Doom 2 RPG

Title: Doom 2 RPG
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: February 8, 2010
Date Played: February - May 2012
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:

Chainsaw and Demon... Doom Classics

Doom... One of my most beloved franchises. The father of deathmatch and telefragging. John Carmack himself worked on this role playing adaptation of Doom 2.

Doom 2 RPG uses the same engine as Wolfenstein RPG, and therefore shares a lot of the same mechanics. However it does add more complexity to the gameplay by having a lot more weapons to choose from, a lot more enemy variety and adding character stats that you can level up and make yourself better at fighting the hell spawn. There are several ways to raise your skills. You can hack vending machines to raise IQ, or exercise on a treadmill to raise agility. Practice on a dummy to raise aim or lift weights to raise strength. These not only make your character better, they also help add variety to the gameplay through pretty cool mini games. You can choose which stat you want to have more off by picking one of the three characters when starting the game. A more agile Major, a smarter Scientist, or run of the mill and everyone's favorite Sarge. Me being me, I could not pick anything but the Sarge. He is the icon of the series, and it would be blasphemy to play as anyone else.

Similarly to the FPS series Doom 2 RPG is broken into about a dozen levels which take you from experimental facilities on Mars to Earth and eventually to Hell itself. On the way you encounter familiar creatures such as zombified workers, Imps, Revenant and many others. In fact, come to think of it... you run into almost every creature that has been featured in the Doom franchise. The only ones you do not fight are Barons of Hell, Heavy weapon dude, Pain Elemental and Former Human Sergeants. But to counter those omissions you get to encounter some new enemies, Chainsaw Goblins, Sentinels and Sentry Bots.

As you make your way through the game you come across more modernized scenery. The level design and some weapon design closely resembles what can be seen in Doom 3, which is not a bad thing. To a veteran like me though it would have been better to see Doom 2 themes in Doom 2 RPG game.

Well rendered 3d Environments

One strange thing about Doom 2 RPG is the fact that your arch nemesis is a computer program.. a virus... Duuuur?!?! Yeah, dont ask me, but the Icon Of Sin (the same final boss as Doom 2), but this time he is computerized... 21st century I guess? Whatever... it doesn't matter, just like with the games that started it all Doom 2 RPG is more about shooting and exploring than paying attention to any kind of story. Although there is plenty there to read for those that are interested, I generally skipped any walls of texts the game thew at me to get back to the action, most of it is fluff anyways and plays little to no importance. Going back to the Icon of Sin though... what RPG would be without choices, and based on your choices in Doom 2 RPG you can effect how hard the final battle will be. The way it works is you can basically make things easier now, by making them harder later, or making them harder now instead of later. Not revolutionary but sitll I thought that was a neat idea.

Doom 2 RPG is not without its problems though. The stats (mentioned above) agility, IQ, etc are not explained at all, and therefore it is impossible to judge what exactly you get better at as these stats improve. To me the gameplay and combat felt the same the moment I started and the moment I stopped 6 hours later, I just had more weapons.  Some parts of the game with same looking corridors and enemies appearing over and over again tend to drag a bit. Granted I need to give ID (developer) credit with spicing up variety with having a lot more enemies and level designs than they had in Wolfenstein RPG, but its still not enough.  This could be partially due to the fact that Doom 2 RPG (just like Wolfenstein RPG) came out on much more limited flip phones years before iOS.

Overall Doom 2 RPG is a gem of an RPG on the iOS platform. ID did exactly what they needed to do with it. They included nostalgic monsters and weapons, and basically retold the events all of us remember from the mid 90's. If you are looking for an RPG on the iOS... look no further. Also note that it is very similar to Wolfenstein RPG. So if you have played Wolfenstein RPG, you will most likely enjoy Doom 2 RPG, and vice versa, if you want more like Doom 2 RPG go check out Wolfenstein RPG.

My Finishing Screen