Rekkr, a title which translates to “Warrior” or “Champion” in Old Norse, is a total conversion fan mod of Doom II: Hell on Earth. More importantly, it is quite possibly the single most pleasant surprise of a fan game I’ve ever had the fortune of randomly stumbling upon. Rekkr is an intensely grim and atmospheric journey, bursting at the seams with variety in its aesthetics, combat, and environments. It makes resounding improvements to the gameplay formula established by the original two Doom games through excellent weapon balance and level design, effective use of the episodic format, powerful environmental storytelling, and so much more.

The setting of Rekkr was, from the start, my favorite aspect of the game and what originally made me do a double take while looking at some of the available modpacks for Doom II’s 2019 console re-release. On the surface, it has a seemingly straightforward Nordic fantasy setting as seen by its main character and the initial environments. The health system features potions, medicinal herbs, and physical armor pieces. You shoot a bow, smash dudes with a warhammer, and so on. Even the initial plot conceit doesn’t tip you off much either; essentially the King sends your clan on a kamikaze mission in a vain attempt to turn the tides of a war that’s seemingly already lost. Along with your few comrades who survived the battle, you’re shipwrecked on the way back to your home island, a disaster which wipes out the rest of your crew. As you approach your village alone, you find that it too has since been ravaged by the war.

It sounds simple enough. But once you actually start playing it becomes VERY quickly apparent (and I’m talking like… within less than 60 seconds) that such a simple description is a serious undersell for how unique the game’s setting and tone really is. This is accomplished in large part due to the stellar monster designs and the indirect insight they give you into the dark underbelly of Rekkr’s world. It does all of this without any direct dialogue, I should mention. In reality, Rekkr is a weird sort of fantasy/sci-fi hybrid with tons of uniquely unsettling and even straight up horrifying monsters who invade its seemingly standard Nordic setting out of nowhere. There’s zombie barbarians which animate the corpses of your fallen comrades. There’s severed floating eyeballs which dilate and fly straight at you full speed the second you make eye contact. There’s zombies who continue pursuing you even after their heads are blown clean off with teeth coming out of their open head holes and their extremities soaked in blood. There’s flying heads with pincer horns that explode on impact. There’s potion mimics with razor sharp bloody teeth. There’s glowing green and red-eyed metallic alien dudes who slowly creep towards you. Oh, and if those flying eyeballs are nearby, they can regenerate all of the other demons even after being turned into piles of flesh- an action which is accompanied by a gloriously awful splatter sound that makes your stomach turn every time.

Enemy movement is rather stilted compared to what you see in vanilla doom, as expected of a fan mod with entirely original designs. However, because their designs are already seriously creepy, I felt the lack of in-between frames of animation for their movement just added to the uncanny and alien nature of them. The juxtaposition between the setting and these hostile inhabitants gives the game an unmatched sense of foreboding. Meanwhile, it has an interesting mix of both primitive and advanced technology/weaponry used to combat them. You have a bow that shoot arrows coated in the souls of fallen enemies, a hand crank shotgun (it’s simple, but definitely my personal favorite of the bunch to use), a warhammer, staffs for both holy and explosive magic, and a BFG equivalent where you kinda just mind crush everything with magic fists.

Tom Jensen’s soundtrack is also a major point of note. The soundfonts generally feel reminiscent of James Hannigan’s work on Old School Runescape, but Jensen’s compositions feel more intense and identifiable as a whole. It's got some incredibly memorable tracks with moments of seriously bold execution. One example of that being the second mission’s theme. It has a section where there are bagpipes playing a single long note blaring loudly over the main melody which effectively struggles under the weight of this note in the background for like… 2 minutes straight. Certainly can’t say I've ever heard something like that done before. It really added to the atmosphere of the already vast and complex map design while exploring.

Jensen’s soundtrack displays an insane amount of tonal range as well. The second mission’s ambiance is immediately followed by a track on level three that’s somehow both ominous and grandiose at once. This is in large part accomplished by its diverse mix of organ, harp, synth, and string melodies which drive it forward. Then you get to mission five’s track which is an incredibly upbeat Celtic fantasy song.The inharmonious bagpipes both suit the environment and perfectly illustrate the game’s tonal dissonance, which here is created by the map’s farmland aesthetic clashing with the demonic enemy designs. That’s only describing a few tracks from the first episode, too. Every single one of Rekkr’s 36 maps features a unique composition, all of which I enjoyed.To point out just one more of my favorite tracks from much later in the game, E3M2’s “Close Action” is unbelievably effective at evoking oppressive claustrophobia as you descend through the endless tight corridors of Otherworld.

Rekkr goes above and beyond a standard reskin or overhaul of Doom, even in terms of its gameplay mechanics and balancing. I particularly like the game’s original “soul” mechanic. Essentially, your arrow (the pistol equivalent) uses ammo that runs on “souls”, a currency that is dropped by humanoid enemies upon death. However, after maybe three seconds or so, the soul dissipates and the ammo pickup disappears. It creates a complex and engaging relationship with the enemies, especially in larger groups. When fighting several enemies approaching you all at once, you’re incentivized to pick off enemies on the sides of the group, run in to grab their souls, and back away quickly in order to avoid getting too close to oncoming projectiles. It also requires extra engagement on the part of the player since the fodder enemies that drop them often take either one OR two hits to down, so you have to react quickly if they drop after just one shot. On the flip side, if you automatically assume the enemy will die after just one shot and they don’t, you’ll run in only to be attacked by the surviving enemy. This one mechanical change to combat not only makes shootouts far more engaging, but also much more aggressive. In Doom, you can snipe enemy groups from far away without putting yourself at any risk. But in Rekkr, you have to stay at least relatively close so you can swoop in to grab souls quickly. If you refuse to play aggressively, you will run out of ammo very quickly- a fact which is further accelerated by the game’s smaller maximum ammo capacities. Additionally, this system presents a tradeoff where you can either save your stronger weaponry for tougher enemies, or plow through a horde of fodder in order to stock up on the weaker “soul” ammunition if you’re worried about running low. This is yet another entirely new layer of depth this mechanic alone adds to every single encounter.

I was curious if recency bias was making me overly impressed by Rekkr’s combat, so I played a bit of original doom after completing Rekkr in order to get a direct comparison. Doom is still doom, so it’ll always still be fun. Still though, I was kind of taken aback by how much slower and uninvolved it felt after playing Rekkr.I can certainly imagine these additional elements of combat being exhausting for some on the higher difficulties. But for me, it adds a perfect amount of tension to encounters on the normal difficulty.

Overall, I can’t really see any way to view Rekkr’s combat as anything other than both a remarkable improvement to the system established in the original Doom. It’s not only more demanding and aggressive, but it adds further depth and engagement to every single encounter in the game. Even the most simple enemy encounters, which would otherwise just be fodder to mindlessly steamroll, require a higher base level of engagement and strategizing on the part of the player. The improvements may be subtle in terms of how small the changes themselves are, but in practice, they really do elevate every other adjacent area of the combat’s depth and balance in the process.

All of the weapons in Rekkr feel fantastic to use in their own unique ways. The combat admittedly didn’t click for me from the start, and it certainly takes some getting used to the different weapon types since they function completely differently from their Doom counterparts. But the entire arsenal of weapons excel in just about every way they try to set themselves apart. The starting weapon, the bow and arrow, is perhaps the best example of this learning curve. I certainly felt some initial frustration while using it, as shots can sometimes veer slightly to the left or right. That frustration was compounded by the darting and unpredictable movement of even the most basic humanoid enemies. To me though, its slight imprecision does seem to be an intentional design decision. For one, it’s the starting weapon and therefore shouldn’t be too amazing. I do think the slight imprecision and slower fire speed is a good way to balance its surprisingly high base power, since again, weak enemies drop in just one or two hits from it. Personally I found it WAY more useful than the Doom’s equivalent pistol, to the point it’s actually a viable weapon against most enemies. Even despite its drawbacks (no terrible pun intended), it’s both useful and satisfying.

The steelshot launcher, your next available weapon and Doom’s super shotgun equivalent, is insanely satisfying to use right off the bat- and is probably my overall favorite weapon in the entire game. It’s very powerful and the visceral reloading animation/sound are perfect. The crosshair spread is also a bit more generous than most other weapons, so it feels great trying to line up multiple enemies to take out with a single shot. In fact, because it still takes two spreadshot rounds to fire once (and again, maximum ammo counts are lower than vanilla doom), it feels like that sort of resourceful thinking is expected out of you. At least, if you want to be economical enough to make your limited ammo last until the end of the mission. I guess this is only tangentially related, but these factors lend this game to being more focused on ammo conservation (and thus rewarding regular exploration more) than Doom. Whether that’s a positive or a negative will depend on the individual. But I found it to lend even further tension to every encounter, as well as forcing me to make smart use of all my weapons and the game’s unique soul mechanic… rather than just spraying away with shotgun and rockets like in Doom.

The warhammer, on the other hand, was a rare example of disappointment. While I do appreciate Rekkr provides a melee upgrade similar to the chainsaw for when you run low on ammo, it’s significantly less enjoyable than the chainsaw in practice. The lack of hitstun limits its usefulness quite a bit, since enemies punish you quickly for getting too close and most of them hit hard. I think if it just had more range that would’ve been enough to make it a useful part of your arsenal (perhaps a bit more hitstun too). But as it stands, the warhammer just feels a bit too dangerous and not worth the risk to use other than for emergencies only. However, to give it the benefit of the doubt, one could make the argument that its weakness is beneficial to both the game’s balance and focus on resource management. If you did have a safe and powerful weapon like Doom’s chainsaw, the tension of ammo conservation would definitely be undercut.

The soul launcher, your next main weapon, feels just about as solid as it should. I appreciate that it doesn’t immediately outclass the normal bow like the chaingun does for the pistol in Doom. The different fire rate and power means that they each have different uses. It's a good option for mid-range combat and short-range crowd control. But again, you shouldn’t really use it exclusively due to its slightly lower power per shot- and because of the resource management aspects. It’s very easy to get a bit too liberal with your ammo usage, whereas with the bow it’s much easier to control.

The staff of rune explosion is another favorite weapon of mine along with the steelshot launcher. It’s sort of like a rocket launcher, but much more well balanced and versatile than its Doom equivalent. As you’d expect from explosives, it has crowd control and power capabilities, but its short-range and friendly fire properties make it a situational glass cannon. An additional benefit that is unique to the staff (compared to a rocket launcher) is the fact that its explosive runes drop to the ground shortly before exploding, unlike rockets from Doom which go in a straight line. This goes a long way towards solving an issue that holds back Doom from designing maps a certain way: The verticality problem.

If you’ve played Doom’s bonus fourth episode “Thy Flesh Consumed” or Doom II you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say “the verticality problem”. But in case you haven’t, normally in Doom, you’re far too defenseless when enemies are below you. Since their AI has no problems shooting straight up, but you can’t exactly look down to properly aim at the enemies (without physically moving down stairs or jumping off a platform), this creates a really annoying disadvantage for the player. As a result, the verticality problem acts as a stubborn limitation for those who are designing levels without this problem. It’s a shame too, because sufficient verticality is extremely important In creating layered and complex labyrinths.

Without verticality, dungeons quickly start looking like a corn maze. Thankfully, Rekkr ingeniously solves this problem just by introducing the staff of rune explosion. With this weapon, you can drop explosive runes down elevator shafts, shoot them down stairs, basically any circumstance that might suffer from this verticality issue. And because it’s the most powerful normal weapon in the game, you can be fairly confident that whatever you just dropped a bunch of exploding runes on won’t be bothering you when you jump down. Rekkr has maps with these same sorts of design that were found in Doom Episode 4 and Doom II, but unlike them, it actually provides you with a tool to deal with the situation in a simple but extremely clever way.

The holy relic is also a pretty interesting weapon when you consider that it’s Doom’s plasma rifle equivalent. Instead of providing a powerful, rapid-fire but short-range companion to the BFG, the holy relic provides a great long-range option, despite being rather slow and weak. Speaking of the BFG, it is pretty much unchanged in Rekkr with the God’s Blessing- just a bit more balanced by costing more ammo. Even if it’s only one change, I’m glad that’s the one they made since you’re kinda forced to use the BFG on the strongest Doom enemies. Anyway back to the holy relic- it uses the same mana ammo as the God’s Blessing, but more importantly, it isn’t a projectile. Instead, when you fire the holy relic, the attack reaches the enemy instantly. It’s a pretty lowkey property change, but it drastically alters the weapon’s potential for effectiveness. In most ways it’s pretty similar to the soul launcher- but this one simple change makes it much easier to hit targets from far away, since you don’t need to account for enemy movement in order to land hits. Because of this, it’s a much smarter choice for long-range combat than the soul launcher. Oh, and it has piercing properties too, making it more useful for fights in narrow hallways. These unique weapon properties are just another of the many possible examples of Rekkr’s unmatched combat balancing. It encapsulates the game’s combat design philosophy of providing two (three if you count its similarities with the soul launcher) weapons that use the same ammo type yet effectively fill totally different needs in combat.

Map design is also excellent. They’re often very layered with tons of verticality, providing a fun and challenging environment for key hunting. This is a particularly subjective point, but I think the setting and tone of Rekkr in general feels a lot more at home with the sort of “dungeon crawling” experience you get in boomer shooters than it does in a hellish landscape like doom (tho i like it in doom too- just not as much as I do here). I also really love that this game makes the extra effort to give maps a sense of visual physicality by interconnecting the ends of the previous map to the beginning of the next. Hell, it even has interconnectivity with the title screen, since the menu’s demo tape is actually a reenactment of the game’s initial plot conceit. It's something I find very valuable for crafting a cohesive world and experience, so I do wish the old dooms did something like this too. This interconnectivity does wonders for preventing the maps from just feeling like some level floating in a void that was created by some game designers- instead feeling more like an actual world. It creates a narrative throughline just by providing a simple and nonessential visual throughline. Obviously the actual level design and layout of the maps themselves takes precedence over interconnectivity though. Thankfully, Rekkr delivers just as well in that respect.

The interconnectivity of its maps isn’t the only way this game stands out visually. Rekkr’s attention to detail is also phenomenal and adds so much more narrative intrigue to its setting and world. it’s probably the best example I can think of environmental storytelling with zero dialogue whatsoever. My favorite detail is shaman’s brew asset which serves as both the supercharge pickup- though is used earlier in the game as an environmental detail. The shaman’s brew is a cracked jar filled with blue goo and severed eyeballs that are still alive and shift to look around the room. It legit gave me chills the first time I stopped and looked at the jar, only to notice they were alive and animated. Another example: The murder scene of your wife and child at the end of the first level is just straight up iconic. The way the scene is framed as you slowly continue down the long empty walkway and living room, and open the door to the back room… it kinda burns itself into your memory. It also sets both the motivation for the main character and sets the tone perfectly for the grim and mysterious adventure ahead.

Another amazing example is the woman’s room in the Dripstone Wharf level. You pull back the curtains and open the door to a room, only to find a floating eyeball who remains unconcerned with you, staring silently at the corpse of a young woman lying on the bed. Who knows what exactly is happening or even being implied in this scene, but it certainly makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Do these demons possess a capacity for emotion? Could this perhaps be a former human who was somehow transformed into their demonic form? If so, is this perhaps a former attendant or relative of the Wharf who just so happened to recognize her? Does this mean the demons can retain memories from their past lives too? The possibilities are endless when narrative is communicated through the environment as opposed to dialogue. Interpretation is left to the individual, and to me, that makes this method of storytelling all the more powerful.

These small environmental details aren’t all inconsequential to the main skeleton of Rekkr’s plot, either. They continually feed information about the plot and world to players throughout the game- given that they’re cognizant enough of their surroundings to seek them out and speculate. Perhaps the most narratively telling example of environmental storytelling in Rekkr can be found on E2M6, “Magnus City”, within a rampart of the Capital City. The level is mostly standard fare, and eventually you’ll come across a local lord’s throne room. Again, nothing too out of the ordinary for the naked eye. But if you prod around and interact with all the walls and behind the lord’s desk, you’ll find a series of hidden switches which reveal several hidden doors. Most of these doors reveal a small jail elsewhere in the castle. I know this is nothing too interesting or worth bringing up yet, but bear with me.

However… the switch behind the lord’s desk reveals a small cage in the wall from which a bunny skitters out. Again, nothing crazy, right? You might even just see that as a cute little easter egg (again, terrible pun not intended) from the level designer. This game is great at prodding you with these tiny details, yet it’s only when you start piecing them together do you realize the conclusions it’s trying to push you towards- given that you’re listening. I’ll drop the cutesy pretense and say this outright: These secret switches definitively reveal both a deep-rooted political conspiracy and human experimentation practices buried beneath the surface of Rekkr’s Royal Capital. First of all, the rampart’s garden and courtyard is the only other place in the entirety of the game where you can find corrupted and demonic bunnies. There is a bonus level featuring them, but that’s irrelevant here- I’ll explain why later. Anyway, those details when viewed in tandem suggest to me that: not only was this lord complacent in the King’s actions to conspire with Rok the Demon Lord, but both animals and humans alike were sacrificed through demonic experimentation in the process. Just a side note, but I’m guessing that inanimate objects were experimented on too I’m guessing, since there are potion mimics and tree demons among the demon army as well.

With that said, let’s take another look at the other seemingly normal secret. Castles having prisoners is nothing special, right? Well, if that were the case, then why were both the doors to the prison cells and the switches themselves kept hidden? Why would the switches be located in the room of the lord himself and not, yknow, right next to the cell doors? It should be clear these rooms housed people prior to their demonic sacrifice. Lastly, to give one final detail, it seems as though one of these prisoners might have noticed something wasn’t right about their situation also. Because one of these cells houses a corpse hanging from a noose. Honestly… the amount of subtle detail and character this game communicates in its levels without saying a word still blows me away. I can’t wait until my next playthrough so I can uncover even more of these sorts of moments.

Shifting gears, the aesthetic variety found within even just one of Rekkr’s maps is hella impressive for any game, let alone a fan mod. For example, the third mission alone features snowy fields, churches, and a fully explorable underground sector with storerooms and sewers, some of which are filled with toxic waste. Every single one of the 27 main missions feel different. Forests, castles, villages, open fields, even a lighthouse level near a port which is something only this game could pull off well because of its unique solution for vertical level design.

Hell, it even has the secret level I mentioned earlier where an endless swarm of demon bunnies come to murder you. Though, because of its cartoony aesthetic and tonal juxtaposition to the rest of the game, it feels like it must be a dream sequence or something- but that’s just my headcanon. Still hilarious tho. Especially because that demon bunny dream comes earlier in the game than the one stage that ACTUALLY has demon bunnies. That means the main character hasn’t even encountered them in the game at that point, which to me suggests more indirect storytelling.. Perhaps the main character harbors a degree of guilt or regret for hunting the harmless bunnies to take the health essence they carry. But alright, at this point I might be reading into things a bit too far, so I’ll cut the thought off there. Either way, it’s still a super fun and charming bonus level, though I’m just now realizing my goldfish brain totally forgot to play the other bonus levels… Well, if they’re anywhere half as good as that first one, I’m looking forward to them.

I also appreciate how the game handles secrets, and that’s without even taking the already discussed environmental storytelling they provide into account. It never really requires you to find those invisible walls or doors with no visual cue just to finish the level. Rekkr will often hide paths behind waterfalls, give walls a slightly different color to hint at their functionality, or even give doors levers or switches in order to be used. This design choice lends its focus more towards exploration and dungeon crawling than it does straight up cryptic secrets like Doom can often end up having. That doesn’t mean exploration comes easy in Rekkr, hell no. Some of these maps are mind bogglingly huge and complex to the point they took me nearly an hour to complete a couple of them. It can certainly still be satisfying to stumble upon some cool secrets on your own in Doom- and Rekkr does have moments of that as well. However, I personally find standard dungeon crawling to be a lot more enjoyable than smashing my head against every wall of a giant labyrinth for fifteen minutes hoping for one of the walls to rise and let me continue.

This review has already gotten way longer than I expected so I’ll just give some quick thoughts on Episodes 2 and 3 so I can wrap this up. Episode 2 doesn’t quite reach the heights of Episode 1 imo, but it's still fantastic. The variety in Episode 1 was far stronger, with every single level being very different in terms of both setting and map design. Episode 2 is mostly city environments since you’re now in the Royal Capital, though it certainly does provide some variance within that restriction. Castles, ramparts, marketplaces, underground cellars, a museum, a small town on the outskirts which is half baked into a cave system, a fully explorable sewer system, and more. The difficulty also seems a bit toned down, as I had much less trouble with combat in Episode 2 overall. That could be a result of me being more well-versed in all the new weapons by this point. But I do think it’s also partially because you get most of the weapons by the second mission- meaning the progression in strength isn’t as gradual as it was in Episode 1.

My favorite part of Episode 2 was, and I can’t believe I’m saying this about what is essentially just a Doom game since bosses usually kinda suck: the climax where you fight the “Former King” boss. In terms of the arena, it’s perfect. You have plenty of room to move around and the bullet patterns from the boss are wide but fair. There’s also tons of fodder enemies accompanying him, so the first phase is a good mix of picking off fodder and trying to snag the ammo pickups before the columns come back down and crush you. The second phase blew me away with its transition in particular; the Former King’s flesh splits straight down the middle and his skeleton starts chasing you down. Hands down one of the sickest moments in the entire game. He also starts launching eyeballs at you which start to resurrect all of the surrounding corpses as he continues to pursue you. So the fight becomes more and more frantic as you kill him and avoid the stragglers as quickly as possible. After he falls, you have to escape the leftover havoc into the secret door that opens. You descend down an endless hallway of corpses as it fades to black. Episode 3 begins.

Episode 3 was definitely a return to form in terms of map variety and challenge. The mission settings were hellish and varied, oftentime reminding me a lot of my favorite episode of the original Doom, Inferno. Rok is definitely my favorite final boss I’ve seen in a boomer shooter to date. His arena quickly becomes beautiful chaos, and the fight itself is entirely based on reflexes. No secrets, no obtuse gimmicks like Icon of Sin, you just throw hands with Rok until he eventually dies. Rok’s attacks themselves are purely reflex based- if you stop moving, you die. You have to dodge his consistent barrage of projectiles while dealing with fodder AND the previous miniboss at the same time.

Even when the arena is cleared out and only you and Rok remain standing, you have to stay focused for several minutes as you unload all your remaining ammo types into him. While his projectiles alone would be a bit too simple for such a climactic encounter, the fact he can mix you up with his fire attack means you have to pay attention to not only him, but your position in the arena and the angle of the incoming fire attack as well. This is made even more complicated by the fact that unlike the Fallen King boss, Rok’s arena is asymmetrical, containing a large stone pillar and a small lake of fire- both of which serve to throw off your strafing rhythm and keep you on your toes. The ending sequence also left an impression on me, but for the sake of spoilers, the fact that it’s pretty much completely open ended, and the fact that this review has already gotten absurdly long, I’ll just leave it there. It’s good shit.

I’m not really sure what else there is to say about Rekkr that I haven’t already said. It’s an absolute triumph of a fan mod that achieves almost everything it sets out to do. It’s worth noting that when it comes to boomer shooters, I’m certainly not well-versed in the more obscure ones. That probably came across clearly enough in my review for those who ARE well versed in them, but I figured it was worth noting here regardless. However, even taking that into consideration, I think I’ve made my case well enough that I’d still love the shit out of Rekkr even if I was more of a veteran. Without even having touched the Episode 4 expansion “Sunken Land” yet, this game blew me away and improved upon the groundbreaking foundation set by the original Doom in ways I didn’t think possible. I have a fairly profound personal connection to the original Doom, since playing the Xbox 360 version co-op with my brother over a decade ago is practically a core gaming memory at this point. But there’s no two ways around it: Rekkr has set a new personal bar for the height of this genre in just about every way that matters to me the most. What really sticks out to me the most about my introduction to this game is that I tried it on a complete whim. I’d never heard it mentioned or recommended before in my life, even though I’d just finished doing a ton of research on boomer shooter recommendations. It just happened to catch my eye while looking through some mods after finishing Doom and Doom II. Yet within an hour, it grabbed me even more than the original Doom. From there, my enthusiasm and appreciation for Rekkr only continued to grow throughout the duration of its legendary first episode. By the end, it had single handedly skyrocketed my interest in exploring Doom mods further. Not even in the hope I find something better. Just in the hope that I can discover more of these sorts of projects that resonate with my artistic and mechanical sensibilities even a fraction as much as Rekkr does.