SC: Is SIGIL II the conclusion to the storyline between DOOM (1993) and DOOM II…or might you be tempted to fire up the map editor again when DOOM nears another anniversary milestone?
JR: Yes, SIGIL II is the conclusion to the storyline just before DOOM II. I have already started on the next map pack for DOOM II and it’s named HELLION. After HELLION is going to be a Quake episode, so I don’t know if I’ll revisit DOOM (1993) again.
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Zero Master is a space alien
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Is the official rereleases crashing and deleting add-ons during download a known issue? Has anyone else run into this and know how to fix it?
Thy files consumed
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Lol sick cover of Man in the Box.
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Shocked to learn three bars on the old hud don’t stand for residential, commercial, and industrial zones.
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carmack calls into this from an unadorned beige room
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This is so much cooler than all the things that turn doom into Duke 3d with worse art direction than either game.
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digging into prodeus now. this is really what I wanted doom 2016 to be. it’s maybe the only boomer shooter that recognizes that most 90’s fps games were corridor shooters with minimal-to-no arena shooter-style setpieces. there is no “glory kill” mechanic or anything like that. instead it just has dense and genuinely clever level design which lands very pleasantly between doom 2, duke nukem 3D, and quake, without ever feeling too derivative of any of them. it captures the density and complexity of early doom maps without creating any “where do I go next” situations where you’re hunting for a key or just the way forward. that’s honestly impressive. plus I appreciate how committed they are to the aesthetic. I love the crazy 3D-to-sprite shader they use for enemies and items, and if you run it at the internal 270p setting everything just perfectly gels and feels right. even the music seems to use actual midi files, though the game lets you choose to use a more “general midi” style sound font. to my ears it sounds perfect this way compared to the more modern soundfont it defaults to.
the combat, weapons, and setpiece designs are quite good, but notably the weakest part of the experience. it’s all just a little mushy and weapon sound effects are too compressed and lack punch. they’re trying to do the thing where every weapon is very powerful and it’s just a matter of choosing the right tool for the situation but it mostly all feels inconsequential in practice. I’m playing on the second highest difficulty setting and it feels like it should be much more taxing than it is. I find myself arbitrarily switching between various weapon types solely based on ammo because most of them tend to be equally effective for 80% of the game. that said there are some fun gimmicks that add some moment-to-moment depth. the super shotgun has four barrels for instance, and its alternate fire just shoots however many rounds you still have loaded all at once, so there’s a lot of variability to how you can use it and when. that kind of stuff is nice but I’m a good way into the game and most of it hasn’t really mattered much. it’s not a deal-breaker, though. the good is so good that I’m okay with combat being kind of breezy and mindless. this is easily my favorite boomer shooter that I’ve played so far.
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i’ve been playing this since u posted and I Have Opinions. i’m gonna try finishing the game before doing a full write-up, but basically: i think i’m more interested in getting my hands on the project files than i am in actually playing it. lol.
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I’m definitely interested in hearing those Opinions! I have my criticisms, too. there’s a little too much AAA collect-a-thon stuff piled on top and there are places where it betrays its otherwise admirable dedication to the 90’s DOS-era fps ethos in frustrating ways. but also I was very unenthused for the first 4 or 5 hours and it gradually grew on me to the point where I feel like it at least sits comfortably aside, and maybe even above 90’s other-rans like shadow warrior or whatever despite my initial misgivings. even the collect-a-thon stuff I’m mostly okay with because it encourages you to get to know the levels better and the level design (on average) is excellent and rewarding to replay. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the checkpointing system but honestly I like it better than being able to save-scum my way through levels; instead deaths just count against my end-of-level stats and I can set the goal for myself to clear a level within a certain number of deaths. hasn’t made the game any less fun, but this is probably bc (for me at least) its greatest strength is its level design and the combat is fun but kind of too loose to care much about playing perfectly with satisfying difficulty. that said, now that I’m closer to the end of the game it does have a genuine difficulty curve that’s surprisingly smooth for the format.
but idk a lot of what I like about it is based on very specific things that I feel are missing from modern genre attempts and all of that is very subjective. I may be too forgiving of some of its issues because of what it gets right.
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Strong recommendation for this one.
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