#619: Haunting Hollow

Spooky shooting from the Doomer Boards — again

Initial release: October 2, 2023
Platform: PC (Doom mapset for limit-removing ports)
Developer: Doomer Boards
Mods used: Gothic Doom, Blood Fixer, 150 Skins, Flashlight++ 9.1, Retro FX

Say what you will about the Doomer Boards, but they’re pretty good at making Doom maps over there. And pretty regularly, at that, having just released their 68th in just six and a half years. Of course, with that level of output it’s obvious they’ve had to go back to the same well a few times. I’ve talked before about how Gothic Deathmatch was a big influence on the community and it shows in the regular use of texture packs derived from or inspired by the GothicDM series. You can probably guess where I’m going with this — yes, DBP62: Haunting Hollow is yet another take on the gothic theme, this one leaning more towards a theme of an abandoned moonlit town, so it’s heavy on the blues and purples and greens. We’ve seen something similar, with Mausoleum Nefarium, but the influence of the ’97 deathmatch classic yet looms large…

The usual disclaimer… I played this with the following mods: HorrorMovieRei’s excellent Gothic Doom reskin pack, a simple blood fixer mod for properly colored blood, Doomkid’s 150 Skins mod set to the hooded guy, Flashlight++ 9.1 set to the “Lamp” preset, and Retro FX for that old-school flavor. If this configuration seems familiar it’s because I used this exact same setup with Morbid Autumn; indeed, I like the idea that the player character is a turn-of-the-century monster hunter slaughtering demons in the forgotten parts of the world. Expect him to return in later wads.

While nothing on the level of Zeppelin Armada (how can you possibly follow that up? not even the immediate next DBP, Eldritch Voyage, tried) Haunting Hollow does have a story, of sorts. The beginning and end of the wad feature a brief moment of dialogue as a mysterious cloaked figure explains the narrative to you, white pixel text against a blue background, like a Final Fantasy game. To sum up, you’ve come to the town of Lodewood, which is now haunted by devils after the citizens made the mistake of investigating the old abandoned church outside of town, accidentally summoning a horde of demons who killed everyone and turned Lodewood into their home, a gloomy ghost town full of ghouls and monsters. And you get to clear them out.

It’s a pretty short roster this time with only 11 maps, one of which is just a credits map. The mapping team consists of Jon “40oz” Vail, again in the team leader role; DBP veterans Sergey “SilverMiner” Burow, Cittykat112, snowy44, Thelokk, thehockster, and MortisCausaDonatio; and relative DBP newcomers Gokuma (whose sole previous contribution to DBP was DBP48, which… yeah…) and Jacek “Havoc Crow” Dobrzyniecki (who does have quite the extensive resume.)

Haunting Hollow is pretty even throughout. DBPs can have their ups and downs — many view the final third of Zeppelin Armada to be its weakest (though I disagree, I think its low points tend to be more in the early to mid-game) — but DBP62 is pretty consistently a solid play. If I had to pick out a single map that I think the set wouldn’t lose anything by removing, it’d have to be Gokuma’s in the MAP04 slot.

There are some high points, though. Havoc Crow’s “Speak of the Devil” I think most perfectly encapsulates the theme of the set, a spooky map set in a portion of the town set on scattered clumps of earth floating in the void, complete with a defiled church and a barbershop with a sinister secret. The finale, by Thelokk, is another high-water mark, even as the whole thing descends into slaughter. It’s not for everyone, but I had a pretty good time with it (it helps that you can do most of your demon-deletion from relative safety.)

I’m not sure what else there is to say about DBP62; not every DBP can be an AUGER;ZENITH or Zeppelin Armada, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be super fun. Haunting Hollow is good clean popcorn Doom fun that’ll take you a couple hours to do — and that’s time well spent, especially at this time of year.

-june❤

DBP62: Haunting Hollow can be downloaded on Doomworld.