if doom 2 was realeased instead of doom

how do you think doom's impact would be differenct if doom 2 had been realeased back in 1993 instead of the original doom?

That would have been an even more impressive leap directly from Wolf3D, for sure. Doom2 has some really tall/wide maps compared to Doom1, just having stairs and windows totally amazed people in Doom1. I don't think players would have minded the 'abstract' level design either since simply moving around in a 3D space fluidly was incredible at that time, and it's still a notch above moving through hallways made out of blue cubes in terms of realism.

I think the overall impact on gaming would have been largely the same, but it might have 'fast forwarded' the push for more powerful hardware by 6 months or so, since it wanted a slightly beefier rig than Doom1 did.

When I look at this from the perspective of "What if Doom2 was Doom?", then I'd say the resulting Doom2 could have become an insanely refined game for its day and age, and even more of a "gold standard" for FPSs of that particular era than "our Doom2" has been.

Just by virtue of "gameplay assets ", the Doom2 we know is flat out superior to doom, thanks to its expanded roster of midtiers in particular, almost all of which fill a gap in the original game's "combat-chain", but also because of how the SSG closes the gap between the player's original hitscan-based weapons (most of which simply suck, shotgun and chaingun are somewhere around "meh" to "barely acceptable"). Basically Doom2 came with its own new weapon to deal with the new and old enemies a bit better, without making heavy artillery mandatory at all times. Gush over Romero's techbases in E1M1 all you want, the man himself said Doom2 is the better game, and it isn't difficult to see why.

IMO, doom2 was a giant leap, even though it's still the same engine as Doom. Now imagine another giant leap from Doom2 on the very same engine, with things like airborne monsters that are less durable than cacos, for example, maybe smaller and faster melee monsters to swarm players with, or perhaps something that would actually qualify as a "boss monster" which could hold its own better than the cybies and SMMs that are spread across the several IWADs. If that happened, then I'd say it would have been even more impactful than it already was, not just from a hardware POV, but from an "evolution of a genre POV", never mind all the new modding and mapping options that would have existed since the early days of doom-mapping.

Of course, all of this is assuming that the doom2 in this "alternative universe" was at least as successful as the actual Doom2, but I'm tempted to be confident in this regard.

Unpopular opinion potentially, I rate the level design of Knee Deep in the Dead above all else with the rest of the original episodes coming in a close second, with Doom 2 coming in at last place, but still of course head and shoulders above most things comparable.

I feel that iD consciously put their very best into their shareware episode, it was their hook to reel people in to purchasing the remainder, almost like what one would consider DLC today except the shareware model was far more generous than what you see today, there was more thought and effort put in to that initial episode.

It perhaps could be attributed to nostalgia as I played the hell out of it over and over again from 6 years of age around the time of it's release and didn't experience anything else in the series until much later in my early teens when I finally moved from a 386SX to a Pentium and played Doom 2. 

After having played the rest I feel the biggest contribution Doom 2 has to offer in and of itself excluding fan content is the SSG, it feels like it belongs and should have been there from the very start, everything else it added I'm not anywhere near as fond of, specifically the middle third of it's levels.

On a side note, I'd never given Final Doom much of a look-in until adulthood, I played TNT over Plutonia as a kid purely because of the perception of more polish on virtue of it having it's own soundtrack and being more forgiving in difficulty early on.  That was a major mistake, with the patience one gains as an adult (and the MIDI pack,) it's apparent to me that Plutonia rules, it's the quintessential example of hard, but fair.

The level design of KDitD was a huge part of why Doom became such a success that should not be underestimated.

Sure, Doom 2 would have been impressive for technical reasons, but the levels, just like E2 and E3, just don't have that certain "thing" that made everything click and provide a (for the time) incredible experience. There's a reason why so many players and mappers still come back to E1 regularly, despite being shit-easy these days.

In retrospect it's easy to ignore how big a part the aesthetics of the first episode played in defining Doom back in 1993.

Interesting question considering how many of Doom2's new monsters were apparently unfinished Doom1 monsters.

Imagine if Quake was released in 1993. (Well, in some respect, Strike Commander is basically this, requiring a Pentium in an era where even a high spec 486 still carried a hefty purchase price).

But if Doom 2 was released in 1993 instead of Doom 1, what one would recieve is a game that:

• Would push its hardware even more considering Doom 2 introduces new things
• Be pretty much the game of the 90's hands down, even likely surpassing Doom's successor Quake in terms of legacy possibly
• A legendary bestiary to go with.

However, i do agree that Doom 2 would also be severely lacking in several respects, most prominently in the quality of the levels. As good and moddable as Doom 2 is, it misses everything that made Doom 1, well, Doom 1. Imagine the starting area, the first level, the music... you would forfeit everything of it. This is ofcourse in hindsight, but still.

That's a hefty penalty to take with. But i also imagine that in this scenario, one would never have been aware of all the goods that Doom 1 was. So there wouldn't be two variables of comparison.

Imagine if Doom in 1993 had basically been WadSmoosh, with a whooping 150 levels to go through. Imagine the impact on megawads.

Thats a really good question and as DoomKid said it would have been a massive leap not just with the map sizes but with enemy variety as well.

But also ...... if DOOM II had been released in '93 what would have become of Final DOOM and DOOM 64 and what would have DOOM 3 been like? would we have got it sooner? 

1 hour ago, Redneckerz said:

As good and moddable as Doom 2 is, it misses everything that made Doom 1, well, Doom 1. Imagine the starting area, the first level, the music... you would forfeit everything of it. This is ofcourse in hindsight, but still.

This is a minor point, but I can't help but wonder if I'm the only one who finds those odd triangular stairs almost as iconic as the blue carpet.. The Doom2 beta started the player in a really boring wooden room that then lead into the 'triangular stairs' room. Some smart person at id knew it would make a far better startup view.

IMO that beta starting room is extremely unfinished. Just look at the positioning of the lights, cut by the walls. The texture theme also makes no sense, even for 1994-vintage id Software. I think the player start was moved not just because the stairs looked cool, but also because they ended up figuring out they had no idea how to salvage the starting room and decided to cut it.

Then there would be no shareware version of the game, since doom2 didn't have neither a demo or a shareware version.

13 minutes ago, Gez said:

IMO that beta starting room is extremely unfinished. Just look at the positioning of the lights, cut by the walls. The texture theme also makes no sense, even for 1994-vintage id Software. I think the player start was moved not just because the stairs looked cool, but also because they ended up figuring out they had no idea how to salvage the starting room and decided to cut it.

Because it is unfinished :p . Throw brown everywhere and make it supremely uninteresting to play and dull. Yeah, the final product is much better.

If there wouldn't have been a Doom 1, I think Doom 2 would have been an even bigger step up in terms of gameplay and immersion compared to everything that was available at the time, and Doom's levels were quite a bit more flat. It would've also been referred to as a more "abstract kind of sci-fi shooter" I think, because of the nature of some of the maps in the game. Techbase levels would have also looked pretty different nowadays since the big inspiration for them, KDITD, would not exist. Hell maps would've probably looked pretty different too, with far more conservative usage of reds and whatnot.

And of course, there would have never been a Shareware version, so Doom would've probably never ended up installed on more computers than Office at the time.

Less iconic opening area and level than Hangar, and D_RUNNIN would be seen as the Doom theme by casual fans. 

I don't know if this means that Doom 1 is released second, or a brand new Doom game comes out and becomes the second game. Or instead, Final Doom is released as Doom 2.

The shareware ended with a boss fight and the player actually dying.  If you were yet to play the full game, it was a total "WTF?" that really made you wonder what happens next.  There's nothing in Doom 2 that would have had the same impact, assuming they had divided it into episodes.

4 hours ago, Eurisko said:

But also ...... if DOOM II had been released in '93 what would have become of Final DOOM and DOOM 64 and what would have DOOM 3 been like? would we have got it sooner? 

Quake came just two years (technically 3 but it's closer to two) after Doom as Doom was December 93 and Quake was February 96 so maybe there would have been no Quake in 96 which might mean there would have been no Half-Life....

I often think that if Nintendo had allowed John Carmack to officially port SMB3 to PC then maybe Doom in 1993 would not have happened at all and the gaming industry might be a lot different than it is now.

2 hours ago, DooMAD said:

The shareware ended with a boss fight and the player actually dying.  If you were yet to play the full game, it was a total "WTF?" that really made you wonder what happens next.

I first played Doom on PlayStation and that edition is not episodic like the PC. On map 8 on the PSX you don't actually die and continue what is E2M1 with any weapons and health and armour you had so when I got into PC gaming in 1998 I was convinced for a couple of days that I could survive the end of E1M8. I tried to keep the invisibility sphere for last so I had a better chance and I took me a day or two to realise that you're supposed to "die" and to continue you had to select episode 2 in the menu.

3 hours ago, Solmyr said:

Less iconic opening area and level than Hangar, and D_RUNNIN would be seen as the Doom theme by casual fans. 

oh god hearing "do do do do do do DOO" being every other persons ringtone would drive me insane

4 hours ago, Boaby Kenobi said:

Quake came just two years (technically 3 but it's closer to two) after Doom as Doom was December 93 and Quake was February 96 so maybe there would have been no Quake in 96 which might mean there would have been no Half-Life....

The pace at the time was so relentless.

November 1991: Catacomb 3-D

May 1992: Wolfenstein 3D

December 1993: Doom

June 1996: Quake

20 hours ago, Gez said:

The pace at the time was so relentless.

November 1991: Catacomb 3-D

May 1992: Wolfenstein 3D

December 1993: Doom

June 1996: Quake

 

Then came Quake 2 in December 97. Half-Life in November 98.

Then "No sign of evil" would have never existed =*(