They really didn’t need to do this.
In 2019, Doom got a remastered port handled by Nerve Software, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was serviceable enough. It got a few updates that fixed a few of the major problems – including requiring Bethesda.net to login – but it was fine. A perfectly playable version of the 1993 classic.
Five years later, at Quakecon 2024, they remastered Doom again. This time handled by Nightdive Studios, the wizards who remastered a whole bunch of games, from Turok to Quake II. This time they added support for Boom, a Doom source port framework that added a whole bunch of new features and expanding older ones. But they weren’t done with that. Of which has become tradition with all id Software remasters by Nightdive at this point, they added a new episode called Legacy of Rust.
Mild spoilers for Legacy of Rust within.
This time the trusty Doom Slayer now must take down another swath of demons, with a few new foes and weapons at the helm. Some of these, like the Banshee and Ghoul, are unused resources from Doom that never made it into the final game. The Incinerator and the Calamity Blade replace the Plasma Gun and BFG9000 respectively, and function differently than the original guns, which does take a bit of getting used to.
After beating both episodes, I have to say this expansion is tough, even on Hurt Me Plenty. While I am not a Doom god, I think I have at least a modicum of skill to handle most encounters without too much trouble. But with the new monsters and weapons, it does take a bit of getting used to. Lord knows I’ve accidentally burnt myself to a crisp a few times while using the Incinerator at close range.
Even some of the new enemies, like the Vassago, a Baron of Hell-like monster that shoots fire that propagates where it lands, which is a neat mechanic because it discourages hiding behind cover making potshots at them. Makes things a lot more chaotic.
The levels themselves have a rather complex level design. Lots of tricky platforming, a fair share of key and switch hunting, even having switches to raise and lower portions of the map, something that was in some Doom levels but not as common as it is here. Hell, there’s even later levels that evoke the infamous Slaughter map phenomenon. The folks really stretched the limits on what the Doom engine could do, and I applaud them for it.
While I’m not completely in the know about the Doom WAD community these days, I am familiar with some of the iconic custom Doom levels that have come out in the past decade, like Paul “skillsaw” DeBruyne’s Valiant, the two Back to Saturn X episodes, among many others. And Legacy of Rust feels a lot like those custom megawads, a distillation of 31+ years of Doom level design. Stylish, complex, and yet fun. It’s a good sampler for what the Doom community can do, and how far it’s come since its original release. I’m acquaintances with some of the folks at Nightdive who worked on the port as well as some of the Legacy of Rust levels, and I have to say they did a damn fine job. It’s worth a try, but maybe get acclimated to vanilla Doom first if it’s been a while like it was for me.
Much like the 2019 version, this remaster isn’t for the Doom vets like me and several others. Most of us, myself included, will do the same thing as we’ve been doing for 20 years: Find DOOM.WAD and DOOM2.WAD inside the game folder, grab a source port of your choosing, and go from there. No, this remaster is for the average folks, those with a PS5 or Nintendo Switch, and would go “yo, they put the original Doom on here!” Those same folks who have only played the original flavor of Doom, maybe futzed around with John Romero’s SIGIL – also now built into this remaster – and stuff they might’ve heard about like myhouse.wad. Here’s hoping that this leads to folks really looking into the Doom WAD community and playing some of the well-regarded classics. Or they could be like me and play END1.WAD which I enjoyed more for the custom sounds than the actual level design.
The best part is if you already own Doom, this remaster is a free update. I knew past me had the right idea to buy Doom and Doom II on Steam back in the day. And that was back before any of these remasters, when it was literally the original game in DOSbox. They really didn’t need to do this, but I’m glad they did.
