The Darkening Episode 2

From DoomWiki.org

The Darkening Episode 2
Title screen
Authors Various
Port Vanilla Doom
IWAD Doom II
Year 2000
Link Doomworld/idgames
Top100.png This mod was one of the ten 2000 mods to feature in the Top 100 WADs of All Time on Doomworld!
2000
  1. The Darkening Episode 2
  2. 10 Sectors
  3. Chord 3
  4. Classic Episode
  5. Hell Factory
  6. Painful Evil
  7. ZanZan
  8. KZDoom6
  9. Atomic Tomb
  10. Containment Area
1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998
1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003

Cacowards

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.[1] 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).

In 2003, The Darkening Episode 2 was named as one of the Top 100 WADs of All Time, as one of the top 10 WADs of 2000. In 2023, it was further included in Doomworld's Doot Eternal music feature for Doom's 30th anniversary.

Authors[edit]

Levels for the WAD were made by:

Music for the WAD was written by:

Textures for the WAD were created by:

  • Ola Björling
  • Nick Baker

Content[edit]

Levels (single player)[edit]

Levels (deathmatch)[edit]

  • 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)[edit]

  • 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)[edit]

  • 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

Built-in demos[edit]

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

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP04: Vindication 4 3814 1:48.97
DEMO2 MAP02: Biotech Terror 4 2365 1:07.57
DEMO3 MAP08: Lucifer's Laboratory 4 4371 2:04.89

Textures[edit]

The darken2.wad file contains 539 patches and 150 flats primarily created by Ola Björling and heavily inspired by Quake II'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.

Usage by other projects[edit]

2000[edit]

2001[edit]

2002[edit]

2003[edit]

2004[edit]

2006[edit]

2008[edit]

2016[edit]

Licensing history[edit]

The darken2.txt 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 darken2.wad. 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."[2]

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 dark2tex.wad 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[3]:

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.

Speedrunning[edit]

Current records[edit]

The DSDA episode records for The Darkening Episode 2 are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV max run 1:02:13 Veinen 2017-12-29 d2all-6213.zip

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

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Soto, Anthony (25 August 2000). "Darkening Episode 2 version 1.1." The Darkening homepage (archived 🗺). Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  2. Soto, Anthony (28 July 2001). "Tidying Up." The Darkening homepage. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  3. Van der Veken, Jan (10 March 2013). Darkening 2 Resource wad?. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 17 August 2020.