MAP31: DejaVu (Memento Mori II)

MAP31: DejaVu is the secret level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Orin Flaharty and uses the music track "Bavor The Mad" by Mark Klem. It is designed in a techbase style reminiscent of Doom's Knee-Deep in the Dead, hence its title. The title name comes from French expression "deja vu", which is that psychological sensation of you are repeating some past situation that you have already saw or witnessed in life.

Essentials
As the name suggests, DejaVu plays a lot like a Knee-Deep in the Dead map, specifically. However, it boasts far more monster closets and larger teleport traps. The red and yellow keys are required to access the regular exit, and can be collected in any order. The blue key is required to get the red key. However, the secret exit only requires the yellow key.

Start and Blue Key

You begin in a small room. Collect the shotgun and box of shells, as well as a rocket. When you open the door, you will be immediately set upon by enemies:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: One zombieman, two shotgun guys, one spectre.
 * Hurt me plenty: One zombieman, two shotgun guys, one spectre, one imp, one demon.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: One zombieman, two shotgun guys, one spectre, two imps, one demon.

You don't have much room to fend them off, so use secret #1 for extra assistance. When they are dead, head up either flight of steps to a corridor running east-west ("the starting corridor"). The door in the west leads to the locked doors before the regular exit, while the door in the east is locked. Go through the door at the end of the corridor in the south. In this room, there are up to six imps. Kill them, grab the armor and chainsaw, then flip the switch in the south of this room to unlock the door in the east.

Head back to the starting corridor, then head east. You will come to a pair of corridors infested with shotgun guys, imps and demons. The northern corridor has a window from which a horde of zombiemen in a courtyard can attack you, so be wary. At this point, you may wish to head to the southern corridor and find the hexagon-tiled area extending to the south, with up to right imps and a baron of Hell. After killing them, you will be able to get a plasma gun, which will come in handy in dealing with some of the teleport traps that come later.

From the pair of corridors, head east to a junction with a blue computer area in the east. Watch for up to four imps and two demons at the junction, as well as shotgun guys and imps in the computer area, both on the ground and on the computer banks. Head into the computer area and ride the platform in the south up on top of the computer banks. Find the gap in the eastern wall and go through it to find an L-shaped corridor with a zombieman, an imp and a shotgun guy (not on Hey, not too rough and below). Flip the switch at the end of this corridor, and the central computer bank in the computer area will lower, allowing you to grab the blue key.

Red Key

From the junction, head north, then east to a blue door. You will come to a series of open-air corridors and be attacked by up to two shotgun guys, two demons and an imp. At the fork, head down either corridor and kill a shotgun guy and a spectre (not on Hey, not too rough and below). Head down the steps into the red key room, which is in the middle of three alcoves in the east of the room. Kill the shotgun guy, zombieman and demon in here first. When you pick up the red key from its alcove, a large teleport ambush is set off:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Two demons, a spectre, six imps, one shotgun guy, two zombiemen.
 * Hurt me plenty: Two demons, a spectre, eight imps, three shotgun guys, two zombiemen.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Three demons, a spectre, nine imps, nine shotgun guys, two zombiemen.

There is an invulnerability in the southeast corner of the red key room. Take it, pull out the chainsaw, and get to work on these enemies. Once done, backtrack to the junction, but just after heading back through the blue door, watch for a trap to the north with two imps and three shotgun guys (two on Hey, not too rough and below).

Yellow Key

From the junction, head south and open the door in the east. Head up the steps to a square room with seven health bonuses and two stimpacks. Head south to find a loop of corridors infested with shotgun guys, imps and demons. You have to be more careful in this set of corridors, as there are some barrels scattered around. In the southeast of this area, heading east allows you to reach a platform with a blur artifact, but collecting it will trigger a trap nearby with up to two imps and three shotgun guys.

Head through the door in the south. Lower the platform at the end of this short corridor and ride it up to a brown room with two computer cubes hanging from the ceiling. Go south, then east to a long corridor infested with zombiemen, shotgun guys, imps and demons. In the east of the corridor is a brighter room - watch out for up to two shotgun guys, three imps and a demon here, as well as a spectre waiting in ambush in an alcove near the entrance of this room.

From this bright room, go south, then west and ride the platform up to a computer room with glowing lights. There are shotgun guys, imps and demons in here, and they may be hard to see. Head southwest, and you will be attacked by up to three zombiemen protecting a rocket launcher in the north, as well as up to seven imps int he yellow key chamber in the south. Because of all the shooting going on just now, the first phase of a two-phase teleport trap in this area is likely to have been activated, and monsters will begin teleporting between the rocket launcher pad and the yellow key chamber. If you are counting kills:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Three demons, two shotgun guys, one imp.
 * Hurt me plenty: Four demons, three shotgun guys, three imps.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Eight demons, four shotgun guys, four imps.

When you grab the yellow key from its chamber, the second phase of the teleport trap activates, teleporting monsters into the same location as the first trap:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: One demon, one shotgun guy, one zombieman, four imps.
 * Hurt me plenty: One demon, three shotgun guys, two zombiemen, six imps.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: One demon, five shotgun guys, one zombieman, nine imps (but see Bugs below).

Ensure the first phase of the teleport trap has been dealt with before picking up the yellow key. When you grab the yellow key, quickly head to the west of the computer room for breathing space against the second phase of the teleport trap.

Regular Exit

You need to backtrack to the extreme west of the level (west side of the corridor running-east west near the start of the level). On the way there, you need to be careful of four traps:


 * South side of bright room (east of yellow key computer room): Up to three shotgun guys and two zombiemen.
 * West side of room with two computer blocks hanging from ceiling: Up to two shotgun guys, two imps and one demon.
 * Southern wall of northern corridor in area with a pair of corridors (west of blue key computer area): Up to three imps, a shotgun guy and a demon.
 * Western side of area with a pair of corridors (west of blue key computer area): Up to two demons, a shotgun guy and an imp.

Open the door at the west end of the starting corridor. Watch for up to nine shotgun guys in the courtyard beyond the windows. Open the red exit door, followed by the yellow exit door. Flip the switch to end the level and be taken to.

Secret Exit

You also need to backtrack from the yellow key area. However, once you hit the room with two computer blocks hanging from the ceiling, quickly go to its northeast corner. A hidden door should have opened into a nearby slime pit. (If the door is closing/closed, quickly step into the darker corridor to the east again to open it up). Grab the radiation shielding suit nearby and jump out into the slime. Head for the northeast of the slime pit, where you will find a narrow channel heading into darker slime. Go west, then north to find a secret platform with a UAC door. Open the UAC door, open the (yellow key-locked) exit door at the end and flip the switch to end the level and be taken to.

Secrets

 * 1) At the beginning of the level, a section of the eastern wall is misaligned. Open it to find a stairway leading to a room (sector 57) with eight health bonuses, a stimpack, a shotgun, a clip and a blue armor. Be warned that this room is exposed to a large number of monsters on three sides.
 * 2) In the eastern hallways accessed by the first switch, the northern wall of the southern hallway has a light formed of four vertical panels, which is next to a right-angle corner. Press on the wall to the left (west) of it to find a secret room (sector 55) with nine health bonuses and a berserk pack.
 * 3) After going through the blue keycard door, open the wall in the northern inset to find a secret hallway (sector 144). Use the elevator to reach a room with a trooper, two (one on easy skills) sergeants, (a demon on hard skills,) four rockets and two stimpacks.
 * 4) Open the northern wall of the secret hallway from secret #3 to access the outdoors area to the north. Go to the southernmost window (eastsoutheast of secret #1). There is a misaligned texture on the eastern wall. Open it to find a soul sphere (sector 170).
 * 5) In the red keycard room, there is an arrow made of armor bonuses pointing at a computer panel. Press on it, and the mainframes to the east will lower to reveal secret compartments. The north and south compartments both contain a few monsters and each a stimpack; the central one (sector 224) contains two rockets and a rocket launcher and counts as secret.
 * 6) Once you enter the southern computer room with the glowing lights (north of the yellow keycard), head into the inset to the northeast and you will find a lone barrel in front of a computer panel to the east. Destroy it and open the panel behind to find a computer map (sector 222).
 * 7) From secret #6 backtrack your way to a room with four holes in the ceiling. Go west, upon entering another room with similar holes in the ceiling, run northwards to the elevator's east to find that a door has opened to reveal a nukage pool. Cross the pool and you will find a stimpack and a platform (sector 169) with eight armor bonuses, a backpack, a light amplification visor and a door. Enter this door to find another door that requires a yellow keycard. After grabbing the yellow keycard, return to this area and open the door to find a hallway leading to an exit switch that takes you to the super secret level,.

Bugs

 * On hard skills it is only possible to obtain 99% kills in this level, as one imp (thing 349) contained in one of the inaccessible monster storages (sector 252) (which store monsters for teleportation into the level) is glued to a barrel (thing 383) occupying the same space. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
 * Parts of the lowered section of ceiling with diamond lights in the blue key area (linedefs 397, 400, 405, 418 and 426) are missing upper textures on their exposed back sidedefs.
 * There are two one-sided linedefs with door actions and tag 0. Linedef 190 (rear wall of the western computer niche in the starting corridor) has action 32 (D1 Door (Blue) Open Stay), while linedef 1101 (southern wall of second room with four octagonal skylights) has action 1 (DR Door Open Wait Close). It appears that the map author may have wanted to design secret areas from these linedefs, but changed his mind and forgot to remove the actions from the lines.

Current records
The Compet-n records for the map are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 4, 2020.

Player spawns
This level contains eight spawn points:
 * 1) facing west. (thing 188)
 * 2) facing west. (thing 198)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 435)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 436)
 * 5) facing west. (thing 437)
 * 6) facing west. (thing 438)
 * 7) facing south-west. (thing 439)
 * 8) facing west. (thing 440)

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

Trivia
Unlike another level from Memento Mori II designed in Knee-Deep in the Dead style,, this level features only Doom monsters. In fact, in DejaVu there is even more restraint than in from Memento Mori, also designed by Orin Flaharty, as lost souls and cacodemons are also missing. This means that in this secret level the player can only encounter monsters from Knee-Deep in the Dead. Regarding weapons and equipment, the design is slightly less consistent: megaspheres or super shotguns (from Doom II) are absent, but the player can collect a plasma rifle, berserk pack, or an invulnerability sphere (present in Doom, but not in its first episode).