Dread - GrandmasterJ

 


    Run around a Doom Themed complex, fight enemies, and collect weapons. Find the keys to open the path forward. Don't get lost! Allegedly made in a week.

SCMapDB page

Author: Aurora

Date of release: 2014

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Dread

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | May 24, 2026 | 3948 characters

    This map feels like a doom multiplayer map given singleplayer features. This map is a conglomeration of hallways with monster spawners and smatterings of weapons off in the corners.

    I spent a lot of time lost in this map, the map description says 'multiple paths' and I can attest to that. Ultimately the whole map is finding two keys, unlocking the boss arena, and then killing the boss. Finding the first key was easy enough but then I spent a lot of time walking in circles trying to figure out where to go next. My teammate didn't have this problem so whenever we died I would just follow. But then we died trying to get the next key and I decided just to run forward to see what was next. Our spawn was next, there was a shortcut to get here and both my teammate and I took a circuitous route back every time. That's my biggest complaint, this level is shaped like a gordian knot.

    All the while we are getting harassed by respawning enemies. Now right at the end, right at the boss fight, my teammate realized that there is a breakable in the enemy spawn chambers that we can break to disable them. We've been tossing explosives around like nothing, the map has plenty of firepower, so I'm sure we accidentally disabled quite a few without realizing. Figuring out that we can destroy them is a game changer and everybody needs to know about it before going into this map. We had enemies running into spawn and filling the corridors, it was a real problem and I was prepared to complain about it at length, but alas, it's just a case of a gameplay mechanic not being communicated properly to the player.

    That being said, the fact that enemies can run into spawn is a problem. The spawn updates at the boss fight and the boss can easily walk into spawn and ruins everybody's day. It can be managed but the fact that it happens at all is a problem.

    As for the rest of the map, it's pretty good. It looks like a Doom level given life in the Quake engine. It's got blocky rooms with blocky cutouts, a big focus on corridors, doom-esque lighting, and a ton of secrets. My teammate found most of the secrets but it was only when we cheated and noclipped that we saw how much we missed. If you like secret hunting this is your map.

    The boss fight is a wholly new scripted enemy, probably a Kingpin or whatever. If you're not careful it will walk right into spawn and halfway through killing it some baby gargs come out. It has a lot of health and does a lot of damage so expect to die a lot. It's a fun fight but the proximity to spawn really adds a meta layer of difficulty, where we have to die away from spawn to give ourselves a chance on the rebound. Eventually we whittle it down and end the map by opening up a gross hole that we jump into.

    The respawning enemies really dragged me down but I guess that was mostly because I didn't realize the enemy spawners were destructible. Since I didn't learn that until the end I'm kind of still mad about it. I got lost a lot but that seemed to be a me problem, I mean the second key was very easily accessible from spawn even if I didn't realize it. It pulls off Doom and that means it also pulls off how mazey Doom can be. If you have the patience to learn this map's ins and outs it can be really fun.

Pros:

  • It is supposed to feel like Doom and it succeeds
  • Lots of weapons and ammo everywhere
  • Lots of secrets, and a good spread of them too. Some easy to find, some hard
  • we can destroy the enemy spawners
  • The map opens up to us as we play with shortcuts

Cons:

  • enemies can invade spawn very easily
  • the game didn't signal to us that we could destroy the spawners so we didn't and suffered
  • I got lost a lot
  • This map is mostly hallways twisting in on themselves

Score: 6 / 10

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