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Doom 1 or 2?

Which one is your favorite?  

426 members have voted

  1. 1. Which one is your favorite?

    • DOOM/The Ultimate DOOM
      202
    • DOOM II: Hell on Earth
      224


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I definetly prefer Doom 2's maps to Doom 1'.

E1 is great. E2 is OK. But the majority of E3 is pretty bad, including E3M1, E3M2, E3M3, E3M4.

Stuff like E3M7 is nice and atmospheric, but it's one empty map. There's almost no monsters around. Kinda weird for a penultimate challenge. It's no "The Living End"... E3M6 is the only E3 map I really like.

But then there's of course stuff like E2M2, which is just great. But overall, Sandy Petersen is not my favorite mapper. Which is why E1 and E4 are my favorite episodes.

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Doom 2 had some great maps, but levels like tricks and traps or gotcha! I thought were kinda cheap, I personally just prefer doom's maps better than doom 2

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40oz said:

Oh great here come the D2TWID experts.

Your passive-aggressive forum habits haven't gone unnoticed. Lose the snide attitude, please.

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dew said:



Hell no.


OK, I never noticed the middle finger fingering...well, whatever it is that's it's fingering. Satan's asshole? No wonder it's a "Slough of Despair".

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Maes said:

Satan's asshole?

Obviously. I mean, is there even any other possibility? No, there isn't. You can trust me, I'm experts.

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At first, I didn't notice it was mandatory. It looked like a secret cliché and simply pressed it, found the lift and continued the map like if nothing happened. It took me a while to find the MAP28's exit. I circled the map multiple times for ½h until I accidentally shot line573.

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Overall, yes I think Doom 1 has better level design. I just find them a lot more enjoyable and atmospheric. For me, Doom 2 is good, up until the city levels which I hate. They're too large, overly complex and drag on forever. And the hell levels aren't that great either. Personally, I'd take E3 of Doom 1 anyday over the hell levels of Doom 2. At least they had a distinct feel and didn't drag on for too long.

Doom 2 is best during the first 10 or so maps (I'm not a fan of 'Refueling Base') as they're fast paced, action packed and offer a worthy challenge. But it starts to play dirty during the second third of the game which is why I find myself playing through Doom 1 a lot more (Excluding E4). I still like some of the later levels but many are just tedious and too drawn out. I actually think I had more fun playing through Doom 64's maps even though that game had its faults (The puzzles can be really cryptic at times).

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E1 is great, but Doom 2's maps are bigger and try to go to bigger lengths. E2 is alright, and E3, well, I like E3M7 a lot. The rest not so much. It's just that Doom 2 has uglier textures.

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I wouldn't say Doom 2 has uglier textures, just that there is a frankly vulgar amount of brown in a lot of the later maps.

As far as map design goes, I had a habit of preferring Doom over Doom 2, or vice versa, when I was younger. Nowadays, I'd say they're about even. What makes for a quality map is largely subjective, though generally one wants to be able to navigate through a level with ease, but while still being intellectually challenged by interesting traps, obstacles, puzzles and key/switch hunting. The process should be smooth and the layouts memorable. Using that as criteria, I'd say both Dooms accomplish this extremely well, and both have about the same amount of bullshit. Doom 1 has a few E2 and E3 maps that are a bit confusing, while E4 is often so brutal it becomes a chore. Doom 2 has a few stinkers, mostly in the middle and the lackluster secret levels.

I also agree that Doom 64 is highly enjoyable. I would have likely never found the secret maps without a walkthrough, but so much of the game is very well designed and really fun to play through. I'd say that a lot of its maps are superior to Doom/Doom2. Final Doom is not so consistent, but I feel the Master Levels/Final Doom selections for PSX Final Doom are all great selections, and show a variety of different mapping styles that are very satisfying.

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Ultimate Doom has the maps E4M9, E2M3 and E2M2 (My faves)
Doom 2 has Map04, Map07, Map14, Map18, Map27 and Map31 (My faves)

Doom 2 wins my vote I guess?

(However TNT would win if Final Doom was involved)

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DOOM1 is way more consistent across 3 episodes and its levels look like actual places you'd expect from moon bases / Hell.

DOOM2 is all over the place with no consistency whatsoever and completely random architecture.

DOOM levels > DOOM2 levels

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I learned a funny thing about Doom 64 while converting its maps for "Doom 64 in Doom 2" project.

Doom 64 levels are really, really flat. Sometimes you can walk through half the map and not encounter a single floor height change. It made applying different floor textures a challenge. I wish there were "metal beam" flats in Doom 2, they can be very useful to separate materials.

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No such bullshit occurred in "The Ultimate Doom" to my knowledge.


I think my only disagreement here is E3M6 in Ultimate Doom, when you're trying to find the Blue Key on skills 3/4/5. I first played this level on the SNES port, and the SNES port only allows you to play episode 3 on those skill levels. I spent AGES looking for that Blue Key (I had internet access, but there were no walkthroughs on how to find that Blue Key). Getting the Blue Key in this level requires opening a hidden door to find a teleporter, then jumping into some red box.

And I believe I ended up finding the secret exit in this level first before I found the Blue Key.

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Touchdown said:

DOOM1 is way more consistent across 3 episodes and its levels look like actual places you'd expect from moon bases / Hell.

DOOM2 is all over the place with no consistency whatsoever and completely random architecture.

DOOM levels > DOOM2 levels


Seconding this. No problem with abstract levels, but don't name the game "Hell on Earth", then!

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Doom 1 might be more elegant looking with better textures but is a lot more flat and closed in design, almost like Wolfenstein 3D. Only in Doom 2 id really explored the third dimension of the game and vast open areas (Doom 1 had only one such map - E3M6). I think both are well designed for their time and way too different to say which is better.

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peach freak said:

I think my only disagreement here is E3M6 in Ultimate Doom, when you're trying to find the Blue Key on skills 3/4/5.


That's right, I forgot about that one. Still, it's map19 that made me quit the game for years, so obviously I hold grudge against it :P

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esselfortium said:

Your passive-aggressive forum habits haven't gone unnoticed. Lose the snide attitude, please.


On the plus side, dew has a shiny new custom title now :P

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Wow I got a lot of posts in less than 1 day lol It's interesting what people have to say about the levels from Doom 1 amd Doom 2.

I my favorite types of levels are techbases which were found in Doom 1's Knee-Deep in the Dead Episode. Doom 2 had more of a Hell theme in just about all of its levels.

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Memfis said:

Doom 1 might be more elegant looking with better textures but is a lot more flat and closed in design, almost like Wolfenstein 3D. Only in Doom 2 id really explored the third dimension of the game and vast open areas (Doom 1 had only one such map - E3M6). I think both are well designed for their time and way too different to say which is better.


I absolutely agree with you Memfis. Doom 1 was very elegant looking. I wish Doom 2 a bit more of that aspect from Doom 1.

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It's a shame E3M6 is such a BITCH to navigate, because it has some really interesting areas and is one of the more experimental/odd maps in Doom 1.

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GoatLord said:

It's a shame E3M6 is such a BITCH to navigate, because it has some really interesting areas and is one of the more experimental/odd maps in Doom 1.


It really is a total bitch to navigate. I always forget how to beat that level because it is so damn confusing to find the keys/ exit.

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Memfis said:
Doom 1 might be more elegant looking with better textures but is a lot more flat and closed in design, almost like Wolfenstein 3D. Only in Doom 2 id really explored the third dimension of the game and vast open areas (Doom 1 had only one such map - E3M6). I think both are well designed for their time and way too different to say which is better.

In addition, people also tend to set stuff like extra weapons and monsters apart as if that were not part of level design, but it is. If not, a map would be a static piece that has little to do with actually playing it. You can't decontextualize mapping from any element used in a level (or around it) if you look at it as a "living" playing piece, rather than just the output of a designer from a level-design application. The artistic design element in itself, in the exercise and process of making maps, can also be valued, but I would never do so to the point that the playing-value of a level comes in at second place.

I tend to simply acknowledge the different best points of each game, which are somewhat exclusive because their design directions vary a bit due to technical differences and aims. I also see both as part of one game in two sections, not as two games. Each without the other would feel more incomplete.

I have a slight preference for DOOM II because it realizes what playing DOOM is with more potency, but not without acknowledging what DOOM gets right by doing things its own way.

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Maybe the author of e3m6 was afraid that people will miss a lot of stuff sunce it's such an open nonlinear map with many optional rooms, so he made it a bit confusing to ensure that people explore everything. :)

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I like/dislike them equally. Both have great (e.g. E1M1, MAP06) and awful (E3M1, MAP08) maps. I'm really not sure, I probably prefer Doom I, but not by much.

Eris Falling said:

On the plus side, dew has a shiny new custom title now :P


Hahaha, so the kid's no longer feral?

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Are you guys who think Doom looks better comparing Romero's Doom maps to Sandy's Doom 2 maps or something? Almost all of Doom 2's maps are on par with the E1 maps visually. McGee was the first overdetailer and Romero realized that using a texture series with obvious repeats was pretty stupid if he was never going to align textures. Sandy took a turn for the worse, IMO, but the other two did a great job visually.

Like Memfis and myk said, you can't just separate the maps from their gameplay, and Doom 2 wins hands down in that department.

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Jayextee said:

Yes. Because episodes.

No. Because monsters.



pretty much this, imo.

i prefer doom's episodic structure and would have liked if UD expanded it into 6 episodes which led to a showdown with a super-boss then, much like quake went.

and on the monsters side, doom's enemies are rather plain compared to revs, mancs or viles. and the ssg makes shooting tough monsters much less boring.

Luke Dacote said:

Overall, yes I think Doom 1 has better level design. I just find them a lot more enjoyable and atmospheric. For me, Doom 2 is good, up until the city levels which I hate. They're too large, overly complex and drag on forever. And the hell levels aren't that great either. Personally, I'd take E3 of Doom 1 anyday over the hell levels of Doom 2. At least they had a distinct feel and didn't drag on for too long.


right, i remember how long it took me to find the exit on map 15 and 19, those were just too large and nonsensical. the chasm effectively stopped my first playthrough of doom 2 for quite some time until i accidentally found the exit (didn't know cheat codes back then). those maps should have been a bit smaller.

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