(Played Via the 2021 “Enriched Edition” Remaster.)
(Before getting to the actual game, I’d like to appreciate how easy and user friendly the devs have made this to play. Usually, mods can range from a tad complicated to a complete bitch to set up, but it’s as easy as downloading, unzipping, and opening the desired episode. You don’t need to download GZDooM since it comes with a copy built in. and, hell; It doesn’t even require you own DooM II!)
Something I really respect about this game is what a strong sense of self it has despite being a DooM mod. From its ruined environments to the dialog, everything reinforces the identity of the world the developers have built.
Ashes inherits DooM’s lightning-fast movement and adds jumping and crouching which make it feel closer to a build engine game than DooM. You get a specific key for a boot knife that you can use at any time. It’s nice that you don’t have to switch to your crowbar every time you want to break a box or vent cover. You also get a lantern that recharges via exposure to sunlight which strikes a balance of not burning energy too fast, but fast enough that you want to conserve its battery. There are radiation hotspots you can encounter, and you get a Geiger counter that will tell you when you are in proximity to such hazards. (Pretty clearly lifted from Fallout, but hey it works well here.) You also get an auto map and a journal to keep track of main and side objectives.
The game includes 7 normal levels, 2 trading hubs and 1 secret mission. All of which are very well designed. They do well in pretty much every kind of way you’d want, with good combat arenas, fantastic looking environments that are impressive both technically and presentation-wise and are choked full of secret loot stashes to uncover. Something I quite like about the secrets are that they are much more based on exploration then DooM’s typical unfun wall humping antics. Trading hubs have plenty of NPCs scattered about with dialog that adds more depth to the world and a few side quests that can land you some scrap to trade to shopkeepers with or even whole new weapons. Speaking of which…
Any good shooter needs good weapons and Ashes is by no means an exception. You get a crowbar, revolver, a 9mm pistol, a pump action shotgun, an SMG, a napalm launcher, pipe bombs and a sniper rifle. Everything feels like it has a place in your arsenal and since ammo is somewhat limited it encourages you to use the right tool for the job. This is even more true in later difficulties that change how much ammo you can get. Every weapon has top notch animations and sounds. They’re just all around are a blast to use. You know that if just the act of firing into a wall feels fun that you have gotten the shooting right.
As for enemies, I think we encounter my first real problem with episode 1: Lack of variety. Mutant cannibals, mutant dogs, Napalm Mutants, Raiders, Shot-gunners, Evil Balloons (???), and the huge mutant for the end of episode 1’s boss are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It’s a tiny bit underwhelming that there are so few, and it gets a little stale by the end. It’s not a huge problem though since the gunplay is great and the enemies though few are well designed. They are all fun to fight and have very readable designs so it’s easy to tell what you are going up against immediately and the sound queues are great at telling you if an enemy is nearby out of view, if it has spotted you, if its attacking and if its dead.
Something that’s super cool to me is that you get a motorcycle! A vehicle!! In the DooM engine!!! Yes, I know its GZDooM but that’s still impressive. And what’s more impressive is that it controls pretty well too, I know some have had problems with how it handles but I don’t really share those problems. I consider that an achievement. to have not only have a vehicle in an engine very much not designed for vehicles, but one that doesn’t completely suck.
Ashes goes for a very bleak world that’s story centers on a lone scavenger set in the east coast of what used to be the USA, inhabited by mutated monsters, thieving raiders, psychotic cannibals and what little remains of a civilized society.
The story is pretty simple. One day while scavenging you encounter an old radio that still works and somehow is getting a message in a world where only a few remaining radio towers are thought to still even function, let alone be broadcasting. So, you start moving your way toward the city center to find what’s at the source of the signal. I think it’s a simplistic yet interesting premise and quite enjoyed it.
The sound design is topnotch too. The ticking of your Gieger counter, the bolting of a fresh round in your rifle, the roaring engine of your bike, everything just sounds so perfect.
And on top of everything else it does well, the music is A-grade bangers all the way though. It knows when to play more triumphant music for gunning down dozens of bandits and play more reserved uneasy music for the quieter, more uncertain moments, or when to go dead silent. And that leitmotif from the games main them ‘2063’ that presides through so much of the OST is just awesome.
So, all in all: a damn good DooM mod that is absolutely worth your time. Especially since once you are done with it you can play Afterglow.
(Before getting to the actual game, I’d like to appreciate how easy and user friendly the devs have made this to play. Usually, mods can range from a tad complicated to a complete bitch to set up, but it’s as easy as downloading, unzipping, and opening the desired episode. You don’t need to download GZDooM since it comes with a copy built in. and, hell; It doesn’t even require you own DooM II!)
Something I really respect about this game is what a strong sense of self it has despite being a DooM mod. From its ruined environments to the dialog, everything reinforces the identity of the world the developers have built.
Ashes inherits DooM’s lightning-fast movement and adds jumping and crouching which make it feel closer to a build engine game than DooM. You get a specific key for a boot knife that you can use at any time. It’s nice that you don’t have to switch to your crowbar every time you want to break a box or vent cover. You also get a lantern that recharges via exposure to sunlight which strikes a balance of not burning energy too fast, but fast enough that you want to conserve its battery. There are radiation hotspots you can encounter, and you get a Geiger counter that will tell you when you are in proximity to such hazards. (Pretty clearly lifted from Fallout, but hey it works well here.) You also get an auto map and a journal to keep track of main and side objectives.
The game includes 7 normal levels, 2 trading hubs and 1 secret mission. All of which are very well designed. They do well in pretty much every kind of way you’d want, with good combat arenas, fantastic looking environments that are impressive both technically and presentation-wise and are choked full of secret loot stashes to uncover. Something I quite like about the secrets are that they are much more based on exploration then DooM’s typical unfun wall humping antics. Trading hubs have plenty of NPCs scattered about with dialog that adds more depth to the world and a few side quests that can land you some scrap to trade to shopkeepers with or even whole new weapons. Speaking of which…
Any good shooter needs good weapons and Ashes is by no means an exception. You get a crowbar, revolver, a 9mm pistol, a pump action shotgun, an SMG, a napalm launcher, pipe bombs and a sniper rifle. Everything feels like it has a place in your arsenal and since ammo is somewhat limited it encourages you to use the right tool for the job. This is even more true in later difficulties that change how much ammo you can get. Every weapon has top notch animations and sounds. They’re just all around are a blast to use. You know that if just the act of firing into a wall feels fun that you have gotten the shooting right.
As for enemies, I think we encounter my first real problem with episode 1: Lack of variety. Mutant cannibals, mutant dogs, Napalm Mutants, Raiders, Shot-gunners, Evil Balloons (???), and the huge mutant for the end of episode 1’s boss are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It’s a tiny bit underwhelming that there are so few, and it gets a little stale by the end. It’s not a huge problem though since the gunplay is great and the enemies though few are well designed. They are all fun to fight and have very readable designs so it’s easy to tell what you are going up against immediately and the sound queues are great at telling you if an enemy is nearby out of view, if it has spotted you, if its attacking and if its dead.
Something that’s super cool to me is that you get a motorcycle! A vehicle!! In the DooM engine!!! Yes, I know its GZDooM but that’s still impressive. And what’s more impressive is that it controls pretty well too, I know some have had problems with how it handles but I don’t really share those problems. I consider that an achievement. to have not only have a vehicle in an engine very much not designed for vehicles, but one that doesn’t completely suck.
Ashes goes for a very bleak world that’s story centers on a lone scavenger set in the east coast of what used to be the USA, inhabited by mutated monsters, thieving raiders, psychotic cannibals and what little remains of a civilized society.
The story is pretty simple. One day while scavenging you encounter an old radio that still works and somehow is getting a message in a world where only a few remaining radio towers are thought to still even function, let alone be broadcasting. So, you start moving your way toward the city center to find what’s at the source of the signal. I think it’s a simplistic yet interesting premise and quite enjoyed it.
The sound design is topnotch too. The ticking of your Gieger counter, the bolting of a fresh round in your rifle, the roaring engine of your bike, everything just sounds so perfect.
And on top of everything else it does well, the music is A-grade bangers all the way though. It knows when to play more triumphant music for gunning down dozens of bandits and play more reserved uneasy music for the quieter, more uncertain moments, or when to go dead silent. And that leitmotif from the games main them ‘2063’ that presides through so much of the OST is just awesome.
So, all in all: a damn good DooM mod that is absolutely worth your time. Especially since once you are done with it you can play Afterglow.