Classic Doom is simply a wonderful game to play. It is undeniably an old game, and it was released at the time when the first-person shooter genre was still young. But the game has aged so well from the simplicity of its mechanics and nailing down the power fantasy role play.
Those are some basic reasons of why Classic Doom is still enjoyable to play. However, another reason which is the crucial reason of why many players still play this beloved classic: custom levels. That is right; the community maps are the x factor to making the classic Doom titles so endlessly replayable.
You can play map packs that give off similar presentation to the official levels. If you want something more unique, there are also many options that will allow players to play the same Doom they know and love, but with a different art style.
So Many Maps Because of Acessibility!
I am no stranger to the community content of the old Doom games. Words like Alien Vendetta or Ancient Aliens will instantly ring a bell to my ears. I can immediately recognize what those are. They’re also some of the most beloved custom Doom content within the community.
You’ll be spending a lot of time looking at grid boxes.
What makes the old Doom games have so many levels being designed to this day is because the map editor itself is easy to use. Doom Builder is the map editing software that most Doom fans are using nowadays. For those who never dived into level design, it might seem intimidating because you are basically entering the realm of video game design.
However, there are plenty of tutorials that one can search around the internet. You’ll be able to pick up and understand how to make Doom levels like it’s nothing. Anybody can make a Doom map, and you definitely don’t need to worry about not having any experience with level design. While following the tutorials, you’ll be able to use the editor like it’s nothing!
The Map Design Matters
Level design is an important aspect to what makes playing the old Dooms so fun. Every map in the games simply has their own goals. For example, E1M8: Phobos Anomaly is the first time where the player encounters two Barons of Hell for the first time.
The iconic starting room…
This map was made to simply teach the player how to fight these two new creatures they have yet to see in the previous maps. Some maps might be more combat oriented, and some of them will require more emphasis on puzzle solving and exploration. There are so many different types of maps that a creator can design.
Why Make Maps for an Old Game?
Now, the next question is why should you make Doom maps? Well, level design can be used as a hobby to express one’s creativity. Also, the classic Doom games are awesome. If you’re definitely a fan of the series, but you’ve never tried using Doom Builder, you should absolutely do it.
As someone who has experience in making levels in various favorite games of mine, it’s simply fun to have a collection of ideas and trying to bring them to life. Also, if you truly like a particular game so much, why wouldn’t you want to make levels out of them?
Why wouldn’t you want to take your favorite game’s sandbox and push it to higher degrees than what the original developers could do at the time? There is so many things one can do in the mapping world of Doom. It is never too late to get into level design with the old Doom games.
Beyond the Base Campaign Levels
You have way more creative freedom nowadays due to the better computer hardware throughout the years. Both Doom and its sequel, Doom II, were designed on a primitive map editor and for antiquated hardware. As great the levels were in those games, they do show their age compared to what a state of the art Doom map could be within today’s times.
That’s a lot of deadly monsters in this one room.
Throughout the years, the Doom community has made tons of levels that have surpassed the official ones through various reasons. Some levels have pushed the old Dooms’ combat mechanics to extreme levels. If you play enough community levels, you will eventually bump into a sub-genre of Doom levels called “slaughter maps.”
These types of maps tend to put the player in a room of high amount of enemies. The player must figure out the optimal strategy to survive. There are also some levels that completely change the overall atmosphere or tone of Doom.
For example, level add-ons like DBP37: AUGER;ZENITH or Pirate Doom are prime examples. These add-ons are great for those that want to still play classic Doom, but it does come with a different artistic approach.
Increasing Repaly Value and Understanding Level Design
After all, due to how simple it is to make Doom levels, you are basically increasing the replay value for the game itself. There are still a decent amount of players that play the classic games to this day. Due to this fact, that is why many mappers continue to make levels.
Doom creative director John Romero wanted to make SIGIL to please his long time fans that never left his games.
It might seem daunting to create levels in today’s era of classic Doom due to the many talented mappers. However, it is always good to start early and you can simply improve by making more levels and experiment. After all, it’s common for fans to release their levels for free.
You will never have to worry about receiving backlash from fans for making low quality levels while charging them. The key thing to improving your levels is to simply play Doom as much as you can and take notes of what you like about in a particular map.
Doom Is Eternal
Doom as always been a great game to play due to the simplicity of its mechanics, but it was also a game that was massively influential to the genre for good reasons. Despite having so much influence on the first-person shooter genre, Doom was always a game that incentivises the player to be creative.
Even back in the ‘90s when there were so many Doom clones at the time, players were still making levels to express their talents. Some of these mappers would also end up becoming professional game designers within the industry. Allowing the fans to create their own levels in Doom had always been the endgame when players exhausted themselves with the base campaign content. You simply can never run out of euphoria when playing Classic Doom.
