Doom II: Hell on Earth

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Doom II: Hell on Earth

Doom 2 - DOS - USA.jpg

MS-DOS - USA - 1st edition.

Developer id Software
Publisher GT Interactive
Published 1994-10-10
Platforms DOS, Game Boy Advance, Macintosh Classic, NEC PC-9800, Windows, Zodiac
Genres Action, First-person shooter, Shooter
Themes Action, Horror, Science fiction
Series Doom
Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op, Simultaneous versus
Distribution Commercial, Open source

Doom II: Hell On Earth is a first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive for MS-DOS on 1994-10-10 and later ported to several platforms. It is the sequel to Doom and the second game in the Doom series.

In the game's story, you play the same space marine as in the first game, only the demons of Hell have reached Earth through one of the Mars portals. Now you must fight them and destroy the huge demon in charge to stop them from destroying the planet.

Personal

Own?Yes. Doom 95 CD port. And digital copy from Doom 3: BFG Edition on Steam.
Won?Yes. Windows port. "Hurt Me Plenty" difficulty.
Finished2002-11-26.

I bought Doom II after it was released for Windows 95 and played it all the time. I would often turn on cheats just to plow though every level mindlessly while watching TV. Playing Doom II often reminds me of the music from Queen's Sheer Heart Attack album, which I listened to a lot when I first played this game. I still occasionally use ZDoom to run various Doom WADs and play the game passively with cheats.

Review

Video Game Review Icon - Enjoyment.png Video Game Review Icon - Control.png Video Game Review Icon - Appearance.png Video Game Review Icon - Sound.png Video Game Review Icon - Replayability.png
7 7 8 7 7

Best Version: Doom95 for Windows

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • I enjoy pretty much all of the additions to the game. Each of the new enemies have their own quirks, the new weapon is pretty sweet, and the various upgrades to the engine are quite nice.
  • The new maps are very well-constructed and professional and make good use of the new features.
  • The idea of Hell breaking loose on a futuristic Earth is a pretty awesome idea, even if it doesn't look very impressive due to the weaker 3D of the time.
  • Bobby Prince once again composed an enjoyable and fitting soundtrack.

Bad

  • There are some new features to the engine, and a couple new monsters, but there isn't really anything fundamentally new about this game. Over all, it feels like less of a sequel and more like an upgrade or mod.
  • A lot of the levels are lacking polish, and some are clearly unfinished.
  • The game allows save scumming. Ordinarily, I appreciate this, but, since the game is meant to be terrifying, and you can save and reload every time you get ambushed, it kills a lot of the tension.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Media

Box Art

This art was used for all ports and regions, just with minor variations to the layout. The painting with the space marine fighting the cyber-demon was painted by Brom, but the Doom logo was designed by Don Punchatz.

Documentation

Graphics

Videos

Review - German Peter.
Longplay - Ultra violence difficulty, 100% secrets, fast monsters.
Longplay - Nightmare difficulty, 100% secrets.
Map differences across versions.

Play Online

MS-DOS, Game Boy Advance (Europe), Game Boy Advance (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?FailThere are no women.
Bechdel test?FailThere are no women.
Strong person of color character?FailThe only human characters are white.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Credits

Role Staff
Programming John Carmack, John Romero, Dave Taylor
Graphics, Art Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud
Level Design Sandy Petersen
3D Modelling Gregor Punchatz
Music & Sound Effects Robert Prince
Support Shawn Green, American McGee
Business Jay Wilbur
Business Assistant Donna Jackson
Sound Engine Paul Radek
Tools Programming John Romero
Box Art Gerald Brom, Don Punchatz

Expansion

Doom II had an official expansion titled, Master Levels for Doom II which included 20 new WADs and 3,000 amateur maps. A stand-alone called Final Doom was also released.

Links

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