Doom II

Doom II: Hell on Earth, released September 30, 1994, is the sequel to Doom, which was released a year earlier.

Story

Immediately following the events in Doom, the player once again takes the role of the nameless Space Marine who has proven too tough for the forces of Hell to contain. After being killed on Phobos, and subsequently fighting his way out of Deimos and Hell itself, the Marine is back home on Earth, only to find that it too has fallen victim to the hellish invasion.

The player progresses through 30 levels (not including two secret ones), and on the way he learns that the remaining survivors of Earth's population are being held in a space port and must escape via transporter. Once the Marine accomplishes that, he is free to live out the rest of his time alone on Earth while humanity hopefully continues on elsewhere. But before long the Marine learns of a way in which he can finally thwart the invasion once and for all...

Gameplay developments

Doom II was not a dramatically different game from its predecessor. There were no major technological developments, no major graphical improvements, and no real changes in fundamental gameplay. The game still consisted of the player negotiating non-linear levels, picking up keys to unlock new areas, and of course shooting down hundreds upon hundreds of monsters.

There were several new additions in terms of monsters and enemies. A new zombie, the aptly-named Heavy Weapons Dude, was added (this one wielding a chain gun). New additions for the forces of Hell proper include the following:

The Hell_Knight, a junior version of the Baron of Hell.

The Mancubus, a large, blob-like creature with two flame-throwers instead of arms.

The Revenant, a skeletal creature armed with guided rockets.

The Arachnotron, a junior version of the Spider Mastermind, though armed with a plasma gun instead of a chain gun.

Quite possibly one of the most annoying monsters ever created, the Pain Elemental, which could float around and, if not killed fast enough, could spit Lost Souls out.

The Arch-Vile, a thin demon that had a means of attacking the player (or other monsters) without use of a projectile, and could resurrect certain kinds of fallen monsters.

A new boss, the overall end boss, called the Icon of Sin, which was really nothing more than a giant wall (with a goat's skull visage) with a small hole in the forehead where its weak spot was. Inside this weak spot, as a joke, is the disembodied head of John Romero impaled on a spike. The Icon of Sin could summon an infinite number of monsters to kill the player.

The SS trooper from Wolfenstein 3D appears in the two secret levels, which are throwbacks in design (and music) to the Wolfenstein 3D game. Also, a hanged Commander Keen figure makes a cameo in the second secret level.

The only new addition in terms of weapons was the double-barreled shotgun, which could fire out 20 pellets instead of the regular shotgun's seven. It was very useful in dispatching Demons, Cacodemons, and any form of medium-sized monster.

There was also one new item created, the Megasphere, a tan sphere that could give the player 200% armor and health.

A small change in gameplay was instituted. Instead of the player playing through three related episodes, gameplay takes place over one giant episode, albeit there are interludes for when the story develops. Instead of watching the player's progress on a map (as in the original episodes of Doom), the screens between each level show simply a background. It also meant that the player would not have to start over with a pistol every nine levels or so.

The level design, much like in Doom, was supposed to mimic the areas the player was going into. Now that the game was taking place on Earth, a real-world look was attempted at, with some levels taking place in certain kinds of military installations, and others taking place in residential areas. Some areas do resemble places on Earth (like Downtown), but most simply seem strange. Eventually level designs no longer attempt to appear realistic, but by then the player has reached a place where Hell is merging with our reality so it makes sense.

In general, Doom II was well-received but was regarded in some areas as a disappointment. In particular, its lack of major new features and its uninspiring level design were the biggest complaints. It did, however, introduce the FPS multi-player world to the map known as "Dead Simple," which is regarded as one of the best deathmatch maps ever. Nevertheless, Doom II went on to sell 2 million copies, making it the highest-selling id Software game to date.

Elements from the game would be used in the expansion pack Final Doom.

Levels

Speedrunning

TAS runs

External links

Wikipedia article about Doom II
Level credits: "Doom Credits" (last updated 7 January, 1998, retrieved 27 October, 2004) by John Romero, available as part of the archived copy of Lee Killough's Doom pages on Romero's website.