Redemption of the Slain

Redemption of the Slain is a single-level PK3 for Doom II using the GZDoom source port that came out in March 2017. It was designed by Russell Meakim (TheCastle), and the par time is 40:00.

Essentials
The map is divided into five sections, and an additional secret area.

1. Silent Outpost: A late addition for the level, which weren't included in the first beta release. It's notably different in style as it's more a techbase, than the rest of the level, which takes place a demon infested castle and it's hellish surroundings. The section has four secret areas, a secret yellow key, and two modern style lockdown fights. The first lockdown fight is designed for Brutal Doom as it has two bots to help you in a cacodemon swarm. This part of the level is quite difficult without Brutal Doom, and ammo shortage (especially in Hurt Me Plenty skill) can cause problems.

2. The Netherworld: Starts in a small techbase, then it continues to the hellish outdoors with various platforms rising with monsters in them. The section has three secret areas which all need either GZDoom compatible crouching or platform jumping.

3. Doom Castle: The biggest, and most traditional part of the level, which is quite similar to The Castle's Hell Mountain (No Rest for the Living Map 04), but with more elaborate design and dynamic light effects. It has 10 secrets, which includes a much needed backpack and a BFG, which can be collected by finding multiple secrets. It has two major lockdown fights, in the first you have to use 6 switches to cause earthquakes, and call the gradually more challenging monster waves.

4. Outpost Alpha: An area with various killed monsters around. This area is filled with arch-viles and barons of Hell, and has a puzzle section with 3D floors and arrows that can give you clues what to do next. They also help you to find the secret level. The area's only secret is the pathway to the secret level which needs GZDoom specific swimming ability.

5. Ghostly Passage (secret section): It's a notably different surrounding than the rest of the level as it's much darker, maze type, and almost exclusively uses the spectres, but in large numbers. The section ends with a welcome message from author, which is his traditional "The Castle Was Here" sign. It also has the first megasphere of the level.

6. Ancient Abyss: The final area in a hellish bridge. The area is filled with almost "slaughterwad" number of monsters that are hard to dodge, and it's the most challenging part of the game. Curiosity of its use of cacodemons that don't attack you from the bridge, but from the towers in both the left and right side. There are automatic projectiles that can handle the cacodemons while you're busy with the other bad guys around. The level ends with a cyberdemon, and an author specific imp before you leave the level.

Other points of interest
Many areas of the level are built in the shape of number 8. This means the player always goes forward, never really backtracks, but can visit various areas from the different angle. The author's other maps (particularly Map01 and Map04 of No Rest for the Living) are designed with the same philosophy. In the area with the yellow skull, formally backtracking is needed, unless you find the secret passage where you can reach various areas with monsters and a BFG as the high reward in the end.

Jumping and crouching are allowed for this level, but other than one vent area, they are only needed for finding secrets.

The map use 6 keys in total: 3 keycards in the first section (Silent Outpost) and 3 skill in the Doom Castle section.

Secrets

 * 1) (sector 11)
 * 2) (sector 40)
 * 3) (sector 294)
 * 4) (sector 332)
 * 5) (sector 897)
 * 6) (sector 1263)
 * 7) (sector 1382)
 * 8) (sector 1487)
 * 9) (sector 2253)
 * 10) (sector 2350)
 * 11) (sector 2358)
 * 12) (sector 2539)
 * 13) (sector 2583)
 * 14) (sector 3187)
 * 15) (sector 3444)
 * 16) (sector 4083)
 * 17) (sector 4130)
 * 18) (sector 4186)

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

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

Technical information
The map uses various scripted sequences with music changes, lockdown fights, and other GZDoom specific features like earthquakes, swimming, jumping and crouching. It also has visually appealing dynamic light sources and ambient occlusion.

The map however doesn't use new textures or coding, monster and weapon types are the same, which gives a somewhat vanilla experience with modern gameplay philosophy.

The map is designed with Brutal Doom in mind, which means there are less ammo than normal, particularly apparent in the first lockdown fight with the cacodemons and later with the arachnotrons. After collecting the red key (and the hidden yellow key), the ammo shortage becomes less problematic though. The level still had various bots, which appear as invisibility spheres in normal gameplay.

Trivia
One of the secret areas has an Easter egg referring to BZPlasma, a long time Doom streamer, who made some videos during the map's beta phases. The secret offers you a second Plasma Gun if you collect the other items there in quick succession. With this secret, the Plasma Gun is the only weapon in the level which can be collected twice (not counting shotguns and chainguns dropped from former humans).