Sounds Familiar: Doom 2 In Name Only
Reimagining Doom II levels based on their names
"Imagine a world where Doom II was never released, and the levels never saw the light of day. The only bit of information that ever saw the light of day were the titles of the 32 maps, cryptic as can be. What kind of map would 'The Crusher' be, or 'O of Destruction,' who knows?"
That beautiful thought from Liz Ryerson (who Cara recently embedded with) sparked Doom 2 In Name Only, a community project where members of the Doomworld forums reimagined Doom II's campaign based purely on its level names. D2INO was released in June, 666 days after starting. It's worth waiting for a number like that to roll around when dabbling in Doom ('cos Satans etc).
18 mappers created 32 new levels by interpreting their names, which range from the mundanity of 'Suburbs' to evocative visions like 'The Living End.' You can download the finished map pack from Doomworld. Some reviews note Doom 2 In Name Only is a little inconsistent, but that'll happen with 18 people and such slim guidelines. They broadly agree it's worth a go though.
And look, let's be honest--the vast majority of you reading this would never download this map pack anyway, so most of us are simply enjoying the (amazing) idea of all this. And that's perfectly fine.
If the names of levels tickle your fancy, you might also take a shine to WADINFO.TXT. Twice each day, the Twitter bot run by self-described "Doom hipster" and Spacebase DF-9 project lead JP LeBreton posts the name of a level from the wide world of Doom-y things, casually dropping wonders like "MAP02: Postal Blowfish" or "E5M7: Foetid Manse" into your feed. It is a treat.