Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

Official ZanStuff sub-forum. Project reviews go here.

Moderator: Slyfox

Post Reply
legion
Retired Staff / Community Team Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:36 am

Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#1

Post by legion » Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:53 am

Brutal Doom v18 by Sergeant_Mark_IV
Reviewed By: Legion
Download


When first playing Brutal Doom, it was more than a year ago near it's first releases. Now that it has matured into something that really hasn't changed in the past year, I feel the need to write down some of my thoughts on it. Considering there are many weapon/gameplay replacement mods that exist, Brutal Doom is not entirely unique among its counterparts. Not a good start.

The first thing one notices is the obnoxious amount of new options that you can choose.
http://i.imgur.com/6LhMqAQ.png
I tested each of them out and they provided me no useful purpose, except to actually wake up enemy demons and attract them to your position. I don't know if that will actually come in handy for someone. Oh, and there's a reload function.

The entire gimmick of the wad is to edit gameplay itself to be, as the title suggests, more BRUTAL. While it does indeed paint a lot more ketchup on my screen, it just doesn't FEEL brutal. It's more along the lines of a cartoon rather than being truly brutal.

For example, the fatalities, not unlike what Mortal Kombat pioneered over 20 years ago, are stiff 2D animations which cuts out all immersion you might have had within the game and show the player pummeling a various non-boss creature, covering your screen with blood and covering my face with an unimpressed expression.

Gameplay consists of what Doom is, running and gunning, but with a few added things.
The fists are a normal rabbit punch with an altfire extra strength punch. Starts in smash mode (damage to enemies) but has an extra mode when you pick up a berserk pack (or demon strength rune dropped by a random enemy) called Rip and Tear! which apparently pays homage to the doom comic. In that mode, you can perform fatalities to all non-boss characters. These fatalities have been the major selling point for Brutal Doom, but they end up being far too risky to pull off in any dangerous setting.
Pistol has been replaced by an assault rifle. It has a 30 round clip. There is nothing more you need to know about this gun.
Shotgun is an 8 round max limit before reloading.
SSG shoots 2 shots at the same time.
The chaingun has been replaced with the minigun, which is not unlike the zandronum minigun.
Rocket launcher has a 6 round magazine before you reload. It feels more powerful than the original doom counterpart, but that is about it.
Plasma has a 50 round magazine before you need to reload. It also has an altfire that shoots a shotgun like spread. A powerful attack.
The bfg9000 shoots a powerful rocket-like projectile (It has some splash to it, so don't fire it right next to yourself), but other than that, nothing has changed.

So aside from the fists, the weapons just received the CoD makeover and little else. While this can functionally be a good theme to keep to, it is boring and average, and has been done to death.

The sprites are well done, if anything. But the voice acting that comes with it is really cringe-worthy. Seriously, you should listen to it. It's got a guy literally screaming into my headphones while melting in slime. I'm guessing it was meant to sound gritty but it just ends up being ludicrous/annoying.

This entire game gives me the thought that the creator is attempting to evoke what doom itself was attempting to do: a gory, first person shooter with brutality and no story. Here, there is no story, and it is certainly something, but brutal it is not. It is really stiff and unintuitive. As far as gameplay/weapon replacers go, BURL TUMD did it better, Hard Doom did it better. For something to feel BRUTAL there needs to be a different tact than "slapping me in the face with the disembodied limb of an imp." It just comes off as trying too hard.

Visuals: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10 (not including fatalities)
Overall: 5/10
This could have been improved with a different way of doing fatalities, more varied weapons that weren't regurgitated by Call of Duty, better voice acting, and perhaps some custom maps released for it. If you want something that is really brutal feeling, go check out Russian Overkill. No seriously, go check it out.
Last edited by legion on Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image

User avatar
Medicris
Forum Regular
Posts: 614
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:29 am

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#2

Post by Medicris » Sun Oct 06, 2013 2:52 am

Boko did the voice acting, last I heard.

And I know. It's incredible how much hard clipping he managed to make in those recordings.
Last edited by Medicris on Sun Oct 06, 2013 2:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Ivan
Addicted to Zandronum
Posts: 2219
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:38 pm
Location: Omnipresent

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#3

Post by Ivan » Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:08 am

Cool review, I expected lower scores.
=== RAGNAROK DM ON ... uh... dead forever? ===
=== ALWAYS BET ON ... uh... dead forever? ===
=== Who wanta sum wang? ===
=== Death and Decay - A new Monster/Weapon replacer ===

legion
Retired Staff / Community Team Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:36 am

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#4

Post by legion » Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:47 am

I considered ranking it lower, but it had enough functional components to make it average
Image

TerminusEst13
Retired Staff / Community Team Member
Posts: 865
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:06 pm

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#5

Post by TerminusEst13 » Sun Oct 06, 2013 6:12 am

Medicris wrote:Boko did the voice acting, last I heard.
Chinese Tony Danza/Zero X. Diamond, actually.
The Ranger - New class for HeXen.
ZDoom Wars - I drew some pictures.
Samsara - Some class-based mod I guess?
Metroid: Dreadnought - I am a dumb fanboy.
DemonSteele - ~come with me to anime world~

Lollipop
Zandrone
Posts: 1123
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:34 am
Location: Denmark

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#6

Post by Lollipop » Sun Oct 06, 2013 4:06 pm

Ivan wrote: Cool review, I expected lower scores.
Pretty much this.
Also it a pretty good idea to put some examples on what people could compare it to, it show what you really mean with what you say. (I enjoyed playing russian overkill :D)
Spoiler: Modding Qualifications (Open)
ACS: If it's of ridiculous scope and of suicide-inducing complexity then it's the thing for me.
DECORATE: I can make more or less any godawful hack I need. Doesn't mean it works, though.
Maps: I only map for testing ACS.
GFX: Not enough time or experience.

If you need help, advice or similar, feel free to send me a PM. ;)
Spoiler: My Current Projects (Open)
> ZMemory
> Various undeveloped ideas. (This one is an immutable fact)
Combinebobnt wrote:i can see the forum league is taking off much better than the ctf ones
GalactusToday at 1:07 PM
are you getting uncomfortable jap
feeling something happen down there

User avatar
Balrog
Forum Regular
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:16 am

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#7

Post by Balrog » Sun Oct 06, 2013 4:18 pm

Great job avoiding the controversy. Glad to know that it's as aggressively mediocre as I expected.

Code: Select all

[15:53:14] balrog: one day, the original mm8bdm devteam from mfggu and i will meet in valhalla and we will be friends

Code: Select all

<ijon>well fuk
<ijon>guess I gotta suck dicks now

Code: Select all

(18:13:17)<Mayrine>i dont have to learnt anything about ACS

User avatar
Slyfox
ZanStuff Reviewer
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:45 pm
Location: bottom text
Contact:

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#8

Post by Slyfox » Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:44 pm

Nice review legion, I hope you do more; yours personally feels more entertaining to read.
Last edited by Slyfox on Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
piratefinn
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:20 pm
Location: UK

RE: Brutal Doom v18: Reviewed by Legion

#9

Post by piratefinn » Wed Oct 16, 2013 6:25 pm

Ahhhh Russian Overkill....I so wish they were compatible with Zand. Actually...no I don't. The explosions everywhere would lag me so much my computer would burst into flames :P I would think the modern FPS style combat in BD also puts it on lieu with the (IMO) better Project MSX.

Overall though a good review. It was OMGWOW when it came out, but now it bores me :L
"This sorta situation gettin' kinda bad." "Kinda bad? This here's horrible we're gonna DIE!" "Yeah but I ain't worried." "How is you ain't worried?" "'Cus you can smack 'em all with yo dang-a-lang." "Oh snap, you're right." *whips out BFG*
I'm in game as CubedSoul.
Also we need a BFG similar to beta Doom, other words a Christmas gun.

Post Reply