Enter the Doom Chapter I: Lucido Attack



Enter the Doom 1: Lucido Attack is a RPG game, inspired by Doom and created with RPG Maker 2000. It was released in 2005 by a small Russian fan-developer team - "DooM Kreators". All of its characters have real prototypes in Russian Doom community - mostly from Doom Power Forum and largest Russian fansite, Doom Power.

Plot
This story happened in one of the sad days, with a strong rain pouring... When nothing is wanted to be done, and all you can is doing nothing... and be bored because of that... or browsing Internet... and nothing can give you joy... MAZter, the main protagonist of the game, has decided to play DooM - or to be precise, it's multiplayer port, ZDaemon. But he had no idea that a program called Lucido will change everything... (From readme.txt file)

Story
Enter the Doom starts when MAZter, game's protagonist, feels himself bored, and decides to play ZDaemon, to entertain himself. In the game, for some unknown reason, he did not encounter any monster, and that caught his attention. After some time, suddenly MAZter experiences something strange, that made him realizing - somehow, he felt as if he himself became a part of the game, and even ESC button on the keyboard did not work. Thinking that this might be his imagination, or some sort of game's bug, he continues to progress forward. While looking for the exit from the level, MAZter encounters a zombieman, and in the ensuing battle with the monster, he was wounded. Strangely, MAZter has noticed that he felt the pain from the wound, as if it was real, and he could not explain, how it is possible. With the ESC button still not working, MAZter decides to continue looking for the exit, and soon finds himself first on the E1M1, and then - E1M8 (both from the original DOOM). While making his way to the E1M8, MAZter was constantly attacked by zombies and imps. On the E1M8, he encountered only one (instead of two) Baron of Hell, which he successfully has slayed. Exiting from Baron's area, MAZter meets Atreju, another Doom Power forum user, who found himself in the exact situation like MAZter. While MAZter and Atreju are discussing what's going on, protagonist realizes that this situation might have been caused by a computer program, known as Lucido...

... after that discussion, both doomers are gazing upon the teleport on the platform upstairs, and understand that they must go through it. But since there is no other way, MAZter and Atreju are going through it, and instead of finding themselves into the anomaly (like in the original DOOM), they're teleporting into some unknown catacombs, surrounded by monsters. But before doomers would have been killed by their enemies, help comes, in faces of Klon, Post and MIT (a Doom Power forum user), who're shooting dead all monsters there. After a brief chat with the newcomers, who're telling them that they are experiencing the same thing as MAZter and Atreju are, all doomers decided to join their forces to find either exit, either a safe place. Some time later, their team gets two more doomers, Olax and Plazmer, who also experienced things, similar to what felt MAZter & the others. And finally, they meet Def411, who tells them that they are not alone here, and there is a place, called DoomGrad, where are the rest of doomers, which have been able to get there, are now, and leads them there.

DoomGrad appeared to be a town, built by Cherepoc, who's also in that situation. There, MAZter encounters raVen, who claims that he had seen Kirill, who has been talking with Lucido, a virtual embodiement of the same program, that MAZter and some other doomers launched prior to playing ZDaemon. And raVen tells that Lucido promised to set Kirill free, most likely - from this situation; while saying all this, raVen behaves quite inadequately, and runs away in the end of conversation. At the same time MAZter learns that Urfin, who is acting commander of doomers in DoomGrad, decided to make a campaign to Hell, to find and kill the Cyberdemon; Urfin thinks that this might allow doomers to escape from that place, no matter what that place could be. MAZter visits Urfin, but unfortunately the second refused to stay and wait for nothing to happen. What surprised MAZter was that Urfin has a guide man, who knows a pathway to Hell, and that is Kirill. MAZter attempted to inform Urfin about the possibility of Kirill's joining side with Lucido, but Urfin quickly dismisses this possibility because "he never betrayed us in the past". Realizing that it is futile to influence Urfin, MAZter decides to search for Kirill himself, and learns from Def411 (who at this time was patrolling DoomGrad's outpost on it's entrance) that Kirill went outside DoomGrad, to the underground hatch near the forest. MAZter goes there, battling through imps and pinky demons, when suddenly he became a witness of Lucido and Kirill's conversation. Kirill asked Lucido to give him control over the monsters, instead promising to aid him in his wish to destroy DoomGrad, along with the doomers; Lucido agress, although instead he gives Kirill an ability not to be seen as an enemy by monsters, until the moment there will be first victims among the doomers. MAZter realizes that raVen told the truth, and quickly runs away from the catacombs.

MAZter goes to Urfin once more, and informs him about Kirill's betrayal. Urfin is surprised, and decides to postpone his planned campaign to Hell, for an indefinite amount of time. In his turn, Urfin informs MAZter that Cherepoc is making a meeting with the doomers in his house. MAZter goes there, and summarizes all the information he collected while being in this place: all of doomers are in the game itself; and Lucido was probably the one, who sent them there. MAZter also suggests to make a weapons which'll be able to kill Lucido, since his death will probably release doomers from the virtual reality back into real world. All doomers are shocked to hear this; Cherepoc additionally emphasizes the seriousness of this situation stating that there is a function of automatic disconnect from the server, if the server is downtimed for some time (in other words - if the players there won't do anything at all), and since their bodies are in the real world, sitting in front of their computers, then their brains won't be able to comprehend a quick transition from virtuality to the reality, and their brains will burn in the result. However, Cherepoc also stated that he was able to convince some of his friends hackers to hack doomers' PCs, for some cash (virtual), and that he made a script, which shows the amount of time left until the disconnection from the server. With this meeting over, MAZter is guided by Costja into his own DoomGrad's apartment, to have some sleep. In his dream, MAZter fights Nazis on the simplified maps 31 & 32 from Doom 2. But instead of Cyberdemon on map 32, suddenly aLexx appears, and says him "do not touch the Fiery Dagger!", although he didn't tell, why, because MAZter woke up, hearing Costja's cries, under his apartment's window; Costja shouted to raVen and ProTosS to come back, and that they've stolen the Fiery Dagger MAZter heard about in his dream from aLexx. MAZter goes to Costja, and the second gives him a key to the aLexx's so called "the operator room". MAZter meets with aLexx there, and learns that the Fiery Dagger is a mystical weapon, that was found in the underground catacombs. aLexx also stated that they should be aware of Fiery Dagger's mystic forces. After learning everything he could from aLexx, MAZter returns back to COstja, who informs him, that despite what happened few minutes ago, Urfin decided to make his campaign to Hell in the morning. MAZter decides to have some sleep before morning, and goes back to his bed. While sleeping, he sees another dream - he is talking with raVen, who tells him that "I am doomed", and "You must go to the Gates of Hell - then you'll find the answer you seek".

Waking up, on the morning, MAZter, when leaving his apartment, meets with Olax, who informs him that Cherepoc wants to see him in his house. In Cherepoc's house, it's owner gives MAZter a special device, PocketPC (that he calls "PocketUAC"), which can be used for buying things and paying to get more additional time until the disconnection with the server, and also as a radio set. Leaving Cherepoc's house, MAZter meets with Urfin, Klon, Post & Woody, and makes a plan: he, along with Klon, Woody and Post will go to the Gates of Hell, using the same underground catacombs, where MAZter have seen Kirill last time, while the rest of doomers will stay in DoomGrad to protect it, to prevent Lucido from destroying it. After some time, they encounter an underground labyrinth, which they successfully navigate through; and some time later they meet Jake Crusher, who's, according to his own words, "is lost here", and MAZter suggests that Jake should join the team. Jake agrees. However, going further, and finding themselves on a bridge above hellfire, they are being captured by Kirill.

At the same time, raVen and ProTosS, after running away from the DoomGrad with the Fiery Dagger in their possession, are in the Citadel of Phantoms. It is unknown, how did they got there, but as they navigate their way through it, it seems that this Citadel is somehow connected to Hell, and they are slowly progressing through, while fighting with monsters and demons; among them are enemies, that are half invisible (probably hence "Citadel of Phantoms"). On the way to Hell, they're discussing about the reason, why Lucido is being afraid of the Fiery Dagger, and about the Dagger itself, when they're suddenly seeing the abyss in front of themselves. ProTosS has decided that he'll jump not to take his armor off, and jumps above it, but falls down...

After that, player sees MAZter in some sort of a prison cell, who's been rescued by Olax (who secretly followed MAZter and his team), along with Barsic13. The location of the rest of doomers is unknown. The trio is returning to DoomGrad to warn the other doomers about the capture, but unfortunately, when they finally made their way into DoomGrad, they find that DoomGrad is destroyed, as well as the bots, who protected it; although no body of doomers has been found. They make a camp near DoomGrad's outpost, and try to get in touch with doomers with the help of PocketUAC, but it didn't work. MAZter then remembers that Urfin wanted to make a campaign to Hell, and decides that they will spend night near campfire, and to go in the morning after Urfin's squad.

In the morning, MAZter, Barsic13, and Olax are making their way again through underground catacombs, and underground labyrinth, and they cross the bridge, on which Kirill captured them. Using the teleporter there, they are finding themselves deeper into Hell. Some time after, they first find raVen, and short time after - ProTosS, who survived the fall down into the abyss. Despite the increasing attacks from monsters and demons, nevertheless, MAZter and the others are finidng Urfin, who has been separated with his team, but encountering Kirill and his zombies some time later. In the ensuing fight, his zombies were destroyed, and he has teleported himself somewhere else. Just after the fight with Kirill, MAZter and his companions are reunited with the rest of doomers, whose leader, after Urfin got lost, was Klon. In front of them, there was an old wooden bridge, and it was the only way further. ProTosS decided to go first, when suddenly, the Fiery Dagger has slipped from his hands, and fell into the abyss below the bridge. Realizing, that they must find it, doomers have decided to cross the bridge, and search for a way down into the abyss. But just as when doomers have stepped onto the bridge, it collapsed under their weight, and fell into the abyss, along with the doomers on it.

MAZter survived the fall, although he has lost his consciousness for a while, and when he gained it back, he has found out that he is sitting on the Fiery Dagger. Just as he picked it up into his hands, he sees Lucido fighting with Atreju, and immidiately rushes to the battle with the source of their problems. Even though Lucido was himself powerful enough, he wasn't able to stand for long against the Fiery Dagger's attacks, and soon fell dead. And just in a few moments after Lucido's death, Atreju suddenly disappeared. MAZter didn's understand, what happened, when aLexx came to him, and telling him, that everybody, who touched the Fiery Dagger are doomed to stay in this world forever. At first MAZter is shocked to hear this, but then he realizes that there should be someone else, who touched that weapon as well. And his guess proved itself right when they found Woody, Olax, raVen, ProTosS and Costja. Suddenly, raVen states that he knows, how to return back to the real world - and that was Kirill, to whom Lucido gave a half of his powers. And just as MAZter tells that they must find Kirill, Kirill himself teleports to doomers, telling them that he will kill them all because they have killed his minions (referring to his zombies). The final battle between MAZter and Kirill starts, with the first overcoming all Kirill's dark abilities, and finally slaying him. And just as his corpse fell on the ground, all doomers started to disappear one by one from that place.

MAZter finds himself in the front of his PC, just like in the beginning of the game, and thinks that he finished the game, where he, MAZter, was a hero, when he notices that it is morning already, and it is time to go to work. MAZter goes outside of his apartment, to the street, when he hears an air-raid alarm, what surprises him. But suddenly a zombieman appeared in front of him, with the famous growl sound from the original DOOM, and screen darkens...

Game engine's information
The game was made using the computer program for the making of RPG games, known as RPG Maker 2000 (RM2K, for short), that was developed by Japanese developer Enterbrain, and released in 2000. The games made on RM2K have 320x240 screen resolution, 24x32 character sprites, and 16x16 tiles. Player sees the game from the top view. Most of it's graphics is used in so called "chipsets", which represent either spritesheets with sprites in them, either other graphics. But it is also possible to add custom graphics into it. Some of already existing Doom graphics have been converted into format, that RM2K supports. Visually, most of the games made on RM2K are similar to those on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), most specifically - jRPGs. But it is also possible to modify the game engine to make a bit different RPG than by default.

In terms of sound and music, RM2K supports WAV files, and MIDI files, and it cannot work with MP3 files (although there are unofficial patches that allow RM2K to work with MP3s, their reliability has been an issue). EtD1's music is almost completely consists of MIDI tracks.

By default, RM2K battle system reminds of Dragon Quest like one: turn-based, "front-view" one, where the enemy faces player directly on the screen, and player isn't seeing his own characters. Enter the Doom 1 uses custom battle system, that is a bit closely resembling Doom (or even Doom RPG on mobile phones).

Development
The idea of making an RPG, based on Doom, appeared in 2004 when "DooM Kreators" team has been formed. It's first member was Klon, the leading programmer of "DooM Kreators" (further mentioned as DK). He decided to make an RPG game with Doom elements (monsters, environment, and atmosphere). Soon after that, a demo-version called "Doom Project" was released. However, it was excoriated, because of its bugs and some flaws, and as a result, the project quickly went down. In August 2004, the project has been resurrected, and it was noticed by Russian doomers, known as Olax, raVen and ProtosS. Right after that, the project got new programmers, coders, and writers. It was then renamed into "Enter the Doom". Still, just like the "Doom Project", that early version of "Enter the Doom" went down shortly.

Nevertheless, the idea of the game remained in the air, and in October 14-th, 2004, Klon announced that a new team has been founded. Its members were Klon, Olax, Cherepoc, Morozzz, and Squid (although, according to Klon, "the last one, actually, does not deserve a mentioning, because he was only talking too much, but never joined the actual development process"). The last joined team member was ProTosS, who also turned out to be an excellent gametester. The project started slowly it's regeneration process, and on December 12-th, 2005, final build of the game (v1.0) has been released.

Difference between Doom Project and Enter the Doom
As it has been mentioned, original project was named Doom Project. While it served as a base for the future Enter the Doom, at the same time it has it's own differences, compared to the final build. These differences are:
 * 1 - the design of the locations, like E1M1 (it's most notable difference - geometry, and usage of water where green goo should have been);
 * 2 - unlike Enter the Doom 1, where player picked up a key, and it was only in his/her inverntory, Doom Project had cardkeys, that are in player's possession, displayed on the upper-right part of the game screen;
 * 3 - bit different effect, when player is travelling from one location to another;
 * 4 - some minor changes (like the the player can walk on acid, the cost of losing part of their health with every step on it, while it was no longer possible to do that in Enter the Doom, and e.t.c).

It should be noted that probably the biggest change from DP to EtD is latest's battle system. Doom Project's one used Dragon Quest-like battle system, while Enter the Doom uses different one; it's biggest change is that it is resembles the original DOOM, while at the same time staying turn-based. When a battle begins, player hears specific monster sound (for example, in an encounter imp, player hears one of his two sounds which monster makes in DOOM when sees player), and screen switches to a battle screen. While Doom Project used a command screen-like menu, EtD uses a simplifed choice of commands, while not using the "auto-combat" function from Doom Project, and these are Attack, Skill (a mix of spell and special ability), Pocket (aka Inventory), and Flee (escape from the enemy). Also, player sees his/her enemy through helmet with a visor (similar to Doom Alphas), that contains information about player's health and Skill points. Besides that, in the right-low corner of the screen, player's weapon can be seen (unlike RM2K default battle system). Another of DBE's features is an ability to strafe from enemy's attack - on the moment when the enemy is ready to attack the player, two flashing arrows, that are showing "left/right" are seen on the upper-middle part of the player's helmet: if to push "left/right" button on the keyboard, then there will be a possibility to evade enemy's attack/the enemy will miss. The battles with the enemy are based on "1-on-1" principle: 1 doomer vs 1 monster. It is impossible to change doomer's equipment in battle, or to change your character in battle as well, but it is possible to change your character in boss battles. And when the enemy is hit, a blood splat will appear on the player's visor, and will slowly go down.

Reception
Enter the Doom 1 has been received very warmly in Russian Doom Community, not only because this is a first RPG made by RDC, and based on Doom,but also because it continued where Doom Project left off. DP forum users have been waiting this game for quite long time, and when it was finally released, a lot of them praised the game for it's storyline, gameplay and style, along with the Doom atmosphere. Some criticism, however, was directed at the following points:
 * 1 - it is impossible to save until the player gets PocketUAC from Cherepoc, and it is possible to get killed on the way to the DoomGrad to get it;
 * 2 - only 4 weapons are in the game: pistol, shotgun, chaingun and plasmagun; no fist, chainsaw, supershotgun, and rocket launcher;
 * 3 - sometimes monsters are evading player's attacks very often, what makes the combat quite difficult;
 * 4 - the grinding process can take a lot of time;
 * 5 - at the release of the game, some forum users reported about non-readable font (a separate RM2K font must be installed);
 * 6 - the time between entering the battle/exiting the battle can be irritating for the player;
 * 7 - EtD1's battle system isn't designed for more than 1 monster in battle, just like more than 1 doomer as well.

However, since EtD1 is considered as a "touchstone" in this direction, some of it's flaws can be explained by RM2K's flaws as well.

Localization
Because the game was made in Russia, and it's main language is Russian, no English version were made along game's development. However, one of DP forum's vets, Вру6[iddqd], offered to translate game into English, although for some reason, he didn't do it. After some time it became clear, that nobody will do that, so Jake Crusher volunteered himself to translate the game into English. He spent approximately 2 weeks, and to ensure the quality of localization, he asked some of Doomworld's forum users to help him checking the translation text. One forum user agreed, but up to this day there was no reply from him. As to this day, no feedback from the localized into English EtD1 has been sent to the DK team.

Sequel
Few months later, after EtD1's release, some DP forum's users literally demanded game's sequel. Klon agreed to do another game, and started to do the technical preparations for it: changed game engine from RM2K to more advanced RM2K3 (RPG Maker 2003, which allows much more, than RPG Maker 2000), made the custom battle system for it, and other things. Sequel is known as Enter the Doom Chapter 2: Legacy. In the period from 2006 to 2007, the project was almost canceled, but after some time, it's development didn't stop and continued as planned. At the moment, the process is carried out to expand and improve the game's story - this is the main reason why nobody heard about the project's news/updates for so many years.

At the same time, another project is being developed, with a different team, known as "Enter the Doom Chapter I: The Evil Trap", that serves as a midquel to the EtD1: it's story will take place in the same timeline as EtD1's, but with different events and characters. Just like EtD2: Legacy, the game is being made on the RM2K3.

There is also a spin-off, known as "Enter The Doom: The Chase", which is a shoot'em up game, with enemies appearing on the screen, and player must shoot as much of them as possible, until the timer will reach 0. Weapons have a limited amount of ammunition, and it is possible to scroll left/right. There are 2 characters, each with his own abilities. Made on RM2K3 by Klon.

Trivia

 * Music that plays on the title screen of both EtD1 & Doom Project, is an intro from "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky.
 * Helmet & visor (that are seen in the battles against monsters) are taken from Parkan: The Imperial Chronicles video game, developed by Russian developer Nikita, and released in 1997.
 * The boss in front of the bridge (on which Kirill captured his former fellow doomers) has different sprites - one is Ayla's from Chrono Trigger (non-battle), and succubus from DOOM: The Mars Missions (battle sprites).
 * MotherDemon from Doom 64 is present in the game, as a secret boss.
 * Bots, that are protecting DoomGrad, are Doom Legacy bots.
 * In one scene, Cherepoc mentions about "Mogor" - a funny monster and at the same time - boss from Cherepoc`s own megawad, DDC (short from Doom Do Christmas), that he made for Doom Legacy.
 * While talking with Cherepoc, MAZter shows his displeasant attitude towards Doom Legacy, himself preferring ZDoom.
 * The background for scene with campfire is taken from Chrono Trigger.
 * Most of the battle backgrounds were taken from Doomsday port, while some of them - from Doom 64.