It's Critter Time!

Lolo De Puzlo wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:23 pm If you are looking for modded DooM madness, I will windmill slam down a link to Reelism 2
http://reelism.dog



There's a lot I could say about this, but really you just kinda gotta play it for yourself.
If you like randomized wave modes, this game is great. It's got a Gender Reveal Bomb weapon!

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:38 pm I have to give a shoutout to my all time favorite gameplay PWAD, Demonsteele! It takes the 'movement is defense' aspect of Doom and runs with it. All hitscan attacks are replaced with projectile-based alternatives. You've got slides to dodge and a sword scabbard that can reflect projectiles. By default, the standard health system is replaced with a 'get hit X times and you're out,' where X depends on difficulty.

And then killing gives you charge attacks that get powerful enough to go toe to toe with slaughtermaps.



Reelism has already been mentioned, but Kinsie has another fun gameplay PWAD, Meta Doom. It asks, what if Doom 2 was... every Doom? Even the Java flip phone ones.

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:53 pm I suppose I should offer at least one level megawad too. In that case I present Ancient Aliens. A vanilla-ish romp, but man the vibes are perfect.

redacted_cat wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:16 pm Can't help but also bring Going Down, a more vanilla experience with some legit cool idea in it where all levels are in some office building and more you go down and more things get surreal and trippy.
It's also made by Cyriak (yes, the surreal animator), the music in it gives a bit the feel of their videos too.

Rua Whitepaw wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:33 pm No list of Doom WADs is complete without mentioning Eviternity and its sequel! These are two very beautiful and polished WADs, I believe regarded as one of the best in the community.

Sugar Meowth wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:23 pm

redacted_cat wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:16 pm Can't help but also bring Going Down, a more vanilla experience with some legit cool idea in it where all levels are in some office building and more you go down and more things get surreal and trippy.
It's also made by Cyriak (yes, the surreal animator), the music in it gives a bit the feel of their videos too.

I go through brief phases once or twice a year where I get into Doom again (and am currently extremely in one). Usually this boils down to looking at recent Cacoward winners and mentions and peeking at whatever looks cool. I usually want a more classic experience than total conversions but Doom's definitely got something for everybody!

I tried Going Down some years back and it's incredibly well made but boy is is brutal! Luckily last year Cyriak revisited it and made an easier, streamlined version designed to be something you can beat in an afternoon (that's still a little generous, maybe a full day imo). Going Down Turbo is much more approachable and I had a ton of fun going through it last month. There's some really creative use of vanilla textures and making neat special effects like using detonators to blow up cavern walls.

I've written about a few of the WADs I've played on my blog, and highly recommend binding a side mouse button that otherwise goes unused into a screenshot key. I get to take a ton of screenshots during play now and just have all these nice shots of cool architecture or memorable fights. Been meaning to do one for Going Down Turbo. https://pokyfriends.com/blog/tag/doom/

Some others I'd recommend include:

Deep Breath


Descend to the bottom of the ocean where oops an experiment went wrong and demons killed everyone! Lots of tight enclosed spaces and a good rusty vibe. The underwater motif isn't just looking out windows though, the radiation suit is replaced with scuba gear and there are moments where you have to traverse the ocean depths and make it back inside before running out of air! It's just a simple reskin and blue tint when you're outside, no physics changes or anything, but the effect feels appropriately like it would be something to gawk at in the early-90s.

Machete

Macehete is a Scythe-inspired megawad that hit a real nice sweet spot in difficulty for me. The maps felt like something I had to really work my way through, and it can get slaughter-y at times for sure. It's probably my favorite WAD with no real duds in it. I'm only just now realizing it was a NanoWADmo entry so it was made in a month?!

Throughout the levels there are some obvious sections that are blocked off and meant to open "later", which culminates at the end of the game where you go back through sections of the old maps with these spaces now opening up and having to do even more intense fights in familiar locations, a few of which you'll already associate with being the tough parts of the maps.


It also has what's by far my favorite map31 concept, just making you play through a Deathmatch map populated by a bunch of those marines with plasma rifle enemies. Getting to map32 requires getting all the keys within a time limit so you have no time to play cautiously and have to go in guns blazing. It's like you're fighting bots on an empty multiplayer server.

Zone 400

Lastly wanna plug Zone 400, a megawad with a self-imposed limitation of only using 400 lines per map. Despite this, it's still able to do so much with so little, making great use of hidden closets with teleport lines to spread monsters out quickly.

I am now officially tired of writing about Doom, but looking my screenshots folder I also really enjoyed "Dustdevil", a massive hub map with teleporters to a few smaller regions that relies on non-linear design so you can approach most fights from several angles. The "Glaive" trilogy is another Scythe-inspired set of maps that I found helpful as an aspiring mapper as you can really see how the author improves at mapping. (The third one was a runner up for a Cacoward, but playing through the first I thought the layouts felt like something I could conceivably make myself and how compelling a WAD can be even if it's not the prettiest.)

Oh wait, gotta make sure to promote RAMP!



RAMP (Rabbit's All-Comers Mapping Project) is a community project designed to get people who have never made a Doom map before to try it! DavidN started the project a few years ago now and it immediately became the largest community mapping project in Doom's history. Folks are encouraged to learn mapping skills, and with a convenient hub to access them all from, it's easier for your map to get some attention. Plenty of streamers will tackle RAMP as well as David himself. I participated for the first time this year after making my first map this past October!


Check out map #117 - Stagnant Waterworks! I'm really happy with how it came out though I still have lots to learn

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 8:04 pm Not quite a WAD but I will mention there exists a VR fork of GZDoom if you want to play in a new way entirely. It can be more than a little jank, but it's so fun I forgive sometimes having to wave a cutout sprite of a custom weapon around. Since it's just GZDoom under the hood, you can at least attempt to play most WADS on it.

Fair warning if you try to play Reelism 2 in VR, though - the effect that makes your screen wobble? Yeah, that's not synced between eyes. Instant headache at best.

Bobinator wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 12:13 pm

If you haven't tried Slap the Sentinel yet, I'd absolutely recommend it. It's one of those total conversions that almost barely feels like Doom, which is impressive enough in its own right. The way I'd describe it is... imagine if Treasure, in their prime, made an FPS set in the Sonic universe. You can even play it with a Genesis controller; it's not quite ideal, but I'm just amazed that you can even make it work.



If you want something fun but a bit more recognizably Doom, Adventures of Square has a really colorful aesthetic and some pretty fun levels, even if they tend to be maybe a little too big.



And if you want to use whatever level WAD you're currently going through with something extra, Demonsteele is somebody's best attempt at turning Doom into a character action game, where you'll slaughter the demonic hordes with a katana and wave through attacks with an i-frame dash. It can be somewhat jank at times, but still a lot of fun.

DrTeflon wrote: Thu Jul 24, 2025 11:56 am I havent messed around a lot in Doom in the last couple of months, but two Wads I really liked playing was Neon Overdrive Neon Overdrive

The vibes are off the chart:
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While it's designed for pistol start, you can use it with Diamond Dragon mod for ultimate zoomies