So when Doom became the gargantuan hit that it was, of course the folks at id Software quickly came out with a sequel... or, a continuation, anyway (more on that in a bit).
At the end of the original game, your character returns to Earth, having beaten the demonic hordes... only to find a city in flames. It turns out that, while you were off fighting the monsters on Phobos, some of them had portaled their way onto Earth, and the whole planet is under siege.
The military has drafted you to infiltrate a city and shut down a forcefield that is keeping humanity from being evacuated to outer space, and along the way you discover that the enemy's entry point is a portal DIRECTLY TO HELL. And you can only seal it from the other side.
Fun.
The reason that I -- and many others -- are sketchy about calling Doom II a sequel, is because unlike most game sequels, there isn't a lot that is changed between this game and the previous one. Aside from some new monsters, a few new textures, a new weapon, and a handful of under-the-hood changes that the average person would never notice... it looks and plays EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE ORIGINAL DOOM. These days, with the game in abandonware and in classic game packages, it's not too big of a deal. However, I would have been a bit ticked, back in the day, to have paid $30 or $40 bucks for a brand new game, that is basically an expansion on an earlier one.
That being said, the new material is really good. I love the new weapon, the awesome super shotgun. It's more powerful than the standard shotgun, makes a satisfying sound, and is as close as this game gets -- aside from the notorious BFG 9000 -- to having a fire-and-forget weapon. Every time I go back to the earlier game, I sincerely miss the super shotgun. While many of the new monsters are modifications of existing ones -- the most obvious examples being the Hell Knights, basically being lighter and more fragile versions of Barons of Hell -- there are some original monsters that are quite imaginatively designed. Truth be told, the Arch-Vile still scares the shit out of me!
Level design was always something nicely done, by these games, and this version is no exception. Not counting the new episode, in Ultimate Doom, this was much more visually rich and just more intricate than just about every level of the previous game. Even though some of the puzzles may frustrate you, I can guarantee that there will never be a point in this game, where you will be bored. Especially, when many levels will have you fighting off DOZENS of monsters at once -- no joke.
There really isn't much more, that I can add. It still looks great and plays better, the action is still fun as hell, though some more originality and ambition would have been nice. You will not be disappointed, by getting this game.
I think the concept of expansion packs was not as common back then as it is now. To me DOOM II sits somewhere between an expansion pack and a sequel. I guess for a sequel it is a bit lackluster, but as an expansion pack it would be considered a very rich one. It nearly doubled the number of different monsters, and a lot of them are very unique and enhance the gameplay a lot. Especially, when you consider than most of them are on the high end of the difficulty scale. This alone contributed to DOOM II being significantly harder than the first.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that even for $30 or $40 no one would feel disappointed with DOOM II back in the day. Now, Final DOOM, that's a different story. Releasing in 1996, with many new games and better engines around, something which is basically 64 new levels (albeit mostly well designed) and nothing more, and charging for it like for a full game? That would get lots of customers upset, and I seem to recall it did.