridor you started in, you will be able to access a raised corridor in the east side at this area. At the north end of this hall are two passageways that lead outside. Take either one and continue to the end, but do not drop outside yet. Outside, between the two passages, is a long raised platform (P). If you took the right (lower) passage, you can simply walk onto it, and if you took the left (upper) passage, you'll need to drop onto it from above. Once on the platform, turn around and you'll be able to access a thin secret passage with a megasphere at its end (Q).
 * 2) Once in the outdoor area, drop into the pit of blood and take the teleporter in the southeast corner. It takes you to a raised area with a wide, circular tunnel. At the far end of the tunnel is a pair of smaller tunnels that each lead to a cache of rocket boxes (R). The southern of the two tunnels has a satyr face on the wall (S). Open it to reveal a soul sphere (T).

Routes and tricks
On Ultra-Violence and Nightmare! it's possible that the arachnotrons manage to kill the spider mastermind. Also you can kill the enemies in the room in the left side of the start from the starting location because that area opens up once the barrels are blown up.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Trivia

 * The music used in this level is heavily inspired by "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains.
 * This is one of the few examples of levels from commercial IWADS to qualify under some joke WAD criteria.
 * The Playstation/Saturn version of the level is called "Barrels of Fun" rather than "o' Fun".