Thy Flesh Consumed

Thy Flesh Consumed is the fourth and final episode in Ultimate Doom, made available in a retail distribution, as well as in the form of a free upgrade to owners of the registered version of Doom.

With the exception of the secret level (and the levels exclusive to the [|Sony Playstation] version, all the level names, and the episode title, are phrases taken directly from the Bible. The list was compiled by Kevin Cloud, and John Romero assigned names to the individual levels. This episode was also Tim Willits' first contribution to the Doom series, as he joined id Software after the release of the original Doom and Doom II.

Plot
The episode is both a sequel to Doom and a prequel to Doom II. It chronicles the Doomguy's battles against the legions of demons that the Spider Mastermind had sent through the doorway between Hell and Earth, the very same gateway that the player had earlier used to return to his home planet. Ultimately, though the player is victorious, inflicting heavy losses on the invaders and avenging the death of his pet rabbit Daisy, it turns out to be an empty victory as the demons have already overrun all the major cities, and the stage is set for Hell on Earth.

The background sky of the episode is a light brownish-yellowish with white clouds, similar to the ending cutscene of Inferno and the star port levels of Doom II. The graphical style is generally hellish, though there are a handful of tech base themes used. While there are some features carried over from Doom II, such as switches that require keys and blazing doors, otherwise all of the music, textures, monsters, and weapons are from the original Doom.

Since the expansion was produced while id Software was involved in other projects, less thought was put into making it consistent with the previously developed plot of the games, and the designers concentrated primarily on straightforward action, which was already the general focus of the games. The final message and screen with the rabbit Daisy arguably reinforce the acknowledgment that the designers' main concern at that point was the levels and not the background story or any general considerations.

Description
The levels are considered much harder than the levels of the three other episodes and Doom II. Unlike the other episodes, the difficulty in Thy Flesh Consumed does not follow the expected learning curve as one progresses through the levels. It could be argued that E4M2: Perfect Hatred and E4M1: Hell Beneath are the most difficult, not only of the entire episode but also the whole Doom series, as the player faces a large number of monsters all at once, while having little cover and a lack of health pickups. By contrast, E4M7: And Hell Followed and E4M8: Unto the Cruel are tricky but relatively straightforward, as the monsters are more dispersed and can be dealt with piecemeal. However, E4M4: Unruly Evil is easier than most of the episode, but a little difficult from a pistol start because there are three spectres.

Also unlike the earlier episodes, the intermission does not display the player's current progress on a map.

Levels

 * E4M1: Hell Beneath
 * E4M2: Perfect Hatred (Exit to secret level)
 * E4M3: Sever the Wicked
 * E4M4: Unruly Evil
 * E4M5: They Will Repent
 * E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly
 * E4M7: And Hell Followed
 * E4M8: Unto the Cruel (Spiderdemon is the boss)
 * E4M9: Fear (Secret level)

Current Compet-n records
The Compet-n records for this episode are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on November 22, 2020.



Trivia

 * Despite the fact that id Software had released for free a patch to upgrade registered Doom version 1.9 to The Ultimate Doom, a British magazine referred pejoratively to Thy Flesh Consumed as Thy Cash Consumed, as they considered it as a cheap attempt of earning more money from an already successful title.