Hell on earth starter pack secrets
The decision not to give the human villains (and their attack dogs) in this level any drawn-out death animations ( and, more importantly, to leave “cruelty bonuses” out of the level altogether) was a very appropriate one, given the historical war setting. The focus of the secret “Wolfenstein” level is on fast-paced and intense combat, rather than on gory death animations or on sadistic violence/ moral ambiguity.
#Hell on earth starter pack secrets mod#
The second secret level is a “Wolfenstein”-themed level and it’s a perfect example of the right way to make a “Brutal”-style version of “Wolfenstein”, unlike the “ Brutal Wolfenstein” mod for “Doom II” that I reviewed earlier this year. Woo hoo! Two of the best FPS games of the 1990s! In ONE game! Then there’s the obligatory boss battle, which is a clever twist on the “Bruiser Brothers” battle from the original “Doom”. The episode begins in a UAC base on Mars, before progressing to a nuclear power plant – before culminating in an epic charge through a monster-infested building with an army of helper marines at your side. Although it might sound like it’s a collection of generic techbase levels, there’s a surprising amount of variety here that helps to keep things interesting. “Hell On Mars” is a fairly classic sci-fi style “Doom” episode. In other words, this structure is the best of both worlds. So, you don’t have to worry about losing all of your stuff between episodes. However, unlike many old games, you can play all three episodes as one continuous storyline if you want to. Like in all classic-style FPS games, each episode has it’s own distinctive look and theme. Although it’s intended as a “Doom II” replacement, one interesting feature is that this WAD is divided into three episodes ( “Hell On Mars”, “The Battle Of Los Angeles” and “Behind Hellish Lines”). The “Hell On Earth Starter Pack” is a 32-level WAD that contains new textures, weapons, monsters, music and levels.
At the time of writing, I’ve played almost all of it, but I’m stuck on the final boss battle.Īnyway, let’s take a look at “Brutal Doom – Hell On Earth Starter Pack”: Since the version of “GZDoom” included with the WAD was too modern to run on my computer, I ended up playing the “Hell On Earth Starter Pack” using “ZDoom” instead (it also seems to be compatible with Zandronum and a couple of other source ports too). However, due to it’s high difficulty (even on the “Hurt Me Plenty” setting), I’d recommend getting some practice on the classic official “Doom” games before playing it. So, you can play this game right now, even if you’ve never even seen a “Doom” game before. Interestingly, you don’t actually need a copy of “Doom II” or “Final Doom” to play this WAD, since it comes packaged with a copy of “ Freedoom” and the “GZDoom” source port (as well as the latest version of “Brutal Doom”). However, today’s article isn’t a review of “Brutal Doom”.Īfter seeing this footage of a new set of “Doom II” levels that has been specifically designed for “Brutal Doom”, I thought that I’d give the “ Brutal Doom – Hell On Earth Starter Pack” a try. Personally, I played it for a while in 2013 ( and briefly again in 2015 too) but, once the novelty value wore off, I went back to playing the “ordinary” versions of the old “Doom” games. And, yes, this is much more difficult than it might sound.įans of “Doom” on the internet often either seem to absolutely love or absolutely hate “Brutal Doom”. And, yes, I’ve tried not to include screenshots of any of the really gruesome parts of the game in this review. “Brutal Doom” is probably the goriest computer game ever made. I’m not exaggerating about the “gruesome” part. In a nutshell, it makes the classic “Doom” games a lot faster, slightly more modern, somewhat more challenging, a bit more militaristic and a lot more visceral/intense/gruesome than traditional “Doom”. If you’ve played any of the classic “Doom” games within the past six years, then you’ve probably heard of a famous mod called “Brutal Doom” before.