| Doom II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | id Software[b] |
| Publisher | id Software[c] |
| Designers | |
| Programmers | |
| Artists | |
| Composer | Robert Prince[d] |
| Series | Doom |
| Engine | Doom engine[e] |
| Platforms | |
| Release | October 10, 1994 |
| Genre | First-person shooter |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Doom II, also known asDoom II: Hell on Earth, is a 1994first-person shooter game developed and published byid Software forMS-DOS. It was also released onMac OS the following year. Unlike the originalDoom, which was initially only available throughshareware and mail order,Doom II was sold in stores, making it the first game in theDoom franchise to be released initially in stores.
Compared to its predecessor,Doom II features larger levels, new enemies, a new Super Shotgun weapon, and a newpower-up.Master Levels for Doom II, anexpansion pack with 21 new levels, was released on December 26, 1995. Another expansion,No Rest for the Living, which adds nine extra levels, was developed for the release of the game onXbox Live Arcade and is also included in theDoom 3: BFG Edition, as part ofDoom Classic Complete, and as a free add-on for the 2019Unity engine port ofDoom II. It was also included in the 2024 KEX Engine port.
Reception ofDoom II was very positive, with critics praising that the game refined the already-good aspects of the originalDoom. It has sold more than 1.8 million copies and earned over $74 million in revenue in the United States alone, and is considered to be one of thegreatest video games ever made.
Doom II wasported to theGame Boy Advance in 2002,Tapwave Zodiac in 2004, onXbox Live Arcade in 2010, and onNintendo Switch,PlayStation 4 andXbox One in 2019. The release of theDoomsource code has facilitated ports to platforms includingiOS and othercellphone systems.Doom II was included in theDoom ports for thePlayStation andSega Saturn in 1995 and 1997.
Doom II was not dramatically different from its predecessor. There were no major technological developments,graphical improvements, or substantial gameplay changes. Instead, the development team took advantage of advances in computerhardware since the release of the original game that allowed them to do more with their gameengine by making much larger and more intricate levels. The game still consists of the player navigating large nonlinear levels. Each level is infested with demons that can be killed with a variety of weapons that can be picked up throughout the game. Levels are completed by finding an exit, whether it be a switch or a teleporter; the goal is simply to advance to the next area. As with its predecessor,Doom II's levels can be completed in a straightforward fashion. However, because the levels arenonlinear, players can wander off the beaten path, and those who do are often rewarded with bonuses like health pickups and more powerful weapons. Due to the larger and more complicated maps with larger groups of monsters, the game had somewhat higher system requirements than the original.
Rather than the player playing through three related episodes as in the firstDoom, gameplay takes place over 32 levels (two of which are secret levels that can be accessed from level 15), albeit with interludes for when the story develops. Instead of watching the player's progress on a map (as in the original episodes ofDoom), the screens between each level simply show a background (a style carried over to the bonus fourth episode ofDoom available inThe Ultimate Doom, theretail re-release of the originalDoom). This also means the player is never forced to lose all of their inventory after completing an episode.
Doom II doubled the number of non-boss monster types and started using bosses from the originalDoom as normal level enemies, in addition to adding a new weapon, the Super Shotgun (a very powerfuldouble-barreled shotgun), and a newpower-up, the Megasphere.
Doom'smultiplayer functionality was greatly improved inDoom II, including "out of the box" support for a vastly increased number of dial-up modems. The two-player dial-up connection allowed one player to dial into the other player's computer in order to play either cooperatively or indeathmatch-style combat. There was alsolocal area network (LAN) functionality added, which was improved upon as patches and updates were released. This functionality was later incorporated into the originalDoom. As with the originalDoom, multiplayer games used to be played using the dial-up or LAN by the internal setup program (setup.exe), through the online serviceDWANGO or with once-popular programs likeKali and Kahn (using SPX) in Windows 95. Nowadays, in the modern standards,Doom II can be played with almost any version of Windows across the internet using third-partysource ports such asOdamex,[5]Zandronum,[6]ZDaemon,[7] and are still popular today.[8] TheXbox Live Arcade port ofDoom II supports online multiplayer viaXbox Live.
Immediately following the events inDoom, the player once again assumes the role ofDoomguy. After defeating the Spider Mastermind, the marine finds a portal to Earth opened by demons. After returning to Earth, the marine finds that it has also been invaded by the demons, who have killed billions of people.[9][10]
The humans who survived the attack have developed a plan to build massivespaceships which will carry the remaining survivors into space. Unfortunately, Earth's only ground spaceport has been taken over by the demons, who placed a barrier over it, preventing any ships from leaving.[9] The marine battles hordes ofdemons and is able to deactivate the force field, allowing the remaining humans to escape. Once all the survivors have escaped Earth, the marine is the only human left on the planet.[11]
Just as he sits down to await death, knowing that he saved humanity, the marine then receives an off-planet transmission from the survivors inorbit, who have managed to find out where the armies of Hell are coming from. The message reveals that the demonic base is in the center of the marine's own hometown. He then fights through the city until he reaches the base, but sees there is no way to stop the invasion on that side. He decides to step into the portal to try deactivating it from the other side, entering Hell.
After fighting through the hordes of Hell, the marine reaches the location of the biggestdemon he has ever seen, called the Icon of Sin (Baphomet). He kills the Icon of Sin by firing rockets into its exposed brain. Its death causes devastation in Hell, and the portal to Earth is sealed. The marine wonders where evil people will go when they die now that Hell has been destroyed, and reflects that rebuilding the world will be more fun than saving it as he begins his journey back home.
Most of the levels were designed bySandy Petersen,[12] withAmerican McGee playing a significant role as well.
The final level,Icon of Sin, contains aneaster egg where two of the artists put the severed head ofJohn Romero as thesprite hidden behind the icon on the wall which must be damaged by rocketsplash damage three times to win the game. Romero, while playing the level to work on its sound effects, accidentally stumbled upon this in-joke of himself. After realising what his co-workers had done, Romero himself answered by recording his voice saying "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero", putting it through variousfilters to distort it, then reverse the recording to create the "demonic chant" spoken by the head upon spotting the player.[13][14] The photo that was scanned for the "John Romero's head"-sprite was from aBusinessweek photo shot in 1994.[15]
One of Sandy Petersen's ideas that never made it to the final game was replacing the Fists weapon with a hand axe.[16]
Advertising for the game was between $3 million and $5 million.[17]
Doom II was released for DOS on October 10, 1994 (one of the days of theDoomsday rule and exactly ten months after the original) in North America and Europe; distribution was handled byGT Interactive.[18][19][20][21]
In 1995, a port for Mac OS by Lion Entertainment Inc. was released,[22] as well as a port for the PlayStation.[citation needed] AnAtari Jaguar port was also announced early in the year, but was never released.[23] Likewise, a3DO Interactive Multiplayer version was announced to be in development byArt Data Interactive, but it never materialized.[24][25] In 1997, a port for the Sega Saturn was released.[citation needed]
Aport for theGame Boy Advance was released in 2002, for theTapwave Zodiac in 2004, forXbox Live Arcade in 2010,[26][27] and forNintendo Switch,PlayStation 4 andXbox One in 2019, with the latter-most platforms (withPlayStation 5 andXbox Series X/S versions) receiving a further expanded port in 2024 alongside the originalDoom.[28][29][30][31]
The release of theDoomsource code[when?] has facilitated ports to many other platforms, includingiOS and other cellphone systems.
In August 2024, Bethesda announced a definitive edition at QuakeCon calledDoom + Doom II. The new edition also includesTNT: Evilution,The Plutonia Experiment, Master Levels for Doom 2, No Rest for the Living, Sigil (byJohn Romero), a new deathmatch map pack with 26 maps, and a new episode titledLegacy of Rust. Legacy of Rust was developed by id Software,Nightdive Studios, andMachineGames. The bundle also included in-game mod support across both titles, along with the 2016 "IDKFA" arranged soundtrack forDoom and a brand new "IDKFA" arranged soundtrack forDoom II, both byAndrew Hulshult.[32]
On 10 April 2025,Sigil II was officially added to theDoom +Doom II edition.[33]
Master Levels for Doom II is an officialexpansion pack forDoom II which was released on December 26, 1995, byid Software.[34] The CD contains 20WAD files created by various authors under contract. There is also a bonus calledMaximum Doom consisting of over 3,000homebrew levels.[35] Romero wrote about the origin of the expansion in 2023. Back in 1995, some retailers were selling disks in stores that simply contained manyDoom WADsscraped from the internet. Though the levels were available for free online, many players had slow internet access at the time and so would purchase the disks, which were "selling like hot-cakes". Realising this, id decided to officially license a similar disk by approaching mappers and commissioning them for levels, in addition to the large shareware collection. More broadly, the disk was part of an effort by Romero to diversify id Software's income at a time when much of the team was waiting for theQuake engine to be ready.[36] Reviewer Ed Dawson forPC PowerPlay praised the quality of the levels, but noted the "uniformly medium size" of the commercial levels and the high purchase price for predominantly shareware content.[37]
No Rest for the Living is an expansion pack developed for the release ofDoom II onXbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. It was developed byNerve Software, under the direction ofid Software and was released on May 26, 2010.[38] It consists of eight regular levels and one secret level. It is also included in the 2012Doom II release fromDoom 3: BFG Edition, as part ofDoom Classic Complete for thePlayStation Network, and has been released as a free add-on for the 2019Unity engine port ofDoom II. Although no detailed plot information is given, this expansion appears to take place after the main campaign ofDoom II. Brandon James, president of Nerve Software, said this expansion was designed to be played on Ultra-Violence difficulty, contains "a plethora of secrets to find," and "is geared toward a more hardcore experience."[39]
Legacy of Rust was developed by id Software, Nightdive Studios, and MachineGames. Released on August 8, 2024,Legacy of Rust is the first official episode sinceDoom II to feature brand-new enemies/weapons. The new episode is divided into two chapters, "The Vulcan Abyss" and "Counterfeit Eden," which contain a combined total of 16 maps.[40]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PC: 83/100[41] GBA: 77/100[42] X360: 77/100[43] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 4/5 (DOS)[44] 4/5 (Macintosh)[45] |
| GameSpot | 8.5 /10(PC)[48] |
| GameSpy | 4.5/5(GBA)[49] |
| Next Generation | 3/5[46] |
| PC PowerPlay | 3/10(Master Levels)[47] |
| MacUser | 4/5[50] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A[51] |
The reception ofDoom II was positive, with reviewers saying it refined everything that made the originalDoom good.[52] The game was reviewed in 1995 inDragon #216 byDavid "Zeb" Cook in the "Eye of the Monitor" column, who stated that, "if mindless but intense carnage is what you want, you'll get your money's worth. It's just not a must-have, keep-on-the-hard-drive-forever game. If you need to have moreDoom, get this."[53]
Writer/game designerChris Crawford used the level "Barrels O' Fun" to illustrate a point about death in video games, explaining he chose the level as his example because it is "one of the most complex and sophisticated challenges in one of the very best games of the 1990s".[54]
Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Now that the first person interface has become the design of choice for the entire industry, Id will need to find new innovations, or it will quickly find it's playing catch-up in its own game niche."[46]
Doom II won theOrigins Award forBest Fantasy orScience fiction Computer Game of 1994.[55]
According toDavid Kushner inMasters of Doom, id Software shipped 600,000 units ofDoom II to stores in preparation for its launch. This initial shipment sold out within a month on shelves, despite its being expected to last for three months.[56] Pre-orders for the game were so massive that it was difficult to buy from a store. The game products were displayed on pallets rather than shelves.[57] The game was the United States' highest-selling software product of 1994,[58] and sold more than1.2 million copies within a year.[59] It placed 10th for 1996, with 322,671 units sold and $12.6 million earned in the region that year alone.[60] According toPC Data, which tracked sales in the United States,Doom II sold 1.81 million units and earned $74.7 million in revenue in the United States. This ledPC Data to declare it the country's third-best-selling computer game for the period between January 1993 and April 1998.[61] Its revenues in that country ultimately reached $80 million, while those in Europe reached $20 million. Of the latter figure, Kushner wrote that "30 percent [...] came from Germany—a country that had banned the game from its shelves."[56]
InAustralia, the game sold 10,000 copies in the first two days of its release.[62]
In 2022, John Romero created a new level called "One Humanity"[63] for the game to raise money for theUkrainian Red Cross, and theUnited Nations Central Emergency Response Fund following the outbreak of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[64][65][66] By March 2022, the new level had raised more than $29,000.[67]
{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: location (link)Doom II soon rolled out and was an instant hit, selling more than1.2 million copies within a year
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