Best Authentic Doom Wads?

[ddave]

hello :)

I'm looking for the best doom wads/megawads to play that feel similar to doom 1&2, small innovations in map design are fine but nothing too drastic or engine limit pushing.

What would you recommend?

[dmslr]

You're not familiar with the projects named 'Doom the way id did' and 'Doom II the way id did', I take it?

[Loud Silence]

1 hour ago, ddave said:

What would you recommend?

Use search for already existing similar threads.

[Doomkid]

Fava Beans

UnAligned

Doom64 for Doom2

Switcheroom

Memento Mori

Scythe

THT: Threnody

Coffee Break

Hellrun for Doom2

 

When I think of “traditional Dooming”, these all come to mind. I’ll also promote my own wads as they’re known for being pretty faithful to oldschool Doom design:

 

tdevil2.wad

sinseven.wad

shovelad.wad

rwdyrudy.wad

 

Sorry for the lack of links, they’re hard to embed on mobile. Just google “Memento Mori Doom” for example and it will come up!

 

EDIT: Phantom Phobos by Philnemba and Mini Doom by Phobus are also very true to classic design principles

[Rosh Fragger]

Eviltech

Azagthoth

Doom 2 in Name Only

1000 Lines Community Project

Nanopineapple

Deathless

Marswar

Doom 404
ConC.E.R.Ned

Garrulismo

 

You can also check out my channel on YouTube for some multiplayer gameplay recordings from all these awesome WADs.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Rosh Fragger

[Gez]

From the recent Cacowards, two runners-up that should be right your alley:

 

One for Ultimate Doom:

Quote

The brainchild of mapping duo Miss Bubbles and Count651, Lunar Catastrophe is essentially a retelling of the original Doom, comprised of four complete episodes featuring the classic themes of Phobos, Deimos, Inferno and....Quedlinburg. Unabashedly "retro" in sensibility, the WAD's general goal is avowedly to replicate the abstract designs and atmosphere of the source material, an aim in which it's broadly successful, Romero-style secret-chains, Petersenesque snares, even Hall-ish quasi-mazes and all.

 

More than a mere cover of id's seminal work, however, and as is so often the case with this particular subgenre of mapping, LC is most fascinating and engrossing where it departs from that known formula. The first episode is fairly quaint, quite familiar in its references and rhythms; but, as the game proceeds into the more openly surreal climes of the later episodes, the pair begin to unleash their imaginations and their spite in equal measure, reinvigorating these familiar settings with a compellingly fresh sense of danger and the unknown, more violent in its confrontations and more devious in its schemes than anything seen in its forebear. The result is an experience that captures the essence of what generations of players have loved about the original Doom—the gung-ho rout of Phobos, the quiet eeriness of Deimos, the nightmare gameshow ordeals of Inferno, the snarling hostility of Thy Flesh Consumed—without simply resting on someone else's laurels.

 

The other for Doom II:

Quote

Billing itself as a never-was third chapter of Final Doom, Doom Zero offers something immediately identifiable as "classic" in general thrust, yet new and unfamiliar in its moment-to-moment rhythm and gameplay logic. Devilishly trap-y and unapologetically "grindhouse" in tone a la The Plutonia Experiment, but with a heavily conceptual bent more reminiscent of the solo works of several of Team TNT's charter members, Doom Zero's plain and simple visual idiom belies a design rife with kinetic complexity, each level reading as a miniature labyrinth somewhere between an obstacle course and a Rube Goldberg machine, emphasizing inductive logic puzzles and Doom as a game of movement in a way largely alien to most affectedly oldschool-style mapsets.

 

Given to somewhat spammy/meat-dense monster placement in its second half, DZ is for most players likely best experienced either with the benefit of carryovers or on HMP, regardless of player skill, though connoisseurs of strange/unorthodox pistol-starts will find much to like here in that regard, shifting towards a game of outwitting the dungeon master and of finding the many secrets (which are consistently among the most clever I've seen in years) if one is to see the other side. Rough edges aside, Doom Zero is singular in its vision, and shows that there remains plenty of room for a fresh perspective, even in the most staunchly traditional quarters of PWAD design.

 

 

Also, Doomkid didn't mention his latest:

 

[P41R47]

There are a lot:
Demonfear (D2) (Vanilla)
Sinergy (UD) (Vanilla)

Endless Torture (UD) (Vanilla)

Garrulismo (D2)

2002: a Doom Odissey 10th Aniversary (UD) (Vanilla)

10 Sectors 1 & 2 (D2) (Vanilla)

Base ganymede (D1)  (Vanilla)

Cleimos 2 (D2) (Vanilla)

ConC.E.R.Ned coupled with Thy Flesh Turned into a Draf-Excluder (UD) (Vanilla)

Congestion 1024(D2) (Vanilla)

Crimson Canyon (D2) (Vanilla)

Doom 2 reloaded (D2) (Vanilla)

Deathless (UD) (limit-Removing)

Dark Covenant (D2) (Vanilla)

Doom 2 unleashed (D2) (Vanilla)

Doom 404 (D2) (Vanilla)

Doom Core (D2) (Vanilla)

Enjay Doom (UD) (Vanilla)

Icarus: Alien Vanguard (D2) (Vanilla)

Freedoom Phase 1 & Phase 2 (Limit-Removing)

Lunar Catastrophe (UD) (Limit-Removing)

Hellbound (D2) (limit-removing)

Hell2Pay (D2) (Vanilla)

Perdition's Gate (D2) (Vanilla)

No End in Sight (UD) (Vanilla)

Revolution! (D2) with TVR!MIDIPACK (Vanilla)

The Invasion (UD) (Vanilla)

Vengeance (UD) (Vanilla)

Wonderful Doom (UD) (Vanilla)

and much more...

[Mk7_Centipede]

doom.wad

[HAK3180]

Mass Extinction by Nicolas Monti is a 32-map almost-vanilla (technically ended up limit-removing) Doom 2 megawad that I rather enjoyed. It's definitely classic Doomy, but also has much idiosyncratic character. It also sorta starts Doom 1 (bestiary and super shotgun) and gradually introduces the Doom 2 stuff.

 

I'd definitely second Deathless, Lunar Catastrophe, Sinergy, and Doom 404, as those are the first ones I thought of, thinking of recent stuff.

Edited December 13, 2019 by HAK3180 : spelling