Cross Pollination, New Doom and Brutal Doom

Soon we will all get our hands on a brand new Doom game. This new Doom has made big headway with its ultra-violent classic style gameplay which makes it stand out against its more realistic focused competitor’s. With the success of Wolfenstein The Order It would be logical to assume that Bethesda took notice that people are interested in classic style single player driven FPS. Doom does have a multiplayer but let’s face it we all play Doom to annihilate hordes of demons which is what the new Dooms campaign has plenty of. But before the new Doom was even announced a mod called Brutal Doom had very similar features to the new Doom. Brutal Doom is a mod for the original Doom 1 and 2 created by Marcos Abenante known as Sergent Mark IV back in 2010. The mod became widely popular featuring over the top gore, executions and refined mechanics. It’s still widely played with constant updates including a new project to make a Brutal Doom 64 mod. Brutal Doom has been covered by major media outlets as well as countless youtube reactions and twitch streams. With over six years of development and media attention its very likely that Brutal Doom has in some way inspired the development of the new Doom. People embraced the new Doom the same way they embraced Brutal Doom, They both featured more of what made the older games feel so good, The over the top action.

Brutal Doom

New Doom

One example is how both Brutal Doom and new Doom both have executions as key features. These are over the top spectacles that make the game feel like the product of a heavy metal music video. This feature was honed in the new Doom. Brutal Doom had it first but it had no real game play value aside from looking like a badass. The new Doom rewards the player with health and ammo encouraging the player to play aggressively. The previous game Doom 3 failed to deliver on that premise. Doom 3 was in no way a bad game but it was a product of its time. During that time survival horror was popular and Doom 3 didn’t feel as fast or action packed. It took itself seriously and relied on a more survival horror style. Both new Doom and Brutal Doom seem to be a direct response to the fans wanting the series to return to its roots. If the new Doom was inspired by Brutal Doom it’s a good sign that they are actually trying to give the fans what they want. We will soon see for ourselves if the new Doom is able to make the impact that Brutal Doom made.