Doom 2

Title: Doom II
Platform Played On: PC/Xbox 360
Release Date: October 10, 1994
Date Played: 1994-1997, Summer 2010
Time Played: 200+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes (many times)
Score: 5/5





Opinion:

"Heavy Weapon Dude" New Enemy in Doom 2

I am very fond of the Doom franchise as you have probably seen by my accounts of Doom 1 (found here). In my opinion it is one of the best games of the early to late 90's. The only game that stood even close was Duke 3d, and later (in 1998) Half Life took the torch from Doom's hands and carried the FPS genre forward.
Having spent hundreds of hours playing Doom 1 to the point of knowing every single secret and map layout I was ready to play more. Doom 1 was just as incredible after 200 hours as it was when I first sat down to play it.

One day my dad told me that he got the sequel to Doom, at the time by far my most favorite game ever. Naturally ecstatic I couldn't wait to sit down behind the 486 and give this new adventure a whirl.

Doom 2 used the same engine and general design of the first game, which meant one thing, it was awesome. I remember my dad watching me play and saying, "dude double barrel shotgun!". The double barreled shotgun was a new weapon in Doom 2, and although the levels looked very similar to the first game (as far as textures) Doom 2 featured more complicated map layout, new enemy types and a singular campaign of 30ish levels (as opposed to Doom 1's multiple 10 level campaigns).  One thing that I always thought they should have brought over from Doom 1 was the loading screen in between levels. It showed your physical location on the planet, but I guess it would be harder to pull off since Doom 2 takes place on Earth, and they wouldnt be able to come up with some generic Martian bases like they did in the first game.  But that is a minor complaint, and more of a wish.  Everything else about Doom 2 was exactly what I wanted, same mechanics but new levels and monsters.

The Awesome Double Barrel Shotgun

Just like the first game, I proceeded to play Doom 2 for years, spending hundreds of hours beating the game dozens of times and learning all of its secrets just like I did in the first game. The only thing that eventually pulled me away from Doom 2 was Duke 3D.

Many years later, the game was ported to Xbox live (May 26, 2010), which I promptly purchased and played through. Doom 2 remains the same as I remember it, a great game with although by today's standards primitive mechanics, but god damn it is it still so satisfying to run around with a shotgun kicking ass and taking names.

Doom 2 just like the first game will probably look like a pixelated abomination to any modern gamer that did not experience it when it was state of the art jaw dropping technology, so there is probably not much point in checking it out. However if you do want to check it out, it has been ported to almost every platform imaginable, from graphing calculators to handheld devices to phones The Xbox Live Arcade is an excellent port, and on PC it has been recreated in some custom OpenGL engines which actually make it look more or less like a late 90's early 2000's game. 

Doomsday Engine Doom 2

Doomsday Engine Doom 2