[since i changed my mind on this game and raised the score a lot, this review is now obsolete. i'll make it reflect my current thoughts at some point. until then, read it at your own discretion because i say a lot of stupid bullshit that i don't even agree with anymore]
DOOM II is, in every sense of the word, more DOOM. it's an expansion of the 1993 game, with more mobs, more levels, more mobs per level and one more weapon. in theory, you can't really go wrong with that; the original game had polished movement and gunplay, a very well balanced roster of monsters, and id had already set a standard for quality level design.
well, the theory doesn't matter. they managed to fumble this one anyway.
it's a pity because what was added to the gameplay loop is great. the super shotgun is ridiculous; it's brutally powerful and sounds beautiful. i like all of the new demons too, they all add new layers of strategy to encounters and give the level designers even more options to mix and match with.
the main problem with this game, though, is how inconsistent the level design is. three people worked on almost all of the levels: John Romero, American McGee and Sandy Petersen. their ideas didn't mesh well together, since they all had wildly different approaches to level design. without any form of segmentation between those ideas (like the first game had, with episodes), the game becomes an incoherent mess, feeling more like a compilation of maps rather than a proper campaign.
Petersen made the majority of those levels and i'm really not fond of his MO. his maps are usually cheap, frustrating and boring, with loads of encounters that seem poorly thought out and ham-fisted, and with an excessive reliance on gimmicks. there are three gimmicks in particular that the guy appeared to love:
1) the pick-up/trigger trap. you pick up a key, seven trillion monsters spawn behind you. this is done SO MANY times, you get desensitized to it. the traps are done in the most frustrating way too, with dozens of enemies spammed into the level seemingly at random: be them a row of 20 chaingunners or a row of every mob in the game, it always looks like Sandy just placed those enemies without any consideration for the quality of the encounter.
2) the invulnerability power-up. a lot of those shitty trap encounters are done in wide open spaces, with little useful cover. to remedy that, the game will usually give you an invulnerability power-up, so you can just massacre everyone in god mode. that's very fun at first, but, again, it's done ad nauseam. every time i see it happening again it becomes less satisfying. it's an obvious crutch: you don't need to put effort into designing a good fight if you can just throw a bunch of shit at the wall and patch it up with a god mode cheat.
3) the BFG. one of DOOM's most iconic weapons becomes grating in this game. many of Sandy Petersen's levels absolutely depend on the BFG9000. whenever demons get spammed in any way, usually through monster closets, the most effective way to dispose of them is using the BFG. it doesn't feel rewarding, clever or powerful; it's just mind-numbing because of the repetition. however, i can't even begin to fathom how i'd deal with so many situations without the BFG.
Sandy will sacrifice some of DOOM's key strengths, such as intense demon slaying in rooms designed for violence, in favor of tedious tricks. infamous maps like The Chasm, Tricks and Traps, and Barrels o' Fun are the culmination of his design philosophy, one that unfortunately permeates this game.
although those are the worst offenders, various other level design problems plague DOOM II. the city portion of the game has very unintuitive maps. their openness suggests that you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, but they are actually quite linear. that linearity makes little sense because the areas are mostly disconnected from each other, so the entire levels end up being utterly disjointed and having confusing progression.
openness in general rarely does DOOM combat many favors, either. to me, the game is at its absolute best in tighter rooms with reasonable amounts of cover (that also serve as obstacles!!) and in corridors. a prime example of that "openness" harming gameplay is the map Industrial Zone: its best moments happen when you enter certain structures and face the demons up close in neatly designed fights. however, you spend most of your time outside, trying to figure out how to get indoors while doing lame platforming and shooting chaingunners that stand on a flat field a mile away from you.
as i said earlier though, the level design is inconsistent, not straight-up awful. there are many highlights here, too. to name a few, Bloodhalls, The Abandoned Mines, Circle of Death, The Inmost Dens and Refueling Base are pretty good levels, even with their shortcomings (they did NOT know what to do with the pain elementals in this game), and i wish the game had more of that instead of what we got.
as a final note, i think it's worth saying that i don't fully know why Sandy Petersen ended up designing such a large number of levels for this game, but it's very likely that id was the one to blame. he may have been overworked, he may've had too little time to make and playtest them, maybe the game wouldn't even have been shipped if he didn't put out those 16 levels, i don't know. what i know is that his level design is not for me and DOOM II is essentially his game.
played on gzdoom, ultraviolence
DOOM II is, in every sense of the word, more DOOM. it's an expansion of the 1993 game, with more mobs, more levels, more mobs per level and one more weapon. in theory, you can't really go wrong with that; the original game had polished movement and gunplay, a very well balanced roster of monsters, and id had already set a standard for quality level design.
well, the theory doesn't matter. they managed to fumble this one anyway.
it's a pity because what was added to the gameplay loop is great. the super shotgun is ridiculous; it's brutally powerful and sounds beautiful. i like all of the new demons too, they all add new layers of strategy to encounters and give the level designers even more options to mix and match with.
the main problem with this game, though, is how inconsistent the level design is. three people worked on almost all of the levels: John Romero, American McGee and Sandy Petersen. their ideas didn't mesh well together, since they all had wildly different approaches to level design. without any form of segmentation between those ideas (like the first game had, with episodes), the game becomes an incoherent mess, feeling more like a compilation of maps rather than a proper campaign.
Petersen made the majority of those levels and i'm really not fond of his MO. his maps are usually cheap, frustrating and boring, with loads of encounters that seem poorly thought out and ham-fisted, and with an excessive reliance on gimmicks. there are three gimmicks in particular that the guy appeared to love:
1) the pick-up/trigger trap. you pick up a key, seven trillion monsters spawn behind you. this is done SO MANY times, you get desensitized to it. the traps are done in the most frustrating way too, with dozens of enemies spammed into the level seemingly at random: be them a row of 20 chaingunners or a row of every mob in the game, it always looks like Sandy just placed those enemies without any consideration for the quality of the encounter.
2) the invulnerability power-up. a lot of those shitty trap encounters are done in wide open spaces, with little useful cover. to remedy that, the game will usually give you an invulnerability power-up, so you can just massacre everyone in god mode. that's very fun at first, but, again, it's done ad nauseam. every time i see it happening again it becomes less satisfying. it's an obvious crutch: you don't need to put effort into designing a good fight if you can just throw a bunch of shit at the wall and patch it up with a god mode cheat.
3) the BFG. one of DOOM's most iconic weapons becomes grating in this game. many of Sandy Petersen's levels absolutely depend on the BFG9000. whenever demons get spammed in any way, usually through monster closets, the most effective way to dispose of them is using the BFG. it doesn't feel rewarding, clever or powerful; it's just mind-numbing because of the repetition. however, i can't even begin to fathom how i'd deal with so many situations without the BFG.
Sandy will sacrifice some of DOOM's key strengths, such as intense demon slaying in rooms designed for violence, in favor of tedious tricks. infamous maps like The Chasm, Tricks and Traps, and Barrels o' Fun are the culmination of his design philosophy, one that unfortunately permeates this game.
although those are the worst offenders, various other level design problems plague DOOM II. the city portion of the game has very unintuitive maps. their openness suggests that you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, but they are actually quite linear. that linearity makes little sense because the areas are mostly disconnected from each other, so the entire levels end up being utterly disjointed and having confusing progression.
openness in general rarely does DOOM combat many favors, either. to me, the game is at its absolute best in tighter rooms with reasonable amounts of cover (that also serve as obstacles!!) and in corridors. a prime example of that "openness" harming gameplay is the map Industrial Zone: its best moments happen when you enter certain structures and face the demons up close in neatly designed fights. however, you spend most of your time outside, trying to figure out how to get indoors while doing lame platforming and shooting chaingunners that stand on a flat field a mile away from you.
as i said earlier though, the level design is inconsistent, not straight-up awful. there are many highlights here, too. to name a few, Bloodhalls, The Abandoned Mines, Circle of Death, The Inmost Dens and Refueling Base are pretty good levels, even with their shortcomings (they did NOT know what to do with the pain elementals in this game), and i wish the game had more of that instead of what we got.
as a final note, i think it's worth saying that i don't fully know why Sandy Petersen ended up designing such a large number of levels for this game, but it's very likely that id was the one to blame. he may have been overworked, he may've had too little time to make and playtest them, maybe the game wouldn't even have been shipped if he didn't put out those 16 levels, i don't know. what i know is that his level design is not for me and DOOM II is essentially his game.
played on gzdoom, ultraviolence