I love Doom. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. It’s special to me and, in a way, represents everything I love about PC gaming. As a kid, it was my go-to game to play, despite not being allowed to play it. Playing the original 20+ years later, it still holds up. Impressively, the PC modding community is still very much alive and well, giving me more reasons to jump in and experience the game I still love today. One of my favorite Mods for Doom is Brutal Doom, which adds rag doll physics to Doom and adds a level of violence that is only rivaled by the modern release. There is also Aliens: The Ultimate Doom, which converts the game into a Xenomorph killing spree. Given relatively meager tools, the mod community has surprisingly flourished, spawning stuff like Golden Eye 007, an attempt to recreate the N64 classic in Doom. Mods have definitely prolonged the life of this PC classic.
The new Doom game released from Bethesda is also great! It feels like a love letter to the fans. It manages to hearken back to the original game yet modernize it in a way that feels true to the original spirit of Doom. Sadly, it lacks a key feature in my opinion: modding support. iD Softwares’ solution in this most recent incarnation of Doom is SnapMap. The problem is that SnapMap just isn’t that good. It’s easy to use, but lacks the ability to create anything unique or with depth. For instance, all maps created are interiors of the Mars base. It’s sad that, in a Doom game, players cannot create a map set in Hell, a location which is central to the major theme of Doom. SnapMap may be a win for console gamers, but ultimately feels shallow to PC gamers. The campaign in Doom is awesome. I would love to see what creative people can do with proper mod tools. From what I’ve experienced with SnapMap, it simply feels like a “Doom lite” experience.
I feel so passionately about this issue that I’ve created an online petition. My hopes in doing so would be to sway the Lead Directors of Doom and the Lead Producer to consider adding mod support to this almost perfect game. Considering the original Doom’s legacy, it just seems like the right thing to do.
Here is the full link below, feel free to pass it around!
https://www.change.org/p/marty-stratton-bring-mod-support-to-doom-2016-on-pc
