DOOM‘s gameplay and engine make it an extremely versatile game, which has led the Doom community to expand upon it for decades.
All the fan mods and content tend to make some making minor modifications, while others try their hand at the most absurd things possible.
One such fan project, Reelism 2, turns DOOM II into a wave-based horde shooter, adding sprites from Quake, Hexen and God knows what else.
It can be quite jarring to play it for the first time because of how fast everything is, the mod is almost an assault to your senses at first, but it sets in eventually. Here’s a look:
All of the sprites featured in the mod are from different games made in Doom‘s engine, so even though the mod is a mishmash of assets everything feels like it belongs in a weird way.
Each wave in Reelism 2 lasts about 60 seconds, in which players will have to desperately fight for their lives and search around the stage for weapons as dozens of enemies spawn.
Every wave has three dice rolls at the beginning, which will dictate weapon spawns, enemy spawns and modifiers to the player’s character; those can range from shrinking the player to turning them into an armored tank.
The mod features a huge town hub that players can get lost in while talking to all of the mod’s absurd characters, pretty much everyone can be interacted with and will have something to say.
Players can also talk to these characters to buy different weapons and items with their accumulated points, including the Gun Gun, which is a gun that shoots guns, and when you think about the gun per gun cost efficiency the weapon basically pays for itself.
The mod’s randomized aspect and the fact that matches go by so fast almost give Reelism 2 the feel of a roguelike, which make it a pretty addictive time waster for quick gaming sessions.
Each wave is completely different and leads to insane situations, like the possibility of getting Sonic’s shoes and moving so fast that you outrun your own rockets, usually leading to your own demise.
Reelism 2 can be downloaded through its site, though it requires a legal copy of DOOM II (which can be acquired through Steam) and GZDoom as well.
