Dedicated Doom 2 Modder Spent 300 Hours to Make a Three Hour Level
John Williamson / 8 years ago
Doom 2 is one of the greatest video games of all time and inspired many developers to create their own first-person-shooters. Despite its age, Doom 2 remains quite playable and still has a loyal community which admires the revolutionary gameplay. In particular, modders design their own maps for others to enjoy free of charge and the quality of work never ceases to amaze. One notable example comes from the Doom modder Ben Mansell who created a level entitled Foursite 4-in-1. Unbelievably, this huge level takes around 2-3 hours to complete on the initial run and is packed full of content. In reality, the mod consists of multiple levels which can be accessed via a central hub. Not only that, the stages have a boss fight at the finish and employ different visual styles. In an interview with Eurogamer, Ben Mansell discussed the background for the mod and said:
“A recent trend in Doom mapping, as computers get ever more powerful, is to create so-called ‘Slaughtermaps’, where it’s the player and a thousand enemies in a single room. It’s a perfectly legitimate style of play, but I always enjoyed the more environmental elements of the original games: the complex levels, the non-linear progress, the environmental storytelling, so I tried to build a map that didn’t just rely on shooting enemies for the enjoyment.”
“I think the ideas I’m most proud of are the environmental ones: for example at the end of the first quarter there’s a room where you have to run across platforms while Mancubi shoot at you. That’s the kind of environmental puzzle you don’t get in that many modern Doom maps. The very last room too (forgive the spoiler!) has you dodging between moving platforms trying to keep out of sight of a final boss that never stops shooting you. It’s entirely a timing based puzzle, and feels quite different to a lot of what else is out there.”
He also went on to discuss the time investment which managed to exceed a staggering 300 hours:
“It was very much a hobby for me, a few hours a week over the last year or so,”
“I’ve always wanted to do something creative, to make something other people can enjoy, and I guess it seemed like a Doom map was my best shot at making something decent!”
The quality of work and an astonishing amount of time it took to finish the project is a testament to the dedication of the modding community. If you wish to try out the Foursite 4-in-1 level, it can be download from ModdDB and requires the user to own Doom 2.
