Doom II: Hell on Earth (A Diary of Video Games)

DRTnOOber

New Zealand476 Posts

September 18 2012 20:46 GMT

Preamble: This isn't a review. It doesn't contain critical analysis, just the subjective opinions of one person. The intent is to remember the games I've come across in my life and share the nostalgia, nothing more. And some of those games I didn't play in great depth.

After our discussions yesterday I wanted to do a write up on Raptor: Call of the Shadows but I'm not going to. What I'm doing here is updating an old blog I have and re-writing them as I go. If I start doing them out of order I'll forget which games I've done/not done and it could all get very confusing. Hopefully today's game will provide enough nostalgia

Doom II: Hell on Earth

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Game: Doom II: Hell on Earth
Developer: id Software
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1994

Basic Plot

After the events of DOOM the nameless marine returns to Earth only to discover that it has also been overrun by demons. The remaining humans have built huge space ships to escape, but the demons have captured them and are preventing their escape. The nameless marine liberates the ships and allows the humans to escape, then he travels through the portal to Hell where he battles and defeats the Icon of Sin. In doing so he is able to close the portal and save Earth.

Gameplay

Doom II is a first person shooter and used the same engine as the original game. There were no technological upgrades, but the game included larger and more complex levels.

There were a number of new monsters to fight, and one new weapon - the Super Shotgun which was a double barrelled shotgun devastating in very close quarters.

One of the new enemies. Rocket launcher in hand.

Positives

Multiplayer was fun, the new complexity of the levels and the new enemies made it just different enough to make it stand out and hold interest.

Great level editor which made the game hugely extensible, and there was a huge online community built up around it.

Negatives

Pretty much cashing in on the success of the original, fairly repetitive and linear gameplay.

Another new enemy, chainsaw in hand. Notice the glowing eyes of god-mode on the players face bottom centre. Can't remember if this was only a cheat or if you could get a power-up in the game that gave you this temporarily.

Memorable Moments

This was the first multiplayer network game I played (I think). I used to play it over my 33.6 k modem with my friend Nick. We played quite a bit of deathmatch and also some of the co-operative mode. It was absolutely incredible; I'd never experienced anything like it at the time. To look at gaming now, where we take massive online gaming for granted, it puts into perspective how quickly technology has grown since I was a kid.

This was the first game that I got involved with level editing. I used to create special custom built multiplayer maps to play over modem or network games. I tried creating a level once which was pretty normal but had hidden passages with caches of weapons that only I would know about, while my brother didn't. What a cruel older brother I am!

I still remember some of the cheat codes: idclip (or noclip? the no-clipping cheat which was idspispopd in the original), iddqd for god mode.

Today's question: When I was very young there was a 2D educational platform game we used to have at school. It involved jumping around and collecting letters in the correct order to spell words... pretty sure it started with the word "Word" and then something else... does anyone know the game I'm talking about? What was it called? I'm pretty sure there was a Math version too.

micronesia

United States24777 Posts

September 18 2012 21:22 GMT

That screenshot you have is definitely the result of iddqd... not a megasphere or other powerup.

Other ones I recall besides idclip (which you had right):

idkfa (lots of ammo/guns)
idbeholdl (turn the lights up)
idclev (change level)