STRAIN

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Revision as of 16:31, 9 January 2013 by Kmxexii (talk | contribs) (Other notes)


1997
  1. Requiem
  2. Eternal Doom
  3. GothicDM
  4. STRAIN
  5. Mordeth
  6. The Talosian Incident
  7. Dawn of the Dead
  8. Hell Revealed
  9. Hell's Eventide
  10. Chord NG
1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998
1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003

Cacowards

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STRAIN is a 32-level partial conversion for Doom II released in 1997 by the Alpha Dog Alliance. It features nine new or modified monsters through the use of DeHackEd, modified weapons, and a soundtrack written by David "Tolwyn" Shaw, Mark Klem, and Jon Landis. The project had a sporadic development history, exceeding a year due to cyclical interest and disinterest [1].

Story

STRAIN occurs after the events of Doom II. A military officer in a secret base on the Earth's moon has been engineering demons, creating a new breed of Hellspawn which breaks free of its confines, making an initial landing on Earth. The Doom marine undergoes an experimental treatment to increase his combat potential. Its side effect is that it leaves virtually all of its subjects in a state of perpetual, murderous aggression.[2] The in-game story follows four episodes as the marine fights to an infested spaceship that's landed on Earth, afterward battling his way deep into the heart of the secret installation where the demons originated from.


Levels

First "episode":

Second "episode":

Third "episode":

Final "episode":

Secret levels:

Weapons

STRAIN modifies the original Doom weapons as follows.

  • Fist: The marine punches quickly with both fists in succession. Both swings are boosted by the berserk powerup.
  • Pistol: Fires faster.
  • Shotgun: New graphics and fires faster.
  • NFG: Replaces the plasma rifle. Its base damage is 7 points higher.
  • Psychic Blaster: Replaces the BFG9000. It consumes three rockets per shot, launching partially invisible projectiles at a faster rate that only cause blast damage.

STRAIN makes several other core gameplay changes.

Monsters

STRAIN features a number of new monsters. The most basic monsters (zombieman, shotgun guy and imp) appear unchanged, as does the arch-vile. cacodemons, hell knights and barons of hell fire faster projectiles. The commandos have new sprites but are otherwise unchanged.

  • Strain Imp: Replaces arachnotrons. Appears identical to an imp with a higher-pitched alert noise. These move incredibly fast and have slightly more HP. Attacks begin with a brief pause, after which they throw fireballs at a steady pace.
  • Strain Demon: Replaces demons. Recolored to bright red. They are significantly more durable than regular demons.
  • Holo-bot: Replaces revenants. Move very slowly and fire both types of revenant missiles, which travel at a much slower pace. Also appears in a partially invisible variety.
  • Doppleganger: Replaces lost souls. They are similar in appearance but brightly colored. They attack with a fireball before charging.
  • Minister of Pain: Miniature cyberdemons. They fire normal rockets but are vulnerable to splash damage.
  • Polydrone: Flying cubes that resemble spawn cubes. They attack with the spiderdemon's chain shotgun. Their corpses are fiery wrecks that damage the player at close proximity.
  • Demon Lord: Replaces mancubi. Demon Lords are recolored barons / hell knights and are much tougher, being the most durable monsters in STRAIN. They attack in several barrages of five green plasma attacks.
  • BFG Trooper: Looks identical to zombiemen. Attacks with BFG blasts.
  • "Vacuum Demon": An unused monster that replaces the SS Trooper. It is invisible, incredibly small, incredibly fast, and can kill the player in god mode. The STRAIN team made it to simulate death due to exposure to the vacuum of space in certain sections of the story's moonbase but did not implement it in the final product.

Other notes

  • MAP07: En Route is impossible to complete in ports based on old versions (prior to 2.3.0) ZDoom, as the level relies on the occurrence of a spechits overflow in order for the exit to work. Recent versions of ZDoom identify the map and automatically apply the required compatibility flag. There also problems with the DeHackEd patch when it is used with Doom Legacy. Doom Wad Station provides a fixed version at their STRAIN Page.
  • MAP09 originally appeared as MAP04 of Dystopia 3.
  • MAP23 originally appeared as MAP10 of Dystopia 3.
  • Holger Nathrath's levels may have been donated outtakes from the cancelled Serenity IV project. He attempted to donate such maps to the Eternity TC and Sam Woodman's megawad, neither of which were completed.

Additionally, MAP17, MAP18, and MAP24 share a room giving a sense of partial continuity.

External links