Doom

6 great Doom mods not called “Brutal Doom.”

Featured Post Image - 6 great Doom mods not called “Brutal Doom.”

I’m not a big fan of list articles. At best, you could find interesting stuff that might intrigue you and maybe share to your friends on Facebook. At worst, you find terrible click-bait articles that seem to be written more for a paycheck than any informative value. It’s something I’ve refrained from doing here, as I prefer writing interesting long form stuff instead.

Seriously, this is what Cracked is now. I weep for our future.
Seriously, this is what Cracked is now. Remember when they actually wrote parody articles? Probably better than “11 Amazing Things You Didn’t Know About Your Pants,” anyway.

One particular list article by Cracked irked me considerably. A recent list, “6 Awesome Hacks That Did Mind-Blowing Things With Old Games” featured some cool stuff like Iron Man or the Incredible Hulk in Grand Theft Auto IV, or the entirety of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind in Oblivion‘s engine. Even Just Cause 2: Multiplayer Mod, where you could go crazy in the world of Just Cause 2 with hundreds of people, made the list. But what was number one? Brutal Doom.

I won’t go too much into Brutal Doom as it’s made the internet rounds everywhere over the past couple of years, but it’s championed as the “definitive way to play Doom,” with more gore, violence, Mortal Kombat-style fatalities, even a key that’s simply dedicated to flipping off enemies. It’s amazing at first, but it outstays its welcome pretty quick.

I’m gonna be honest: I think Brutal Doom is an overrated, mediocre mod. The only thing it has going for it is the ridiculous macho factor, and that seems to be championed by every average dude who always writes about the Doom mod scene. Brutal Doom is usually mentioned as “the way Doom was meant to be,” but it really isn’t. Brutal Doom isn’t the way Doom was meant to be played, it’s Doom if it was a terrible caricature of itself. It’s the Doom comic in game form.

Seriously, I wonder if there's people who love this sort of stuff.
All this does is make Doomguy look like a god damn psychopath who should be in a mental asylum, not fighting monsters.

So, as a response to the article (as well as breaking my own personal rule of no lists), I’m making a list of 6 awesome Doom mods that aren’t called Brutal Doom. These are ones that the Doom community swear by, and are more worth your time than Brutal Doom any day of the week.

As always, these require Doom to run. You can get Doom II on Steam for the low low price of $5. After that, you’ll need a source port to play these. I recommend GZDoom (for Singleplayer) and Zandronum (for Multiplayer). While these mods will work perfectly fine with the default Doom II levels, I do recommend playing these with custom levels, or PWADs, which I’ll link to as well. Unless stated otherwise, these are all focused on single player.

Police Brutality: Wildweasel presents Terrorists!

(idgames link)

Ever wanted to be an action hero? Terrorists! will live out your dreams of being the next Chuck Norris. Armed with only a pistol and the ability to kick dudes in the face, this mod adds real life weapons and enemies for you to fight in.

Stopping crime the only way possible: with a six shooter and a bunch of bullets.
Stopping crime the only way possible: with a six shooter and a bunch of bullets.

In addition to the weapons and enemies, there’s also a new feature where you level up your guns by killing enemies with them. Upgrades start out simple, like faster fire rate, but as you level them up, they get more crazy, like a Beretta that converts to burst fire, or a revolver that becomes a long-range rifle. Even your melee and grenades can get upgrades, from electric grenades to explosive roundhouse kicks.

Our hero, kicking robots like it ain't no big deal.
Our hero, kicking robots like it ain’t no big deal.

Wildweasel’s made some other great mods, like the WWII-inspired Nazis! (which goes great with the Egyptian themed EPIC 2), and the action packed Diaz. Terrorists became one of my favorites, only because of the weapon upgrades. The three I just mentioned are all pretty good mods for Doom, and give enough gameplay changes to make it just as fun. For those who want to live out their action movie dreams without actually getting hurt, Terrorists! will do the job nicely.

(Full Disclosure: I am friends with the guy who made this mod, so I might have a slight bias on this choice. It’s still high quality, though!)

Samsara

(ZDoom forum link)

Ever wanted to play through Doom campaigns with characters besides Doomguy? Well, Samsara adds characters from many old games of the era, from Duke Nukem, to B.J. Blazkowicz, even the heroes from Chex Quest and Marathon make an appearance here. Now playing as each character will allow you to use only that character’s weapons, so you can’t run around with 4-5 weapons from different games, sadly. However, that’s a compromise I can deal with considering the variety of classic characters involved.

Yeah. I'm the Ranger, a friend of mine is the Chex Quest guy, and we're fighting a Baron of Hell. Welcome to Samsara.
Yeah. I’m the Ranger, a friend of mine is the Chex Quest guy, and we’re fighting a Baron of Hell. Welcome to Samsara.

I’ve always loved crossovers between different game series, official and non-official. Samsara scratches that crossover itch. Playing as the various characters gives a much different take on Doom. Nothing’s more fun than ripping through Chex Quest as Duke Nukem, or playing custom levels like Community Chest 4 with Ranger, or bringing firearms to the world of Heretic. There’s even mods that add the enemies from those games, giving us an unusual mix that you normally don’t see in games like this.

B.J. Blazkowicz, Duke Nukem, and the guy from Marathon, all fighting on the same level. What's not to like?
B.J. Blazkowicz, Duke Nukem, and the guy from Marathon, all fighting on the same level. What’s not to like?

Samsara is meant to be played online, either fragging with friends in deathmatch or working together in co-op, with each person choosing different characters for each situation. Though you can play this single player in GZDoom, it’s not the recommended way to play this. Get some buddies together in survival co-op and rip through as many levels as possible. Just make sure you put it on random character for the ideal Samsara experience.

Reelism

(Official website)

Let me put it this way: Reelism is one bizarre mod. It’s a wave-based survival mod where you score points by killing dudes, but as opposed to other Horde Mode-style games, this one’s different. Every wave starts a slot machine which determines the the rules for the wave. Could be anything from fighting Wolfenstein 3D enemies with explosive weapons and the ability to fly, to fighting enemies from Strife in a freakin’ tank. This, coupled with the levels of a bridge, a hell planet and a generic JRPG world, makes for a ridiculous experience that you gotta play to believe.

I wasn't kidding about the tank part.
I wasn’t kidding about the tank part.

Some of the mods make it so you’re using weapons from a certain game and enemies usually from a different game, but sometimes they throw tricks in, like activating Rise of the Triad‘s Dog Mode for a Round, or throwing in harmless bronies. Others make it more challenging, like removing friction to Nintendo 64-like fog to exploding enemies. Some are just useless, like touch screen mode. All of this plays into Reelism’s absurdity.

I'm in a futuristic cyberworld fighting Doom enemies with Hexen weapons and can fly around at will. Don't try to understand it, it'll just hurt your brain.
I’m in a futuristic cyber world fighting Doom enemies with Hexen weapons and can fly around at will. Don’t try to understand it, you’ll just strain your brain.

Basically Reelism is the god damn melting pot of Doom mods. The items, enemies and weapons come from dozens of different old-school shooters, while also adding a few enemies of its own. All the levels are inspired by other games, and it has no consistent style. Though in this case, the randomness of it works in Reelism’s favor, making sure the experience is different every time you play.

However, the mod is not easy. Most of the time I was lucky to get past three rounds, and that meant games that were no longer than 2-3 minutes at a time. Despite that, it’s a great mod for when you got a few minutes of time to kill.

Psychic

(ZDoom forum thread)

Psychic is a bit different from the other mods shown here. Where most of these just replaced weapons or threw in everything but the kitchen sink, Psychic adds elemental magic to its arsenal.

The shop. Want to heal instantly or get weapons immediately? Here you go. Just make sure you got enough bloody cash.
The shop. Want to heal instantly or get weapons immediately? Here you go. Just make sure you got enough bloody cash.

When you kill enemies, you pick up Bloodmoney which you use to buy items in the shop. The things you can buy range from buying/upgrading weapons and magic, health and armor pickups, even brief powerups like enemy damage giving you health back or enemies being scared of you. Bigger enemies give more Bloodmoney, especially if killed with your elemental powers.

Learn lightning, and strike these fools down in an instant. They’ll never know what hit ’em.

This gives a wholly new Doom experience, even with level packs like Requiem. Granted, this doesn’t make Doom itself any easier, in fact it’s a bit more challenging than the other mods mostly due to the limited weapons available. Don’t expect this mod to make Doom a cakewalk, even with powerful magic and guns.

At times, Psychic’s design feels like cyberpunk with a pinch of Gothic flavor, which makes it stand out a bit differently than the other mods shown here, and it’s pretty cool. It reminds me of 2000s-era action/horror movies, which was kind of a popular thing during the era. It’s quite a shame the idea of guns and magic has never been touched upon much before this, because Psychic has an interesting idea here.

Beautiful Doom

(Mod DB page)

Up to this point, I’ve covered mods that drastically changed the gameplay. Usually by adding new weapons and abilities. But what about the more cosmetic side of Doom modding? Where it’s more about looks than drastically changing the gameplay mechanics? I’ve got your answer right here with Beautiful Doom.

Screenshot_Doom_20140607_161555
The happy medium: Gory violence, while still playing like the Doom we all grew up with.

I always recommend that new Doom players try to play Doom the closest to the original as possible (that means no mouse look, jumping, or crouching!) because using mods or source ports that add features can basically break the game and give players the wrong impression on how Doom was played. Beautiful Doom doesn’t do that. The core gameplay is the same as it was back in ’94, but now features flashier graphics, more blood and wonderful particle effects. It takes those kind of aesthetics that Brutal Doom enforced, but without the drastic gameplay changes alongside it.

All the action of Brutal Doom but without the bitter aftertaste.
All the violence of Brutal Doom but without the bitter aftertaste.

If you liked the pretty graphical effects of Brutal Doom, but didn’t care for the ridiculous dismemberment, I recommend Beautiful Doom instead. Same cool effects, but with the classic Doom gameplay experience intact. No ridiculous finishing moves and taunt buttons here, and it’s better as a result.

Russian Overkill

(ZDoom forum page)

I saved the best for last. Get ready to frag with glorious Mother Russia.

Russian Overkill lives up to its name. It has ridiculous weapons that pretty much destroy anything in their path. Dozens of shotguns, machine guns, and rocket launchers are at your dispersal. There’s also Black Hole launchers, explosive plasma launchers that can obliterate large groups of enemies, shotguns where the alternate fire launches spent shell casings… this mod is god damn nuts.

Because who doesn't want to kill their enemies with loads of spent shotgun shells?
Because who doesn’t want to kill their enemies with loads of spent shotgun shells?

This mod is clearly meant for those who just wanna kill everything in sight with the most ridiculous, overpowered guns without any worry of dying. Even through later levels of some of the hardest mods, I had loads of ammo and plenty of health and armor to spare. I was an unstoppable killing machine, the way Stalin would’ve intended. Provided he was around and supported crazy weaponry like this.

Seriously, this is meant to be played with levels where there’s boatloads of enemies at every turn. Throw on something like Scythe II and let ‘er rip with these weapons. The weapons are so overpowered that you’ll feel like a real badass even if you’re not playing on the highest difficulty.

Even the difficulty levels are ridiculous. One of the difficulty levels just replaces all the default weapons with the most powerful, devastating, area-clearing weapons. It’s great if you wanna clear entire levels with these guns, but bad if you value your survival at all.

Shortly after I used this, I killed pretty much everything in the room. Including myself.
Shortly after I used this, I killed pretty much everything. Including myself.

If there’s any Doom mod from the list that should be tried at least, it’s this one. It’s overpowered and hardly balanced, but it doesn’t really need to be. You’ll want to wreck everything in sight, and you don’t care what you use to get there. It truly is overkill.


Granted, there’s a lot of Doom mods that have come out for the past 20+ years. More than likely I missed a few here and there, so if there’s a Doom mod that’s a personal favorite, leave it in the comments.

Keep in mind that I don’t hate Brutal Doom per se, stylistically it’s a well-done mod. It’s the excess gore, the over-the-top elements, and its ridiculous “hardcore” attitude that rubs me the wrong way. It’s not a bad mod, just highly overrated. All the other mods I mentioned are much better, more fun experiences. For anyone who wants to get into what the Doom community’s been doing over the past few years, these are much, much better examples than what Cracked thought deserved the #1 spot in their crappy mod list. (I would’ve replaced the Baldur’s Gate mod with something like Black Mesa instead. Bunch of guys take ten years to release a remake of Half-Life, now that’s a story.)

Other Doom mods I’d highly recommend include Action Doom and its sequel Urban Brawl, Zen Dynamics, and Zharkov Goes to the Store. I could easily cover a whole bunch of these, but I only wanted to cover some of my favorites. There’s a whole boatload of great Doom mods, this is just a small sampling of them. Hell, I’d recommend checking out the Cacowards at Doomworld, there’s a bunch of great mods there too.

This is why Doom is one of the best games of all time. You won’t find these absurd mods in a modern shooter, that’s for certain. And if they did, they’d probably sell it to you for $15 a piece instead.

Hi there! If you somehow stumbled upon this in a web search, welcome! I have many other cool interesting posts, most of them not really about Doom. Check ’em out!

I do this as a labor of love, and I don’t get paid for it. If you like this kind of stuff, you can donate to my Ko-Fi or Patreon. Thanks!

67 comments 6 great Doom mods not called “Brutal Doom.”

Anonymous says:

Hideous Destructor!

CaptainOvaltine says:

This Article Sucks.
Stinks of Snobby Sentiments.
“Play Doom, Dont Crouch, Dont Jump…”
“Weaah”
…What is “Beautiful Doom” anyway? (Rhetorical)

You never explained, you just showed screens of Gore then typed:
“If you liked the pretty graphical effects of Brutal Doom, but didn’t care for the ridiculous dismemberment…Beautiful Doom.”

(Screen Shot of Gore)

Howsabout…….
If I want a different game, I’ll play a Different Game.

I dont need to use a Mod on Doom so I can Have a Hammer and Fly while playing Hexen with psychedelic textures.
– Or use a Mod on Doom to Pretend I’m “Chuck Norris”.
– Or use a Mod on Doom to Be Jensen from Deus Ex.
– Or use a half Made Mod on Doom to play with weird, half finished weapons.

Brutal Doom Adds AI – Do these do that?

You wrote this to Bash Brutal Doom.
Probably Because you are on a Crusade for the Kid who told the Internet he hated life and wanted to kill himself, but that he was too scared to kill himself…
SM_IV has made 20+ versions of his Mod. He does it in the Face of the Net and All you Moral Crusaders who REALLY trash him about “His Character”- when all he did is post a link.

Wait – What were we all saying we were doing?
Pretending we were Saint Peter and making LAME DWEEBY “Articles”??

AW MAN! ……I thought we were PLAYING DOOM!

To Any Doom Player Reading I Say:
Play Some Mods, Dude – These are Ok. I Like Brutal Doom, Check it out.
Go to Doomworld and Play all the Cacaward Winners Mods to start, Lots of those showthe kind of Talent that is possible out there.

As For the Author, Chinese Tony Danza says it Best:
“Go F*CK YerSewlf!!”

iSpook says:

Man, don’t you sound fucking salty.

Micheal larson says:

He’s nothing more than a mere hot-headed fuck that must understand the fact brutal doom isn’t perfect. I mean its perfect in its own way but it cant triumph anything else. Also, Brootol duum fans are:
1. pathetic because they bitch and moan when someone leaves a negative opinion soley on the mod itself.

2. Psuedo-intellectuals because they try to act like a bunch of smartasses and think they can prove other wrong on why other wads sucks and brutal doom is the best. They’ll protect Sergant Mark IV (THEIR GOD) from any trouble he caused. They also, use dictionary and other english related terms to sound so professional.

3. Retarded because they act crazy too and say stupid shit.

4.annoying because they insist people to play the damn game.

And many more shit

If some doesn’t apply to you bd fags. I mean fans. Don’t think of crying to me.

Denyitall says:

Now, check out the actual new Doom. It includes glory kills, dismemberment and general increased pace of gameplay pretty much like BD. We get it, you don’t like it. I find normal Doom bland as a salad with nothing but lettuce in it, and I grew up with it. Get over it, dude.

RHGBS says:

Kill yourself.

@Micheal larson
Kill yourself.

Sigfried says:

Total agreement. 😀

What I can say is this: most of these mods can be greatly enhanced by Brutal Doom. As in, Brutal Doom Lite. Especially Russian Overkill. I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPLAIN how well Brutal Doom enhances gameplay, even in other mods, especially Russian Overkill! You get to blow stuff up in RO, but with Brutal Doom, it’s like having your cake and eating it too! Several of the graphics (such as torches and Imp fireballs) are up to par with the graphics from RO, and now you can reduce your enemies to a much more convincing bloody mess!

Beautiful Doom is like some softcore version of Brutal Doom, so it would be unnecessary to pair Brutal with Beautiful.

Anywho, I do not like how the author continued ignorantly bashing Brutal Doom. Brutal Doom doesn’t turn the Doomguy into some psychopath waiting to be taken to some mental institution, it’s a gameplay ENHANCEMENT. It’s Doom REIMAGINED. It makes the Doomguy into the ultimate killing machine! I dare say it’s Doom as it SHOULD be.

I’d say the author just hasn’t played enough Brutal Doom to know what he’s talking about.

P.S.: (To the Author) Be sure to add “The Guncaster” to the list. It’s another mod by PillowBlaster, the same guy who made the Russian Overkill mod.

Sigfried says:

I meant… I totally agree with CaptainOvaltine… not iSpook.

iSpook says:

I’ve played brutal doom back when it basically ripped off Beautiful doom and I have to say that while Brutal doom can be fun at times, It’s people like CaptainOvaltine (and you to a lesser extent) is a VERY good reason why Everyone hates Brutal Doom.

When it isn’t because Sargent Mark4 is a complete Fuckhead and cockwrench, it’s the fans getting all up in arms because people express that they don’t like Brutal Doom, or point out that in the end (no matter how much fun it can be in the moment), Brutal doom is rather… Simple, and Generic. And if it is not the fans doing that, there are fans that are like you (No offense, of course) that basically ask “Can this run with brutal doom?” when ever there’s a new gameplay mod released.

As far as this bit about it being a “Gameplay enhancer”: no, it’s not a “Gameplay Enhancement”, At points the mod can be a Downgrade in gameplay, making maps neigh impossible due to the AI enhancements or due to the fact that the code necessary to make certain features work and the amount of blood the enemies give off with shot makes the game lag like hell.

Micheal larson says:

I definately loved Ispook because he got the idea

Josj says:

Shut up you whiny bitch. Your expression is like a girl with a whiny cunt rag.

Michael Larson says:

Ahahahahah 🙂 🙂 🙂
Josj needs his mommy because he’s spoiled.

LaughingAtYou says:

This is a reply to iSpook, who’s clearly intelligent enough to name himself after a company that’s been nothing but generic and simple since it started (I hope you caught my sarcasm there, because I laid it on PRETTY thick).

First off, how about you try deconstructing Brutal Doom without insulting the creator or its fans, although I know you kids today with your fallacious arguments like to pretend you have any semblance of intelligence outside of your half-baked ad hominem attacks and non-sequitur logic, but alas, I’ll give you a break, after all you seem like a cool edgy guy who surfs skate-boards at sunset and have been doing that before the other kids came around and started doing it too, am I right? As for that comment I just made, since I know you’ll be wondering where it came from, I’M MOCKING YOU FOR SAYING “I’ve played brutal doom back when it basically ripped off Beautiful doom” – No one gives a shit what your bias on the matter is.

SECONDLY, I love how you say it’s “simple” and “generic”, and then go on to state how the game becomes IMPOSSIBLE because of the ramped up difficulty and increased AI. Gee, you must be pretty fucking stupid if you’re unable to understand and grasp all the new features and gameplay aspects added to such a “simple” mod. I’ve already beaten numerous WAD’s with it, it just takes skill, patience, and a small bit of luck (as with any game).

Not to mention, I find it ironic that you say you hate brutal doom specifically because of its fans, because I hate people who hate brutal doom specifically because of people like you, heh, isn’t that funny? They’re condescending, snotty little brats who seem to feel entitled to their opinion as if it’s the only correct one. Well sorry kid, but it’s not. It’s almost insulting for me that I should have to explain how you’re wrong, but I’ll just tell you to actually go play it, since those two little excuses for criticisms you gave it are rather “simple” and “generic” statements I’ve seen by plenty of idiots who attack the mod and its creator “just because”.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get paid by SGTMK IV for posting this, because clearly only fanboys of his are the only possible dissenters against your opinion in that delusional, psychotic made-up world you live in.

4kvaperchamber says:

@LaughingAtYou tfw to intelligent

Jayfish11 says:

total agreement with captainovaltine, this article states “brutal doom is a poor caricature of what doom is” than goes on to say 6 games that a like doom but completely different… i mean there is a reason bethesda trashed doom 4 and begun working on “DOOM” because they played brutal doom and realized this is exactly how doom is meant to be. an adrenaline filled ride of carnage where your not afraid to punch a cyber demon in the balls if hes all up in your grill!!

Anonymous says:

The new Doom as got only one thing in common with Brutal Doom: the fatilyties. But when you think about it, thats the only innovative thing Brutal Doom adds.

4kvaperchamber says:

DOOM doesn’t have a “Flip Off” keybind, though.

Anonymous says:

Awwwww poor baby oval, a person without the same opinion, so what do you do? bash him. Please

Micheal larson says:

You’re autistic

Rohan Singh Jamwal says:

Totally agree with you captain!
Played Brutal DOOM. Freaking loved it. Haven’t enjoyed most games this much since I can remember.
But everyone has their own opinion. Honestly Im not much of a “DOOM” fan as much as I am a Brutal DOOM fan. I tried DOOM again and it just seemed so…slow! So drabby and mundane.
But again…each to their own.
However the logic behind the author trashing Brutal DOOM is rather flawed. But anyway. Was good checking the other mods. That was my objective as it is.

Micheal larson says:

You sound a bit rediculous. It’s the fact that you’re a modern gamer that doesn’t seem to enjoy the old doom. You don’t deserve to be running a psychotic game on a old game, faggot.

LightVelox says:

this “Micheal Larson” must to be a Retard Autist…

Michael Larson says:

Oh please, LightVelox is nothing more than an unintelligent human being who thinks calling one a “Retard Autist” is going to fix everything. Like I always say, Brutal Doom Fans are stupid and childish, they nothing more than immature beta make manchilds who says the most dumbest things. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahhaha 🙂

Anonymous says:

People who think that normal Doom is slow should be playing bad games like COD instead of actually playing something that kicks ass like Doom.

LaughingAtYou says:

Ironic how Michael Larson says “Brutal Doom Fans are stupid and childish” and then goes on to say just about the most stupid and childish thing you could imagine him saying. But I guess he knows what those two things are from personal experience, eh?

Careful talking like that around these old decrepit purists. They get angry when you mention how much the original Doom is akin to chewing grass, even if you played the original and recognize it for what it is.

Anonymous says:

1.- You should not play Doom with jump and crouch. It can break maps.

2.- The autor explained what Beautiful Doom is: a very good gore mod that even adds new special effects to the game.

3.- You talk like all the mods he showed here are bad. Russian Overkill (the mod that you said that as got weird, half-made wepaons: something only idiots would say) and Reelism (the mod that you can turn into a tank, use hexen weapons, etc.) both won a Cacoaward.

4.- Brutal Doom isnt the first mod that added enemy AI. That argument is invalid.

5.- “SM_IV has made 20+ versions of his Mod. He does it in the Face of the Net and All you Moral Crusaders who REALLY trash him about “His Character”- when all he did is post a link.” Sargent is one of the most toxic persons the community as ever seen. He was banned from alot of foruns for posting toxing comments, sending instructions of how to KILL YOURSELF to a person who only did a little crytic to the mod and he stole alot of assets and sprites from other mods and gives 0 credit because “the modders dont deserve the credit”. Brutal Doom started over Beautiful Doom but he never gave credit, for exemple. That guy is a selfish neo-nazi stealer. He deserves the hate he and his mod get.

I dont hate Brutal Doom, but sometimes the gameplay feels really boring, while normal Doom’s gameplay always kicks ass.

VeryPeeved says:

“You should not play Doom with jump and crouch. It can break maps.”
or you could use a bit of discretion and not break maps. it’s not that hard, for the most part

We need a doom mod that makes you rip and tear the guts out of walking candy. says:

Nominated for saltiest DOOM player.

Anonymous says:

Burtal Doom fanboy found!!!

Andrew Z. says:

I don’t agree with your opening comments about Brutal Doom being mediocre since there’s a lot of hard work put into it, and there’s plenty of other features added in other than the gore and fatalities; there are reasons why it gets a ton of praise by the video game community at large. I wholeheartedly agree, however, that it gets way too much attention compared to the vast number other great Doom mods it overshadows.

I really like the list of mods presented (as I honestly never heard of a couple of them before reading your article), but I think the article could’ve been written a bit better overall. My biggest complaint was the fact you opened your article with such standoffish and condescending phrasing about Brutal Doom, especially because you change your opinion about it in your conclusion, and not keeping a consistent tone in your writing throughout the article.

Also, you may have wanted to expand your list above six (I understand Cracked did it with theirs, but that doesn’t you had to with yours) and included Action Doom and the other mods on said list, instead of them just being footnotes in your conclusion, if you wanted to have an article that is meant to polarize the attention that Brutal Doom gets. I understand this article is part of a website about obscure video game stuff, but most gamers only have skin deep appreciation for Doom, with most Doom mods going almost completely unnoticed outside of its longtime/hardcore fans or its modding community.

While I think Brutal Doom is a tad bit overrated, I can appreciate the fact that it has given the Doom modding community quite a bit of outside attention over the past couple of years. Maybe trying to incorporate that fact into your article would’ve worked better if you wanted to convince people to try other Doom mods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to fault your article for your opinions, as my problems are purely based around how this article was written. Other than my personal gripes, however, I thought this article was an enjoyable read.

Greatly appreciate the feedback, it really helps me out.

A friend of mine suggested that I either expand this article or write another one about Doom mods, and I have considered it. But with Doomworld’s Cacowards doing basically the same thing that I did here, I’d have to really think about whether or not it’s worth doing. Granted, not everybody follows Doom fansites these days…

Weej says:

Hi BJ,
Came across the blog and have been perusing random articles and I gotta say – you’ve got an eye (and ear for the kind of stuff that attracts retro gamers, a good mix of standard retro-fare and current gen stuff).

I didn’t know how to email you directly, long story short: I help run a retrogaming site (think abandonia but private) and it’d be nice to have you on there! What you talk of in your posts bears a striking resemblance to what we talk of on our forums and IRC channel everyday – maybe it could be a good source for future content, but I’m primarily interested just to have you on. Would be nice to have another voice in our midst. If you knew of Underground-gamer this i s a spiritual continuation of that. Let me know what you think! I’ll be glad to send you an invite.

Micheal larson says:

The people who constructed brutal didn’t work hard. They just stole weapon sprites and acs. Also, you sole concern is that you would’t stop whinning about how he layed his opion that boring over ratted game brutal doom.

Micheal larson says:

Excuse me for my typos. My ipad isn’t nearly perfect for me.

Edu Kosta says:

What is stated without evidence can be safely dismissed without evidence.

Yeahdude says:

You really need to get a life, it seems youve spent years checking the comment section to bash anyone with an opinion that differs from yours.

Josj says:

So what!?
How about you shut up pussy.

Michael Larson says:

Awww, I made a baby cry, lol :). Would you like me to email your mommy about your issues on the internet, manchild? 🙂 🙂 🙂

VeryPeeved says:

please, don’t feed the trolls

Anonymous says:

Doom came out in 93, not 94.

n8 says:

This article was seemingly written by a guy who knows what doom should be…I guess we don’t know what doom is supposed to be…but this guy writing the bitter angry article knows…’

Micheal larson says:

So what!? Nobody doesn’t truly know what doom should be.

as most of us know doom at first was going to be a licensed ALIENS game but decided to work on their own ideas so from what we can tell aliens was a survival story about aliens slicing up marines and workers etc. so id decided to add their own spin by creating a different scenario and different time era(presumably 2145) with demons and instead of making it atmospheric and dark they wanted it to be a bloody and long tiresome fight for survival of one man against the dark armies the anger and in terms of gameplay they wanted players to feel as if they are the lone soldier and giving them the ability to approach levels in their own using their own tactics. the marine is able to sprint at incredible speeds and hold many weapons only assuming the reason why he is able to hold all that ammo and weapons. there wasnt any reloading and it may have been because they werent able to do that or they wanted to add a fun arcade aspect to it.

people like ended up liking the fast and adrenaline pumped type of gameplay
while some people like me like the tactical approach and i have no clue why id and many other companies arent implementing any gameplay and difficulty customization and not only cosmetic customization
their should be options to adjust where the weapons are positioned, whether there is ADS or not, realistic enemies( for cinematic,visual players) that take less shots to take down as they would in a movie,agressive enemies option, sneaking, selecting the types of enemies you would like to encounter excluding bosses, reloading option, optional sprint or player speed caps, enemy behavior, player health caps and other realist option, music(since everyone is whining about the music -_-

everyone forgot what about what made doom so awesome in the frst place and why it always fascinated me throughout my entire life,
it was the immersion, the rush you get when you have only 2 HP and there are 2 barons approaching you and you need to make a crazy attempt to reach that stimpack or the little health bonus with by chance could change the tide of the situation resulting in you treading over a mess of the barons intestines or getting mauled to death.
the weapons were unique and iconic and had a noble purpose in your fight against the hordes of hell.
the enemies also were iconic and very memorable and had their unique attacks and strategies and weaknesses for you to uncover.
the feeling of achievement when you watch the spider mastermind fall in defeat before you and the hype when you saw daisy’s head and wondering how pissed off the marine must have been.
the music had alot of variety from metal, suspenseful, dark choirs, and the orchestral like music.
the levels were huge space stations,sewers, shores of hell, war torn cities ridden with secrets filled with ammo or a damn cacodemon

the fanbase is strongly divided mostly because of people like the macho brutal doom fans and the people who feel the need to rain on their parade and both are in the wrong by saying shit like “this is how doom SHOULD have been” or people criticizing the mod and calling it “OVERATED” and “terrible caricature of itself” when really the mod brought other good mods to life like project brutality and other “brutal” versions of early 3d fps games and it is really unfair to call people praising him and his work dick riders because his mods and levels like the hell on earth starterpack.

Why the fuck cant we grow up and be happy that a new doom is coming out and the doom modding community is still going strong and accept each other’s flaws and imperfections.

Anonymous says:

Dude I can’t Run thwe game, when i try to load it throws an error that says it could not load the decorations for weapons, how do i fix it?

Oh hey, I played Zharkov Goes to the Store once! It was great fun. My favorite weapon had to be the melee, where he tears off his fist and throws it- for explosive damage! Good times.
I have some other ones, too! DemonSteele is a gameplay mod in which you dual wield a sword with different guns, and instead of hitpoints you have a set amount of ‘lives’- each time you’re hit you have a mercy invincibility period, and when you run out you die. You can mitigate damage by dashing through shots and deflecting projectiles with your sword.
It’s really anime-inspired, but it has good voice acting (you play as a woman!) and there are really really cool special attacks that you can use. Hard as balls, but really fun!
GMOTA (Go Medieval On Their Asses) is another really cool gameplay mod, in which you have two weapons only- your sword Zarach and the Blazter, an arm mounted cannon that shoots chargeable flame bolts or metal darts. Each of these weapons has a powered state (the Blazter’s transition from powered to unpowered is really cool!) that gives you increased power and access to special attacks with your subweapons. You can pick up subweapons for each main weapon, like daggers, lances, axes, and the torch for Zarach; or the earthquake bomb, missiles, and shotgun for the Blazter. The main idea was to have a minimal set of weapons with a wide variety of uses, and it plays quite well. The enemies in the game are replaced with variants as well.

As for Brutal Doom, I would have to agree with you about it being retardedly macho. I don’t use the ‘Offend’ stuff or even the fatalities, they’re friggin annoying and in the second case really tedious. And there are features that are extraneous and annoying, like the ‘last stand’ shotgun guys or the friendly marines. THEY HAVE THE WORST LINES JESUS CHRIST. But I do love the extra edge and intensity that the mod gives, what with the leaping imps and the actually dangerous Zombie Guys… even though it can get unplayable on certain map packs. And the melee combo system is SO FUUUN like you wouldn’t believe, sometimes I’ll solo groups of demon and imps just one-two-three punching them into walls and exploding heads with flying kicks. It’s a blast. Also gotta love the sheer amount of death animations and things put into it.

Like your blog! I’mma read some more of it 🙂

Micheal larson says:

Do you have a Youtube or anyhing? Because i think you got yourself a follower 😉

MALAK says:

Personally, I think Smooth DOOM trumps Beautiful DOOM in every way. Wish you would’ve given it some coverage. Doesn’t alter the gameplay (the bullet ricochet effect in Beautiful DOOM is obnoxious), while adding a lot of (optional) variants and significantly smoothing animation, all while staying in style.

Anonymous says:

I think you are hating brutal Doom, the new Doom is out and it seems like they actually copied brutal doom/project brutality in that crazy and nonsensical gore and destruction. Because it’s fun. And we all want to be a guy that tears apart hell itself, making hell then swallow the ripped part. Mods like Psychic implemented Brutal Doom’s core for templates of animations, bloodspill coding and stuff. You really don’t hate Brutal Doom… You can’t, Doom’s awesome 😉

Anonymous says:

Sorry to doublepost, I don’t know how to edit here…
I just forgot to say that I’d give you 10/10 if you wouldn’t have said that about Brutal Doom… Heh, just kidding. Amazing job

Yeah, that’s great and all, but I’m pretty sure Psychic came out before BD, so…

Edu Kosta says:

>Dismisses Brutal Doom as parodical and infantile.
>Puts Russian fucking Overkill at the top of the list.

C’mon man, I’m not even that much of a BD fan (my most played mod is Samsara w/addons, though I sometimes play some Project Brutality) but at least, if you gotta bash something just because, have some coherence.

Anon says:

Thanks for the laugh, everyone.

“Everyone hates Brutal Doom”
“SgtMarkIV deserves all the hate he gets”

Hahaha… are you serious? What hate? The haters are the exception, not the rule. What world do some of you people live in? Brutal Doom is easily the most popular Doom mod and brought tons of people back to the game after over a decade. None of these other ones did. Many people inside of the gaming industry have dumped mountains of praise onto SgtMarkIV, the only people hating are small time bloggers, YouTube channels going nowhere fast, and modders on the ZDoom forums that can’t even come close to popularity.

Deal with it.

Anonymous says:

Eat dick.

Anonymous says:

jeez, and I’m guessing you think that brutal doom is the only good doom mod?

Anonymous says:

Man, Brutal Doomers recieved a lot of hate on this. I’m kinda new to Doom in general (or at least classic Doom 1 and 2, I had Doom 64 as a kid, game f*ckin rocks.) and I’ve gotta say, I enjoy Brutal Doom.

I’ve tried a few different mods, Psychic is basically Devil May Cry 1 without the sword and gauntlets (and really, who want’s to play DMC with just the guns?). If I wanna play DMC, I can go play it. Psychic is a good mod, but all it makes me wanna do is go play DMC. Most of the mods on this list don’t sound appealing to me in the least. Russian Overkill is… well, too overkill. Reelism is… just strange, I like to play Doom for it’s Doominess, not for the strangeties people can come up with.

And with mods like Demonsteele and GMOTA (WHY DID YOU NOT INCLUDE THESE AUTHOR?!?) they are really fun… for a while. They got old for me kinda fast, for some reason. Not sure why, it’s probably just me. But they were kinda like DMC as well, particularly Demonsteele.

Beautiful Doom is something I’ll have to look at, as well as Sasmara, if I can convince some of my buddies to play some Doom with me. Thanks for recommending those, my jolly good author dude. 🙂

But, as I said before, I really like Brutal Doom. Project Brutality has waaaaay to many f*cking guns, it gets tedious to cycle through them all, but Brutal Doom is fantastic. It’s like an expansion of classic Doom’s gameplay. It’s kinda cheesy, but you can’t deny that it’s fun. It doesn’t change Doom, it just… updates it. Gives the enemies more options, gives the player more options, give the weapons more options, it’s just a better Doom. Now, the classic game friggin awesome. I love it. It’s really fun. It really is better than most of the garbage that gets spat out by the industry these days. And when I just wanna play some Doom, I’ll go play that. But Brutal Doom is like sticking the expansion pack in your N64 and seeing a game at it’s full potential, and by God is it glorious.

Now, Project Brutality is like the expansion pack to Brutal Doom. As I said before… way too many guns. Like, when I need to switch to a gun, I wanna be able to reach it lickity split. I do enjoy the other guns, they are really fun… there’s just so many. And I’m a sucker for cheese, I always find it hilarious to pick up the BFG and hear Doomguy quote the Doom Comic, which is something that I found to be absolutely hilarious. “My cause is just, my will is strong, and my gun is very, very large.” Cracks me up every time. Additionally, the enemy’s extra attacks and variants are awesome. A lot of work went into that mod, and I can really appreciate that. And the fact that all these things can be disabled is pretty awesome as well. That’s a mod that cares for it’s players. And that slide kick… is pretty cool.

Now, obviously, the best mod that could ever possibly exist would be one that allowed you to play as Doomguy’s progenitor, GUTS!!! Replace the Cyberdemon with Zodd and the Mastermind with Griffith, and we got something really cool going on here. Give the player the Dragonslayer, Crossbow, and Arm Cannon. It would need a cool melee comboing system type thing. Replace/enhance the base demons… yeah, this would be coolios. Why has no one done this?

Or another cool idea… would be to make a monster update kinda mod that added Nightmare versions of every monster (like the Nightmare Imp from Doom 64). That would be something, huh? 😀 INVISIBLE UBER FAST CYBER-DEMON!!! 😀

But uh… yeah, that’s my two cents. Oh, and another amazing mod you left off was Legacy of Suffering. Awesome weapon variants, enemy modifications, great atmosphere and immersion, its a wonderful mod. The only complaint is that it was planned to have a sequal and that’s never going to happen, but as it stands it’s still a grand experience, especially for the Doomers amongst us who enjoyed Doom 64 or Doom 3. Go check it out if you haven’t already.

this log sucks… just because you dont like brutal doom doesnt mean you are the holder of the absolute truth. half of this shitty article consist of you bashing on brutal doom, but then you add beautiful doom to the list.. which is essentially a lesser version of brutal doom.. but the overall concept still the same.. you are just a noob. ive been playing doom since 1994. you clearly know nothing.. your argument is invalid and your opinion is insignificant. brutal doom is a masterpiece and thats why it earned numerous awards. one of them cacoawards. you probably dont know what that even is. and for the record.. if brutal doom was so shitty because is soooo brutal that you cant even handle… then why do you think ID made DOOM 2016 so fucking similar? with a lot of exagerated gore, finishing moves and hand expressions same as brutal doom? let that sink in in your small mind a little.

I don’t get these mod thingies on (PC) games in general. I’ve always had this “play the game (as closely) as originally intended” mentality. I’ve recently played through DooM (Registered 1.2 as I didn’t want the version with 4 episodes and wanted as early full version as possible) and DooM II for the first time on PC, with DOSBox, using only a keyboard. (Have played GBA versions through years ago, PS1 version just before DOS versions.) It was a nice experience, playing them as they were intended to be played. From what I’ve seen, these “enhancements” on various mods and sourceports, though optional, can break the intended things on them maps.
The thing played on DOS may look dated today, but we need to remember it’s stuff of its time (’93 & ’94) and I’m fine with that. Don’t need all those “enhancements” that alter the game somehow. I think I also have a bit of “if I don’t like it as is, I’ll leave it be”, can one say “if it needs mods, it’s them mods that are good, not the game”? (Also I hate the term “vanilla [game name goes here]”.)
If one somehow makes a game of one’s own and people alter it to their tastes because they don’t like something on it (for example one pixel on something is wrong color to them) and the original concept is lost, one wouldn’t like that, right? RIGHT? I wouldn’t like that at all.

RHGBS says:

Kill yourself.

Anonymous says:

no u

cunt says:

Only six? and if i didn’t know about all of those already!

By the way, this might be your only relevant article, and it’s because you put ”brutal doom” on it’s title.

Anonymous says:

LOL at the Brutal Doom fans who can’t take criticism, just like the creator of the mod itself.

Anonymous says:

I don’t understand why this much salt against Brutal DOOM is necessary. I mean, I’ve played DOOM in it’s original style, but Brutal DOOM adds more to it, and if you’re upset about it being a gorefest well… that’s kind of what DOOM was considered when it came out in 1993. Plus id even said that had the capability been available at the time, Brutal DOOM is how they would have wanted DOOM to be played, hence many of the features from it being put into DOOM 2016.

Like seriously, either you’re one of the fucks in the world that think changing anything from the way it was made/done originally is considered the ultimate sin, get off on being an edgelord troll, or simply just don’t actually like DOOM. I don’t see why you would go through this amount of lengths to bash it.

He just praised other Doom mods so how can he hate DOOM?

LOL…another whiny Brutal Doom fan. You people make me laugh defending that mod to the death.

Brutalrubberducky says:

I’m not mad because this article shit’s on brutal doom… I’m mad because I didn’t see guncaster on this list

ACE1252 says:

I’m not much of a Brutal Doom fan either. I’ve just never been a blood and gore fan. I few favorite mods of mine are Reelism(mentioned above), Complex Doom & LCA, Colourfull Hell(monster randomizer), and Death Foretold(D4T). I’ve been working on a mod for D4T….nothing huge but it’s classic monsters with some randomization, D4T weapons, mod drops, no runes, glory kills, chainsaw kills for ammo, and a intro change. Looking good so far and I’ll most likely release it on Mod DB as an addon for D4T. ICARUSLIV3S(Mr. Icarus) does some good reviews and play throughs of Doom mods.

[…] back to 2012!) are at the new address, if you want to remember the comments section of that “Doom mods better than Brutal Doom” article, or the time I talked about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s various music […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *