Brutal Doom V2b - Release Date

[mouldy]

Been playing this today, wasnt having much joy until I switched to classic weapons, thats much more fun. Reloading is just bloody stupid in a game like this.

Maps so far have been groovy, a little confusing at times but very nice to look at.

I just came across a gun turret and was totally confused why i couldn't escape from it, if you press "use" to activate it then should just be the same button to leave it, no? I don't use alt fire, and didn't even have it keybound.

anyway, cool stuff, I like the excessive use of toilets.

[SyntherAugustus]

Playing the first few levels of the map pack. There is a somewhat game breaking flaw where you can get telefragged by the barrels in the barrel tunnel secret. (Map02)

[Chezza]

Cortlong, the images of your wad looks amazing. Original or not, I think your designs are great and can appreciate all the extra little details you put in. Assuming your level designs aren't too linear nor a confusing maze and I think you got yourself an awesome wad. Is it going to be a Megawad?

[Patrol1985]

We've just finished the starter pack in co-op. We couldn't find secret exits so we warped to maps 31 and 32... and those were pleasant surprises :D A very solid map pack overall!

[roadworx]

Holy shit.

This trailer looks awesome.

[cortlong50]

Chezza said:

Cortlong, the images of your wad looks amazing. Original or not, I think your designs are great and can appreciate all the extra little details you put in. Assuming your level designs aren't too linear nor a confusing maze and I think you got yourself an awesome wad. Is it going to be a Megawad?

hey thanks man i really appreciate it. i just hope people dont think i stole ideas like the ambient war noises and stuff. im hoping to make them free enough that you can really have a good time with em! if youd like you can give em a playthrough.


thanks for the words man i was actually kinda bummed last time scifista played him, he just pissed all over em.
and yeah, im going for episodic, probably 12 maps each one or so. first will be about the invasion, second will be about surviving during the occupation, and the third will be about finally ridding the planet of hellspawn. fuck yes.

[Urthar]

Had a blast playing through the starter pack, and the mod itself feels pretty solid.

It's interesting to see how the author intended his mod to work, through the perspective of these maps. There's plenty of drama and spectacle and a lot of neat touches, but relatively low to medium monster counts and nothing that's going to overtly challenge a Doomworld veteran.

Probably worth a Cacoaward once the bugs and glitches get ironed out.

[DooM_RO]

Wow, I really enjoyed myself. I don't even like Brutal Doom that much because I think that every gameplay mod needs a map pack balanced around its gameplay. This map pack does not only rectify this problem but also adds some really good maps with great pacing. The levels are all inspired by classic maps but are never obvious about it. It's pretty subtle and the ideas from those maps are reinterpreted. I LOVED the boss battles too, particularly that huge Cyberdemon.

P.S Am I weird for just standing in place and listening to the tortured marines scream in map 28?

[Job]

The fruity sounding minigun alt fire sound really takes me out of the game, especially since it's one of my favorite weapons. It sounds like someone plugged in the previous sound file for it and dumped it into a synthesizer on "warp."

[Technician]

Will download and report back, Based Mark.

[Touchdown]

There was recently a thread on the topic of realistic vs abstract levels. This mapset is an example of a style that takes the 'realism' up to the point of looking boring. Most of the city levels, while competent in representing urban environments with 90s graphics, just don't seem very interesting to me. If the same thing was created with modern graphics, that would be a different story. Still, that's probably the standout section of the mapset anyway.

As for the rest of the levels, the Mars episode was pretty boring. It felt like most of the effort went into the first level. There are other GZDOOM sets that put the engines capabilities to a better use than that. Overally the weakest portion of the set.

Hell is a mixed bag. There are some really good areas while others are your standard 'Hell' stuff. It kind of reminded me of Whispers of Satan and Demon Eclipse.

Props for consistency with themes and continuity. It's nice that it felt like a journey where levels fit together. Not so much for lack of coherency with some gameplay stuff. Things like vents that sometimes are destructible, sometimes not. Blood sometimes damages you but not always. That always irks me.

I appreciate it that the set is not insanely hard like a lot of WADs these days. Even the boss fights were not that frustrating (and I usually hate custom bosses). The final boss sucked though.

In terms of gameplay, well, it's Brutal Doom. More often than not I feel like it's an exercise in holding down the fire button more than anything else. That or sniping zombies with a rifle. The infamous melee is pretty much useless and no thanks for making the Double Barreled Shotgun so awful (all the way from sounds, through speed, to power).

Brutal Doom is basically DOOM + Duke3D + a truckload of modern-shooter features and the set in a lot of ways plays like a modern game too. There's a lot of Half-Life level design there with finding alternative routes because rubble blocks the main path and stuff. Still, pretty cool for DOOM levels. The reworked versions of some DOOM II sections were a nice addition too.

Don't get me wrong, it's not bad. But it didn't blow me away as far as GZDOOM sets go.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Job said:

The fruity sounding minigun alt fire sound really takes me out of the game, especially since it's one of my favorite weapons. It sounds like someone plugged in the previous sound file for it and dumped it into a synthesizer on "warp."

Go to sound options and disable "Random Sound Pitches".

[Reisal]

I don't see why including GZDoom and FreeDoom in there when there can be instructions to explicitly download both of them instead of padding the file size up with the extra resources and a source port.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Glaice said:

I don't see why including GZDoom and FreeDoom in there when there can be instructions to explicitly download both of them instead of padding the file size up with the extra resources and a source port.

Brutal Doom is often shown on gaming website's frontpages and internet celebrity youtube channels, and there are lots of people that have absolutely no idea of how to load a mod in gzdoom, some of them don't even know what drag-and-drop is. I got SEVERAL pms on Facebook's page of people saying that they tried to follow installation tutorials on the internet, and yet failed to load the game. Maybe these people are typical console gamers, or PC gamers not used to run modded games, so, I made this whole "Starter Pack" just to solve this problem. Anyone else can just download the "Main File Only" download mirror.

[FireFish]

Would this run trough ZDoom or does it realy need GZDoom ?

[Doomkid]

Honestly, I totally see the reasoning behind that. Any time I try to show a non-doomer any Doom mod/wad I'm always pelted with questions about "how to start an Doom", so I definitely understand this decision.

[Chezza]

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

Brutal Doom is often shown on gaming website's frontpages and internet celebrity youtube channels, and there are lots of people that have absolutely no idea of how to load a mod in gzdoom, some of them don't even know what drag-and-drop is. I got SEVERAL pms on Facebook's page of people saying that they tried to follow installation tutorials on the internet, and yet failed to load the game. Maybe these people are typical console gamers, or PC gamers not used to run modded games, so, I made this whole "Starter Pack" just to solve this problem. Anyone else can just download the "Main File Only" download mirror.

Yeah I know where Sergeants Mark is coming from. First of all, when I started exploring Doom mods I didn't even know what a sourceport was and there was no "Doom mods for dummies" conveniently or easily found anywhere, nor did I know what to look for to learn the processes better.

And when you check out pages like Moddb in particular you will always see people mention how the game won't run properly and really could use assistance. Sergeant Mark catered to a wide audience, you know, the "I don't care about the rest of Doom but I want BD" people.

[Koko Ricky]

I find it mildly shocking that someone who uses Windows doesn't understand that drag-and-drop can be used for loading mods. Younger kids, I guess?

[Job]

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

Go to sound options and disable "Random Sound Pitches".

Got it, thanks!

[Jaxxoon R]

ModDB won't let me download the starter pack unless I create an account, and I assume it has to do with the size of the download. But I'm not doing that.

[Fletcher`]

GoatLord said:

I find it mildly shocking that someone who uses Windows doesn't understand that drag-and-drop can be used for loading mods. Younger kids, I guess?

You'd be amazed at how many people don't understand such a simple concept.

[Touchdown]

I wonder if people will now attribute Freedoom to Sgt.Mark.IV like they did with GZDOOM stuff.

[HavoX]

Jaxxoon R said:

ModDB won't let me download the starter pack unless I create an account, and I assume it has to do with the size of the download. But I'm not doing that.

It happened to me too, but that only occurred when it first arrived, and no mirrors were available at the time. Be patient while the mirrors come back.

[Aaron Blain]

I'm primarily a vanilla player, but I've been enjoying BD very much for a few versions now. I'm really impressed with the latest release. It's great to see an ambitious vision like this come to such a full realization.

I get the sense that the purist community rejects BD partially because it changes the gameplay drastically, in a way that conflicts with their expectations of how carefully-tuned vanilla-oriented expert-level maps should play. I've always played BD with the Doom 1 iwad and levels in a similar style. This starter pack is a very clear "Hey, this is how I envisioned Brutal Doom to be played."

I hope you keep up with your work, Cortlong, even if it feels totally redundant. It will be great to have more BD-oriented content available.

I know the unity of pure vanilla mapping is the pillar that holds the Doom community up, and I've noted how all the most successful gameplay mods strive to maintain the basic integrity of the gameplay and a baseline of compatibility with the bulk of vanilla mapsets. But, honestly, I'd love to have lots of maps designed specifically for Hideous Destructor, Trailblazer, Accessories to Murder and all that. I don't find myself playing things like Russian Overkill very much, but it's possible that with tailor-made maps I could get really into it.

ps Please do keep "Realism Mode" in mind as you're creating content. I'm having such a blast with the intense lethality of the low-tier-oriented gameplay. It's really a different game at this point, much more tense and military, much less Robotron. I love getting one-shotted by imps!

[RoyBatty]

I found a bit of a bug, if you kill one or both of the Baron's with a grenade at the end of Knee Deep in the Dead it doesn't trigger whatever event makes the walls come down.

Other than that Brutal Doom 2.0b has really breathed new life into Doom, and I enjoy playing it again. Awesome work.

[Doomkid]

I always find it a little odd that many people's main gripe is that maps aren't designed around BD's altered gameplay.

I'm glad that there is a mapset with that in mind now, but still, one of my favorite things about Brutal (several versions ago, but still) was going through the IWADs and getting a different experience. I've played them in vanilla enough times, give me some drastic gameplay alterations con sarnit!

I was always under the impression that gameplay mods were there to add some spice to familiar settings, not to require whole new maps built around them. Excuse the mini rant, but it irks me when the gripe is "BD changes the gameplay". There are legitimate critiques to be made, but this particular complaint is pretty nonsensical. If you want the gameplay unchanged, why the heck are you downloading a gameplay modifier?[/somewhat oft rant]

[vinnie245]

Just played through it and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the levels set in hell.
Sacrificial Grounds has to be my favorite level, the Breakdown music along with all the screaming marines gives it a hell of an atmosphere.

[Chezza]

Just finished it myself. It took me like 30 attempts to defeat the end boss haha.

Here are some positive and negative points:

Positive
1. The beginning levels and maps on Earth were incredibly detailed and fun to play. There were a couple of design choices I didn't like but most of it was amazing.
2. The Train level. Is this the first attempt on Doom? I have no idea but it's unique and very refreshing (reminds me of Blood).
3. Sacrificial Grounds - Such an amazing horror map, one of my favorites for sure.
4. The non interactive Marines and Tanks that would assist in the war against Hell, that was impressive.
5. Boss fights were fun and sufficiently challenging.

Negative
1. When I rescued the Marines they don't stfu with random comments nor die. I get at least 12 of them spawning with me in most maps even when the story says I go alone
2. Quite a lot of offset textures through the wad. Surely it can't be my end? It seems like the basic 'Shift + A' would of resolved most of them.
3. The maps leading to Hell were very plain, which disappointed me. I was really eager to see a super detailed equivalent of Hell from sgt.Mark. However Sacrificial Grounds did scratch that itch.
4. A couple of the maps got confusing to progress in when you were expected to climb up some platforms and jump to a building. However I did like how there was a text to inform you what needed to be done once you found the location.

I personally loved the changes to the Holocus and Suburbs maps. It's a great must try Wad.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Chezza

[snapshot]

Chezza said:

Negative
1. When I rescued the Marines they don't stfu with random comments nor die. I get at least 12 of them spawning with me in most maps even when the story says I go alone
2. Quite a lot of offset textures through the wad. Surely it can't be my end? It seems like the basic 'Shift + A' would of resolved most of them.
3. The maps leading to Hell were very plain, which disappointed me. I was really eager to see a super detailed equivalent of Hell from sgt.Mark. However Sacrificial Grounds did scratch that itch.
4. A couple of the maps got confusing to progress in when you were expected to climb up some platforms and jump to a building. However I did like how there was a text to inform you what needed to be done once you found the location.

+ Fences completely Impassable instead of being 3D Mid-Textures (Walkable Middle Textures)

[MegaSphere]

I'm glad there finally is a megawad with BD in mind.