MAP25: Forgotten Town (Memento Mori II)

MAP25: Forgotten Town is the twenty-fifth level of Memento Mori II. It was designed by Denis Möller and uses the music track "Time Runner" by Mark Klem. It contains a separate area for multiplayer competition.

Mission briefing
According to both the text file and the Infopack:


 * Sector 25 used to be a residential district. Since most of the working places on this planet seem to be attacked by the evil hordes, we are anxious about the civilians living in sector 25. We didn't send any scouts in it, because this region always was very safe and there are still no known security problems.


 * The picture was taken by the local camera system about 10 hours ago - the missing enemy movement and the silence of this area shows that it should be no problem for you. We need to get all humans out of this sector before any enemies try to attack.


 * Mission objectives: get in and evacuate all civilians. Seal all doors and leave the sector.


 * There's no doubt that this will be your easiest mission, there are no plans for fighting - if you encounter any enemy troops, retreat immediately.

Essentials
Unfortunately, as you may have suspected, the military intelligence you have been provided with is completely wrong - the sector has been totally overrun and there's no retreat available! Looks like you'll have to fight your way out of this mess manually.

Start and Red Key

You begin in a walled courtyard, set upon by imps from many directions. Up to six are attacking you from cages on the east wall, up to five attack you from the windows to the north, and a third set from a perch in the northeast. Behind the metal bars in the south is a pillbox with some enemies, which you might want to pay attention to. If you wait long enough, shotgun guys and chaingunners might even emerge from the door to the east. Your first task is to get a good weapon. Head to the northeast corner of the courtyard and lure the imp (Hey, not too rough and below) or a Hell knight (Hurt me plenty and above) out of that corner. Behind it, you can grab a stimpack, a shotgun and more than enough shotgun shells. Thin out the imps in their perches, then head through the door in the east.

In this next area, you will find a platform with the red key and a locked wooden door near the entrance. Check for imps in the window in the northwest, clear the cage with up to five shotgun guys in the northeast, and then head southeast. You will find a raised platform with a switch block in front of a raised green area with up to three mancubi. Take them down if ammo permits, otherwise, dodge their fire. Head up the raised platform through the steps in the south, flip the switch and prepare to make a dash for it. A pair of traps have opened to the east and the west sides of the platform. The east one has up to three Hell knights; the west one has up to three revenants. Considering that revenants are faster than Hell knights, you should escape via the left (east) side with the Hell knights. A little monster infighting may help here.

Head back to the locked wooden door near the entrance of this area. It is now open. Head into the green hall and watch for any imps perched on the two wooden structures in the hall. beyond the wooden structures is a T-junction. Head east and ride the platform up to the raised area where the mancubi were. You will probably have to deal with the mancubi now. Once they are killed, head to the southwest and up the steps to a switch panel. Flip this switch, and a large part of the green hall you were previously in raises up, allowing you to access the top of the two wooden structures. Continue forward and onto the eastern wooden structure. Follow the corridor to its end and drop down onto the platform with the red key.

Blue Key

Drop down from the red key platform, then go north to the red door. Open it to find a green brick area with various hanging corpses. In the raised area opposite the red door, you will see a number of demons running about. You should kill these demons before proceeding further, or they will make the next trap exponentially harder. In total, you should count:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Four demons.
 * Hurt me plenty: Seven demons.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Nine demons.

Once you count the requisite number of dead demons, head down the steps and to the east. Flip the switch in the east to raise steps to the raised area opposite the red door, but getting to that switch activates a trap that releases up to four demons nearby. If you had activated this trap and the switch without killing the demons in the raised area, the demons in the raised area would have moved down the steps and mauled you. Head up the steps to the raised area, which is a T-junction. Head west and wake up the imp (Hey, not too rough and below) or Hell knight (Hurt me plenty and above) next to the entrance to the next room. You should also be careful of the shotgun guys visible through the window in the west. Entering this room will trigger a trap in the room to the east with up to six shotgun guys, so wait for them to funnel into the east of the T-junction, then mow them down.

Back in the room to the west of the T-junction, open the door to the south and prepare for a significant number of former humans in the next room: up to five shotgun guys and three chaingunners. From this room, head southeast and up two flights of steps. A platform will lower ahead - ride it up to the imp perch northeast of the starting courtyard. Ride another platform to the east down to a staircase landing. Watch for up to four shotgun guys, as well as up to two more shotgun guys and two more chaingunners behind the block in the south.

Head north down the steps into the eastern half of a second courtyard. Up to nine imps will take potshots at you from the two windows ahead, as well as up to six more imps from a perch in the east. More pressingly, up to three arachnotrons will attack you from behind the gate in the west, with imps providing more covering fire from windows further behind. If you have a rocket launcher or plasma gun, use it now for great effect. Next, flip the switch in the north to open a door opposite it. Head through this door and ride the silver platforms up to the top, being wary of the two demons (one on Hey, not too rough and below).

Open the wooden door with the "exit" sign and proceed along the walkway, clearing any remaining imps out. Flip the lion switch next to the (exit) teleporter and the teleporter only lowers slightly, not enough for you to clamber onto it. Head back east and you will find that part of the walkway has lowered to the ground. Drop through this hole and proceed north. You are now in the western half of the second courtyard, behind the gate you saw earlier. A trap will have opened in the east, with two (one on Hey, not too rough and below) arachnotrons arriving on the other side of the gate - dispose of them in a similar manner as before.

Head through the door in the northeast. As soon as you enter this new corridor, you will wake up two barons of Hell (chaingunners on Hey, not too rough and below). Carefully pull them out of the door one at a time and take them out with the strongest weapon you have available. If you are on a pistol start run of this level, you should also head to the middle of the corridor and kill any cannon fodder you can see through the three windows in the north, which will make getting an optional (and crucial) rocket launcher significantly easier.

Head to the west of this corridor and lower the silver wall. Ride the platform up to a rooftop. As you round the corner, you will be set upon by three imps (Hey, not too rough and below), a mancubus (Hurt me plenty), or two mancubi (Ultra-Violence and above). If you need to detour for a rocket launcher, step on the platform in the east of the rooftop area, which lowers you to a brown corridor. Head all the way east and follow the corridor to its end to grab a rocket launcher. Jump out to the eastern half of the second courtyard. You will need to backtrack to the rooftop, but you can ignore most of the monsters from the teleport trap you triggered (except up to three lost souls).

Next, lower the metal block in the west of the rooftop area and ride it up to a raised part of the same rooftop. Head west, clear out any imps, then drop into the hole in this part of the rooftop. You will end up in a metal-floored area which opens up to large brown brick area. Before you proceed to the switch in the west, you should clear out the pain elementals behind the two false walls marked by red diamond-shaped patterns. There are two blocking bars beyond each false wall, so you should aim directly perpendicular and centered to the false wall for best results. Once both pain elementals are dead, head west to the switch, and you will wake up some Hell nobles:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: One baron of Hell, one Hell knight.
 * Hurt me plenty: Three barons of Hell.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: Four barons of Hell.

Quickly back off and deal with them - space is at a premium here for the amount of HP you have to whittle down. Once they are dead, flip the switch in the west to lower steps towards a lava-filled area in the east. As you approach the teleport pad, metal spikes rise up to block it, forcing you to go through the door in the east. Open the door, climb the stairs and kill the arch-vile (and two shotgun guys on Hurt me plenty and above). At the end of the corridor, you will that the teleport pad in the lava has also risen up, and you can jump from the window to the teleporter.

Head into the teleporter, which teleports you to a rooftop in the southwest of the map. Drop down from this rooftop and beware of up to eight spectres waiting below. Find the door in the green building just south of the rooftop you teleported to, and go through it. This leads to a building full of shotgun guys. Up to six await you when you open the door, and up to six more have to be dealt with when you go up the stairs. From the top of the stairs, head south, then east. About halfway along the corridor to the platform, you will trigger a trap to the south with up to four demons and four spectres. You should trigger and deal with this trap first to reduce the amount of problems you will have when grabbing the blue key shortly after.

Ride the platform ahead down and you will find yourself in an area with the blue key on a windowsill. Watch for potshots from the two pillboxes in the distance. Grabbing the blue key causes a number of traps to activate, and if you are not prepared, you will die in this very area. Follow this sequence of steps to avoid misfortune:


 * Before grabbing the blue key, re-lower the silver platform.
 * Grab the blue key.
 * Two traps will begin to open: One with up to six shotgun guys at the higher level; one with up to six revenants in the middle of the building.
 * While the platform is still down, make a dash for the exit of this building in the northeast. You now have more space to deal with the revenants and shotgun guys.

Yellow Key

Head north and find the metal shelter in the west. In the south of the shaded area is a door, which is the next location you need to proceed to. However, you should probably clear out any imps you can see in the windows, as the next area is thoroughly infested with them. Once the imps on the floor have been thinned out, head through the door. You will now be in a brown building with a raised catwalk, containing even more imps - mow them down with whatever weapon you prefer. Head east and raise the blue bars, then ride the platform up to the raised catwalk. As you continue west, part of the catwalk will suddenly sink into the ground, revealing a hidden room to the south with up to five cacodemons. Deal with the cacodemons and head into this hidden room. Flip the switch in the east to raise the sunken part of the catwalk back to full height, then flip the southern switch to lower that part of the catwalk like a platform. Get on that part of the catwalk and ride it back up.

As you continue west, a trap will open ahead with up to six chaingunners. A rocket or two will turn the tables on them - no big deal. Continue north and through the short wooden door ahead.

You are now in a large outdoor lava area with a large door in the north. A single oddly-angled bridge extends across the lava, which ends at an alcove. Head across that bridge to the alcove at its end, then flip the switch. This causes another bridge to rise and link that alcove to one in the east. Flip the switch in the eastern alcove, and another bridge rises to link it with an alcove in the southwest. Flip the switch in that alcove and two bridges rise to connect all the previous bridges to the door in the north. This set of five bridges forms a pentagram and seems like an omen of bad things to come, and it is. Before you open the door in the north, do the following things:


 * Equip the rocket launcher.
 * Open the wooden door in the south.
 * Align yourself on the one bridge running north-south, facing north.

Now, open the door in the north, and you will be greeted by a cyberdemon guarding the yellow key. Immediately run backwards. If you did all the above steps right, you will be safely behind the short wooden door. It is now down to you and the cyberdemon on a battle of nerves whose pace you dictate - open the door, fire your rockets, dodge the cyberdemon's rockets, repeat. Once the cyberdemon is down, dash over and grab the yellow key.

Exit

Backtrack to the building with the raised catwalk. Drop down and exit this building, then open the yellow door in the northeast. As you continue forward, a fake floor trap will activate, causing a pair of monsters to appear in close proximity in front of you:


 * Hey, not too rough and below: Two Hell knights.
 * Hurt me plenty: One Hell knight and one baron of Hell.
 * Ultra-Violence and above: One baron of Hell and one arch-vile.

Kill them, then ride the platform behind them up. At the top, beware of attacks from shotgun guys and chaingunners through the window in the north. Open the wooden door in the southeast and head south to the other half of the room with the exit teleporter. Flip the switch to its west to lower the teleporter one more time. You are now able to enter the teleporter - step into it to end the level.

Secrets

 * 1) Near the ledge that opens the path to the red skull key is an alcove (sector 513) with a berserk pack. On your way to raise the bridge to the key, head to the southeastern platform and do a running jump from there to the railing surrounding the first switch. From the railing's north do a running jump to the east into the alcove to obtain the berserk pack.
 * 2) Following the red key door you eventually reach an elevator. Ride it up and the next one down to shoot one (on medium skill) or two (on hard skills) chaingunners and one (two on hard) sergeant through the gaps in the southern wall. Return to the first elevator, ride it down, leave it and let it raise again. Standing right in front of it, look to the east: this portion of the brick wall is misaligned. Open it to find a secret room (sector 162) with another sergeant (in the south) and a plasma gun. Press on the block to the north to exit.
 * 3) Exit secret #2 and descend the stairs to the north: at the northeast of the map is a stairway leading to a platform with large railings, near of which is an alcove (sector 512) with a computer map. You can walk on the outer side of the railing; so do and do a running jump from the western edge into the alcove to obtain the computer map. This jump is a bit tricky to pull off, and may require some practice. In addition, it is easier to reach this area through strafejumping than with normal jumping.
 * 4) In the northern room (west of the lava pit with the teleporter) with the metal pillars, one of these has three health bonuses and bears lightning bolts on its western side. Press on that side and it will lower to reveal a closet (sector 482) containing two clips, two sets of shells, a medikit, a backpack and a green armor.
 * 5) After obtaining the blue skull key, return to the bridge you raised to get the red skull key, lower it and enter the room west of the bridge. Look to the south to find that a new room (sector 362) has been opened, containing (skill dependent) two/four/six sergeants and a green armor.
 * 6) Once you repair and cross the gap following the blue key bars, you are ambushed by two/two/none sergeants and none/two/six chaingunners. Return to the building where you found the blue skull key to find that a doorway has opened upstairs, revealing a Hell knight on easy or an arch-vile on medium and hard skills, guarding a staircase down to a caged-off room (sector 467) with two stimpacks and a BFG9000.
 * 7) In the room where you find the yellow skull key, the westernmost metal pillar (sector 437) has piping on its northern side. This pillar can be pressed upon from any side to lower it like an elevator, revealing a pathway with a backpack. Enter the pathway through this secret elevator, and you can access the platform west of the star-shaped walkway, where you can get a box of bullets, a box of shotgun shells and a medikit.
 * 8) Once you lower the exit teleporter, do not enter it. Instead, head back outside, circle around to the bridge lowered east of the exit and push the button to raise it again. After this, enter the lowered teleporter from its eastern or southern sides. Instead of ending the level, you will be taken to a compartment (sector 550) in the northwest, where you can obtain a soul sphere.

Bugs

 * Boom, PrBoom, PrBoom+, the Eternity Engine, and ports in the ZDoom family alter the behavior of Shortest Texture floor. This affects the linedef (1289, Type 30 - W1 Floor Raise by Shortest Lower Texture, Tag 26) tagged to sector 274 in this map, which relies on the original engines behaviour to function properly. Triggering the line with a port that has altered this behavior will cause sector 274 (a teleport) to rise to its upper side, preventing the player from entering it. Fortunately many of the above mentioned ports feature compatibility options to restore the original engine's behavior in this circumstance. Users of PrBoom and PrBoom+ must turn on "Use exactly Doom's linedef trigger model" and Eternity players need to toggle "Use Doom's linedef trigger model". Starting with version 2.3.0, ZDoom automatically detects the correct compatibility settings for this map, if using an earlier version of the port the option to set is "Find shortest textures like Doom."
 * When playing the game in no monsters mode, in the room where you find the yellow skull key, you cannot use the room to the east to go outside and head to the yellow key door; instead, you must backtrack to where you opened the blue key bars and open the door there to do so. The eastern room requires the presence of an imp (Thing 51) in an inaccessible room (sector 463 and 464) to trigger a linedef (2089, Type 88 - WR Lift Lower Wait Raise, Tag 43) which causes the floor (sector 454) below you to lower. This linedef is opened to the imp by shooting a switch (Linedef 2078, Type 46 - GR Door Open Stay, Tag 44). Attempting to use this path to the yellow key door in no monsters mode will trap you inside the room, as the imp will not exist in this mode. Your only method of escape in this case is to use the cheat.
 * In addition, the inaccessibility of the aforementioned imp makes 100% Kills impossible by normal means, although one can make it 100% by killing enemies resurrected by an arch-vile.
 * Not only that the usage of the switch (Linedef 888, Type 101 - S1 Floor Raise to Lowest Ceiling, Tag 14) south of the exit teleporter (sector 209) is not needed, if it is pushed after using the switch (Linedef 911, Type 102 - S1 Floor Lower to Highest Floor, Tag 14) west of the exit teleporter that lowers it (almost) to the floor, it is raised again to high to enter it.
 * Six shotguns, two super shotguns, a chaingun, a rocket launcher, a plasma gun and a BFG9000 are placed in the deathmatch arena of the map and thus unreachable in single-player game mode, but are not flagged as multiplayer-only.

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

The data was last verified in its entirety on June 3, 2014.

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

Trivia

 * The theme song of this level resurfaces in Community Chest as the theme of MAP25: Blood Demesne. The author of the level, Will Hackney (credited as "Archvile46"), used the song with Klem's permission.