Doom 2: Alien Vendetta (w/ MIDI Pack) - Map 20: Misri Halek (UV Max)

Alien Vendetta is a 2001, 32-map mega WAD given the title of “most influential PWAD of all time.” It’s also one of the VERY few PWADs eligible for Compet-n speedrunning, which it was selected for in 2002. That Compet-n version of Alien Vendetta is the one we’re going to be playing, and it received quite a few updates. Most notably, it gets rid of the original Map 25 (Valley of Echoes) and banishes it to the shadow realm, puts the original Map 24 in the newly vacant Map 25 slot (Demonic Hordes), and slots in a brand new Map 24 (Clandestine Complex). I haven’t played much of the original 2001 mega WAD, but I’ll happily stick to this version because it’s most likely the superior version in every way imaginable.

Alien Vendetta’s influence can’t be understated or ignored. It’s the tipping point for our little corner of game development history. You see Alien Vendetta in the DNA of nearly every single PWAD to have come out after it. It’s one of the earliest examples of a WAD that combines aesthetic beauty, atmosphere, and high quality, brutalizing combat with success. More specifically, Alien Vendetta puts Eternal Doom and Hell Revealed into a blender, tops it with some classic references and callbacks to the IWADs and other classic WADs, and blends it all together.

We’ll also be using the Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack for this play through. While a good majority of the maps have different MIDIs, there are still many maps that use stock IWAD MIDIs. While I do regret letting go of the MIDIs in map 8 and 10, I believe that overall, the MIDI Pack is a much better fit for the WAD.
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IWAD: Doom 2
Port: DSDA-doom 28.2
Compatibility: Vanilla (comp level 2)
Mapper(s): Kim Andre Malde
MIDI: Chris Laverdure - Fight The Logic If You Can (Remastered)
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Alien Vendetta: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/lev...

Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/mus...

DSDA-doom: https://github.com/kraflab/dsda-doom

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Doomworld’s most memorable map of all time certainly lives up to its reputation, and is Malde’s greatest gift to AV and the Doom community at large. It inspired countless imaginations and still to this day instills feelings of deep wonder and mystery in me.

Besides the combat, which is a bit of a different conversation and something we’ll get to a bit later, the map is functionally perfect. Every room is lit to such a meticulous degree and the architecture is precise and fits the Egyptian Pyramid theme perfectly. Despite the textural sameness of the whole map, Malde aesthetically knocks it out of the park by putting all his chips on lighting and fine details. He excels in every way at crafting an atmospheric and moody experience.

I have no doubts that, if anything, Misri Halek inspired the likes of Eternal the most out of any other WAD before or after. This map is synonymous with the feeling of plunging into the depths of a long-forgotten, ancient, and foreboding Pyramid. One that hypnotizes and tricks the player and radiates powerful solemnity throughout its halls.

An all-time great map isn’t finished without an equally amazing MIDI to match it, and Chris Laverdure’s “Fight the Logic If You Can” is nothing short of perfect. As far as I know, it’s the only bespoke MIDI (in the OG OST) made for AV. That should say something about this map’s importance. Even more incredible is the fact that the man himself came back to remaster and somehow improve his own MIDI almost 20 years later. His remaster hits all the same beats as the original. Just writing about it now I can hear those iconic melodies that echo throughout the vast halls. In a way, Misri Halek and its MIDI are symbiotic. One simply cannot exist without the other.

Now for one of the more controversial parts of AV. The combat in this map, and most of Malde’s maps in AV, is something I’ve seen quite a few people talk about across the internet. For some, it seems that the combat in Malde’s maps really bring the experience down for them, and others don’t seem to mind it at all. Some even go to the point of calling his maps overrated which I don’t really agree with at all. The combat is surely pretty grindy in spots in Misri Halek. Like all the times you have to SSG groups of Hell Nobles and trudge through tight corridors jammed with mid-tiers. I see why some people would have such an issue with the combat in those cases. For me, though, I wouldn’t exactly expect an Egyptian Pyramid map to be wide-open and friendly. I’d expect it to be claustrophobic and packed to the brim with traps and mean encounters.

This is another clear standout for AV, and one that makes it truly impossible to grapple with the idea that this map is over 20 years old.