Note: There are a bunch of official expansions for DOOM II. This discusses the main game and Master Levels, but there's also Final Doom and No Rest for the Living which are generally well regarded.

If you like DOOM, you might as well play DOOM II, a game that can best be described as "more of the same but not quite as good". It's fun, but the sequel was rushed out the door - releasing around 10 months after its predecessor - and it shows.

On the plus side, DOOM II introduces a few new enemy types as well as the super shotgun - a double-barrelled shotgun with more bang for more buck.

In contrast to this you have the level design which is worse overall. There are good maps in here. In fact, some people say their favourite levels come from DOOM II. But there are terrible maps as well. The problem is this game's design philosphy leans heavily on 1) sticking you in big open rooms absolutely rammed with enemies and 2) throwing away logic, fairness and form in favour of contrived layouts. In DOOM if you played well you could survive almost any situation. In DOOM II there are occasions where one route will lead to a better weapon and a health pack, the other will lead to certain death if you're under-equipped. Good luck knowing which is which!

Then there's the Master Levels... the Master Levels are a bunch of community made maps, bundled together by id and released as a commercial product in their own right, but now usually thrown in with the main game. Some of the design choices here are god awful. Mazes of thin walkways over inescapable, unsurvivable pits of acid. Levels where you spend 10 times longer searching for hidden buttons than you do fighting demons. Look, if your copy of DOOM II comes packaged with the Master Levels, you might as well play them, but don't feel bad for save scumming or looking up how you exit. DOOM is meant to be a shooter first and foremost, not a puzzle game.

Most of this feels like a well-tuned machine. It's not perfect, but it gives us the Super Shotgun so the flaws are easy to overlook. The original Doom established a well balanced arsenal and a fun rosters of baddies to turn into giblets. Doom 2 expands the roster with a new humanoid (heavy gunner dude), weaker versions of two boss monsters (Hell Knights and Arachnotron), four completely new enemies (Revenants, Mancubus, Arch-Vile and the god awful Pain Elemental) and a few easter egg enemies for fun. In addition, boss enemies (CyberDemon and Spiderdemon) show up more often and can often times appear in the same level.

One nice change from the shareware days is how quickly you get access to the full arsenal. In the first level you get the chainsaw, rocket launcher and shotgun if you are careful. In mission 2 you get the coveted Super Shotgun... and from that point on the gameplay is a total joy. Sure it might be overpowered but who gives a fuck? This game is about a power fantasy. So why not be unbridled?

Despite the fun arsenal and roster to deal with (san Pain Elemental. Fuck that guy), there are some bumps along the way in terms of level design. A few of the larger maps I found to be more frustrating as I spent extended periods spamming the interact button along every wall trying to find a necessary secret to the exit... I'm fine with secrets, but it can be frustrating when a "secret" is mandatory to progress. There were also a few moments that felt cheap, such as a blue skull being located in the middle of a bunch of health vials (which flash and are the same color of the skull)... I walked past it multiple times. I eventually had to do multiple laps around the entire level, trying to locate the secret I was missing to find the exit... I wasn't happy when I finally spotted the blue skull... Then there's the map with the narrow walkways and vats of acid... you know the map... and the Icon of Sin is kind of meh. Kind of frustrating too.

That all said this game still kicks ass and is what put Doom into the Zeitgeist for good reason.

DOOM II is an great follow up of the first DOOM game and offers some new features like new enemies, a new weapon, and a many more levels.

The principle is still the same as the first game. You choose one of the five campaigns and complete all the levels. Instead of fighting demons on Mars however, they now have invaded earth via the open portal that was left behind on Mars, and it is your job to sweep the streets clean of demon scum.

Story wise, DOOM II is simple but dark as ever. The invading demons have slaughtered almost all people on earth and the few that survive, have build space ships to get away from earth, into space. You help disable the barrier that the demons put up to prevent them from leaving and, when all survivors eventually escaped, you are literally the only human left on earth.

Although you saved humanity, you accept your fate that earth is lost and you wait for your inevitable fate. However, then, a message from the survivors from space is transmitted to you, revealing the location of the demon portal, where the invasion is coming from. You fight your way to the portal but discover that it cannot be destroyed from the earth side. You enter the portal, straight into hell itself and defeat the biggest demon you have ever seen. After this, you close the portal and you saved humanity once again.

Graphically, DOOM II looks the same as the first game. But with a series like this, that is no issue and I did not expect (especially at the time) some revolutionary change in visuals. Same goes for the sound, unchanged, but still as badass as ever. The new enemy designs were really cool and added to the overall experience.

I really liked the “earth setting” of DOOM II instead of space stations and factories, it really enhanced the experience for me and gave the game a unique feel. The levels were diverse and looked great.

The addition of the Double Barreled shotgun was great, and I used this badass weapon a lot. The sound feedback you get from this thing alone, was worth it to play DOOM II.

The Master Levels for DOOM II DLC contained twenty new levels, making DOOM II the biggest and longest 2,5D shooter I ever played when compared to DOOM I, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein.

In conclusion, DOOM II did not disappoint and, along with several other classics, is one of those games that I can boot up anytime and complete for the fun of it, without it ever boring me.

Definitely recommend this blast from the past!

I wasn't kidding when I said that I prefer playing the original Doom 2 over Doom Eternal. I initially started with the GOG version, known as Doom 2 Enhanced. It added some modern conveniences like horizontal mouse look and autorun, but not much else. Later, I decided to give the original Doom 2 a try with GZDoom. This version provided full mouselook and the ability to jump, which made finding secrets easier. In the original Doom, you had to attempt awkward run-jumps to access certain areas, which could be challenging even with WASD controls. Imagine how much more difficult it was with arrow keys.

My favorite levels so far have to be "Dead Simple" and "Tricks and Traps." I think "Tricks and Traps" is one of my all-time favorite levels, thanks to its clever hub design.

Speaking of level names, when I first played Doom, my English skills were quite limited. Even something as simple as "Downtown" was a bit confusing for me.

Surprisingly, I still remember all the secrets up to this point, completing every level with a 100% score. But I must say, Refueling Base, with its 18 secrets, can be infuriating. Seriously, Refueling Base, you're not making it easy!

Oddly enough, I can't blame the game for being too difficult. I expected to be constantly saving and loading, but I rarely find the need to do that.

There are a few no-escape pits here and there, like the final room in "Tricks and Traps." And in "Factory," you're teleported right into the middle of an imp cluster.

In "Inmost Dens," it's puzzling that they simply forgot to count secrets as secrets. There are still secret walls and all, but the number of secrets on that level is listed as 0.

Speaking of secrets, I'm still going strong and even found the secret and the super-secret Wolfenstein levels.

"Citadel" has this abstract art vibe to it. It's not that the Doom Engine couldn't handle something resembling the real world; the creators of Doom 2 just didn't want that.

"Gotcha," the level where you face off against a Cyberdemon and a giant spider at the same time, almost "got me" with its super hard-to-find last secret. Turned out it was a hidden door near one of the teleporters in the winding tower.

Following "Nirvana" felt like someone didn't have enough time to finish it properly. There are no secrets on that level, and you can literally pass through blue bars without the blue key.

I remembered that the "Monster Condo" level had some kind of crazy secret, and it actually does! There's a room that's open only for the first 30 seconds of the level.

It's interesting how in the pre-final level, Living End, you can just run past the final Cyberdemon once you know where to aim. That, and the mouselook, make it easier.

Speaking of mouselook, it's easy to see how much better I am now compared to when I struggled with this game as a kid. But it's essential to remember that, with GZDoom, the game looks like this now:

As a kid, the game looked like this:

And I was playing it on a crappy monitor, so it was even more blurry, dark, and distorted. Plus, I didn't know about the Doom engine's limitations, like the lack of rooms above rooms. And there was no mouselook, of course. Just arrow keys, and strafing was on Alt.

Oh, and by the way, I never noticed that those Revenant missiles would chase you indefinitely: