MAP28: Corporate Hell (Memento Mori II)

MAP28: Corporate Hell is the twenty-eighth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Stephen Watson and uses the music track "Circle of Fire" by David "Tolwyn" Shaw. It contains a separate area for multiplayer competition, and is the largest level in the megawad.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * Mission Objective: Reach the top of the UAC corporate tower and secure the area by destroying all Hellspawn.


 * Initial Scout Report: Before contact was lost with the four scouts sent in to perform preliminary recognaissance, [sic] they managed to send the following information:


 * The UAC corporate compound is split up into two areas: A product testing facility and the corporate arcology super towers.


 * A short-distance localized Teleporter Pad was set up by a scout in the product testing sector and that is where you will start the mission. Primary mission objectives here will be threefold: (1) clear the area of the hellspawn infestation, (2) acquire a security key that will allow entry into the corporate arcology super towers, and (3) locate and activate the switch that will open access to the teleporter pad that will take you to the coporate arcology sector.


 * Scouts reported that the Key should be located in the Southwest building, the teleporter pad is the Northeast structure, and a switch allowing access to the teleporter pad is in the Central building.


 * Strategy: Watch your back, Marine. You will be exposed from all sides in this area. Just keep moving and let the monsters take each other out. Conserve your ammo, scouts report you will need it in the next area...


 * The Corporate Arcology is a collection of five towers and three skyscrapers. Your Primary Mission objectives here will be: (1) gain access to the highest floors by progressively hitting various security switches in the four 'satelitte '  [sic] towers, (2) clear the area of Hellspawn, (3) once on the highest floor, take the teleporter to clear out the final West building to finish the mission.


 * Scouts reported that each of the four towers attached off of the central tower house a Security Switch will allow the central elevator to reach the next higher level. The path to each of these towers is marked by a blue square which switches to black once you have come into proximity of a Security Switch. You may use this as a marker to tell where you have already been. Once in a 'satellite' tower, remember to check carefully for the Security Switch and to hit it. Otherwise you will waste valuable time backtracking. These Security Switches are recognizable by their proximity to a short techlamp.


 * The South building houses a security key that may be used in the West building to resupply yourself if necessary.


 * Be careful in this sector, as there are several nasty ambushes that have been devised by the more 'corporate minded' Hellspawn. Don't waste your ammo.


 * Scouts marked key areas with Florescent Arrows. Look for them, they provide clues to pressure pads that activate lifts, or may contain caches of Ammo and Medical supplies.

Walkthrough

 * Letters in italics refer to marked spots on the map. Sector numbers in boldface are secrets which count toward the end-of-level tally.

Essentials
Enter the south-western building from the north, in the main room follow the arrow to the right, activate the skull on the backside of the table to reveal the yellow key you will need after teleporting.

In the north-western building, push the red switch at the window to raise the stairs to the right. Go to the top and use the red switch on the pillar's backside to open the teleport.

Enter the teleport in the north-eastern tower from the back.

Go through the yellow door, lower the lift and ride up. You are now on the first floor with four ways to go. In each of them, you will have to enter a tower and flip a switch. Each switch will increase the lift's top floor, each time giving access to another additional direction: A blue tiled computer room in the south (slightly west), a room with a gray box in the south (slightly east), a room with the red keycard in the north, and finally a room with a fountain in the west. Switches near the lift will lower it, you will have to make sure to get off at the desired floor level, or jump down from above. Sometimes, the lift will not raise up fully when a monster gets stuck. You will have to visit the four towers, all from the first floor that the lift will not stop at after the first lift switch is activated!

In the south-eastern tower, you will be trapped until you use the skull switch on the central pillar' backside. On the other side is the lift switch.

In the south-western tower, the bridge will lower after you passed over it. On the right side, there is the lift switch, but also a trigger releasing many monsters. Now, you can reach a switch on the other side of the room to restore the bridge.

In the north-western tower, walk over the glowing line of light behind the arrow, a lift to the right lowers, on the top jump over to the red lift switch.

In the north-eastern tower, walk onto the little box on the left, lowering the bigger one behind. Jump over to the other boxes, hit the switch, another box to the right has lowered. Ride it up to the top, and before going any further, look out for a switch in glowing light on the right side of the boxes in front of you. Slowly jump down where you spotted the switch, use it, a big box behind you has lowered that will get you to the green lift switch on the hell knight floor.

On the floor that becomes available after the third lift switch, get the red keycard in the north.

Now ride up to the top floor and go west. On the other side of the fountain is a switch to lower it, enter the teleport to the exit room. You can always teleport back if you like. Enter the room to the left, open the red lock bars and use the green switch to open the exit door in the other room.

Secrets

 * 1) Before you enter the path leading to the southwestern tower, there is a glowing arrow pointing at a computer panel. Press on it and two teleporters will lower. Enter the northwestern one to reach the southern outer side of the exit building in the west, where you encounter four imps (and a revenant on medium and hard skills). There you can obtain a box of bullets, a medikit, a box of shotgun shells and two boxes of rockets. Reenter the teleporter to get to the building's northern outer side (sector 421) with the same amount and types of enemies, another medikit and two more rocket boxes. Reenter the teleporter to return to the room with the glowing arrow.
 * 2) Likewise, enter the southeastern teleporter to be taken to a secret room with a box of rockets, a bulk cell, a blue armor and a soul sphere (sector 129).
 * 3) After activating the first of the four security switches, enter the now accessible blue computer room to the south of the elevator and press on the southernmost computer panel to the east to raise stairs to the teleporter. Enter it and rush into the northern building to find a stairway to a teleporter, flanked by chaingunners. Once you reach the teleporter, you will be taken to their vantage point (sector 260), where you can kill them more easily and obtain two medikits, a blue armor, two (one on easy skills) boxes of shells, (a box of rockets and an energy cell on medium and hard) and a bulk cell.
 * 4) After activating the second of the four security switches, enter the now accessible room to the south of the elevator. Walk to the room's south to raise a switch to the north that you push, thus revealing a teleporter. You land on a teleporter pad (sector 301) in the southern building where the blue keycard is located. It can remove the bars in the room west of the exit room, enabling access to two (four on hard) chaingunners, (a hell knight on medium and hard,) a rocket box, a bulk cell, a berserk pack, a soul sphere, a blue armor, a computer map, (a partial invisibility on easy,) a bullet box and a shell box.

Bugs

 * Because of the presence of items not flagged as multiplayer-only in the deathmatch arena, you can only get 83% Items on this level. Overall there are the chainsaw, four of the five shotguns, one of the two super shotguns, the chaingun, one of the two rocket launchers, one of the two plasma guns, all ten clips, 17 sets of shells, all three rockets, two rocket boxes, two energy cells, a bulk cell, a berserk pack, two stimpacks, four health bonuses, a soul sphere, a green armor, a partial invisibility, the light amplification visor and 24 of the 25 barrels.

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