Information AboutDoom 2 |
''Doom II: Hell on Earth'' is a First-person Shooter Video Game created by Id Software . It was originally released on the IBM PC on October 10 , 1994 . It is the sequel to the popular and revolutionary game '' Doom '', which was released a year earlier. In 1995 , ''Doom II'' won the Origins Award for ''Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1994''. Unlike ''Doom'' which was initially only available through shareware and mail order, ''Doom II'' was a commercial release sold in stores. STORY Immediately following the events in ''Doom'', the player once again takes the role of the nameless Space Marine who has proven too tough for the forces of Hell to contain. After being teleported from Phobos , and subsequently fighting on Deimos which is hanging on top of Hell itself, the Marine is back home on Earth, only to find that it too has fallen victim to the hellish invasion. The player progresses through 30 Levels (32 including two secretly accessed levels), and on the way he learns that the remaining survivors of Earth's population are being held on Earth and the only means of escape is the space port with massive ships that can carry the remains of Earth's population into space. However the demons know this and have placed a fire force field over the space port, so that ships cannot land or leave. The marine must battle his way through the infested space port and deactivate that fire force field. Once humanity is finally evacuated from the ravaged, infested planet, the Marine is the only human left on Earth. He sits and waits for death, content in the knowledge that he has saved his species, giving them a chance to continue on elsewhere. Only minutes pass before the Marine receives an off-planet transmission - humans in orbit have managed to find out where the armies of Hell are spilling from. If the Marine can reach this gateway, he can thwart the invasion once and for all. The Marine wearily pulls himself to his feet and moves off to the portal, cutting a swathe through the demons in his path before finally arriving at the gateway. He sees no way to close it on this side, and so dives through to find a solution on the other side. In the game's own words, "what do you care if you have to go through Hell to get to it?" The Marine finally reaches the home of the "largest demon (he has) ever seen." Once the player fires enough rockets into the exposed brain of the demon, dodging constant attacks from lesser demons the larger one summons, the demon (known as the ' Icon Of Sin ') explodes, devastating Hell in its death throes. When the chaos finally ceases, Hell is in ruins, the invasion permanently halted. The Marine wipes his brow and begins the long journey home, looking forward to helping to rebuild Earth. GAMEPLAY DEVELOPMENTS ''Doom II'' was not a dramatically different game from its predecessor. There were no major technological developments, no major graphical improvements, and no real changes in fundamental gameplay. The game still consisted of the player negotiating non-linear levels, picking up keys to unlock new areas, and of course shooting down hundreds upon hundreds of monsters. However, due to there being larger and more complicated maps, with larger groups of monsters, the game required higher system specs than the original. The main additions to the game were the additional monsters available for the player to fight. The new enemies are as follows:
The SS trooper from Wolfenstein 3D appears in the two secret levels, which are throwbacks in design (and music) to the Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny games. Also, a hanged Commander Keen figure makes a cameo in the second secret level. The only new weapon addition was the double-barreled Shotgun , which could fire out 20 pellets instead of the regular shotgun's seven, making it very useful in dispatching Demon s, Cacodemon s, and any form of medium-sized monster. There was also one new item created, the Megasphere, a tan sphere that could give the player 200% armor and health. 3-4 of these are found on the final level, The Icon of Sin. A small change in gameplay was instituted. Instead of the player playing through three related episodes, gameplay takes place over one giant episode, albeit there are interludes for when the story develops. Instead of watching the player's progress on a map (as in the original episodes of ''Doom''), the screens between each level simply show a background. It also meant that the player would not have to start over with a pistol every eight or nine levels (as was the case in ''Doom'', since each episode consisted of nine levels, including bonus levels). The level design, much like in ''Doom'', was supposed to mimic the areas the player was going into. Now that the game was taking place on Earth, a real-world look was attempted, with some levels taking place in certain kinds of military installations, and others taking place in residential areas. Some areas do resemble places on Earth (like Downtown), but most simply seem strange due to engine limitations. Eventually level designs no longer attempt to appear realistic, but by then the player has left the normal non-warped Earth. (After level 21, the skies are crimson red with mountains, unlike previous levels which had apartment buildings.) In general, ''Doom II'' was well-received and went on to sell 2 million copies, making it the highest-selling id Software game to date. Elements from the game would be used in '' Final Doom ''. LEVELS
MAP30: Icon of Sin Level 30 is the game's final challenge along the normal sequence of levels. Upon noticing the player, the final boss says the following phrase backwards: "To win the game you must kill me, John Romero." John Romero, the game's chief designer, has an image of his head impaled upon a stick in a small room behind the final boss; this is only accessible via cheat codes, but a player may win without cheating by shooting through the boss. Interestingly enough, the song is made so that if you play that backwards, it sounds exactly the same as it does forwards. MAP31: Wolfenstein Level 31 is the infamous secret level along with its follow-on MAP32: Grosse. This level was created by Sandy Petersen . The Nazi enemies were borrowed from Wolfenstein 3D , a game by Id Software and published by Apogee Software . This level was inspired by the first level on Wolfenstein 3D except that there are parts of the level with varied altitudes and/or varied light levels. This level can be accessed via MAP15: Industrial Zone. It is missing in all German releases of the game, as it features certain symbolism banned in Germany ( Swastika s etc.). MAP32: Grosse As with Level 31, Grosse contains Wolfenstein tilesets and is not included in German releases; it may be accessed from Level 31 in most versions other than the German and Playstation releases. Like MAP31, it is based on a Wolfenstein 3D level (Floor 09 of Episode 1), although it has extra secrets and varied altitudes. It is notable primarily for its inclusion of four hanging dolls of Commander Keen , which the player must shoot to exit the level (some see this as a mere in-joke on id's part, while others take it as id moving on from making such games, and literally killing the CK franchise).
REFERENCES
TRIVIA Much of the music in Doom and Doom II is heavily influenced by various heavy metal and grunge artists. Robert Prince has sampled some of his influences into the game, including artists ranging from Slayer to Black Sabbath . Some of the similarities are quite obvious, whereas other are somewhat vague. An mp3 file can be found floating around the internet titled "Bobby Prince is a Filthy Thief" (despite it not being technically true) which samples some of the similarities. They include the following (for Doom II):
EXTERNAL LINKS ; Official product websites ; Fan sites
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