I was having so much fun playing mods for Doom that when my dad said he could get me Doom 2, I didn't care much since at the time, it had few mods. Eventually, I did get it, and I continued playing it, by playing the mods and mostly ignoring the base game.
When I did play the base game, though, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise: vastly improved level design. I didn't care much for the base game of Doom 1, but Doom 2's levels showed such a huge leap in creativity and design that I was really surprised. So I give it a lot of credit for that. Still, I predominantly played mods, and this and Doom 1 defined my middle school gaming experience (while I still played SNES games).

what do i do?
6,5/10 - Length
5,0/10 - Enjoyment
9,5/10 - Perfomance/Bugs
6,0/10 - Story/Experience
5,5/10 - Gameplay

Score = 6,5/10

An interesting spin on the original Doom formula. This game is more unforgiving and in some levels even unfair. It is a lengthy game with weird design choices. The design (for some people) can be frustrating, at some points in the game you can be teleported to a tiny room filled with demons that decrease your hardly found health. Despite this, the game is fun, and the game loop just shouts early FPS level design.
For me, the levels are more fun to explore than the ones in the original Doom. Backtracking is not tedious and in fact, it's challenging, since many enemies may emerge from hidden rooms that are in previously cleared areas. Most levels are well distributed between fierce action and quick exploration. Sometimes you may see very obvious secrets, other times you will be punching or shooting the walls in every level.
Sound design and music are not my cup of tea. However, I understand the hardware it was developed on, and also the influence of metal and 90's rock music. The variety of demons makes this game more dynamic. You are forced to play the game differently compared to the original game.
In the end, this game improves on the formula of the original Doom. This game is proof that a simple game loop is sometimes better than a game with complex mechanics.

Doom 1 took me about 5 hours to complete but this game was a little longer. Doom II is a more difficult game than the first, both because of new enemies like the Revenants, and because of the increase of puzzles, parkour and backtracking throughout the levels. I honestly like this change, and it helps Doom II be just different enough from the first game while still feeling like a true sequel.

I don't have a lot of flaws, but there are 2 that come to mind. I feel like the ost is a bit of a step down, often sounding like elevator music. And the second is that I don't think the level design is as appealing. One thing that I loved about the first one was that the levels got more and more surreal the further into the game you got. Doom II has progression throughout its level designs, but not as cool or memorable as the first game.

Overall, really fun game. If you liked the first game you'll probably enjoy this one too!

Gameplay itself is nice, clean fun. Super Shotgun is OP, I love it, and I liked the new enemies that were introduced as well (hearing an idle Archvile (or even worse, an alert one) definitely had me going "!!!!"). I went back to Doom 1 to trawl through the secret levels, which I'd missed on my first playthrough, and found myself missing the Super Shotty and the monster variety. Doom 2's worth it for that alone.

My favourite vanilla levels were probably MAP08 (Tricks and Traps) and MAP23 (Barrels O' Fun), oh and MAP31+MAP32, the Wolfenstein easter egg secret levels. But for the most part I actually do agree with a lot of gripes expressed in other reviews regarding the level design, which is where it loses half a star for me compared to Doom 1. As most of us know the development of this game was a little rushed - and it shows in places. I felt myself getting a little burnt out towards the end - not that I wanted to stop playing the game necessarily, more that I was wanting Doom 2's vanilla campaign specifically to just end soon. I think the lack of actual episodes like there were in Doom 1, rather just one big protracted thing with small intermissions but no explicit delineation between "episodes", also didn't help.

I like a good modding scene, and Classic Doom (1 and 2)'s is still going strong 30+ years on. I'm probably still gonna play Doom 2 to delve into some mods I have lined up and am excited to explore.

My favourite game ever for a long time, only competing with Dark Souls.
It has everything that made the original Doom great but with a new weapon (the double barreled shotgun, the greatest invention of mankind) new enemies, and new levels based on innovative themes, like the city levels (even if they're not my favourite type of levels, i appreciate the variety).
There's not much to say about this game, it's just great and paved the way for many actual games. Must play.

Oh, and the music is great.

Maliciously designed to kill you.
It's banking on you to beat it out of spite. "Oh you just teleported chaingunners behind me after picking up this inconspicuous gun? Well now I'm ready next time, asshole!" It really wants to make you hate these demons with a burning passion. If Doom II was built any easier or laxer then these enemies wouldn't be much of a threat alone, and therefore less memorable. The level design accentuates the demons as scheming yet merciless. This isn't some honorable battle between warriors, this is a hunt for flesh. And there can only be one winner here.

More than many action games is Doom II a test on your memory, reactivity, and resource management. This game is straight up unfair, so you need to keep in mind what gun your currently holding before triggering the trap that killed you earlier. Demons have various levels of health, damage, and mobility; thus misusing and wasting your more powerful weapons will leave you vulnerable for when you really need that rocket launcher or B.F.G. against that Archvile. Sound cues are vital to knowing if a enemy has spotted you, or if a off-screen projectile is flying towards you. The player at least has the newly added super shotgun, though while a extremely powerful gun with good ammo efficiency, can be easy to over rely on. Definitely had times where the intervals between reloading the shotgun got me killed, when I should've attacked more from a distance with the chaingun or stunlocked with the plasma rifle.

But even with the generous usage of quicksaves, this game can get exhausting for a new player. Sometimes you get tired of being made a fool of yourself when the game teleports you into a tiny room with four imps on every side, which then proceed to tear you to shreds. Literally no way to know that was going to happen. The more bullshit people will encounter, the less willing they'll be able to continue with your game. Of course that isn't a universal rule, but there's a fine line between "Fck you, let's try that again!" and "Fck you, I quit!" For better or worse, games just don't do this kind of evil, unscrupulous design anymore.
Like Doom Eternal, I had to take breaks in the middle of levels. But unlike Eternal, it was because I couldn't be bothered at points to drudge through yet another elevator that takes me right into a horde of chaingunners that eat away at my health before I can even see where they are. It's funny how some of the earliest demons, the chaingunners, I find to be more annoying then even the Pain Elementals or Archviles.

Though with that in mind, playing Doom II showed me why this game has remained popular to this day. The enemies with their particular and variable roles, and the weapons with their satisfying designs and function, makes for near-infinite mod level packs with fresh feeling gameplay. Whether you want to have the player cleave through hordes of fodder demons with the B.F.G., or starve them for ammo as they have to whittle down a towering Cyberdemon, modding Doom II levels will live on well-passed any live service game that shuts down (six months after release).

Don't know if I played a good version of Doom II though. I'll be honest when I look up stuff for classic Doom, I get pretty intimidated by the number of ports and re-releases of the game, plus all the hard-core fans mentioning which ports are better then others. I played the standalone release from Steam on my Steam Deck, not sure what people in the community would call that port. I just took the path of least resistance to play the game, so hopefully that version won't make a Doom fan too upset at me. Did come across a few bugs, namely to do with a elevator not triggering and I had to reload my save to get it working again. Also I don't know if this is just a normal Doom thing, but sometimes it can feel pretty stingy when auto-aim will work if you're trying to hit a demon from a large elevation difference. Hard to get into a precise location to hit them when they can attack with their hitscans from wherever they want off-screen. This version of Doom 2 at least had that reticle to light up red if the next shot will hit a target, but it still doesn't change the fact how awkward "aiming" can be in this game.

And lastly, why did 'Into Sandy's City' only play in one level when it's easily the best song in the entire game?