Doom II


 * "Doom 2" redirects here. For other topics with similar names, see Doom2.

Released September 30, 1994, Doom II: Hell on Earth, is the sequel to Doom. Featuring 32 levels in a single linear episode, Doom II continues Doom's story, seeing the player returning to Earth to single-handedly fight off an invasion of the planet by demons.

Doom II includes several gameplay enhancements over the original Doom. Most notable are the introduction of several new monster types, plus an additional weapon (the super shotgun). While the original game was distributed via shareware and mail order (to purchase the full game), Doom II was the first game developed by Id Software to be sold commercially in stores. This represented a change in business model for Id that they would later adopt more widely.

Story
Doom's story ended with the protagonist defeating the Spider mastermind and stepping through a portal to Earth. However, there is a cliffhanger ending to the game as it is discovered that the demons that invaded the Mars moonbases have begun to invade Earth as well.

After Earth's major cities are left in ruins by the attack, the human survivors are rescued by spacecraft. To assist with this evacuation the player must dispatch the demons protecting the starport where the ships must land (only the player remains after all other soldiers are massacred by demons).



Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, Doom II is essentially similar to the first game. Technologically and graphically the game is identical, though due to more complicated levels and larger fights the base system requirements for the game were higher. To progress the player must navigate non-linear levels, find keys and unlock new areas while defending against an onslaught of demons. The main change is that the game takes place over a single linear sequence of levels; occasional textual interludes are used to advance the story. The episode-based structure of the first game was abandoned, as was the map shown on intermission screens; this means that the player no longer has to find new weapons at the start of each episode.

While Doom II's level design is ostensibly based on Earth buildings and structures, in practice it retains some of the abstract nature of the first game. Early levels present a techbase theme representing the military starport. The mid-game presents levels with a city/urban theme that the player navigates attempting to find the origin of the demon invasion. The later levels are intended to represent Hell merging with reality, and are therefore have a style similar to the Inferno episode of the first game: Dante-like flowing magma and hot springs.

Doom II's new monsters are the chaingun zombie, hell knight, mancubus, revenant, arachnotron, pain elemental, arch-vile, and Icon of Sin. The SS trooper from Wolfenstein 3D appears in a cameo in two secret levels that reproduce levels from Wolfenstein 3D. Commander Keen also appears.

Also introduced is the super shotgun, a more powerful version of the shotgun from the first game. Similarly the Megasphere is a more powerful version of the Supercharge powerup.

Reviews and sales
Doom II sold over two million copies, the most sales of any id Software game at the time. The new and varied enemies, and its innovative non-linear level design were praised by critics. While well-received, the game was regarded by some as a disappointment due to the lack of major new features and boring level design. It was released around the same time as Star Wars: Dark Forces and Duke Nukem 3D which presented more obvious enhancements to the genre.

There was no shareware version of Doom II released and it was only sold in retail stores. Internally Doom II is referred to as the "commercial" version, though an enhanced version of the first game was also re-released in stores as Ultimate Doom. Official ports were made to various platforms, including the Apple Macintosh, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance and Xbox.

Levels
Doom II's levels are divided into three "episodes", though these are not official. The sky texture for each episode is different, and an intermission screen describes the progress in story in transitioning between them. There are also two secret levels. There are further story interludes before level 7, before each of the secret levels, and after finishing the game. Old versions of SETUP.EXE give names for these episodes, though this was later removed.

Episode 1: "The Space Station" MAP01 to MAP07;


 * Level 1: Entryway
 * Level 2: Underhalls (Exit to secret level; Xbox only)
 * Level 3: The Gantlet
 * Level 4: The Focus
 * Level 5: The Waste Tunnels
 * Level 6: The Crusher
 * Level 7: Dead Simple

MAP07 to MAP11; hellish outpost levels:

Episode 2: The City


 * Level 8: Tricks and Traps
 * Level 9: The Pit
 * Level 10: Refueling Base
 * Level 11: 'O' of Destruction!1


 * 1: Known as Circle of Death on the intermission screen.


 * Level 12: The Factory
 * Level 13: Downtown
 * Level 14: The Inmost Dens
 * Level 15: Industrial Zone (Exit to secret level)
 * Level 16: Suburbs
 * Level 17: Tenements
 * Level 18: The Courtyard
 * Level 19: The Citadel
 * Level 20: Gotcha!

Episode 3: Hell


 * Level 21: Nirvana
 * Level 22: The Catacombs
 * Level 23: Barrels o' Fun
 * Level 24: The Chasm
 * Level 25: Bloodfalls
 * Level 26: The Abandoned Mines
 * Level 27: Monster Condo
 * Level 28: The Spirit World
 * Level 29: The Living End
 * Level 30: Icon of Sin

MAP31 and MAP32; secret levels:


 * Level 31: Wolfenstein2 (Exit to super secret level)
 * Level 32: Grosse2


 * 2: These two levels do not appear in the German version.

MAP33; bonus Xbox level:


 * Level 33: Betray

The new episode, No Rest for the Living, originally designed for the Xbox 360 version
 * Level 1: The Earth Base
 * Level 2: The Pain Labs
 * Level 3: Canyon of the Dead
 * Level 4: Hell Mountain (Exit to secret level)
 * Level 5: Vivisection
 * Level 6: Inferno of Blood
 * Level 7: Baron's Banquet
 * Level 8: Tomb of Malevolence
 * Level 9: March of the Demons (Secret level)

Weapons

 * Fist
 * Chainsaw
 * Pistol
 * Shotgun
 * Super shotgun1
 * Chaingun
 * Rocket launcher
 * Plasma gun
 * BFG9000
 * 1) The super shotgun is a new weapon which Doom II introduced to the series.

Monsters
Doom II includes all the monsters from Doom: Doom II also has new monsters, which are:
 * Zombieman
 * Shotgun guy
 * Imp
 * Demon
 * Spectre
 * Baron of hell
 * Cacodemon
 * Lost soul
 * Spiderdemon
 * Cyberdemon
 * Heavy weapon dude
 * Hell knight
 * Revenant
 * Mancubus
 * Arachnotron
 * Pain elemental
 * Arch-vile
 * Wolfenstein SS
 * Commander Keen
 * The final boss

Legal issues in Germany
According to the German Strafgesetzbuch §86a, the usage of unconstitutional symbols is forbidden outside of certain contexts such as research, teaching and others. Because the two secret maps Wolfenstein and Grosse use swastikas, the German version does not contain these maps to prevent the game from being the subject of search and seizure procedures (as Wolfenstein 3-D had been). This means that it is forbidden to sell, hire or otherwise give the game to anybody, although merely owning the game is legal.

On 31 December 1994 (date of official announcement), however, the game was put on the Index of the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften (Medien), which means only that the game can not be advertised, sold, rented, or otherwise given to minors. This restriction applies to all versions of the game, except for the Game Boy Advance version.

The German release is engine version 1.666, and doom2.wad is a little bit smaller than is standard. Under MS-DOS, when the player attempts to use the level warp cheat for either of the secret maps, the game instantly crashes.

On the 4th of august 2011 the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende  Medien deleted Doom from the Index on request by ZeniMax  Media.

However, the official announcement state, that not all versions are delisted.

"Lediglich die amerikanische Fassung von 'Doom II - Hell on Earth' wurde in der Liste belassen, da diese zwei zusätzliche Level mit Darstellungen  aus dem indizierten und bundesweit beschlagnahmten Spiel 'Wolfenstein  3D' enthält."

Translated: "Only the American version of 'Doom II - Hell on Earth' has been left in the list, because it contains two additional levels with representations from the indexed and nationwide-seized 'Wolfenstein 3D'".

Current records
The Compet-N episode records for Doom II are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on May 10, 2013.

TAS runs

 * 30uv1617
 * 30uv1441

Trivia

 * Various screenshots on the back cover of the original Doom II game box display scenery and an arachnotron sprite which are not found in the officially released game. These were likely screenshots from a pre-release version of Doom II which had differing level structure and graphics than what was included in the official commercial release. These unconventional screenshots have been later used in various Doom II re-releases, including the Doom95 repackaging in 1995, the Steam release in 2007 and on id Software's own Doom II page.
 * The Doom II cover art was drawn by occult/fantasy artist Gerald Brom.