I said we’d see Nicolás Monti one more time, didn’t I? I’m nothing if not true to my word.
Mr. Monti in fact commented on a previous review of mine, quite a few years ago now, recommending that I play his megaWAD Mass Extinction. His “most mature work” as he called it, and believed it would be up my alley. Well, I’m ashamed to say that it took me until late in 2021 to take him up on that, but he was spot on.
Mass Extinction is more of the Nicolás Monti that I love. What else do you say at this point? Well, it stands apart from many of his other recent projects by being probably the most conventional. No monster edits in this one, and in fact very few custom textures, which makes it a solid starting point if none of his other WADs I’ve discussed have gotten you started already. Mass Extinction’s cleverest trick though is making you think at first that it’s a relatively classic, nonthreatening Doom 1-inspired project… before beginning to inject more Monti quirkiness over the course of the full 32 levels.
Each episode is themed roughly after a different style of id-made techbase. E1 is Phobos and E2 Deimos; 3 takes you back to the Doom alphas, and the final episode is modeled in the fashion of Doom II’s starport levels. So you’ve got all the Monti favorites, and even a couple secret levels vaguely resembling the Hellish archways and Greco-Roman pillars of Ater Fieri, albeit with quite a vivid palette swap this time.
Episode 2 really kicks off the much more sadistic difficulty that will become commonplace for the rest of the mapset. Extensive 20% damage sectors in E2M3 (map10) and the associated “radiation leaks” even while wearing a radsuit are particularly unforgiving, and may be enough to turn some players off completely. Personally, I love the tension it creates, on top of what is already a general scarcity of health pickups in Mass Extinction. Aside from this one map maybe being a sticking point for some, I can definitely see the increased challenge over other Monti WADs pleasing some of you difficulty fiends out there.
The third episode’s big ask is that you berserk a metric assload of imps and lost souls and… something worse before it’ll grant you even a single weapon. That’s part of a trend that makes Mass Extinction a stronger whole than, say, Mano Laikas: the frequency with which it diversifies both its settings and combat tools. I am of course a big fan of Monti’s rocket launcher-focused firefights, but it’s nice to have maps in the mix that emphasize different weapons or even strip you down to your fists. The mapper shows a ton of growth in the way he finds ways to challenge you, as well as how to escalate over the course of an entire megaWAD. I was pleasantly surprised by how few archvile-driven difficulty spikes there were until… well, one map in the latter half that single-handedly makes up for the lack of archies with one encounter. (I’m not complaining about that one though.)
As much as I adored the TEKGREN bases of 60 Secrets, using that same aesthetic to end Mass Extinction was maybe not the wisest choice. It’s definitely hard to make things feel like they’re coming to a climactic end when you’re fighting zombiemen in what looks like the first few maps of Doom II. I’m not saying we needed to end up in Hell yet again, but something grander should have concluded such an otherwise fantastic WAD. Map30 was a particular letdown coming from Monti, who I consider one of the kings of awe-inspiring final maps.
Oh, before I forget — I have absolutely no idea what any of these maps have to do with the geological periods they’re named after. When you hear titles like “Lochkovian,” “Tournaisian,” “Asselian,” and “Induan,” you don’t exactly picture Doom techbases. Something extremely smart is probably going on here but Monti is way too big brain for me.
In any case, like most Monti WADs, Mass Extinction struck straight to my heart. We are simple folk, Monti and I; unconcerned about the typical ideas of presentability, texture alignment, visual polish, and all that business other mappers worry about. We may not be ultra-popular or celebrated the same way, but I think that’s just fine. I can’t speak for Monti, but I’m perfectly happy over here carving out my abstract little world of my own. Straight lines are overrated.
As Mass Extinction comes to a close, I realize that it’s something of the capstone on an entire era of my Doom-playing life. Never again shall I wax poetic in this column about a Nicolás Monti project — if he even releases another (and in the Cyberpunx release thread, he hinted it may be a long time before that). But I am a fan for all eternity, and until the end of my days I will be thankful I discovered a kindred spirit in him.
Mass Extinction requires DOOM2.WAD and runs on any sourceport out there. If you’re not sure how to get them running, this may help. And for more awesome WADs, be sure to check these out!