Doom II

Doom II: Hell on Earth, released September 30, 1994, is the sequel to Doom.

Story
The player once again takes the role of the Doomguy, who, after being stranded on Phobos and subsequently fighting his way out of Deimos and Hell itself, returns home to Earth &mdash; only to find that it too has fallen victim to the hellish invasion. His previous adventure on the Mars moon bases has been retconned to defeating the alien invasion.

With all the major cities in the world in ruins, the remaining leaders plan to use spacecraft to transport the survivors of Earth's population. However, the starport is the only way for the ships to depart and the demons have protected it with a force field. All of humanity's remaining soldiers make a desperate assault on the starport, but eventually they are decimated and only the player remains. He continuous on doggedly and selflessly, despite knowing that he will be left behind in order to save the rest of his race.

Once the Marine accomplishes this, he is free to live out the rest of his time alone on Earth while humanity hopefully continues on elsewhere. But along the way, he begins to learn how he might finally thwart the invasion once and for all...



Gameplay
Doom II is not a dramatically different game from its predecessor. There were no significant technological developments and no major graphical improvements; gameplay still consists of the player negotiating non-linear levels, picking up keys to unlock new areas, and of course shooting hundreds upon hundreds of monsters.

Unlike Doom, Doom II takes place over a single continuous sequence of linked levels, with brief textual interludes in order to advance the story. The intermission screens following each level show a simple background image instead of a map. The player can carry his weapons throughout the entire game (unless he is killed, of course), rather than starting from scratch several times as one episode ends and another begins.

The level design, as with Doom, is only loosely based on the areas the player is supposed to travel through. The initial third of the maps have a techbase theme as the player moves through the different military installations of the starport. Afterwards, as the player roams the cities and residential areas searching for the source of the infestation, the levels have an urban look and somewhat resembling terrestrial locations. Toward the end of the game, Hell has begun to merge with reality, and the final levels take place in a nightmarish, Dante-esque subterranean miasma of flowing lava and hot springs.

New enemies include the Chaingunner, Hell Knight, Mancubus, Revenant, Arachnotron, Pain Elemental, Arch-Vile, and a new boss, the Icon of Sin. Being far more varied and innovative than the original Doom monsters, these dramatically changed the single player story gameplay.

The SS trooper from Wolfenstein 3D appears in the two secret levels, which are throwbacks in design (and music) to the Wolfenstein 3D game. Also, a Commander Keen figure makes a cameo in the second secret level.

The player's only new weapon is the Super shotgun. There is also one new powerup, the Megasphere.

Reviews and sales
Doom II went on to sell two million copies, making it the highest-selling id Software game to date. There was praise for its many new and varied enemies, and its innovative map design which aimed to be more non-linear than its predecessor. It also introduced the FPS multi-player world to MAP07: Dead Simple, which is regarded as one of the best deathmatch maps ever published.

In general, Doom II was well-received by the gaming community but was regarded in some areas as a disappointment. Its lack of major new features and its fairly homogeneous, sometimes drab level design were the biggest complaints. This was especially in comparisons made to later games such as Star Wars: Dark Forces and Duke Nukem 3D. Some have considered Doom II an expansion pack rather than a true sequel, akin to the future Serious Sam: The Second Encounter to Serious Sam.

Unlike the original game, Doom II had no demo or shareware versions, and was available only through retail stores. Doom II was thus also known as the commercial version of the game, while the registered version was only available via mail order. However, in 1995, the original was upgraded and received a retail release.

Current records
The Compet-N episode records for Doom II are:

TAS runs

 * 30uv1617
 * 30uv1441

Levels
The levels are divided up into three sets, separated by a textual intermission in addition to the standard intermission screen; as well as two secret levels. (Additional textual interludes appear before levels 7, 31, and 32, and at the end of the game.)

First "episode" (subterranean/starport levels):


 * MAP01: Entryway
 * MAP02: Underhalls
 * MAP03: The Gantlet
 * MAP04: The Focus
 * MAP05: The Waste Tunnels
 * MAP06: The Crusher

Second "episode" (hellish outpost levels):


 * MAP07: Dead Simple
 * MAP08: Tricks and Traps
 * MAP09: The Pit
 * MAP10: Refueling Base
 * MAP11: Circle of Death (a.k.a. "O" of Destruction!)

Third "episode" (city levels):


 * MAP12: The Factory
 * MAP13: Downtown
 * MAP14: The Inmost Dens
 * MAP15: Industrial Zone
 * MAP16: Suburbs
 * MAP17: Tenements
 * MAP18: The Courtyard
 * MAP19: The Citadel
 * MAP20: Gotcha!

Final "episode" (inside hell levels):


 * MAP21: Nirvana
 * MAP22: The Catacombs
 * MAP23: Barrels o' Fun
 * MAP24: The Chasm
 * MAP25: Bloodfalls
 * MAP26: The Abandoned Mines
 * MAP27: Monster Condo
 * MAP28: The Spirit World
 * MAP29: The Living End
 * MAP30: Icon of Sin

Secret levels:


 * MAP31: Wolfenstein
 * MAP32: Grosse
 * MAP33: Betray (Xbox only)