The ever-bloody Brutal Doom is coming back for a final release in 2015, v20b. It will include the custom maps designed for use with the turbo-violence mod, as well as various system updates, tweaks to its formula and performance improvements for all that blood.
They just kept making FPS games after Doom. They proved quite popular.
If you’re unfamiliar, Brutal Doom is a mod for Doom that utilises source ports to make it really, really bloody. It goes a bit further than that, adding screen cracking explosions, a chaingun that can shoot through walls, the ability to blast limbs off – it’s an all round action mod. What it’s always really needed were maps specifically designed to show it off, made in the same over-the-top-of-over-the-top style. Now it’s getting that.
The Starter Map Pack, as it’s called, is a full 32-map megawad that spans Doom’s massive variety of tilesets and will be released seperately to the new version on December 31st. It’s balanced for Brutal Doom’s unique gameplay and, well, there aren’t a lot of WADs with functional airstrikes. I’m into that. There’s loads more stuff on the creator’s YouTube channel, but here’s a limited runthrough of a pair of the levels, showing how they integrate Brutal Doom’s melee systems, among other bits, into more than just kicking a monster’s head off.
I have an on and off relationship with Brutal Doom. It’s ludicrous fun and plays with more impact than a lot of triple-A shooters, managing to keep Doom’s perfect feeling of aiming and shooting while modernising and bloodyifying it to an extreme degree. However, it’s never been as good as the best actual map WADs for Doom, including my personal favourite Valiant which I can’t get through an article about Doom without mentioning. Hopefully having its own maps will fix that.
They do look fantastic, far more wide-open and filled with custom content than I’m used to from WADs. Drivable vehicles, aiming down sights, new weapons and monsters have all been done before, of course, but rarely in this style. I’m looking forward to playing it in the new year. More info on the official Facebook page.