E2M4: Mental Ward (Doom the Way id Did)

E2M4: Mental Ward is the fourth map of The Shores of Hell in Doom the Way id Did. It was designed by Jacob Zuchowski (ellmo) in the style of Tom Hall and Sandy Petersen, and hosts the same eerie atmosphere as the original E2M4.

Essentials
Climb the stairs to your left. The blue torch here indicates a fork where you can head left or go straight. To get the armor you saw at the starting point, head left through the passage and when you reach the next room a lift makes a sound. Go back to the blue torch quickly and drop down to obtain the armor. You can also jump on the crate for a box of shells and go west of the armor to find a rocket. At the fork, if you go left and take the door, you will find just a room with two shotgun guys, some health bonuses, and a shotgun. Go straight at the fork afterwards. There is another one right away, but going left will not lead you anywhere without a key. Go right through the large hall, going around the bend overlooking the starting point. When you go behind the square metal column, you will come across three doors and a switch.

The north door can be opened directly, leading to a hall with monsters and a couple of colored key doors. Ignore this door for now and hit the switch to open the door directly behind you (the other door cannot be opened yet). In this room is a nukage pool. Take the path outlined by green torches to a switch and a teleporter. Before you take the teleporter, hit the switch. On the other side, there are some supply rooms if you traverse the water, one of which contains a chaingun. The switch you pressed raises some stairs though, so make sure you climb those, open the next door, and grab the yellow key. Grabbing it drops you right outside back to where the three doors are. Now take the north door and find the yellow door at the end of the hall. Alternatively, you can go down the end of the large hall to the two key doors instead, the yellow door will be on your left if you choose that route.

Whichever path you chose, get into the middle hallway with the blinking lights. To the immediate left is a small aside with a few side rooms containing lost souls in them. There are a few supplies if you want them, including a berserk pack. Going north to where the baron of hell was, turn right and follow the stairs upwards. You will find a switch, push it and go back and the door should be open. When you enter the next room, you will trigger the lift on your right to move up and down. Ride it up, and go right and down to get a red skull key. Also, back in the room, if you climb the stairs there, you will find a plasma gun. Exit through the yellow doors on the right, and then head straight across to the red doors to reach the next area. There is another set of red doors in the big hall on the right wall if you want to pick those. Either way, the red door should take you to another large hall. Go to the north end of the hall which has a lift. You need to press the right lion switch here (the one that is lit) to lower the lift. When you do that, head right and then down the stairs all the way to the room with the table. Flipping the switch here opens up a wall of spectres to your southeast, but also a wall in the previous hall allowing you to get a blue skull key in the blood. With this key, backtrack all the way to the blue door, which is in the hallway taken by the north door in the small area with three doors and a switch. Follow this winding hallway to the exit.

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

Last updated on June 19, 2013.

Multiplayer records
Last updated on June 19, 2013.

Miscellaneous demos
Last updated on June 19, 2013.

Map data
* The vertex count without the effect of node building is 1262.