NeoDoom

NeoDoom is a 32 map megawad made by Daniel Lemos, released on April 2006.

Most of the graphics were changed, as well as the weapons and enemies. It has new enemies and weapons for ZDoom, increasing the gameplay. It also brings some new enemies for Doomsday Engine. It doesn't use Legacy features, so it's only Legacy compatible. The story is a sequel to the New World mod series made by the author years earlier.

Story
The player takes the role of the same Doom marine from the original series. It's revealed that after the Earth invasion a couple of years ago, he stills works as a soldier. After return from the war against the hellspawn on the new discovered planet, he receives a message about an small invasion occurred on some Earth industries. He, as an experienced marine, is called to finish the invasion. But, as confronts his enemies, he began to realize that this small invasion isn't that small.

The story follows the traditional Doom 2 mission storyline, with 32 levels divided into three episodes. The first one have an industrial-like feeling, divided into different industrial tech bases, mostly with zombie human enemies. As the story progress, the protagonist discovers a full scale invasion on Earth. The second episode it's played on sub-urban houses, forests, then beaches and cities. After encountering a connection between the portal on the cities and old Egyptian temples, the protagonist goes to the last episode, played in places such as ancient temples, medieval castles, and the Hell itself.

After destroying the heart of another Icon of Sin, the protagonist returns to Earth, were he goes to his secret house on a beach, far away from politicians, war and violence, on a pursue of peace and true love.

About NeoDoom
The project had three years of working, and the final product were much more different than it's initial version. In these three years, a lot of people joined the project, but in the end no o ne did a considerable quantity of work. The most notable feature of the mod is that it was the first multi-port megawad mod with Doomsday, Doom Legacy , GZDoom , Skulltag and ZDoom support. A nd it also can run also in source ports that have DeHackEd support.

The mod has a load of new weapons. Some are for GZDoom and ZDoom only, including the inventory items which are plentiful and are occasionally dropped by monsters, giving a sort of RPG feel to it. The new monsters vary from monsters from the Monster Resource Wad to original incarnations of bosses, including enemies from Hexen and Duke Nukem 3D. S ome different monsters can be encountered depending on whether the wad is played with Doomsday or GZDoom/ZDoom. The ZDoom addons were made on the last year, only a few were kept on the mod, and the other weapons were releases as a weapon mod called "Arsenal".

The mod tries to bring some levels with new atmospheres for the Doom engine. Only a few textures come from the original Doom 2, and the textures are divided into sets, very organized by the mapper. T he two secrets levels also has a special theme: the first one being based on the author's house and the second one based on the "author's infancy". All maps have new textures or modified old ones. Another notable feature is the soundtrack: all musics were made by Daniel himself, since he is a musician. The first levels have Techno-like musics, the cities have hard rock tracks and the latest levels have atmospheric musics that reflects the tension made by the hellish style of the maps. There are also musics designed especially for a level, such as the second secret level.

Reception
NeoDoom had mixed to good reviews from players since it's release. Many enjoyed the WAD for its level variety and originality, it's powerful weapons and tough creatures. It was one of the most wad played on cooperative on Skulltag.

Other players criticized it the maps being too "standard", and the amount of weapons and items making it too cumbersome. Player also complained about some of the monsters, mainly the Vixens, being way overpowered. The main controversy, however, were to the "stolen" material - which the author replied that it's was unfounded, since all authors are credited on the text file. Another controversy it was around the to the Cacoward at the 2006 ceremony, which the mod didn't received. Apart from this, the WAD is arguably considered one of the most important Doom mods of 2006.