Doom + Doom II is a great excuse to jump back into Hell, for free or for $10
Enlarge / I don't know what this flame crossbow (?) is from the Legacy of Rust campaign, but I am going to keep running and gunning until I get it. (credit: Bethesda Softworks)
I have only one criticism of the "definitive, newly enhanced versions" of Doom and Doom II you can now pick up in a $10 package or as a free upgrade if you already owned one of those two games. My gripe is that it is entirely your own fault when you get hit by enemies.
On a PC, Xbox X or S, or PlayStation 5, you can play Doom at 120 fps at 4K. You are moving so ridiculously fast, speed-skating across those Marine bases and/or hellscapes, that the imps tossing fireballs at you feel like they're a parent gently coaxing their kid to catch a softball. Even the enemies with instant-hitting guns feel like they're winding up a tree sap cannon. The one time I died inside the first three levels of classic Doom was when I jet-walked right off a circular path and into an inescapable poison moat.
Does a flame thrower work against creatures that literally live in Hell? Only one way to find out. (credit: Bethesda Game Studios)
It's easy to recommend this newly packed-up and enhanced edition of these two first-person icons, released Thursday as part of QuakeCon. For one thing, it's being offered by Nightdive Studios, which has been turning out fan-favorite (and generally Ars-approved) remasters of games like Dark Forces, System Shock, Quake, and Quake II. For another, it's a real bundle, with both games, a huge number of classic add-on maps (including John Romero's Sigil), and an entirely new episode, Legacy of Rust, made by folks from Nightdive, id Software, and Wolfenstein auteurs MachineGames.