Game Debate #221: Doom II

[Reed Rothchild | 9,914]

[Gloves | 12,247]

Never played it.

[Sumez | 3,153]

Some fun new enemy types, but overall Doom 2 feels like a pretty big step down from the first game to me, simply due to not having as high quality level design. There's a bigger focus on atmospheric and environmental level design, which seemed cool to me playing it as a kid. But at the end of the day, Doom is all about the gameplay.

[DefaultGen | 5,723]

I agree levels are sometimes too big with too much focus on big battles but it’s still Doom so whatever. The super shotgun is one of the most satisfying weapons ever. 9/10

[NostalgicMachine | 325]

Doom and Doom II are both 9/10 games for me. They exemplify that golden era of early 90's gaming. Everything is as perfect as it should be.

[sp1nz | 670]

To quote my post from 2019:

"I loved our IBM PC with random DOS games like Mortal Kombat, Creature Shock, Chip's Challenge etc. but most important ones we owned were DOOM and DOOM II, while both are iconic I like DOOM II more and I beat it on 2nd hardest difficulty when I was 8 years old."

Enemy types, super shotgun, harder game, better for modding and with mods infinite content - overall the base level design may not be as tight as in original DOOM but I don't care due to higher nostalgia and everything else it offers. I'd say this game has a place in my top 10 favorite games of all time, if not top 5. Original DOOM would place very well too, but a fair bit lower still.

10/10

[Andy_Bogomil | 861]

Doom 1 and 2 are both 9s for me. Love these games and still play them from time to time. I used to play Doom 2 on GBA frequently haha.

[TDIRunner | 2,882]

It's the game that invented the Super Shotgun.  It's a 10.

 

Some of the city levels can be a bit boring, but the first and final third of the game have some amazing level design that rival the first game.  You also take the amazing enemy roster from the original add some very challenging new enemies to create one of the best enemy rosters of any video game.  It deserves the 10.  

[Webhead123 | 739]

Amazing game, even if some of the stages are gimmicky to a fault and it is frequently punctuated by two of the most bullshit enemies in gaming, Chain Gunners and Pain Elementals. But even those stumbles can't keep it from being inherently Doom and still one of the best times you can have in video games. Of course, it also gave us the Super Shotgun.

So, it falls just a hair short of Doom's practically perfect 10 for me. That said, it's pretty much everything you would want from a sequel and one of the best shooters of all time.

9/10

[rdrunner | 444]

Played about half way through and quit.  It's just not my type of game/series 

[CT | 171]

Great game. I preferred the first Doom, but Doom 2 added some new enemies, weapons and overall it was lots of fun.

[Tanooki | 5,111]

Oh how I wanted to give this better, but it's an 8.

I like enough here are old enough to remember when these were fresh and the steps over the years, decades since with ports, emulated copies, upgrades, new episodes and the rest were tacked onto things Doom 2 included.

The problem I've had with this, while I liked the added super shotgun, the game itself came at a cost of just been more atmospheric as a plus but as some negatives being less interesting due to boring stage design, less fun new monsters, overly large stages that get tiresome, blander stage designs, etc.  Doom did this better.  I can go back to Doom far more than Doom II, D2 as it is grows and grows and at a solid pace comes in with being more bland and over staying the welcome as you go deeper into the ever growing stages.

The last time it really saddened me was reflecting on the GBA port of all things, holy crap is sthat one fantastic.  And why is it sad?  Because it's accurate, splitting 1 stage into 2 as memory wouldn't fit it, and green vs red blood but it's all there... yet Doom 1 from a two bit low skill studio did a weak jagport of the first and it makes me sad wondering if Torus games got that one to start.    That's why you can get PC total conversion kits for that one to clean it up.  And that's it, it's just Dooms little brother, that kid that didn't get the talent the first born did, or the Arnie vs Danny thing int hat 90s Twins movie, D2 is like the left overs and not as well put together.

Yet despite all that, it's still a fantastic outing in that decade for the genre, few could touch it which still says a lot, but against what it was pulling off from as a sequel small problematic issues just makes it fall short.

 

I guess that's another good reason why DOOM was the one to get added episodes for it, both in the 90s (Ultimate), and even in this decade with Sigil, etc too.  And @Andy_Bogomil (GBA) I still do, it's stunning.

Edited September 11 by Tanooki

[G-type | 2,796]

I honestly don't remember if I played Doom 2 or only Doom 1. Was there a big a difference? I never really got that big into Doom either way.

[TDIRunner | 2,882]

8 hours ago, G-type said:

I honestly don't remember if I played Doom 2 or only Doom 1. Was there a big a difference? I never really got that big into Doom either way.

Same game engine, but with new assets.  Basically, everything from the first game is still there, but with additional enemies and one new weapon.  The episode level format was ditched for a 30 continuous levels with two hidden levels.

 

 

Or as Civvie11 puts it:

Quote

"Same engine, some new monsters, a new weapon.  Doesn't seem like too much of an upgrade if you ask me............WRONG!!!

 

Honestly, his take on Doom II is really enjoyable if you have time to watch through it.

 

 

[TDIRunner | 2,882]

I've been playing a ton of Doom/Doom II/Final Doom lately, and I had just played through all of Doom II within the past week, so this game debate is really good timing for me.

[AstralSoul | 522]

I played through Doom 1&2 for the first time in their entirety, earlier this year. And couldn't believe how well they held up. I think I have a very slight edge to Doom 1 but Doom 2 is also excellent. I'm so glad I finally played them after all these years.  9/10

[wongojack | 313]

I can't really vote.  The whole Doom thing just never really clicked with me.  I played Wolf 3d and that was enough while the rest of the world created an entire genre.  I've gone back and played it some since, and I dunno if shooting demons with a shotgun is enough.  I don't really have it on my "active" backlog list.