Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl

Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl is a 2008 computer game which runs on the ZDoom engine. It was mainly developed by Stephen Browning, with ACS scripting by Mike Watson and James Bauer. It is the prequel to the total conversion Action Doom, but has a different style of gameplay. Whereas the first Action Doom was a sidescrolling shoot 'em up using Doom's first-person perspective, Action Doom 2 instead simulates a beat 'em up.

The Project
Development on Urban Brawl began in 2004 just months after release of the original Action Doom. Instead of egregious advertising, like the original, the project remained entirely unknown to the community until the day of release. Urban Brawl features a distinct comic book art style with colorful scenery and characters rendered entirely in cel-shading. The game's enemy roster was drawn on paper, scanned and coloured. Similar to Beat 'em ups, many characters are a mere palette swap of previous enemies. Instead of using Doom's engine to calculate light, the lighting is texture based. Objects and walls cast black shadows when seen in sunlight and blue textures were used to simulate a moonlight appearance.

The game can run either with version 2.2.0+ of ZDoom using the Doom II IWAD, or with its own included executable, requiring no IWAD to run.

Outside of gameplay, the story is told mainly through black and white, film noir-style cutscenes inspired by Sin City. Darknation wrote most of the dialogue and cutscenes, while Mike Lightner contributed the voiceovers. The story can branch off in different paths depending on the player's actions, and features multiple possible endings.

The soundtrack was created entirely by Ralph Vickers.

On December 10, 2008, Action Doom 2 was one of the winners of the 2008 Cacowards.

Versions
Action Doom 2 is available in two forms: A free download, and a CD that can be purchased from the official website for USD$9.99 through PayPal. The CD version comes with its own case and box art, as well as several exclusive bonus levels including a survival zombie war set in an urban environment.

Promotional Offerings
Scattered throughout each level of Urban Brawl were unique specialty items which awarded the player 100,000 points. Additionally, discovering all 9 unique items revealed to the player the official contest website and how to win. Winners were...
 * Dylan Sanchez
 * Robert Yarborough
 * Mike Ewer