E2M2: Containment Area (Doom)

E2M2: Containment Area is the second map of The Shores of Hell in Doom. It was designed by Tom Hall and Sandy Petersen. The map is famous for the gigantic maze of crates that takes up most of the level. It uses the music track "The Demons From Adrian's Pen". An early version of this level is the second level of Doom 0.4, Doom 0.5, and the Doom press release beta. This is also the first level in Doom to not include any former humans, though unlike earlier levels it also has no tougher enemies than Demons and Spectres. The par time is 1:30.

The "openness" of the warehouse portion of the level distinguishes it from most other Doom maps which are usually rooms closed off with doorways and connected by hallways. Consequently one of the initial encounters (directly due to the inevitable gunfire sounds from the player) will alert enemies apparently far away (type the cheat code iddt twice, and you will see on the automap that the Imps are closing on your position). This map is also one of the few times that the players start in different locations in co-op mode.

Walkthrough
Follow the wall on your left to the south, then east, until you come to the berserk pack. Go south through a rusty metal opening into a green marble hall. Continue south to a metal door. Open the door using the switch on the left and walk through to raise the stairs.

Continue south and take the first right. Go west and take the first left. Follow this hallway all the way south. You will pass the exit door, inaccessible across nukage on your right, and come to the red door. Turn left to see a series of five crushers.

Dash through the crushers and continue around until you find the blue keycard. Follow the passageways and go through one blue door to find another blue door immediately on your right. Open the second blue door to get the red keycard.

Go west and you will be back to where you first entered the green marble hall. Go back to the red door. Go through and click the switch to raise a bridge to the exit door.

Secrets

 * 1) From the start, work your way over to the western wall of the map. Turn south and a brown crate ahead will lower as you approach. This opens a compartment with two boxes of shells.
 * 2) From the green marble hall, go south through the metal door, turn right and then right again. You will come to three long rooms with blue circles on the floors and ceilings. Go all the way west to the farthest room and turn north. Follow the passageway to find a backpack.
 * 3) From the above location, the eastern wall will open into a secret room.
 * 4) The southeast corner of the above secret room will open into a semicircular passageway. At the southernmost point, the wall will open to reveal a computer map and a box of rockets.
 * 5) To get the yellow keycard, from the green marble hall, go south through the metal door and follow the wall around to the left. The keycard is in a room to the north across some red slime. Follow the blue circles on the ceiling to raise a bridge to the keycard. Go way back toward the start. Just after you pass the alcove where the berserk pack was, go through a metal door facing south toward some crates, and then around and through a yellow door. A chaingun is on a donut pillar lowered by a switch.
 * 6) From the above location, go back out into the crate area, turn left (east) and follow the walls and crates on your left. Work your way around to another yellow door, facing crates to the south, on the eastern side of the map. Open this yellow door. Run quickly to pick up the backpack ahead, before it rises out of reach. Click the three switches that have risen out of the floor. Each switch opens a room on the east wall of the room you just ran through, disgorging monsters. Visit the first (northernmost) of these rooms to get a box of rockets.
 * 7) Visit the next (middle) room to get a rocket launcher.
 * 8) Visit the last (southernmost) room to get a box of ammo.
 * 9) From the green marble hall, go south through the metal door, take the first right and then the first left. On your left (east) is a room with pipe walls and hexagonal stone floor and ceiling. There are two pillars in this room. A switch on the north face of the first pillar will lower the second pillar, but only once and only for a few seconds. Run quickly to get a plasma rifle.
 * 10) From the green marble hall, go south through the metal door. Follow the wall around to the left and continue as it turns south again. You will come to three pits with moving floors. Drop down in the northernmost pit and follow the tunnel out to the north.
 * 11) Find the five crushers near the red door. When you go under the middle one, turn north into a hidden passage to find a chainsaw.
 * 12) In the room where the blue keycard was (past the crushers and around to the north), stand in the lighted triangle in the southeast corner to lower a soul sphere across the nukage pool. Run and get it quickly, because it only works once.

Routes and tricks

 * It is possible to straferun-jump across the nukage canal to the exit door.
 * It is possible to click the switch that raises the bridge to the exit door from the outside of the room it is in, while standing in the nukage canal below the window. It is then possible to get onto the bridge and ride up as it rises.

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are: