Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Best Doom/Doom 2

fork

Guest
I'm actually unable to find the Doom/Heretic/Hexen wads thread (go figure!), so I'm making a new one.

I think I have played most great Doom and Doom 2 wads which are worth playing, but I thought I'd ask here again. What are your personal top 5/10/20/50/whatever wads every Doom enthusiast should play? My personal preferances are more oldschool, like a focus on maze-like level design and intricate encounters rather than slaughterish open fields, and I prefer wads that are level packs only over mods/total conversions which change everything including enemy design and weapons (since those are perfect already imo). I want to play Doom, not some hipster's low-effort total conversion.

I've had a look at the Caco-Awards of course, but I'd like to have the Codex's recommendations, since I know there are many people here who enjoy the original Dooms and I trust everyone here more than some random plebs anywhere else. So please recommend away!
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/good-doom-heretic-hexen-wads.78193/page-76

I recommend you play the "top wads" from doomworld community:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/93734-doomworld-community-top-wads-of-all-time/

I forgot the name of almost all the wads i had played, it has been 2 years since i've played DOOM, one i really liked was "Going Down", pretty fun, short wad, i recommend it.

quoting myself from other thread:

So, i just beat Going Down, holy shit ! this wad was awesome ! i played from the beginning to the end without any break, i clocked 5 hours (9 hours if you count all the times i died).

The Wad works like that: in the first Map you climb a UAC building by using the emergency staircase, then, you use an elevator to go down and every floor is a map, and you keep going down until you reach Hell itself(basically Diablo).Since every floor is a map, almost every map is short and kinda claustrophobic.But don't be fooled, this is a slaughterfest Wad, a very hard one too ! the small maps means you have less space to maneuver and the Wad throws tons of demons at you.I died more in this Wad than in Hell Revealed.

The maps looks nice too ! they resemble real life places(unlike Doom 2.wad).At first, i didn't like the new music, but it did grow on me.

I highly recommend this Wad, it is probably my second favourite Wad after Alien Vendetta.

Screenshot-Doom-20200329-032639.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-032811.png


Arena Map:
Screenshot-Doom-20200329-032937.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033022.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033045.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033202.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-034216.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-034153.png


Behold, The 200 archviles map:

Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033710.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033731.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033713.png


Necropolis, the most insane map in this Wad ! more than 900 enemies:

Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033908.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-033851.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-034015.png


Screenshot-Doom-20200329-034032.png
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
i also like "Shades of Doom" mod, it changes monsters skins but it doesn't affect the gameplay, you can select what monsters skin you want to use it, good mod to keep the game fresh looking after 200 hours of gameplay:

4ngxqkx.png


b4T7pHk.png

I also use some weapons skins, but only cosmetic, i like mods that doesn't affect the gameplay.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
Ah, i see that you don't like slaughterfest wads(i don't neither), in that case i recommend "Memento Mori" 1 and 2 wads. No slaughterfest there, and good wads. freedoom 1 and 2 are also good non slaughterfest wads.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
12,877
Location
Eastern block
What made you guys prefer Doom over Quake just curious?

For me it always was Quake > Doom > Blood
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
1,464
Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath
What I don't like about Quake is that the monsters there are bullet sponges. Shamblers, Fiends, Vores, Death Knights, and even Ogres all have too many health points. Doom, with its more numerous but fragile monsters, is trivially more fun for me.

But of course, Quake is still a masterpiece. Especially in terms of level design. It's just that Doom is more my cup of tea.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
12,877
Location
Eastern block
For me Doom always felt flat, I prefer Quake for its verticality. Flat maze-like levels seem too basic. Arcane Dimensions is probably the apex of mapping in action shooters.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
Strain is another good non-slaughterfest wad that i did beat, that wad has good music and cool original level design.

 
Last edited:

Sjukob

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
2,052
What made you guys prefer Doom over Quake just curious?

For me it always was Quake > Doom > Blood

The objectively better monster design that allows for crazy things, which are not possible in any other game, like archville carousel from sunlust (5:50):


Or cyberdemon fight from Ludicrium, where they can't hit you, because the platform you're standing on constantly moves down:


Or the whole cyberdreams wad in general, which is all about solving puzzles by using cyberdemons as your tools:


These are just some examples that I could remember from a top of my head, there are many more that you can find. There are also some other more general things, like slaughter fests. Which other game allows you to go ham against thousands of monsters, literally?


Thanks to the combination of various factors and mechanics Doom allows you to create gameplay that other FPS just can not achieve, it's not just about monster design, it's also about weapons, movement, AI etc. And it's why I think that Doom is the single best FPS ever made with no real competitors even after all these years. Build engine games, Quake, Unreal are all very good, (although I personaly consider Build Engine games to be decline, because in comparison to Doom the depth of combat is almost entirely absent) but Doom is in it's own league above them, for me at least.

I'm afraid that there won't be an FPS game that would be at least as good as Doom, nevermind succeeding it.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
Thanks to the combination of various factors and mechanics Doom allows you to create gameplay that other FPS just can not achieve, it's not just about monster design, it's also about weapons, movement, AI etc. And it's why I think that Doom is the single best FPS ever made with no real competitors even after all these years. Build engine games, Quake, Unreal are all very good, (although I personaly consider Build Engine games to be decline, because in comparison to Doom the depth of combat is almost entirely absent) but Doom is in it's own league above them, for me at least.

I'm afraid that there won't be an FPS game that would be at least as good as Doom, nevermind succeeding it.

If you're talking about modded Doom and custom wads, sure, nothing surpass DOOM 2. But between vanilla DOOM and vanilla Quake, i like Quake more. Vanilla DOOM especially vanilla DOOM 2 is pretty boring, the levels design is not good, we barely have a good encounter with Cyberdemons and Spiderdemons, the levels in DOOM 2 looks bland.

Doom 2 custom wads is where it's at.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
1,464
Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath
Original Doom surpasses Doom II. I consider super shotgun, chaingunners, revenants, archviles, pain elementals, and the Doom 2 level design in general (too much monster closet bullshit), to be decline.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
I agree on level design, but Doom is not Doom without super shotgun, Arachnotrons, Hell knights, Mancubus, Revenants, Chaingunners, Archviles and Pain Elementals. The super shotgun is necessary to make enemies less bullet spoongy, especially with these new enemies added.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
1,464
Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath
Every weapon in the original Doom has its own role. Everything is perfectly balanced. SSG introduces disbalance into this ideal system. I agree that in a way, it's a necessary evil, given the monster closet design. But it's still a detriment to the perfect balance of the weapons from the original.

And while I can tolerate the other new monsters, the chaingunners are the decline in its purest form.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
The shotgun still useful in DOOM 2, you can kill imps and zombiemans with one shotgun shot, saving ammo where you would waste using Super Shotgun. Maybe not in DOOM 2 original levels where they give you enough ammo to only use SS the entire game.

Chaingunners are indeed decline, too much unavoidable damage ! they should never put them on open fields without walls to take cover, like they did in Deus Vult wad.

Chaingunners are the main reason on why Plutonia wad sucks.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,101
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
I just started a replay of Doom 1. Been at least a decade since I last played it. Almost finished with the first episode, and the game's as great as ever, but for some reason it's incredibly dark on my laptop, like to the point that I literally can't see where I'm going in the sections that are supposed to be fairly dark. Even the full brightness sections are pretty dim. Is my memory playing tricks on me and the game is way darker than I remember? Is this an issue anyway else has? Anyway to fiddle with brightness in game?
 

schru

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,131
I just started a replay of Doom 1. Been at least a decade since I last played it. Almost finished with the first episode, and the game's as great as ever, but for some reason it's incredibly dark on my laptop, like to the point that I literally can't see where I'm going in the sections that are supposed to be fairly dark. Even the full brightness sections are pretty dim. Is my memory playing tricks on me and the game is way darker than I remember? Is this an issue anyway else has? Anyway to fiddle with brightness in game?
Are you playing in a source port or the original version in DOSBox? If the former, switch to the software renderer, as hardware-accelerated renderers in ports like GZDoom change the lighting quite a lot. If you're using DOSBox, I'm not sure, but perhaps you could try a different renderer, like surface, overlay, ddraw, or opengl, or use the SVN Daum build (I know there are newer ones, but I'm not familiar with them) and try direct3d.

Also, if it's been such a long time since you played, it'd be good to hear the music in its original SC-55 rendition (which was the synthesizer used to compose it). The options are either using the virtual Sound Canvas VA (but the hardware module is probably cheaper) or playing in Chocolate Doom or another source port which supports these recordings: Roland SC-55 Music Packs (duke4.net)
 

Sceptic

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
If all else fails you could also try increasing the gamma (F11 in original exe IIRC, most ports will have one way or the other to change it)
But as schru mentioned the most likely culprit is the renderer, especially if you're using GZDoom. For some reason it defaults to a light mode in hardware that is much darker than the original. Switching to software is best (I like playing in Truecolour Software most), but you could also stay in hardware and change the light mode, one of the more recent GZDoom versions added a software light mode (for the hardware renderer) that is pretty faithful to the software lighting.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom