MAP05: Living Hell (Community Chest 3)

MAP05: Living Hell is the fifth map of Community Chest 3. It was designed by Matthew Gilzinger (doom2day) and uses a modified version of the Doom II music track "Getting Too Tense." It is a remake of MAP28: The Spirit World from the same game. Despite occurring early in the game, it is one of the hardest levels in the megawad.

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) This secret can only be accessed for the first 30 seconds of the level, so time is of the essence.  After pressing the first switch, head through the northern door.  Open the western door, and look to the south of the next room to find an invulnerability on a pedestal.  The pedestal over which the invulnerability floats is the timed secret.  (sector 210)
 * 2) To the sides of the stairway west of secret #1 are narrow ledges which can be walked on.  At the southwest end is a switch; press it, and then quickly jump to the other side to obtain a megasphere (on Hey, Not Too Rough or lower) or a supercharge (on Hurt Me Plenty or higher.) (sector 80)
 * 3) In the room west of secret #2, there are two red flags hanging on the eastern walls.  Shoot at the southern one with an impact weapon to lower the wall it rests on, revealing 7 backpacks. (sector 138)
 * 4) In the same room, press on the red flag at the northeast to lower it, revealing a berserk. (sector 141)
 * 5) In the lava cavern where the spiderdemon is, there is a lava "staircase" at the west.  Climb these "stairs," but beware that your movement is slowed down as you do so, as with the other lava pools in the level.  At the very top, go through the lava fall to find an invulnerability. (sector 422)
 * 6) Inside the flesh and bone tunnel, there is a wall of bone blocking you from reaching five stimpacks, a box of bullets, a box of shells, and five energy cells.  Shoot it with an impact weapon to enable access to these items. (sector 471)
 * 7) In the room with doors opened by shooting symbols on the walls, there is a section of the northwest wall which is pink with a patch of skin upon it.  Press on this wall to find a plasma gun. (sector 258)
 * 8) At the east of the starting room, there is a passage leading to door with a switch nearby.  Press the nearby switch to open the door and reveal a wide open room.  Press the switch at the far east of the room, and several walls will rise from the floor, creating a maze.  Navigate your way to the northwest of the room and activate the switch there.  After this, head to the southwest and press the switch at that spot.  This will cause the walls to lower, and two rooms with enemies inside to open at the north and south of the room.  Both of them contain switches; press the northern switch to raise the pillar in the east of the room, revealing another pillar holding a blue skull key.  Press the southern switch to lower the second pillar, and then step on the pillar before it lowers all the way into the lava to register this secret. (sector 524) Otherwise, this secret will become impossible to trigger due to a design error.  (See Bugs.)

Bugs
In the original release of the megawad, several monster storage sectors with more than one monster in them were erroneously given single-use teleport lines, preventing 100% Kills. This was fixed in the second release.

The linedef that lowers secret #8 will change the sector's type as well as its texture once it reaches the lava pool. Ergo, if you do not step onto the pillar before it sinks into the lava, 100% Secrets will become impossible.

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: