#spear of destiny
“I, Lilith—Rightful Monarch of Hell, Empress of Evil, Proud Lady of Pandemonium, Baroness of Blood, The OG Witch, Devourer of Men, First of My Name, the Unburnt, Matriarch of All Demons, Queen of the Damned and the Nine Circles, Lady in Red, Fabulosity Incarnate, Mater Suspiriorum Tenebrarum and Lachrymarum United as One, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons—banish thee, Lucifer, to forever wander the mortal realm like the fukboi you are, always have been, and always will be!”
-Queen Lilith
(note: due to the extreme simplicity of wolfenstein’s design ethos, i will be forgoing screenshots, with one exception. you’ve seen one wolf3d screenshot, you’ve seen them all. if you would like to see the game in action, i recommend this LP.)
spear of destiny
with the smash success of the original wolfenstein 3D, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be a followup – and this time, it was to be a retail release, meant to be put in a box and sold in stores by formgen. developed over the course of two months as john carmack worked on what would form the basis of the doom engine, “spear of destiny” is an “expandalone” of sorts in that it’s shorter than the main game by far (only 21 levels) but did not require the main game to play. it stands as a prequel to the “nocturnal missions” (which were themselves prequels to the original episode trilogy. unlike the main game, where the hint manual gave indirect attribution to most of the maps, it’s unclear who at id was responsible for which map. the only thing we can say for certain is that the level design is a massive improvement on the original game, generally eschewing the more abstract design ethos as embodied by the likes of episode six for a more realistic setting.
tunnels 1: entrance to the tunnels
short and sweet intro to the mapset. opens up similar to the first level of wolf3d ep 2, with BJ infiltrating the castle through a tunnel entrance in the castle’s lower levels. no mutants to be found here, though, just regular goons. it’s more or less a straight shot to the exit, but there’s no harm in poking around.
tunnels 2: corridors of confusion
awesome music in this level. in the tunnels deep beneath the castle, this is a confusing maze that loops in on itself repeatedly. mostly staffed by low-level guards and SS goons, this level won’t make you sweat much.
tunnels 3: cave-in!
another quickie, this one’s defined by a long hallway with multiple rooms along it, some of them seeming to be torture chambers. the hallway has been bisected by a cave-in (very cutely done by simply placing a couple of stony-looking wall blocks in the middle of the passage) so you’ll need to navigate some tunnels to get around the blockage. very low-key action.
tunnels 4: fortune and glory
the castle’s treasure vault is a sprawling underground complex. the western half of the map is quasi-realistic castle-style architecture, but get into the secret areas and watch the path turn into spaghetti. it’s worth it though – 1-ups at the end of one secret area, the secret level at the end of the other.
tunnels secret
going a bit old-school here, this is a sprawling map made up of different sections, each annoying in their own way. despite being a prequel, mutants make their first chronological appearance in this level, and several sections are designed to take advantage of their utter silence and breathtaking firing speed.
tunnels 5: guardian of the dungeon door
unlike the original wolfenstein which was split into six episodes of 10 levels with a boss at the end of each, the 21 levels of spear of destiny are split into much smaller contiguous episodes. the “tunnels” chapter thus comes to an end with this level, an absolute shitshow of guards and SS coming after you from all sides. clear out the bullshit and you’ll have to deal with trans grosse (“beyond big” in german) – a relative of the grosse family by the looks of it. he’s enormous, he’s got two chainguns, and he goes down like a sack of dead chimps with enough concentrated fire. but with all the goons he’s got in his boss arena, your first priority should be clearing out a safe area in which to deal with him.
dungeons 1: dungeon depths
pretty standard level. the first area is a blue-stoned dungeon; beyond the dungeon exit is a labyrinthine network of tunnels and hallways in red brick. it’s a maze down there and all too easy for enemies to get behind you. otherwise, nothing of note.
dungeons 2: winding dungeons
like the last level, this is a bog-standard wolfenstein map split between a blue dungeon area and a separate area, in this case mossy stone. though the dungeon area is large, resistance isn’t too fierce. that changes when you get into the lower half of the map, when nazi goons start coming at you from all directions.
dungeons 3: guard post
i get the feeling john romero did this one. it’s an enormous maze of mostly blue dungeon walls, filled to the brim with enemies. one shot and they all congregate on you, leading to a frantic firefight that requires constantly moving forward to not get overwhelmed. find the key to the locked door and you’ll find yourself in a long corridor that surrounds the entire maze, equally heavily guarded as you work your way around to the other side of the map to reach the elevator. great map.
dungeons 4: main dungeon
this level can actually be mostly bypassed if you know the secret paths. so you can effectively dodge a room full of SS and officers guarding the key by simply sneaking in past them, and then taking another secret passage that leads directly to the exit. it’s a neat little trick that suggests tom hall’s involvement. if you choose to do this the hard way, it’s a bog-standard map split into three areas with little in the way of resistance, so a bit of a breather after the massacre that was the previous level.
dungeons 5: barnacle wil the jailer
similar to the tunnels boss level, this is a map featuring an arena with some heavily guarded antechambers. find your way into the boss room and you’ll face barnacle wilhelm, who carries a chaingun and a missile launcher, but he’s hardly a threat. the bigger issue are the officers and other losers who attend him, who lie in wait until they see you, meaning it’s unwise to move about too much in the boss arena until wilhelm is down.
castle 1: castle entrance
the back half of spear of destiny shows some more of the quasi-realistic philosophy behind the level design. the bulk of the level is a confusing maze of rooms that serve no real purpose, but they’re surrounded not only by a wall hollowed out by a secret passageway, but an outer wall that serves as the main defense of the castle, complete with two trucks parked in the gateway, the outside world visible beyond. it’s a neat touch that adds a bit of a realistic vibe to an otherwise abstract level.
castle 2: barreling through the castle
fuck you for this pun, id. (and fuck you for doing it again with doom 2’s “barrels o’ fun.”) the early part of the map is full of ambushes in which barrels are used as barricades, with nazis firing at you from cover and no way for you to recover their ammo. past that bullshit is another standard maze of rooms and halls, with mutants occupying a wing in the southeast.
castle secret: pushwall panic!
if there’s proof that sometimes secret levels just aren’t worth it, it’s this one. as the name suggests, the core conceit of this level is pushwalls, pushwalls everywhere. it’s a massive, confusing nightmare maze made up of different sections, all of them hidden behind pushwalls. if you’re not attempting this with a map like the one in the hint guide, you’ll probably go mad.
castle 3: castle hassle
resuming the castle shape of “castle entrance,” this opens in a broad, cavernous loop around a lower level of the castle. entrance into the castle proper is through the four corners. the level is mostly populated by mutants and a few handlers, so quick reaction times are a must. the interior of the castle is another abstract maze sectioned off into four different areas you must access from one of the corners.
castle 4: militant mutants
oh god. mutants are everywhere on this level, especially in the cave section to the northwest. it’s honestly a real shitshow. the tension is palpable, but id do reward you with a great fakeout – throw the switch of the first elevator you see and the wall moves back, revealing health and ammo and a 1-up.
castle 5: gauntlet guards
the mutant mayhem continues with this abstract spaghetti of a map partially bisected by two parallel hallways. the opening of the map is very cruel, a gauntlet of thin hallways you must wind your way through while being fired upon by mutants. get past that and the rest isn’t too bad provided you know where to go.
castle 6: king of the mutants
chriiiist. this boss level is even worse than the tunnel boss level. jammed absolutely full of nazis, ammo is scarce and often behind the very enemies you need the ammo for. the main room has a central area from which dozens of guards can fire at you with relative impunity from behind columns. if you can work your way through the swarm of assholes that dominate the side hallways you’ll get the key that lets you into the inner chamber. the big metal box that dominates the room contains the ubermutant, a giant, four-armed mutant on steroids. fortunately, unlike his regular-sized brethren, he isn’t nearly as quick on the draw, meaning you have a little time to dive for cover before he opens fire.
ramparts 1: the ramparts
top floor. this is most emphatically not a large level – in fact, it’s literally just the castle walls, with a small chapel to hitler of sorts at the center. id software have cleverly managed to make it look like an outdoor section, with the outer walls resembling rampart walls with a sky the color of the dark cyan ceiling this game commonly uses. however, despite the small size, it’s wall to wall nazis, without a lot of health or ammo.
ramparts 2: guardian of the spear
as boss levels go, compared to the ubermutant level this one is much more forgiving… provided you can get past the death knight, a massive fascist in power armor who takes a hell of a beating and can dish it out just as good. and he’s not alone, with an army of officers and their mutant pets. luckily, there is an *assload* of health and ammo on either side of the level, so keeping yourself well stocked should be easy. when the dust settles, you can unlock the chamber holding the spear of destiny, and take it for yourself…
the death dimension
WELCOME TO HELL. in what had to have been foreshadowing for what would eventually become doom, grabbing the spear sends you to a nightmarish dimension that very much looks like hell as envisioned in doom’s third episode, a cavernous maze filled with skulls on poles, blood and skeletons everywhere, the souls of the damned zooming in on you, and the so-called angel of death, a massive demon who throws green fireballs at you. it’s a frightening, unexpected climax to the game, and by far one of the best curveballs a game has ever thrown. even if the boss himself isn’t a great challenge – though watch out for the ghosts flying around, as they can only be put down for a few seconds.
final thoughts:
in an era of shareware and games being spread across an episodic structure, a game that just gives you a single adventure across a series of levels was a bit unusual, particularly from id software. 21 levels of nazi murder without a break, split across five different themes, with five bosses to keep you amused. it’s a bit of a mixed bag, however. the early tunnel levels are light and easy, letting you dip your toes in. the dungeon levels are more standard wolfenstein, akin to something we’d see out of, say, wolfenstein 3D’s second episode. the castle chapter mostly just kind of… sucks. the final two levels are brutal, though not as bad as the ubermutant level immediately preceding. if you can survive the ramparts, the game drops a great surprise finale. overall i’d say that the level design is *generally* better than wolf 3D, but there are some missteps, namely that second secret level. i do like the attempt at creating some semblance of a real-world castle, but in general it seems to be the case that they simply use the basic outline of a castle to construct a more abstract maze within, and even then they don’t do that consistently. still, it’s a nice early attempt at realism in an FPS.
