Proto:Daikatana (Windows)/Milestone 2/Episode 1 Levels

This is a sub-page of Proto:Daikatana (Windows)/Milestone 2.

E1M2

Milestone 2's E1M2 is similar to the set of levels that make up E1M2 in the final game. The level flow is nearly the same and it even contains several ideas that made it into the final game, such as the starting area, the collapsing hallway, the water pool with the Shotcycler 6 in it, and the room with the flapping device the player must cross to press a switch. Many of these use more primitive geometry, different layouts, or both, but the ideas are the same between Milestone 2 and the final game. Surprising, since this prototype was compiled almost three years before the game was released.

But, it does contains several differences. The start of the level merely has the player ride up an elevator and go through a small hallway containing a secret room at the end of it, then dropping down to what would become the turbine room. The way to open the door past the turbine room is much simpler and has the player go through a tight hallway, then press a switch at the end of it. The secret that is found when blowing open a hole in a dead end a little bit past the turbine door is in the game, but looks merely like a regular dead-end pipe instead of a cave-in and leads to a secret room in the area that has the switch for the door in the turbine room. The large room with the pipe in it that contains a switch that opens a time-sensitive door instead consists of pipe-shaped hallways that lead to an optional area and the collapsing pipe area.

What makes up E1M2b starts off in a mere hallway instead of a pipe, though the player can still see the secret Shotcycler 6 room in it. The hallway leads straight to the flipper room instead of the Protopod and pipe room seen in the final game. The area past the flipper room is completely different and has the player entering a room filled with machinery, with the goal to find a room that contains a switch that opens the door on the other side of the room. The entrance to the Shotcycler 6 water pit can be accessed by jumping on a ledge and taking an elevator down. The Shotcycler 6 water pool itself is accessed from dry land instead of entering it via a pipe. The pool contains a cut enemy, the Tentaclor and lacks the platform above it. The pipe to access the room in the final game exists, but has a door behind it. There is also a path from the Shotcycler 6 water pool that leads back to the turbine room.

The rest of the level is completely different. The player has to go through more pipe-shaped hallways, including one that can lead back to the turbine room. Another hallway leads a closed door that must be opened via a sideroom nearby. Once the player gets past the door, machinery in the next room will fall and an earthquake effect will play. As before, the player must find a room containing a switch and use it to open the way forward. After a long hallway, the player will end up in a large area with pipes and an elevator in the center of it. A room with a switch can be found, and using the switch will make the elevator go down. This elevator room appears to be the end of the level, as there is nothing past it.

An earlier version of this level can be seen in a pre-release screenshot, but with different textures.

Start.
Path to turbine area.
Turbine room.
Secret damaged pipe entrance.
Collapsing pipe area.
Looking at the secret Shotcycler 6 water pool room.
The flipper room.
Machinery room 1.
Entrance to the Shotcycler 6 water pool area.
The cut Tentaclor enemy inside the Shotcycler 6 water pool.
The area past the pipe inside the water pool.
Past machinery room 1.
Machinery room 2.
To the elevator room.
The elevator room.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

E1M3

The prototype’s E1M3 is a prison like the final's E1M3, but that's where the similarities end. Instead of being a mess of colored hallways with the occasional prison cell, the map is divided into four cell blocks, an Inmater bay and a teleport room\shower.

The main similarity the prototype E1M3 has with the final one is the prison cell design. While the shape of the door has changed between the prototype, the idea of a prison cell with a force field protecting it and some sort of computer readout of the prisoner above the cell door is the same between the prototype and the final.

The prototype also has a very rough draft of the final's torture chamber (the red drill room at the bottom of Cellblock 3) and the idea of people being sliced up into meat (Cellblock 4).

E1M3 starts in an area that has a room to the left side and the end of the hall contains a gate. The gate can be opened by hitting a switch inside the room.

The room contains a switch and several items; a pair of Jetboots (cannot be picked up), Plasteel Armor, a Health Field Canister, Oxylungs and a box of Ion Blaster ammo. A switch inside the room can be used and will open the gate.

After the gate is a cellblock with an Inmater and two prisoners inside cells. Past the cellblock is the area that connects the rest of the map.

The Hub connects the Cellblocks, the focus of the map, together. The opposite end of the Start cellblock is the entrance to Cellblock 2, but there is a gate in front of it. To the right of Cellblock 2's door is a hallway that leads to Cellblock 1. To the left is a hallway with three cells and an Inmater. Past the cellblock is a path on the right that has a large “SLAMMCO” sign on it, while going forward will lead to the Inmater Bay, but the door is closed when you first see it. Shooting the center of the SLAMMCo sign will cause it to explode, but the pieces of wall released by the explosion can kill you if you touch or are crushed by them while they're in motion. Past the sign is a switch that, when used, opens the Inmater Bay's door.

Past the sign is a hall that leads to Cellblocks 3 and 4 and a Roboskeet. Cellblock 3 must be opened by hitting a switch in Cellblock 2, but Cellblock 4's door can be opened by using the “Use” key on it.

Cellblock 1 contains two levels of cells. The top floor contains a hallway near the slope that connects the two blocks that leads to a switch that opens Cellblock 2's door, which also opens up a hallway to the left of the door that has an Inmater in it. The bottom cells contains a cell that has a very primitive bed, which is the only one seen in the entire map. Another cell contains a wall that can be blown up, revealing an entrance to the Sewer portion of the map, but the cell can only be entered by using a teleport that will be described later.

Cellblock 2's primary landmark is the large cluster of cells in the middle of the main room. There are two observation areas on each end of the main room. On the other side and end of where the player enters Cellblock 3 is an entrance to a small room. The small room contains an entrance to an observation room, a door to the right of the stairs and an entrance to the Sewers past the door (this opens up after the player has traveled through the Sewers). The room to the right contains an Inmater and a path that leads to the switch that opens up Cellbock 3's door. Beyond the switch is a catwalk that overlooks the Sewers, but it is impossible to jump down into it.

Beyond Cellblock 3's gate is a door with a switch nearby. Press the switch in order to open the door and enter Cellblock 3.

Cellblock 3 is an enormous cellblock and is easily the largest room in the entire map. It consists of two sets of cellblocks in the middle and bottom of the room, a tower with a spinning top, an elevator in the tower that leads to the middle cellblock, two Inmaters in the middle cellblock and an inactive Thunderskeet hovering above the tower. There is a stairway that leads to the bottom of the cellblock.

The bottom of Cellblock 3 has routes to two areas, the Teleport Room and a small room with two red drills. Underneath the staircase is a Health Kit; the only one in the prototype.

Cellbock 4 starts off as a room with a staircase on the right side and a door on the left side. The right staircase leads to a room that has a large meatgrinder with a cart of meat on one of the sides. A metal staircase leads to the top of the meatgrinder, where the player can jump into it. There are moving blades inside the meatgrinder, but they don't hurt you. The only way to die inside the meatgrinder is to position yourself so that the game counts your position as “crushable” and kills you.

The Teleport Room can be accessed from Cellblock 3. It contains what appears to be a basic shower room with two prisoners and an Inmater. To the left of the back of the room is the actual teleport room.

The actual Teleport Room is a square room with two teleports on each side. The left teleport has warps to Blocks 1 and 2, while the right side has warps to Blocks 3 and 4. Block 1 warps to the cell in Cellblock 1 that leads to the Sewers, Cellbock 2 leads to an empty cell in Cellblock 2, Cellblock 3 teleports the player under one of the drills in Cellbock 3's ground level and Cellblock 4 teleports the player so that they fall into Cellblock 4's meat grinder.

The Inmater Bay is a large, square-shaped room with cube-shaped openings around scattered around the map. There are two Inmaters in the boxes and a Thunderskeet. The design seems to resemble a repair bay for the Inmaters. In the upper-right corner are what appears to be two doors, but they don't do anything when you use the “Use” option on them. On the left side of the room is a larger version of the doors used to block off access to the Cellblocks. On the upper-left corner is a switch that opens the gate. The gate leads to a door that automatically opens when you approach it, but there is only an empty room beyond the door. Obviously, there's supposed to be something else beyond it, but it wasn't designed when the prototype was made.

The Sewers can be accessed by jumping into the Cellblock 1 teleport in the Teleport Room. Destroying the hole in the cell you teleport into will open a path, but like the SLAMMCO destroyable wall, the chunks from the wall can kill you if you touch them.

Traveling through the passage created by blowing the hole open leads to the Sewers. Above the end of the hole's path is what appears to be what is designed to be a secret area, as it is off the beaten path and there are no indications to its existence. The secret can be accessed by jumping on the rocks to the left of where the path ends and following them to the top of the hole's exit, then going through the Sewer.

The actual Sewer is pretty straightforward. Just past the hole's exit is a Sludgeminion that is out of sight because it is tucked in a corner. Past him is a wall with a crack in it. Shooting it a few times will cause it to explode into rock chunks, revealing a new path. Beyond the crack is the catwalk that overlooks the Sewer just past the switch that opens up Cellblock 3.

The area past the crack splits into two paths; forward and right. The right path has a Sludgeminion at the very start of it, and the forward path has a Sludgeminion in the middle of it. Both paths lead to the upper-right corner, which has a metal hallway in it. Getting to the end of the path will have a well automatically open up when you get close to it, which reveals a Plasteel Armor. When the armor is grabbed, the wall behind it will open and reveal an area near the stairs in Cellblock 2.

The goodies in the switch room.
The cells just past the gate.
Cellblock 2 entrance.
Cellblock 1 entrance.
The Hub's cellblock.
The door to the Inmater Bay and the SLAMMCO sign.
The entrance to Cellblock 4 and 3.
Overview of Cellblock 1.
A regular cell.
The cell with a bed, which is only seen in Cellblock 1.
Cell with the entrance to the sewers.
Switch that opens Cellblock 2's gate.
Cellblock 2.
Cellblock 2 stairs and entrance to the switch room on the right.
Switch that opens Cellblock 3's gate.
Door to Cellblock 3 and the switch overlooking it.
Overview of Cellblock 3.
Drill room.
Stairs in Cellblock 4.
Meatgrinder in Cellblock 4.
Teleport Room shower-thing.
Teleport Room shower-thing.
Teleport Room teleports to Cellblocks 1 and 2.
Teleport Room teleports to Cellblocks 3 and 4.
The Inmater Bay.
The doors past the gate in the Inmater Bay.
Going into the sewers.
The rocks that lead to the secret.
The secret Health Field Canister.
The crack.
The area just past the crack.
The end of the split-path area.
Path that leads to the Plasteel Armor.
Hello Plasteel Armor!
The Sewer entrance to Cellblock 2.

Prototype	Final

E1M4

This prototype's E1M4 is completely different from the one seen in the final game. It consists of what could be best described as "a very large, interconnected, and confusing maze", made worse because of the similar-looking gray and mechanical textures and few landmarks to help orient the player. It's obvious to see why this level was completely removed from the final game.

The level ends in what appears to be a door surrounded by four odd things that look like blocks of cheese, though that likely wasn't the intention for them. Five copies of the cheese blocks can also be found scattered throughout the level, suggesting a connection between the blocks.

Since this level is so large and confusing, there will be no attempt made at attempting to explain its layout.