MAP33: Chocolate (Plutonia 2)

MAP33: Chocolate is the Easter egg map of Plutonia 2. It was designed by Eric Baker (The Green Herring), and uses the music track "Wasteland" by James Paddock. It cannot be reached in normal gameplay, although it appears in the fourth built-in demo if you are using the Final Doom version of Doom II v1.9. (See Accessing the level for how to play it.) Its design, especially the beginning, is reminiscent of Well of Souls from The Plutonia Experiment.

Accessing the level
With the Final Doom version of Doom II v1.9, add -warp 33 to the command line, or type IDCLEV33 during gameplay. It does not appear to work if you are using the regular v1.9 distributed with Doom II. Note that completing this level with the original engine causes the game to crash, preventing you from seeing the intermission screen.

On Chocolate Doom (using the command line parameters -deh pl2.deh -gameversion final -iwad plutonia.wad), IDCLEV33 works but the automap displays LEVEL 1: ENTRYWAY. On completing the level you see the intermission screen, but the line giving the level name is missing ("FINISHED" is line 1 instead of line 2 as it should be) and on pressing the key to go to the next level, the program instead bombs back to Windows with an error dialog saying "Bad V_DrawPatch". On ZDoom, the level (including the intermission) works as one might expect, except that pressing the key to end the intermission sends the player back into MAP33.

The behaviour of various Doom ports on exiting the intermission is probably explained by this WADfile's MAPINFO lump; it has an entry for MAP33, but the NEXT and SECRETNEXT lines (which are supposed to tell the engine where the two types of exit go to) are missing.

Most ports unique methods of warping between maps should also be useable to access this map. Examples include ZDoom's "Map xx" or "Changemap xxxxx" console command and Doomsday's "Warp xx" console command.

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.

Secrets

 * 1) To the left of the first door that you encounter, open the wall to reveal a green armor.
 * 2) In the area with the caged Revenants and Arch-vile, there is a red switch to the north of the sludge pool. Push the western wall with a lightning bolt on it near the red switch to open an alcove that contains a Chainsaw and three Medikits.
 * 3) In the large outdoor area in the northern part of the map, push the wall where the flickering triangle left of the caged Arch-vile is pointing at to reveal a Rocket launcher, five Rockets, a Medikit and a Stimpack.
 * 4) In the room where the red Key is found, open the eastern wall on the northeastern pedestal to find a small backyard that contains a Box of bullets, 4 shotgun shells, a Box of rockets, a Backpack, two Medikits and a blue armor.
 * 5) Push the wall left of the blue key to reveal three sets of shotgun shells, a Box of shotgun shells, two Medikits, a Stimpack and three Rockets.

Current records
The records for this map at the Doomed Speed Demos Archive are:

Last updated on June 14, 2013.

Miscellaneous Demos
Last updated on June 14, 2013.

Inspiration and development
The deathmatch section of this level is based on MAP28: Valley of Contamination from 32in24 6, which was a Boom-compatible WAD. To fit this area under the limits of the original engine, all of the surrounding detailing was removed. In addition, the exit switch was replaced with the standard Plutonia teleporter for consistency.

Trivia

 * During development this level was called Cradle of Filth.