Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl

Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl is a 2008 computer game which runs on the ZDoom engine. It was mainly developed by Stephen Browning, with ACS scripting by Mike Watson and James Bauer. It is the prequel to the total conversion Action Doom, but has a different style of gameplay. Whereas the first Action Doom was a sidescrolling shoot 'em up using Doom's first-person perspective, Action Doom 2 instead simulates a beat 'em up.

The project
Development on Urban Brawl began in 2004 just months after release of the original Action Doom. Instead of egregious advertising, like the original, the project remained entirely unknown to the community until the day of release. Urban Brawl features a distinct comic book art style with colorful scenery and characters rendered entirely in cel-shading. The game's enemy roster was drawn on paper, scanned and coloured. Similar to Beat 'em ups, many characters are a mere palette swap of previous enemies. Instead of using Doom's engine to calculate light, the lighting is texture based. Objects and walls cast black shadows when seen in sunlight and blue textures were used to simulate a moonlight appearance.

The game can run as a standalone either with version 2.3.0+ of ZDoom or with its own included executable, requiring no IWAD to run.

Outside of gameplay, the story is told mainly through black and white, film noir-style cutscenes inspired by Sin City. Darknation wrote most of the dialogue and cutscenes, while Mike Lightner contributed the voiceovers. The story can branch off in different paths depending on the player's actions, and features multiple possible endings.

The soundtrack was created entirely by Ralph Vickers.

On December 10, 2008, Action Doom 2 was one of the winners of the 2008 Cacowards.

Versions
Action Doom 2 was available in two forms: A free download, and a CD that could be purchased from the official website for USD$9.99 through PayPal. The CD version came with its own case and box art, as well as several exclusive bonus levels including a survival zombie war set in an urban environment. The sale of the CD version has been discontinued as of May 20th, 2010. As a result, the bonus levels have been released for free on the Action Doom 2 website.

Promotional offerings
Scattered throughout each level of Urban Brawl were unique specialty items which awarded the player 100,000 points. Additionally, discovering all 9 unique items revealed to the player the official contest website and how to win. Winners were...
 * Dylan Sanchez
 * Robert Yarborough
 * Mike Ewer

Endings
There are six endings:


 * You meet Peter Crisp, but he has a trap laid out for you. You get arrested and thrown in prison for life.  (You blindly follow the bartender's advice to take a taxi - or you use a warp cheat to the final stage, skipping other critical triggers.)
 * In the subway, you lost the lead to your daughter. (You entered the subway without first obtaining the lead, and didn't get knocked out.)
 * In the abandoned house, you defeat Hugo without encountering the cop, and marry Mary and have two kids. You think you see your daughter after ten years. (This requires obtaining a secret on a previous level.)
 * You hit Peter Crisp while he is carrying your daughter.
 * You meet Peter Crisp and defeat all of his goons. However, your daughter turns against you.
 * You meet Peter Crisp, defeat all of his goons, and shoot down the helicopter. (Missing the helicopter causes you to stand still and get gunned down, and is not a special ending in itself.)