Search the Community

I always felt like the vanilla Doom II experience was lacking a certain little something. Stick it in your GZDoom's "skins" directory, you will never regret it. True magnificence is something which chases you around.

Doom/Doom2 -- Mode of play: N/A -- Port: Zandronum A skin that replaces the Doom marine with "a mysterious shadow version". In other words, it's simply the standard marine sprite except darkened to near-black. The status bar face has been replaced with a dark-gray version as well. Overall, this skin might be a game-changer for deathmatches on darker maps. Team deathmatch players should take note that it's almost impossible to discern the color of the player who's wearing this skin. [originally written Dec 2018 for The /newstuff Chronicles]

"Me key has been stolen! " And there goes Pirate Doom, played through GZDoom 4.0.0 on UV difficulty. We sure showed 'em how Doom is done, the pirate way, so let's see what we have here. Pirate Doom, as the name implies, is a total conversion for Doom II, featuring a lot of new content and vast modifications to the gameplay. It comes with new textures, sounds, music, enemies, weapons, menu background, intermission screens, and status bar. The player visits caves, ships, temples, forests, circuses, bars, castles, and various building with an architecture and design similar to that of the old days, a 19 maps long experience (18 with actual gameplay + 1 bonus for credits and epilogue). Being a TC, the modifications are extensive. All enemies are re-skinned and have new attacks, the weapons are replaced with various equivalents of that period, with the notable exception of the BFG, which is now a dynamite thrower, no chainsaw, a Cutlass replacement for the fist/berserk, and freelook is recommended. A few entirely new enemies are also introduced, namely a smaller, very weak Arch-Vile, with no hitscan attacks, ghost versions of the Imp and Lost Soul, suicide bombers, yet another version of the Imp, this time equipped with dynamite, and a final boss, the pirate Black Beard. Certain weapons also have mounted versions, such as the pirate cannon, which is the main means of destruction on a level where the player is tasked with sinking a few enemy ships. The difficulty curve is traditional, starting easy and getting more difficult as you advance, but the game never becomes very difficult, in fact the difficulty is very similar to Doom 2 and a few maps from Plutonia. Certainly, fun and immersion are the main elements at work here. The music has atmospheric, ominous, and more action themed tracks, and this would be one of the more intriguing parts of the TC. This is because it contains copyrighted music, namely AC/DC's classic Highway to Hell. No idea how permission was granted to be used in a non-commercial Doom TC, but it sure is a welcome addition. After all is said and done, the journey ends with a battle against the famous pirate Black Beard, in his ghost form and with powerful attacks, capable of summoning minions and using a variety of magic attacks, an expected and well executed final battle. Perhaps the only real problem in the TC are the underwater levels, this is because movement is very slow and difficult there, not to mention that one can barely see a damn thing. Thankfully, these maps are short and straight to the point, so they don't ruin the experience. All in all, Pirate Doom manages to create something fresh, fun, and unique with a surprising theme that fits remarkably well, in addition to preserving the core essence of the original game. It's most definitely worth the time, even if you're not necessarily a fan of pirates, I myself am not. So grab yer Cutlass and prepare to slash some demons, arrrrrrgh!

Back to Saturn X. or as I like to call it, The Darkening Episode 3 basically, it's a large, but not full 32-level megawad done with completely different texturing, as if you were playing Doom in a completely different limelight. nothing is wrong with that. the similarities between this and Darken2 are quite apparent, neither are full megawads, both are made by a group of elite mappers, and gameplay is completely consistent throughout. you'll obviously notice the weird level titles, and despite them being named after songs and seeming ludicrous, they actually do pertain to some sort of concept the levels are on. Underground Initiations? yeah, prepare to deal with some underground caves there. Postal Blowfish introduces the rocket launcher, so that makes sense. Tough Skin River obviously has the river, plus the big arena battle. this really is just another really snazzy megawad to go through, and that's perfectly fine.

Ancient Aliens is one of those WADs that, once you play it, you'll understand exactly why it won a Cacoward. Skillsaw designed this 32 MAP masterpiece, a HUGE step up for me since all I've cleared besides stock Doom and Doom II was Eviternity. The WAD starts with a quiet desert day and a peyote pipe, and launches you into a hectic level set filled with Archviles, Cyberdemons, annoying Arachnotrons, and a couple of new enemies: the Stealth Alien who runs around cloaked until it stops to shoots bolts of plasma at you, and the Alien Guardian which looks like a floating skull-cube that pumps a triple barrage of Revenant missiles at you. The HP on these guys is thankfully low, but the monster placement is (mostly) so well placed they don't become as much of a pain as you might think. The environments are extremely pretty to look at; the first episode has you in a sort-of New Mexico/Egyptian vibe with stone structures and sunset skies. The second takes you to the stars as you explore massive alien structures and study strange hieroglyphics. And finally, the last has you starting on a distant planet, exploring the landscape to discover who the aliens are and what they want with you. Skillsaw's use of textures is fantastic. Deep purples and blues really sell the vibes, and some borrowed bits round out a great space for the player to fight in. Another great factor is the music. Stewboy lays down some great tracks, with everything from upbeat techno to Native American sounds. One of my favorites is The Incessant Flow of Time, paired with MAP 02 it sets a great tone for the WAD. You can find the soundtrack on Bandcamp and I would highly recommend listening to it, even if you don't play this WAD. Finally, the levels are top notch. Skillsaw has a style you soon learn to recognize. He gives a little and demands a lot out of you with interesting traps and tricks to make the player adapt to new conditions and really consider their next move. The rocket turret of Ancient Navajo Wolf Warp, the frantic arena of Wormhole Junction, the berserk-fueled rage of Crash Landing, and the mini levels from Leave Your Sol Behind. Ancient Aliens has fantastic level design with fair fights and great surprises. There are a few notable outside contributions: Joshy puts up two great levels (even with one having a very nasty Archvile trap), AD_79 comes in with Code later in the third episode, and the famous Culture Shock by Chris Kassap with some changes by Skillsaw. Stewboy even throws in a great MAP 31. However, there are a few poor maps: Acerola-Orion by esselfortium is great except for the inability to explore the level again after entering the final arena (something that Skillsaw always seems to remember for those of us who want to kill first and find secrets later); Trinary Temple by Pinchy is a slog for the first half, having to deal with distant hitscanners and a nasty final room with 2 Cyberdemons in an enclosed space; and Egyptian Metaphysics by Tarnsman is practically Plutonia with the Ancient Aliens skin, as there are WAY too many chaingunners for my tastes. But overall, this WAD is a masterpiece. A fantastic challenge for both new and old players, this WAD will test your abilities and force you to improve or die. What's the best map pack of 2016? I'm not saying it's Ancient Aliens, but...

*** Note: Levels were played in UV-continuous with pistol-starting upon death. No saves. *** It may not be fair to say that a review for one Paul Corfiatis project is a review for all, but I would be hard-pressed to conduct similarly substantial articles for each of his major works without writing in circles. 2002: A Doom Odyssey seems like a good place to build a cornerstone review because it is considered by many to be the crowning achievement; a full four-episode replacement for Doom that, until the advent of Needs More Detail, DTWiD and other community-based efforts like Switcheroom, dominated the Ultimate landscape as one of the choice selections for nostalgia junkies. This, despite the fact that Paul's contributions amount to just one half of the set. In fact, if there's an irony to this WAD's distinction, it is the story of its guest contributors — Chris Hansen, Rory Habich, Sam Woodman, Anthony Soto, Joe Pallai and Virgil the Doom Poet — and how their unique works offset and affect the evergreen standards of Paul and Kristian (the latter of whom I'm almost comfortable in naming as a guest, anyway: he mostly goes missing after E1). Throw a stone in any direction from 2002 and you're guaranteed to hit something Paul-shaped with levels that handle much the same as the ones here, or at least conform to a highly distinguishable set of tropes, and so a player that is somewhat familiar with his tendencies will search for differences to champion. In other words — by dint of familiarity — this is a WAD that is known to be Paul's and yet is renowned for its Others. Hansen, especially. 2002 paints itself as a pretty conservative take on Doom for themes and progression, yet with every episode the picture garbles and warps, eventually ending up as a very confused transmission that feels like the half-way point between different products; one good and one bad. Episode 1: Deep into the Code is like some customary re-run of an ABC mid-nineties sitcom; indistinct and far too comfortable in its skin. Its Phobosian skin. The combat is pedestrian, front-on and tied together with "hub-spokes;" the traps are betrayed by Team Paul's telltale design and are rendered useless; and the player is more likely to drown in the oceans of shells provided than be challenged by any one encounter. Identical in many ways to Knee-deep, as intended? Perhaps, but it is a dirge all the same, and continues uninterrupted until Hansen is brought in to upset the practice of using ammo and health as decoration. Throughout Episode 2: The Road to Eternity and Episode 3: The Evil Unleashed the introduction of more authors leads to some standout levels, even as the cohesion established between Paul and Kristian (there is an off-kilter charm to their pairing, for all grievances) begins to break down and the set loses some of its identity. The now pockmark entries by Paul are at least distinct enough on this scale, surrounded as they are, and some bolder design choices begin to appear in a few of them (Caves of Bosnia is perhaps his greatest departure, here), to his credit. Stealing the show from right out of the hands of this weak-gripped megawad is the middle stretch of levels in Episode 4: Torment Ultima. Specifically, Anthony Soto's Back to Base X through to Hansen's Odious Grounds, although Paul's efforts in the new E4M1 and 8 aren't too shabby, either. These adopt from the Consumed handbook a crafty and devious dearth of ammunition and safe spaces; the tried and tested (and feared!) paradigm of peak difficulty in Ultimate Doom. They are the best maps by some ways, and also look a cut above the rest for their more intricate lighting and level of detail; the murky, latticed entrails of Pallai's Dementia a particular highlight. Five years after the re-release of this acclaimed WAD, this review is not likely to change the mind of anyone who appreciates what is doubtless a nostalgic piece of work. It is, after all, a feeling around which the project was made. A less misty-eyed pass over what's on display, though, reveals a deeply inconsistent and — to a point — deeply ordinary Odyssey. Bullet-points of Interest: Initially tedious but belatedly evolving into something more varied, challenging and interesting. An adherence to Ultimate Doom's progression and ideas that's somewhat muddled by the mix of guest contributors and conflicting new textures. Upstaging performances by Hansen, Soto and Pallai. A very enjoyable fourth episode, identity crisis notwithstanding. A hit-and-miss OST. Some great melodies, but a lot of tunes don't match up with the levels very well. Very poor end-of-episode levels/boss fights and super-secret levels.

Done with these settings: - Crispy Doom 5.2 - Ultra-Violence - Continuous combined with pistol start mindset. - Saves every 10 minutes or so. Important note: The wad is almost fully playable in Crispy Doom or complevel 2, but due to two inaccessible doors which are part of progress, maps 03 and 04 cannot be completed without cheats. Because of that, ZDoom is the source port to be used like the author said in the text file, or else for PRBoom+ users I suggest to use this patch file that fix them. Thanks to WH-Wilou84 for sending me it, though Alfonzo made it for this thread. Also, other specifications about what's recommended to play this wad will be described below. This is a solid episode of mid-sized maps for those who fancy Alien Vendetta in its semi-slaughtery way. Same for its visual design, the wad features mostly a similar texture arrangement from the earlier and latest episodes from AV, ranging from techbases and industrial factories to underground caverns in a lite hellish context that gave me some nice throwbacks. It apparently includes new textures, but their purpose don't seem to stand out in any particular context, more like a complement to the stock ones, and to be honest they went unnoticed during my playthrough. I did see the blue Wolf3d texture usage as part of colour variation among other details, a modest appearance though, which was neat. If something cannot be overlooked is detailing, specifically the part that refers to "things". Users of source ports that allow to turn off infinite height will have it softer to maneuver around, because of dead trees and hanging corpses out of the FOV you can get stuck in. I understand they are part of the transition from man-made structures to more natural landscapes, yet they can be potential annoyances in later maps. It's a little slip in design, given the existence of many ports that support this wad, and regardless of the author's recommendation, not everyone is going to stick with it. Anyways, I liked the midis, they certainly fit in their maps except the one in map 04, it's a beautiful calm track but not for outdoor areas, in my opinion. Vae Victus is only short in number of maps, but it's plagued of monsters to kill, assuming you're ready to dispatch every meat shield in the road. Difficulty is forgiving for the skilled player, there isn't much in the way of pressure or hectic encounters as long as you have your feet on the ground, literally speaking. I did notice how limited in ammo are some maps, requiring berserk usage specially from pistol starts. Also there is an oddity in the 4th map, all of the weapons minus berserk are multiplayer-only, and while you'll eventually steal the shotgun and chaingun from zombies, all of the cell packs are of no utility, which indicates the author missed to place weapons in single player. Still, what's more strange is the sheer absence of the BFG throughout the wad, not that you'll really need it. On another side, the wad is easily comparable to the two wads the author got inspiration of: the aforementioned Alien Vendetta in its design structures, hallways connected by compartments (of which resources are located and typically small intruders too), few switch/key hunts involving backtrack and mostly the kind of meaty incidental combat where you either stay and fight or escape and camp, which is up to the player's will. The mapset gets more in the vein of Deus Vult later, when the bigger areas are meant to be explored in depth, and killing everything turns a bit more time-consuming and less obligatory, besides monsters completely out of the player's aim. The penultimate map is where this wad excels, although I must admit the initial area is a chore to navigate. Nevertheless, it's a decent romp in difficulty, the skinned walls room is the first fun lock-in trap, followed by some crowd-herding in order to eliminate the primary targets. It's unfortunate that the last map is a bit of an anticlimax after the previous longer map, which could have served perfectly as a closure to the wad. Secret-wise, if you wonder why you still haven't found any of the 13 secrets in the third map, don't worry, 10 are on top of crates the author probably forgot to untag. Maxing the map is impossible due to that, though. Outside of that, the secrets don't require much skill to find, if anything you'll be ok with humping suspicious walls, pistol starters will definitely appreciate the berserk in map 04. For favourite maps, that's hard to tell, I honestly don't have any highlight whatsoever, I liked all of the maps pretty much the same, except for the underwhelming map 07. I also wonder why they don't have names, huh... Overall, it's fairly enjoyable in what it offers, I'd recommend it more for the casual player rather than the one looking for a new challenge, but still should deliver some relaxing grind with bits of slaughtery if you're open to it, just don't expect anything bizarre. Oh and, non-ZDoom maxers, remember to turn off autoaim to try to kill those snipers from afar in map 05, although in Crispy Doom it was still impossible to reach them :/ ... My rate is 7/10.

i like doom 64 and that guy is cool skin great

Made me realise how worthless and inadequate everything I've ever done is. I turned off the light as soon as I saw it. At times you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. Jumped out of my skin at the yellow door; I haven't had a shock like that since playing Aliens TC years ago. The Doom monsters seems almost cartoonish and out of place in this moodily-lit industrial complex - the kind of place it is always raining, or would if it could in Doom. Maybe it can? Is this still Doom? It looks better than Quake.

This skins kicks the ass, very fun to use especially when u play it with the Super Sonic Doom megawad

It's perfectly fine if you love some anime tiles / games / novellas, but using this lame rip-off skin in Doom seems absolutely pointless. 0/5.