Pirate Doom at Doomed: Doom wad reviews news

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Pirate Doom started back in mid-2012, and what a long way we've come, baby. "D" Arch got the ball rolling with some humorous sprite edits and a few levels and developed the thing into a full-blown GZDoom TC, which saw its major final touches in 2013. Every monster you know from Doom II has undergone some fantastic work to fit them into the Pirate pantheon, from the lowly zombieman to the strapping Cyberdemon, and all the action plays across a wonderfully varied 17 or so levels, giving you plenty of time to get intimate with the changes as you swash and buckle your way through a brand new adventure.

There's one tiny problem - Arch forgets to get the ball rolling with any kind of story blurb. So, here goes. You're a pirate, of course, and a damned good one or you wouldn't be able to stomach the task so brazenly set before you. All your pirate friends turn into even more blood-crazed lunatics or foul beasts before your eyes, then attempt to mutiny the old-fashioned way - murder. Step one is saving your own skin, of course, but what you really need to do is find the source of the demonification and put an end to it. Your fellow pirates may not have been the most personable lot, but you're sort of fond of some of them... Just hope that you don't meet them on your way to the origin.

Pirate Doom is great fun. There's a comical tone running through the whole set, beginning with the voice clips uttered by the transmogrified zombies and the way the imps' hats fly up into the air and then floppily float back down to the ground, never mind goofy stuff like the braided pain elemental beards or the peg-legged Cyberpirate. Like Duke Nukem 3D, there are a number of jokes built into the levels themselves, some of them I'm sure being more apparent to fans of the Monkey Island adventure game series, which the mapset undeniably draws from. I mean, LeChuck is the final boss, not that anything you see hints at his existence.

Monster behavior doesn't differ much from the original, but there are some quirks you'll pick up as they are introduced to you, one level at the time. What's more important is figuring out what the new weapon loadout means to you. Arch actually strikes a new balance, where the pistol is a pretty good weapon at taking out zombies, imps, and demons, though I think the imps have been nerfed a little bit. You can get a dual-pistol powerup, too, and that's not the chaingun replacement, which chews through bullets at a phenomenal rate. The shotgun / SSG replacements are as dependable as ever, as are the plasma rifle / rocket launcher, both of which use the same ammo, interestingly. The BFG has been replaced by TNT, which is a little unwieldy at first, but you'll get the hang of it. One of the biggest changes - the berserk makes your first alt-fire cutlass swing a lunge. Could be neat as a dodge tool, I guess, though I never used it as one.Edit: As of 1.7 there's a dynamite gun that lets you unload dynamite at a rapid pace, with the alt-fire dumping three at a time. It's got plenty of bang for your buck.

Arch's level design starts out kind of rough but gets progressively better as more monsters are introduced. The sheer novelty of your situation carries you through the serviceable opening levels. There are a fair number of gimmicks, especially in the circus level, all basically playable. The run of the last four or so maps is solid gold, not that I'm badmouthing the great fun that comes before. There's also some cut content, if I'm not mistaken, but I'm sure it's for the best. I just wish that someday Fistful of Doom gets the same treatment, a feeling triggered by the ghost town feel of "Booty Bay"'s opening. Any Doom theme done this well is a sight to behold. Better yet - Pirate Doom occupies MAP41-58, so you can load it up alongside pretty much any reasonable mapset and have a ball killing scurvy dogs after a quick IDCLEV.

If you don't want to play Pirate Doom, I don't know what to tell you, other than sorry. You're really missing out. It's fun. It's farcical. It's frantic at times. I have no idea what Arch is planning on making next, but if he approaches it with anywhere near the amount of care he has put in this, it'll be knocked out of the park.