Recent reviews by Trov

You can think of this as a NightDive-esque remastered release, with just one problem: the default controls and settings are totally bonkers and hide all of that by default, and the settings to fix that are spread out among several different pages and are not always intuitive to find.

The default controls are neither the Bungie/1995 Macintosh originals, nor are they a sensible modern standard WASD setup, so I have no idea who they are meant to appeal to. But, you can still change everything to standard WASD. Make sure you bump up the FPS limit and increase the FOV, and disable the controls setting that automatically recenters your view when you move.

In short, it is totally imperative to thoroughly check out the controls and game options before you hit New Game. One example of a non-obvious setting that may throw you off in particular is that the Classic (Built-in) HUD setting disables widescreen.

Jank settings presentation aside, it's a fun classic shooter. The fairly floaty movement has its own charm. The weapons feel great and there's plenty of enemy variety. Health and ammo can be fairly stingy at first compared to its contemporaries. Expect to use cover a lot more than in Doom. Also be aware that you can only save at pre-placed locations throughout the levels, similar to Resident Evil. There is a lot more story than the average 90s FPS, though it is mainly kept inside computer terminals which take you to the next level and generally have amusing stories in them.

One thing I really enjoy is how many levels have lots of optional areas that are off the beaten path. There is one level whose main route is only like 5% of the whole level! It's a good game if you enjoy a bit of exploring with your carnage.

Compared to Marathon 1, it is a lot brighter, less cramped, and more colorful, all of the sprites and sounds are a lot more polished, but otherwise most of the game mechanics and a good portion of enemies are the same.

The game has no ingame music by design, if this bothers you, several composers have teamed up to put together a soundtrack mod for the game. Look for the plugin "M2SE Music Plugin" on the marathon mod community called Simplici7y.

Also, I am playing it just fine on my Steam Deck.

Pretty cool!
Although, the game balance does feel even more uncanny in VR due to having to shoot guys 4 times in the face to kill them. A 'hardcore' difficulty where you deal more realistic damage but also take more damage would be a cool addition.

My only real issues with the VR mod is throwing objects directly forward seems impossible; throwing them as if they were an axe or baseball just results in the object being thrown towards your feet. I think it factors in the rotational motion too much.
Also, controlling mounted turrets feels very difficult, I get what they were going for with moving the base in the opposite direction but the range/distance of the movements needs tweaking as it feels like you are unable to turn the turrets as far as they should go.

Other than that the VR controls feel pretty good despite the game not being anywhere near designed for VR.

Nice game, and Deck compatible!

This is a fun game. The difficulty will sneak up on you right at about the first boss fight. But you will develop your Gamer Skills to overcome.

The green rabbit things are cute.

Final Doom (Plutonia in particular) is cool, but don't buy this.
It is now included without extra charge in the updated Steam versions of both Doom 2 and The Ultimate Doom in their addons menu.

Once you get past the graphic style, you'll see this isn't a low effort troll game.
Starting out, you'll quickly see it's a pretty straightforward shooter with quite a bit of content to find on your own.
It scratches the "getting headshots in Goldeneye" itch.

Eventually you unlock augmentations that make getting around and exploring the levels a lot easier, and you can start to play the game more aggressively and discover more weapons and secret levels. Until then, keep in mind that the front door might not be the best entry point.

I wouldn't liken it to Deus Ex as some do, as the the game is mission based, and is more like Hitman in that the game invites you to re-try each mission with different methods and weapons.

The levels and enemies become more unhinged as you progress, but so will you!

People call certain games "modern classics"; this game is a "classic modern."

It had many controls and features that FPS games wouldn't take for granted until at least 10 years later! (Audio logs, limited inventory, leaning around corners, crouching, crawling, reloading, and more.)

Other than the impressive technical features for the time; this game is a pretty fun mash of tactical shooter with Metroid, with much more interconnected levels than System Shock 2 has. Each floor tends to have several different ways of reaching objectives, and with guidance from audio logs you are left to find them on your own. There is a constant atmosphere of never really being totally safe, despite the contrasting neon colors and synth jam music in the background. Expect to play it more like Rainbow Six.

This remaster improves the controls to bring them inline with modern FPS layouts, but they still remain a little bit obtuse. Mainly you just need to know that you toggle between looking around and managing your inventory with the E key. Reloading is done through the inventory screen. Right click is for shooting, and double click is for using objects. Thankfully you can middle click to quickly pick up items from the floor to eliminate most of the tedium of placing items into your inventory. Press '2' to remove the HUD background and see more.

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• Physics and gameplay are identical to the original game
• Some quality-of-life improvements like 60+ FPS support and widescreen
• Splitscreen with gamepad support
• Final Doom, SIGIL (made by one of Doom's original developers), and more level packs now available as in-game downloadable addons.
• A taste of community-made level packs, arguably classic doom's standout feature
• Original DOS version (with the original red cross medkit graphics) is still included and can be selected at startup. Nothing has been taken away.
• It has also been shown that the developers are committed to actively improving this port over time.

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It will never replace some of the community ports out there such as GZDoom but this official port gets an undeserved bad rap. I dont think it is reasonable to expect this port to ever reach the likes of GZDoom. I think it is good for what it is: a toe into the broader world of how Classic Doom has improved over the last 25 years, without needing extensive setup or straying from the original experience. You are effectively getting a remaster for a very cheap price compared to other 90s shooter remasters across Steam.

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tl;dr Get this port if you want to get into Classic Doom with no fuss. Try out the official add-ons included in this game for challenging levels that in my opinion far surpass the original Doom campaign. Then check out some of the community engines once you want more content.

EDIT: Most of this review still applies to the new 2024 remaster. The biggest new addition since then (other than more levels) is online multiplayer. It can be a bit jittery sometimes but generally works well and cramming through Plutonia on Nightmare with 16 players is some crazy fun. A dedicated set of deathmatch levels have been added which were selected from existing community deathmatch levels.

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• Physics and gameplay are identical to the original game
• Some quality-of-life improvements like 60+ FPS support and widescreen
• Splitscreen with gamepad support
• Final Doom, No Rest For The Living (from the Xbox 360 port of Doom 2) and more level packs are now available as in-game downloadable addons.
• A taste of community-made level packs, arguably classic doom's standout feature
• While the famous Wolfenstein 3D secret levels have been modified, the changes are much more tasteful than previous re-releases and ports of Doom 2, which outright removed some Wolfenstein graphics and changed them to Doom 2 enemies. Where previous versions lazily removed all banners from the walls, this new version simply replaces swastikas with a new logo akin to Rise of the Triad, keeping the Wolfenstein 3D references and graphics mostly intact, and the Wolfenstein enemies and music restored. When other negative reviews mention censorship, this is pretty much the extent of it.
• Original DOS version (with the original red cross medkit and Wolfenstein secret level graphics) is still included and can be selected at startup. Nothing has been taken away. These are the unmodified original data files and can be used with any community source port.
• It has also been shown that the developers are committed to actively improving this port over time.

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It will never replace some of the community ports out there such as GZDoom but this official port gets an undeserved bad rap. I dont think it is reasonable to expect this port to ever reach the likes of GZDoom. I think it is good for what it is: a toe into the broader world of how Classic Doom has improved over the last 25 years, without needing extensive setup or straying from the original experience. You are effectively getting a remaster for a very cheap price compared to other 90s shooter remasters across Steam.

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tl;dr Get this port if you want to get into Classic Doom with no fuss. Try out the official add-ons included in this game for challenging levels that in my opinion far surpass the original Doom 2 campaign. Then check out some of the community engines once you want more content.

You run fast as hell and the gunfighting is great. A fun adventure for old-school shooter fans along the lines of Doom or Quake.

An incredible VR game with the Fully Possessed mod. Worth buying for this alone.