MAP24: No Escape (Doom 64)

MAP24: No Escape is the twenty-fourth map of Doom 64, designed by Randy Estrella. It uses the music track "Dark Echo", also heard in. The central portion of the level is a massive arena filled with nightmare imps, mancubi, lost souls and cyberdemons. The player has to find a switch which will release twin cyberdemons from a large cage (if the player is on Watch Me Die skill level). Once all cyberdemons are dead, the level will automatically end. This challenging map serves as the penultimate level of the game's single-player campaign, as the next level is, where the player will face the Mother Demon and her final hordes.

Essentials
You begin in a central elevated loft in front of a shotgun and a switch that when activated, opens four doors which lead to the outside. (Caution: All four doors opening simultaneously gets very loud since the game essentially plays the large-door-open sound file the same number of times). Pick any door to leave the loft and they take you to a lift which quickly lowers you down to the outside grounds, where hordes of different monsters, weak and strong, lie in wait. The main thing to do in this map is to open the Cyberdemon pen that is located due north of the map starting point in the central loft.

To open the Cyberdemon pen, you will need to jump down into the far end of the red radiation pit (just east of the pen) to pick up the radiation shield. Then you will have to quickly run into the cavern in the pit to get to the teleporter in the back, killing the nightmare imps that get in your way. The teleporter will transport you to a fortress-like section of the map where there is a body armor pickup sitting on a block in the middle of a small green radiation pit. Go to the open protrusion of the fortress and then jump to the other opening on your right to activate the switch. This opens a door in the fortress you were previously just inside of, which gives you access to another switch that when activated, opens the Cyberdemon pen. You'll have to jump into the red radiation pit again to get back to the fortress to activate the switch.

Unlike previous maps, No Escape does not have an exit switch, exit teleporter, or exit drop. Instead, it ends automatically once all Cyberdemons are killed regardless of other monsters that are still alive. (The only exception is in Doom 64 Retribution, where an exit switch was eventually put in the Cyberdemon pen and is accessible once all Cyberdemons are killed.) On easier difficulties, there is only one Cyberdemon locked in the pen. On I-Own-Doom, there are two, and on Watch-Me-Die, there are three with one already out in the open.

There are many areas and items in No Escape that do not need to be explored or picked up respectively, in order to complete the map. Such as the spiraled area (similar to Map 19: The Spiral), the room with all the stone pillars, and the high platform with the teleporter. However, they have items that make it worth it at the end, such as the soulsphere at the bottom of the spiraled area.

Other points of interest
Other things to note about this map are that after you kill every monster in the initial hoard, some columns will drop down behind one of the vertically oscillating platforms where one of the mancubi were positioned. A group of lost souls will appear and some health and ammunition can be found there.

At the top of one of the outside elevators is a switch that drops columns to give you access to the spiraled section of the map. This spiraled section surrounds a green radiation pit with pain elementals lying in wait. At the end of the spiral is a soulsphere which when picked up will trigger the appearance of three mancubi on the ledge above.

In the room with all the columns, one has a switch which when activated, temporarily lowers the furthermost column from the room entrance. On top is a super shotgun which when picked up, triggers the appearance of many sergeants whose positions throughout the columns makes for a dangerous situation if they are not dispatched quickly.

Secrets

 * 1) The wall with detailed bricks near the southern part of the spiral area can be opened. It contains a plasma gun and energy cells. (sector 106)
 * 2) The square column with switches has a bare side that lowers a special column in the center of the room, with a backpack on top. (sector 107)
 * 3) When at the top of the elevator near the rocket launcher totem, the column of faces behind it has a different one. Shooting it with a hitscan weapon to open a niche nearby in the red radiation pit containing a BFG9000. (sector 104)

Routes and tricks
Stay on top of the outside elevators and let the cyberdemons get close to you, then use a powerful weapon like the super shotgun, BFG9000, or the Unmaker to take them out. While higher up, the cyberdemons' rockets will not reach you, although you should expect to take some splash damage.

Using the teleporters between one of the outside elevators and the adjacent platform makes a great evasion tactic when fighting the monster hoard, however it's risky when using it against the cyberdemons due to the speed and very high damage factor of their rockets.

You can also circle-strafe around the cyberdemons and shoot them with a hitscan type weapon (like the super shotgun or chaingun).

It is also possible to shoot the two cyberdemons inside the cage through the bars using the Unmaker after destroying the first loose cyberdemon. Any additional beams of the Unmaker earned from Demon Keys will usually autoaim into the gap when shots are timed well.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: