Rediscovering Doom (and a question)

I remember playing Doom a lot when I was younger (obviously on ITYTD, haha) but the demons used to scare me, so I never got very far actually playing through the game. I moved on to other games and sort of forgot about Doom...

...until a couple weeks ago. I've been making my way through the official game wads (currently on Doom2:MAP21) and I really have to say, this game is quite amazing. It's pretty mind-blowing to me that a game from 1993 still has the capacity to deliver such a completely enthralling experience.

So, my current plan right now is to finish up Doom 2, then go back and play 'Thy Flesh Consumed' to complete Ultimate Doom. With the increased difficulty of E4, I figured I'd season myself with Doom 2 before I even attempt it.

Now, for my question..

After 'Thy Flesh Consumed', do I continue on and play Doom 3? or do I just play the many various extra Doom 2 WADs (like Final Doom, Master Levels, etc.)? If you answer that I should keep playing Doom 2 WADs, please feel free to name some WADs that you think I should absolutely check out.

Thanks for reading this long post and thanks in advance for replying!

First of all check Cacowards
and top 100 wads of all time.

Also it is a good idea to lurk around on the forums for new wads.

When you get done tackling Doom II, There are a few really good, fun, challenging classic wads I recommend you try: Scythe II, Alien Vendetta, (two of my personal favorates) and if your really into insane gameplay, Hell Revealed II (not really my style, but really freakin' good)
Theese are all in the "Top 100 wads of all time" list of course.
Anyway, there's a lot of stuff on this site, look around, see what ya like ;D

After Doom 1 and 2, I think you should check out Scythe 2. Note that you will need a Boom-compatible port to play it if you aren't using one already, such as PrBoom+ (ZDoom and derivatives work too, but they include significant changes in behavior that mess up the gameplay).

Personally, going from Doom 2 to Scythe 2 is a bit of a challenge jump. I think you should try Final Doom next. Probably TNT then Plutonia if you want to play in order of difficulty. Then move on to some of the megawads suggested here. I agree that you should play what the others suggested along with Requiem, Memento Mori/Memento Mori 2. And Two that just came out pretty recently: Whispers of Satan, and Speed of Doom are awesome too.

Scythe 2 is only hard if you insist on playing on UV. On HMP or under, it's a reasonably difficult wad with (and this is the important part) good looking architecture, great gameplay flow and fantastic map design all in one bag.

Final Doom (Evilution and Plutonia), Momento Mori 1 + 2, Requiem and Alien Vendetta.

Thats 192 classic maps to play the shit out of.

of the levels you've played so far from Doom and Doom 2, what you have you enjoyed the most?

Hellbent said:

of the levels you've played so far from Doom and Doom 2, what you have you enjoyed the most?

Doom: I distinctly remember really enjoying -- E1M6, E2M4, E3M3, and E3M5.

Doom 2: MAP7-MAP11 were all very good. As much as I dislike outdoor maps, MAP16 was really fun. MAP18 and MAP24 can go to hell. They were really great levels but I'm not really in this for cheap scares. I'm actually up to MAP26 now, and 25 was nothing special, IMHO.


Hope this answers your question...

sym said:

After 'Thy Flesh Consumed', do I continue on and play Doom 3? or do I just play the many various extra Doom 2 WADs (like Final Doom, Master Levels, etc.)?

Play Evilution and Plutonia, at least, and Doom 64 (with Doom64EX). Doom 64 is more of a Doom 3 than Doom 3.

Honestly, I'd advise avoiding Doom 3 altogether. I went in with an open mind, not expecting it to be anything like classic Doom, and it's still boring garbage.

oh man 26-30 is the climax of the original series IMO

after this, go to Evilution, which is the first half of Final Doom. You'll like it.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, Thy Flesh Consumed, do that first, yep. Then Evilution, I'd say.

Interesting read sym! I apologize if I'm coming off like a journalist and getting in your face to interrogate you about things, but you might be of great help to me as a mapper.

Have you been playing other video games before you recently reintroduced yourself to Doom? If so, which ones are your favorites?

What are some things about Doom that really makes it shine among other games you have played? (Even to the tiniest details)

To answer your question, Doom 3 wasn't actually intended as a sequel as much as it is a modernized version of Doom 1 (that most of us Doomers agree is not totally faithful or even as exhilarating to play)

sym said:

Doom: I distinctly remember really enjoying -- E1M6, E2M4, E3M3, and E3M5.

i always love e2m4 as a level (i made a remake of it, if you want play it:http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=15743)
and e3m5 for satanical detailing, i always asked to myself how ID level designers did that for a really long time... now i understand that, due to this project i working on i checked the original layout for create some stuff in e3m1...

Adding a few wads people haven't said, crusades is a good doom1 ep, and you might want to check out mapgame. Insanity's edge and unloved are really good gzdoom mods. And if you eventually get into slaughter maps* you could check out stuff like phmlspd, sunder, time of maps, eternal memories, feckyoo (though that's really experimental), parts of shai'tan's luck and newgothic. There are literally thousands of mods out there, it can be a bit overwhelming, but the cacowards are a good start.

*no one immediately becomes a slaughter lover. Have to ease into it with HR-> AV ->Scythe2 later maps -> HR2 -> stuff like time of death's, insane_gazebo's, phml's, gggmork's and my maps, and I'm certain there are a couple other people who make slaughter maps

40oz said:

Interesting read sym! I apologize if I'm coming off like a journalist and getting in your face to interrogate you about things, but you might be of great help to me as a mapper.

Have you been playing other video games before you recently reintroduced yourself to Doom? If so, which ones are your favorites?

What are some things about Doom that really makes it shine among other games you have played? (Even to the tiniest details)

To answer your question, Doom 3 wasn't actually intended as a sequel as much as it is a modernized version of Doom 1 (that most of us Doomers agree is not totally faithful or even as exhilarating to play)

The games I've most recently been playing are Starcraft 2 and QuakeLive. Both are pretty great adaptations of older games, and I'd say they are easily 2 of the very best things released in the past decade.

What I love most about Doom is: the game is simple as hell. Run really fast, shoot bad guys, collect keycards. But, in its simplicity of gameplay, the level design makes it so complex that it's almost unwelcoming to a new player. Even with its autoaim, there's still a pretty hefty amount of challenge for someone playing it blind on the higher difficulties (me).

Nearing 17 years since it's release, and very few have really even attempted to best Doom at what Doom does. It's simple by mechanics, and complex by design; seems to me like modern game developers kind of forgot this principle and now strive to make their games have so many extra bells and whistles you'd think a fucking parade was coming through every time a new game comes out.

The days of dealing with enemies by being really fast have kind of come to an end, I believe because of the recent market dominance of console shooters. You just can't have that kind of speed/accuracy on a controller without insane amounts of practice. If someone were to put out a Doom 1 styled game in today's gaming market, it would be blasted for being "too hard", "too fast", or even "arcane" in its controls.

Want an example of this?
Put one of those fratboy Halo/Call of Duty bros down at a computer desk and make them play QuakeLive or Counter-Strike -- funniest thing in the world.

Doom really stands out as one of the best games ever made, and this should be incredibly obvious to anyone who has ever scratched the surface.

I'd have to say Final Doom would be a good approach after you finish Doom II and Thy Flesh Consumed. Whether you play The Plutonia Experiment or TNT: Evilution first is up to you. Personally I had played Plutonia first (only because that was the first IWAD available when you open up Doom95) but it wasn't until later I realized TNT had the lesser difficulty. Anyway, it's up to you.

Welcome aboard.

You're currently standing at the epicentre of what could very well be the greatest and most massive sphere of potential and opportunity in gaming history (second only to card games. Or playing "eye spy" in a tropical rainstorm whilst high). I would suggest simply picking out a random direction and start walking! Unless of course it's difficulty that you're really concerned about, in which case I would adhere comfortably to the suggestions contained in the previous comments.

Lose yourself. It's a jungle out there!

Just for the record, I just finished MAP27 (Monster Condo) and I have to say I've never flinched/jumped (whatever you want to call it) so many times in one map. Whoever designed that level is a dick.


Edit:

Hell yeah, Doom 2 complete.

Well done. Doom Episode 4 was a big step up in terms of difficulty from the rest of the original, although it is definitely not as hard as Doom 2.

E4M1 and E4M2 are the best (and hardest) maps out of E4. E4M6 is also classic. The rest are OK

Mr. T said:

Well done. Doom Episode 4 was a big step up in terms of difficulty from the rest of the original, although it is definitely not as hard as Doom 2.

E4M1 and E4M2 are the best (and hardest) maps out of E4. E4M6 is also classic. The rest are OK

Yes, I click 'like' or 'rate up' for this comment. Although I never made peace with e4m6. (ie, the frustration of difficulty never turned into joy, the way e4m1 and e4m2 did). E4M3 has some cool atmospherics, but why did the difficulty get dropped like it was hot? E4M4 looks like it's a dm map and feels out of place in an official Doom episode. E4M5 is cool, but too much of design homogeneity I complained about recently elsewhere.

Monster Condo is kinda cool, although I don't play it very often; there is a certain tedium about it.