The Best "Doom Clone"

IMO, a doom clone is a bitmap/sprite FPS that came out near Doom's hight of popularity. Did any doom clones stick out and seem inovative, and were really good to merit the overused term, "doom-killer"?

Some doom clones that I remember were,

ROTT (Rise of the Triad)
In pursuit of Greed
Terminator Future shock
Heretic
Hexen
Duke 3d
Tekwar
Cybermage
Dark Forces
Blood
Shadow Warrior
Redneck Rampage


Although Blood, Shadow Warrior, and Redneck Rampage might be out of the term, "Doom Clone", I included them anyway because they use sprites.

Out of these the only ones that jump out are Blood, Redneck Rampage, and maybe Duke3d (I liked it at the time).

ROTT has been titled as an underated title (due to inovations like jumppads, gads, and other shit), but I think that's an exageration.

Probably Heretic, but Duke 3d was damn awesome as well. The build engine editor is the only editor I've ever mastered.

Rise of the Triad was an odd game to say the least, and was worth playing through a few times. Has anyone ever played the secret levels? Those were odd indeed...

ROTT, was going to be a new wolf3d game. Its engine seems like a cross with a very bad build engine and the heavily upgraded wolf3d engine. I think it was fun to play but it was behind the times, really behind, it was really and enhanced wolf3d. things it lacked, varity in ceiling/floor hights, only 90 degree corners, good graphics(however spirits where done well), limited wall thickness(same as wolf3d). however i did enjoy this games despite its short comings. here are things it had above doom: over/under spirits(bad guys cold be crushed), look up/down, flying and jump pads. Also things the build engine DID NOT have over doom was the so called destroy able "objects" these are just inactive spirits i have seen doom maps/TC's that did the same with monsters and textures. The explodeing walls however are a different story

Heh, the only one of those listed that i've ever played is Duke 3d, it was pretty good for it's time. In fact, I still play it on occasion. Albeit rarely...

*sighs* There is a forum for questions like this. It is called the polls forum.

BBG. why don't you just shut up and worry about yourself. You aren't a moderator so quit fucking trying to moderate

Haha, Redneck Rampage, that game was amusing back in the day.

I'd say the best was Hexen, most fun was Heretic.

IMO there IS no Doom Clone that can capture the feeling of the original Doom.
However, there are games that can come close. Heretic is one; HeXen is another. And of course there are Doom2 and Final Doom, but they ARE Doom so they don't count.

I think the only one I haven't played was In Pursuit of Greed. The best of that list though is easily CyberMage. So many features that most games today still don't have. I still have yet to see an FPS system that implements "magic" that you learn from being hit with...although you had to be in really damned good health to survive a hit from most of 'em.

Um, perhaps the PSX and Saturn versions of Powerslave (or Exhumed if you prefer)

Am I the only one who actually played Shadow Warrior? Idunno. I thought it was pretty fun, although I wouldn't callit a "Doom Clone" per se. No other game really did the whole "slaughtering hordes" thing nearly as well as classic Doom, IMHO.

I think the only one I haven't played was In Pursuit of Greed. The best of that list though is easily CyberMage. So many features that most games today still don't have. I still have yet to see an FPS system that implements "magic" that you learn from being hit with...although you had to be in really damned good health to survive a hit from most of 'em.

I only played the demo of In Pursuit of Greed, but that was enough to show me how terribly unoriginal and boring it was.

I actually own cybermage, but I can't get the control to my play style, so I never played too much of it... Is there anyway to increase the resolution? It looked so much sharper in the screenshots.

yeah I have Shadow Warrior. I think it's pretty fun too, certainly I like it better than Duke Nukem.

build is a great piece of work. ken silverman is definitely god at coding. check out his site for a history of build and a program showing off all that he coded on it. there's also some freeware games as well.

ROTT had some good stuff in it, but was really over-praised. I remember one particular comment from a games magazine saying "Every DOOM nut in the world should be lining up to drool over ROTT". Yeah right.

I recognise Heretic as a perfectly good game, though I've never enjoyed the codpiece-and-thights style of Raven's early games.

I definetly enjoyed Hexen, primarily because it made such good use of the DOOM engine.

Duke Nukem 3D was the first pc game I really got into. Later BUILD engine games may have been flashier and all, but the Duke will always stand head and shoulders above the rest - mainly because of the brilliant level design. I still consider E2L7 "The Dark Side" to be one of the best maps ever.

Blood's level design didn't feel quite as solid as Duke's, but the gloomy, dark atmosphere was brilliant. "I live... Again."

cyclones.

yea i remebr cyclones, it came in a pack with some other games. I never really played it much, found it a bitch to control. That game sits in the old dusty basement with the 486 system i loved so much in the basement of my mom's crazy ex boyfriend. if i ever get the chance i will claim that system and all that stuff.

I really liked ROTT, it was incredible fun, especially the firebomb. I still play it sometimes. Dark forces was also cool, and it captured the feel of the movies nicely (well, I thought so at the time it came out)

Strife anyone?

Heretic ... Hexen ... Duke 3d ... Dark Forces ... Blood .... Shadow Warrior

The phrase "DooM clone" somehow seems to refer to any sprite-based FPS, and yet there were many such FPSs created from entirely independent engines that far exceeded DooM's capabilities. Duke3D with Build and Dark Forces with LucasArts' own engine were probably the first original engine games to follow DooM's popularity. Each of these games added many elements of design and gameplay that went well beyond what DooM had, and yet they continue to be referred to as "DooM clones".

Btw, the games I have listed in the quote, above, are the ones I enjoyed the most.

Shadow Warrior was funny as hell, and Terminator Future Shock wasn't a Doom clone in your sense because it used polygons for enemies, and its engine supported true floor-over-floor, and was also an independent engine (the Xngine) I more fair example would be Daggerfall...or not...too in-depth. Anyways, with Cybermage, to change the resolution, you have to re-install the game. That's the nature of the beast, I guess. The max resolution is 640 x 480. I also own it too, and I got through it. Amazing game. Too bad you need a Pentium 200 to run it well (yes, it calls for 486/66, but c'mon, let's be realistic here). And Dark Forces, from what I heard, used a modified Doom engine. Anyways, what about Cyclones? That game was also absolutely amazing for it's technolical leaps and bounds. It supported true floor-over-floor, flight, mlook, multiple weapon-specific death frames (splatter, disintegrate, normal), and it was the first released that I've played to actually use bounce and arc-trajectory code (it was released in 1994, and although Doom HAD bounce code, it was pulled, to my knowledge). Awesome game, period. And I think I have played In Pursuit of Greed...it's the one with like 5 or 6 characters that you can choose from, and has pathetic graphics, etc...yeah, it sucked.

BBG. why don't you just shut up and worry about yourself. You aren't a moderator so quit fucking trying to moderate

I am not trying to moderate you retard. Its called informing people.

Best Doom clone ever: Ken's Labyrinth

But, to go back on a serious track, I think we've all forgotten Catacomb 3-D. That was one of the coolest Doom cloes, but it was made before even Wolfenstein, I think. I only played the shareware, but it was still awesome. Explodable walls, time stops, individualy-labeled corridors, and more enemies than almost any game to date. It was definately ahead of its time.

Pilottobombardier: Daggerfall used the exact same engine as Future shock, and came out later. It used sprites for enemies because there were so many different things they'd have to model.

Eh. Cyclones is the best "true" Doom clone. I honestly don't think there's much room for argument there - Duke3D and all later games were too much later to really be Doom clones.

Heretic, while fun, was really just a rehash of Doom in a medieval environment. And Hexen was awesome, but it was really too different from Doom to be a 'Doom clone'. I don't think Future Shock qualifies as a 'Doom clone'.

Best Doom clone ever: Ken's Labyrinth

woohoo, another ken's lab fan!

But, to go back on a serious track, I think we've all forgotten Catacomb 3-D. That was one of the coolest Doom cloes, but it was made before even Wolfenstein, I think. I only played the shareware, but it was still awesome.

damn straight.

Explodable walls, time stops, individualy-labeled corridors, and more enemies than almost any game to date. It was definately ahead of its time.

yeah. i wonder if there's an editor for it...

Hey, what about the Fortress of Dr. Radiaki? :P

Heretic, while fun, was really just a rehash of Doom in a medieval environment.

Heretic was probably the closest "clone" to DooM in that sense of the word. It mirrored practically every aspect of DooM, from having 3 original episodes (followed by a free fourth episode), one secret level per episode, similar weapon effects, enemy characteristics, gameplay features, etc. It was almost like playing a medieval graphics TC with some DeHacked thrown in. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

It's a shame that earlier Raven Software games were always in the shadow of their cousins made by id Software. For example, I thought that HeXen2 was a fantastic game with excellent replay value that far surpassed Quake as a game. Yet Quake continues to have a large following but HeXen2 does not. (This is probably because of the ease with which you can create playable Quake add-on maps, whereas the hub structure of H2 requires far more creativity and effort.)

Likewise, Heretic 2 was a great game but it was quickly lost in the shuffle, and gained nowhere as much popularity as Quake2.

Heretic was probably the closest "clone" to DooM in that sense of the word. It mirrored practically every aspect of DooM, from having 3 original episodes (followed by a free fourth episode), one secret level per episode, similar weapon effects, enemy characteristics, gameplay features, etc. It was almost like playing a medieval graphics TC with some DeHacked thrown in. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

Heretic actually had an extra two episodes (for a grand total of 5). It also had ambient sounds, something Doom did not have, though Wolfendoom did. (Does this have something to do with the Boom engine)?

It's a shame that earlier Raven Software games were always in the shadow of their cousins made by id Software. For example, I thought that HeXen2 was a fantastic game with excellent replay value that far surpassed Quake as a game. Yet Quake continues to have a large following but HeXen2 does not. (This is probably because of the ease with which you can create playable Quake add-on maps, whereas the hub structure of H2 requires far more creativity and effort.)

Right on, Hexen 2 is a pretty awesome game. I especialy like your ability to level up.

DON'T THANK ME FOR FIXING YOU POST.

I've only played these Doom clones:
Heretic,Cyclones and Duke3D(PSX)
I think only one worth mentioning is Heretic, I play it almost as much as Doom

BBG. why don't you just shut up and worry about yourself!!! You aren't a moderator so quit fucking trying to moderate

That's funny coming from Ralphis, isn't it?