The Darkening Episode 2

The Darkening Episode 2 is the 2000 sequel to 1998's The Darkening. This new episode features twenty-four levels split equally between single player and deathmatch modes. It was initially released on March 8, 2000 with a soundtrack primarily composed by Peter Tomaselli (Kniggit). The idgames archive file was replaced by v1.1 on August 5, 2000. The new version removed a MAP04 visplane overflow bug, made some level improvements (MAP02, 04, 09, 12, 14), rebuilt nodes, and added 11 new MIDI tracks by Sam Woodman (Metabolist).

Authors
Levels for the WAD were made by:


 * Ola Björling
 * Nick Baker
 * Ben Davies
 * Derek MacDonald (Afterglow)
 * Jan Van der Veken
 * Anthony Soto
 * Lee Szymanski
 * Richard Wiles
 * Adam Windsor

Music for the WAD was written by:


 * Peter Tomaselli (Kniggit)
 * Sam Woodman (Metabolist)

Textures for the WAD were created by:


 * Ola Björling
 * Nick Baker

Levels (single player)

 * by Ola Björling
 * by Jan Van der Veken and Derek MacDonald
 * by Adam Windsor
 * by Anthony Soto
 * by Richard Wiles
 * by Jan Van der Veken
 * by Nick Baker
 * by Richard Wiles
 * by Jan Van der Veken, Ola Björling, and Anthony Soto
 * by Richard Wiles
 * by Ben Davies (item placement by Anthony Soto)
 * by Ola Björling

Levels (deathmatch)

 * MAP13: Outpost Mortem by Ola Björling
 * MAP14: Mortal Mayhem by Derek MacDonald
 * MAP15: Broken Circuit by Adam Windsor
 * MAP16: Deva Station by Ola Björling
 * MAP17: Magic Roundabout by Richard Wiles
 * MAP18: An Eye for an Eye by Jan Van der Veken and Anthony Soto
 * MAP19: Tight Fight by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP20: Annihilator by Lee Szymanski and Derek MacDonald
 * MAP21: Rest in Pieces by Ola Björling and Anthony Soto
 * MAP22: The Edge by Jan Van der Veken
 * MAP23: Banger Hangar by Ola Björling and Derek MacDonald
 * MAP24: Interrogation Central II by Jan Van der Veken and Derek MacDonald

Soundtrack (single player)

 * MAP01: "Eastern Cwm" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP02: "Blooz" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP03: "Smak" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Nine Bass Riff" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP04: "70 Hojas" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP05: "Gunny" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP06: "Fack" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP07: "Penvant" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP08: "This Song Rocks Your Ass" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Eastern Factory Beat" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP09: "The Wicked Tree" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP10: "The Quiet Knife Is the One That Hurts" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Hardcore" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP11: "And Then I Beat Him Over the Head With His Own Bass Guitar" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP12: "Spider On Your Bagel" by Peter Tomaselli

Soundtrack (deathmatch)

 * MAP13: "Eastern Cwm" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Smak" by Peter Tomaselli (second release)
 * MAP14: "Devil's Disco" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP15: "Rok" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP16: "70 Hojas" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Killing Spirit" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP17: "Cok" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP18: "This Song Rocks Your Ass" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP19: "Rok" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "The Judgement" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP20: "The Quiet Knife Is the One That Hurts" by Peter Tomaselli
 * MAP21: "Devil's Disco" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Reckless" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP22: "Spider On Your Bagel" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "Inside Information" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP23: "Spider On Your Bagel" by Peter Tomaselli (first release), "The Leaky Boats Song" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * MAP24: "sTeve" by Peter Tomaselli


 * Title screen: "Darkening2 Titles" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * Intermission screen: "Darkening 2 Intermission" by Sam Woodman (second release)
 * Text screen: "DE2 Story Text" by Sam Woodman (second release)

Built-in demos
This WAD features three built-in demos. All require Doom II v1.9 to view them. The demo levels are:

Textures
The file contains 539 patches and 150 flats primarily created by Ola Björling and heavily inspired by 's clean industrial asethetic. Ola's OTEX texture set for Doom, released 18 years later, features remakes of some The Darkening Episode 2 materials.

Years later, in 2011, these assets were formally released on idgames archive as a texture pack called Darkening Episode 2 Texture Wad. This is sometimes referred to as Dark2tex.

2000

 * Sure Shot by Lee Szymanski
 * The Darkening Aftershock by Yashar Garibzadeh (GeminI)

2002

 * Dark 7 by Bryant Robinson (Gunrock)
 * Darkmatch Combo by Kristian Käll (Kristus)

2003

 * Skulltag

2004

 * Lamentations by Derek MacDonald (Afterglow)

2008

 * Dark 7 Mission Pack by Bryant Robinson

2016

 * MAYhem 2016

Licensing history
The file communicated an unconventionally strict clause about texture lump reuse in other WADs:

Please do NOT extract textures from darken2.wad and do NOT create levels that are depending on darken2.wad to run. If you want to create a level that uses the textures from The Darkening Episode 2, use the standalone texture WAD. See http://www.doomworld.com/darkening for more information.

Despite this statement, in October 2000 and May 2001 the project website featured standalone deathmatch levels created by team members that required. A July 2001 news update by Anthony Soto noted, "...I don't think we'll ever see a texture wad from Ola... All I really ask is that you credit Ola and give a link to the Darkening webpage."

With permissions appearing to be ambiguous, the textures were rarely used by the community. In the case of popular multiplayer mod Skulltag, its bundled Darken2 assets were uncredited.

Jan Van der Veken uploaded textures-only to the idgames archive in 2011 which still required it to be loaded separately with custom levels. With the community still apprehensive about using the textures in 2013, Jan got permission from Ola to loosen restrictions and reuploaded the file with typical idgames archive licensing that allows texture bundling:

Authors MAY use the contents of this file as a base for modification or reuse. ... It is now allowed to incorporate these textures in other projects, all we ask is that, in the spirit of good manners, credit is given to the Darkening E2 team.

Current records
The DSDA episode records for The Darkening Episode 2 are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 28, 2022.