Episode 2 levels

This is a sub-page of Proto:Daikatana (Windows)/v0.10.

0.10 contains two, for a lack of better term, official Episode 2 levels. One, E2M3 is an early version of the E2M3 area in the final game, while the second one is E2M6, a level that was cut from the final game. Because of a developer mistake, the prototype contains an additional Episode 2 level, E2M5, that dates from when the game was on the Quake engine.

E2M3#

0.10’s E2M3 contains several elements that would later appear in the final game’s E2M3 area, but are noticeably simplified compared to how they appear in the final game. The level is much, much shorter than the final’s E2M3 area as well. The prototype and final versions of E2M3 share the same name: Athens.

The player starts at the bottom of a moat instead of having to climb up a ladder to reach a moat, like in the final game.

The enemy-filled aqueduct area is completely missing in this version of E2M3. Instead, the player can head right to the surface after reaching the top of the waterfall area.

The bridge area shares the same basic design elements as the one in the final game, but there is one major difference; the sides of the river are hills the player can walk on instead of walls. This lets the player head straight to the upper parts of the bridge area as soon as they enter the area. The sewer portion that would be used to reach the upper parts of the bridge area is completely missing as well, including the trap with the Skeleton that activates near the entrance to the sewer section. The rotunda near the bridge contains ammo for almost all of the weapons in Episode 2, along with a Spider near it.

The path past the bridge area is completely straightforward instead of leading to a fork. At the end of it, the player will end up on a street that has a building on the right side, a tower at the back, and a door on the far right side. A Griffon can be seen roaming the area near the door at the far back. The tower at the back seems to be just a decoration, but a wall on the right side of the tower is usable, revealing a ladder that lets the player climb to the top of the ladder.

On the left side is a plain wall. However, noclipping through it will reveal a temple area that cannot be otherwise accessed. It consists of a yard with a moat near the dividing wall and a temple near the back of the area. The interior of the temple is small and contains a Venomous on a pedestal and a Satyr in the middle of the temple. Why this area was cut off from the rest of the level is unknown.

Returning back to the street, the player can access the building on the right side. The building consists of a plus-shaped room. The western side contains an Eye of Zeus with ammo, the eastern side contains nothing, and the northern side contains a door leading to the next area.

Leaving the building, the player will end up on another street. Across from where the player starts is another building, a door and a strange awning can be found near the corner of the street, and at the end of the street is a golden door with a Cyclops enemy guarding it. The left side of the street cuts off right where the second building is.

The second building is actually the building the player starts off in Milestone 2’s E2M3. The architecture is very similar to how it is in Milestone 2, but lacks the spa area. The area the player starts Milestone 2’s E2M3 has been removed, however.

The door past the Cyclops normally cannot be opened. With noclip, the player can fly through it, revealing another portion of the level. This portion is actually the gate and guardhouse section seen in Milestone 2’s E2M3. In fact, the architecture is fundamentally the same. There are no enemies, no items, and no switches to use in this area, so there’s nothing to do besides look around with noclip.

The doors near the awning have nothing behind them, so all the player can do now is head back to the first street to continue. Back on the first street, the only thing left is to open the door on the upper right side and see what’s behind it.

The door leads to what appears to be an alley. The path is linear, but contains an unopenable set of doors at the start that have nothing behind them. At the end of the path, the player will end up in front of an area very similar to the end of E2M3c in the final game. However, the large ramps seen in the final version’s are missing, replaced by a long staircase that is completely destroyed at the base of the complex. There is a rope on the right side of the destroyed staircase the player can climb up to reach the stairs instead. At the top of the staircase is a Cerberus enemy in front of a large set of doors. There is nothing behind the doors, and since there’s nowhere else to go, this marks the end of the level.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Pre-release Image

Prototype	Pre-release Image

E2M5#

Inside the folder containing the sounds for Episode 2’s doors is a compiled level named E2M5 that seems to have been put in that folder by mistake. The last modified date for it is October 6th 1997, a little more than 11 months before this prototype was compiled. However, it was made a little more than a month after Milestone 2 was compiled. If the level is run in Milestone 2, it works, but since Milestone 2 lacks support for the “deco_e2” and “func_train2” entities the level uses, it does not function perfectly. Still, it works well enough that the player can explore the level and see how it would work without a hitch.

While this level has the same name of a location that appears in the final game, it has no architecture nor gameplay in common with it. It seems this was a completely different draft of what would eventually become E2M5.

The level can be broken into two distinct areas; the water room and the staircases area. These areas are not connected, so the player must use the noclip cheat to access the staircases area.

The first one, the staircases area, consists of a rounded area with stairs on it surrounded by water. There are walkways extending from each side of the rounded area to the wall. There are pillars near where the walkway ends with a snake relief on them. The center of the area consists of a pit with a round object floating above it. Perhaps this is this way because Milestone 2 lacks the “func_train2” entity that would be used for the floor near the round object. Regardless, there is no way out of the pit except with the noclip if the player hops in.

Each corner of the water room has a pillar near it and a decoration above it. Above the walkways are lighting fixtures that seem to create lights pointing towards the center of the room.

The water-filled portion of the water room contains nothing of note.

The second part, the staircases area, must be accessed with the noclip cheat. While there is no official start to the area, there is a closed door that seems to signify that it was meant to be the starting point for this segment.

The closed door is part of a room that contains pillars, cubby holes in the walls, and two exits. One exit is in the back of the room (based on the idea that the player starts the area past the closed door), while the other exit is on the right side of the room. There is a rounded area on the left side that contains nothing.

The back exit leads to a room that has a staircase going down on the left and right sides of the room. There is another round object in this room, but it is floating above the center of the room and has a dark marble texture. The stairs converge to the back of the room, which also has a staircase doing down in the middle of it. This staircase quickly leads to a dead end. Perhaps this area was meant to lead to the water room.

The path to the right leads to a staircase going up. There is a small pool of water in the “center” of the staircase, and a path to a dead-end to the right of it.

Near the end of the staircase is an entrance to a room on the other side of the staircase that can only be accessed by jumping. Inside it is nothing but wooden bars preventing the player from falling to the bottom of the level. However, if the player noclips through the bars and passes an invisible flag underneath the bars, a wall at the bottom of the room will lower, exposing a secret exit back to the upper staircase room.

The top of the upper staircase leads to a location above the closed door room. There is an opening in the center of the room that lets the player see the closed door room while looking down. The upper part of the opening has a little bit of the sky visible from a window. The back of the room contains nothing.

That’s all there is in E2M5.

A pre-release screenshot shows the closed door room in the staircase area, but with several changes. There is a raised bit of floor near the edge of the room that was added between this prototype and when the screenshot was made. The pillars in the room had their texture swapped with a wavy-looking one. There are pots between some of the pillars that do not exist in 0.10's E2M5. An icon was added to the back of the lower staircase room and the round object in the lower staircase room had its texture changed to a grey marble texture as well.

The same room in the pre-release screenshot appears in a pre-release video dated late 1997, but features two Cartyd Columns charging towards something from the direction of the back exit.

Prototype	Pre-release Image

Prototype	Pre-release Image

E2M6#

E2M6 is a level cut from the final game. It takes place in an elaborate palace-like area, complete with a throne room and what appears to be a basement filled with gore and torture devices. Interestingly, this area appeared in several pre-release images. Of note is that any E2M6 does not exist in the final game, with the final game’s Episode 2 ending at E2M5. This suggests the developers intended for there to be more after completing Medusa’s Lair, but had to cut it for whatever reason.

The “New game” option in the main menu calls the level “Minos’ Palace”. An unused model called “minos” exists in the final game’s files. It seems that this level was meant to be Minos’ domain, but when it was cut, he went along with it.

The player starts in an elaborate outside area underneath a square building. In front of the player are almost all of the weapons in Episode 2. A Griffon patrols the area and will occasionally swoop down to attack the player. Behind the building are three pools of water, one on the south side, the west side, and east side of the area behind the pool. The south side pool has a step that lets the player get out if they jump in, but the others don’t, trapping the player.

On the north side of the area is the entrance to a large building. In front of it are two staircases and staircases leading to doors underneath the entrance area. These doors cannot be opened. In the middle of the staircases is a pond with Eye of Zeus ammo in front of it.

On the left side of the building is a ladder. Climbing up it will let the player walk around the perimeter of the outside area, but the intention seems to be to let the player access another ladder nestled near where the player gets off the first ladder. The second ladders leads to an overlook on top of the building. It contains nothing, but lets the player have a good look at the outside area from the view of the building.

Entering the building, the player will start in a hall, then quickly enter a crossroads that has paths on the left, right, and upper portions of the room. The left path leads to the throne room, the center path leads to a split, and a right path leads to the path that branches from the right of the split entered from the center path.

Right after entering the left path, the player can spot a ladder in a room on the left side. Going up this ladder will send the player to a blue room that has two paths. Both of these paths let the player explore secret areas above some of the rooms in the palace, but the only thing of note is a Spider enemy hanging around one of the paths. Both of them end in dead ends fairly quickly.

Continuing on the left path, the player will encounter a staircase. Going up it will take the player to another split path. Heading forward will take the player to the throne room, while a path on the right will send the player to the inner courtyard.

In front of the way to the throne room is an Eye of Zeus with ammo and two Skeleton enemies. The throne room itself is fairly dark and has a Cyclops enemy on the throne itself. Presumably, the Cyclops is a placeholder for the king Minos model found in both the prototype and final game’s files. There is an empty room on the left side that seems to serve no purpose.

Taking the right path just before the throne room will take the player to a room with benches in it. At the end of it is a door. Opening it will reveal that the player is in a room with another branching path. Heading right will have the player end up on a catwalk overlooking the inner courtyard. There is nothing else to do there, so all the player can do is head back and take the other path.

The other path leads to the second floor of a building. It has some windows overlooking the inner courtyard and a staircase leading downward. The staircase will take the player to the first floor of the building, which contains another window and a door leading to the inner courtyard.

Back to the first split path, heading down the center path will take the player to a fork. Taking the left path will take the player to the inner courtyard, while the right path will take the player to a deeper part of the inner courtyard.

The left path has a door at the end of it and a side-road on the right side of the room the player ends up in, but both have the player enter in the inner courtyard. It’s just a matter of what way the player wants to enter it.

The inner courtyard consists of another outdoor area, but this one is much more enclosed than the one the player started in. A building, which can also be accessed via the throne room, can be found on the other side of the main entrances to the courtyard. On the right side of the area is a pool, and past it, an empty area. There are catwalks overlooking the area. This area contains the only Cartyd Column enemy in the entire prototype.

On the other side of the pool is a staircase leading to the deeper parts of the inner courtyard. This area consists of a door that has nothing behind it that is across from the staircase, a ladder leading to catwalks overlooking the area on the right side, and an entrance to the dungeon area on the left side. There is a Griffon in the left-hand corner of the room and a Skeleton near the ladder.

The entrance to the dungeon area is near a pool. As soon as the player enters the entrance, they’ll find a blood splatter on the left side and grates blocking red water, which is presumably meant to be blood; signs of things to come. The blood spatter actually marks where a trap is; if the player gets too close, bricks from both sides will attempt to smash the player. There is a Spider and a gate blocking way, with a switch to open the gate nearby.

Past the gate is a large room with two staircases leading downward. These staircases lead to an area filled with bars and two sets of staircases. One set leads to an area overlooking the lowest parts of the dungeon, while the other leads to the lowest part itself.

The lowest part of the dungeon appears to be a torture or execution room. On the left and right sides of the room are crushes spattered with blood. There is also the red colored water/blood in pools surrounding the devices. The crushers will activate if the player gets on them. Near the left crusher is a ladder leading to a small alcove with a Skeleton on it, while the right one has an opened prison cage. There is nothing else to do in the dungeon, so all that’s left is to head back into the deeper part of the inner courtyard and continue exploring.

Back at the deeper part of the inner courtyard, the only place left to go is to climb the ladder to the right of the staircase that heads to the area. The ladder leads to the catwalks above the area and the final split path in the level. It consists of a doorway forward and a staircase on the right. Heading forward will have the player take a tight path that spits the player back into the center path found earlier in the level. The staircase leads to a room above the center path. It has a hole that lets the player look down at the center path from the room.

There are no signs of what would be the level’s exit.

Prototype	Pre-release Image

Prototype	Pre-release Image