DOOM + DOOM II
Released: August 8th, 2024
Developer: id Software, the DOOM modding community
Publisher: Bethesda, a subsidiary of Zenimax, a subsidiary of Microsoft
Systems: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S (reviewed)
I’ve just accidentally saved over all my progress in TNT: Evilution with REKKR, because you’re not given a warning if you save over your file after switching games. In a really annoyed mood, I suddenly want to write a review for DOOM + DOOM 2, another rerelease of the classic shooters.
You might want to blame me for not being more careful with my saves, and all I can say is that ADHD is fun! What isn’t fun is doing most of the Black Tower map again.
My personal grievance unfortunately pales in comparison to the other problems this package has. Ranging from the questionable to the unforgivable, what should be an easy win for Bethesd-id Software has been a shitshow, and now I feel compelled to write about a bunch of decades-old games, ones that are claimed to be "definitive" and "newly enhanced."
Uh huh.
I wasn’t going to do this, but the software pissed me off one too many times. On a petty level, I’m also amused that when I made a factual mistake while criticizing the 2019 rerelease of Doom, Bethesda’s marketing guy was quick to give me a big ol’ lecture about screwing up.
Well, at least I’m not so incompetent I managed to screw up releasing Doom of all things.
The games themselves are as great as they always were, the very picture of “seminal” in the medium of computer games. I grew up with Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth, and I’ll rarely refuse an excuse to play them again. I have, in fact, been glued to this latest release for around two weeks. I can’t say I’ve cared about most modern games enough to play them until literal dawn.
Fundamentally, this should be an incredible offering. As well as Doom and its sequel, you get every official PC addition to the series, an entirely new campaign, and access to an updating stream of mods. Playing this version on a console especially is a brilliant thing, since you can access ways to play Doom that you’ll have never had if you're not into PC gaming.
Anyway, the software crashes if you hit the L1 button in the pause screen. There’s your console version.
This has been a pretty consistent occurrence whether playing with mods or base games, and it is 100% replicable across the board. One accidental button press and you can kiss what you were doing goodbye.
Even if you’re careful not to accidentally press the Crash Button, DOOM + DOOM 2 might just do it anyway. I am highly perplexed that games capable of running on calculators and toothbrushes are unstable as hell on an Xbox Series X, but again, I’m not a developer so perhaps I’m just naive.
If you ignore these issues, the games themselves run really well, but they should do, because it’s fucking Doom.
As far as the official content goes, you get quite a lot: Doom, Doom II, Master Levels, both parts of Final Doom, No Rest for the Living, Sigil, and Legacy of Rust. In addition, a number of mods have been officially curated, including such classics as Harmony, Tetanus, and my personal favorite, Scientist.
Now we’ve arrived to the rerelease’s most controversial issue, so let’s talk about those mods.
If you’ve heard of DOOM + DOOM II in any capacity, chances are good you’ve already heard about the pig’s mess they made of its WAD incorporation.
So poorly moderated it looks like almost zero vetting has been done, the current state of the mod browser is atrocious. It’s a minefield of copyright violations, stolen credit, and content that simply doesn’t work. The absolute ineptitude on display is hilarious and infuriating in equal measure, and at the time of writing it seems nothing has been done to improve matters.
There are four companies involved in this circus - Microsoft, Zenimax, Bethesda, and id Software. Within that obscene chain of companies there are absolutely enough resources to handle mods in a professional manner as opposed to this amateur hour shit. That a corporation capable of spending billions to acquire Activision Blizzard cannot be buggered to at least make sure Doom WADs work correctly is an indictment of the highest order.
Anybody can upload whatever they like to DOOM + DOOM II’s mod browser, and the result has been downright offensive. Respected creators of beloved maps are having their work uploaded without their blessing or even their names attached. Any random uploader can claim the credit, and even those stating in the description that the work isn’t theirs often don’t bother to say whose it is.
There’s also plenty of content that I sincerely hope lands Microzenibethesdid in trouble. One mod uses Mr. T’s likeness and voice. Others take assets from such properties as The Simpsons, Mario, and Fist of the North Star. I must say, I do like that a few games introduced me to cute MIDI versions of hit songs - notably Ironic and Self Control - but something tells me they ain’t licensed.
We’ve also got mods that don’t work at all. The horror-flavored My House map has been uploaded to the browser at least half a dozen times and not a single version can run - My House requires the source port GZ Doom, which DOOM + DOOM II isn’t. I’ve also encountered at least one WAD that cannot functionally save progress - the mod is treated as uninstalled when attempting to load a file.
All these oversights are so bloody ignorant it’s hard not to view them as malicious, like a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters when it comes to claiming ownership of game modifications. It wouldn’t be the first time Bethesda or id have hamfistedly tried to seize control of user content. Frankly, I don’t know if ignorance or malice would be worse in this case.
Ignorance is almost certainly the reason though.
I’m just waiting for some truly horrific ones to crop up. So far there at least seems to be enough oversight to stop the horrifically racist or queerphobic creations, but there won’t be a finger strong enough to handle the amount of pointing and laughing I’ll be doing at the companies responsible if one slips through.
The browser itself is a masterwork of inadequacy. WADs are thrown up onto a basic screen currently spanning over 70 pages of content with no search functionality whatsoever and only a handful of basic filters. If you select any mod and then back out, you'll be shunted to page one even if you're dozens of pages deep. The rudimentary filter you applied will be removed as well.
Also, as a petty note, only one of the five filters is an actual filter. The others simply sort the mods by category. They couldn't even get the definition of filtering right.
You can’t play your mods from the browser itself by the way, because that would be too convenient. You have a separate menu of plain text for all of the mods you've downloaded. Stupidly, you cannot delete your mods from this mod menu... you have to return to the mod browser for that.
Jesus bloody Christ.
If the litany of problems weren’t a factor, would this package be worth it? Console players will likely get a lot more out of it than PC users since the latter can get as many WADs as they like with better vetting and discoverability than the “professionals” provide here.
The all-new Legacy of Rust isn’t truly essential for anyone but the diehard fans, though whether it’s fun will depend on the type of Doom maps you prefer - if you like overwhelming enemy numbers, massive ambushes, and sprawling environments requiring puzzle solving and platforming, then Rust is for you.
Such style of play has its fans, but I find the new campaign overdoes it to the point of desensitization. You can only be "surprised" by Revenants so many times until you’re bored of them, and some levels are truly convoluted.
The new enemies are cool, even if two of them are just variants of Lost Souls and the Banshee constantly makes a painful noise. I really like the Incinerator weapon with its risky gimmick of causing lingering area damage to enemies and players alike. It replaces the Plasma Rifle entirely, while the BFG gets its own fiery stand-in that spreads a huge wave of flame across the screen. It’s pretty cute!
I certainly don’t hate Legacy of Rust. Some of the large maps are genuinely cool, it’s visually interesting throughout, and the new goat-skulled demons are excellently designed. By the same token, I find quite a few maps too long-winded to stay engaging.
However fun one might find it, Legacy of Rust isn’t enough to forget the absurdity of this release’s flaws.
It should be nigh impossible to fuck up releasing Doom at this point, but trust this collection of utter clowns to find not just one, but several ways of doing so. DOOM + DOOM II oozes carelessness and ineptitude all wrapped up in an attitude of apparent contempt.
Still, the remixed soundtracks absolutely slap.
4/10
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