Pirate Doom

Played it on a VR GZDoom port, really good! 

Doom + Monkey Island vibes + Caribbean Vibes = Instant win.

Probably the best (or only?) TC that takes place in the golden age of Piracy.
Although the detail doesn't really impress me, and those explosive guns can get boring in some encounters.

"Me key has been stolen! "

And there goes Pirate Doom, played through GZDoom 4.0.0 on UV difficulty. We sure showed 'em how Doom is done, the pirate way, so let's see what we have here.

Pirate Doom, as the name implies, is a total conversion for Doom II, featuring a lot of new content and vast modifications to the gameplay. It comes with new textures, sounds, music, enemies, weapons, menu background, intermission screens, and status bar. The player visits caves, ships, temples, forests, circuses, bars, castles, and various building with an architecture and design similar to that of the old days, a 19 maps long experience (18 with actual gameplay + 1 bonus for credits and epilogue).

Being a TC, the modifications are extensive. All enemies are re-skinned and have new attacks, the weapons are replaced with various equivalents of that period, with the notable exception of the BFG, which is now a dynamite thrower, no chainsaw, a Cutlass replacement for the fist/berserk, and freelook is recommended. A few entirely new enemies are also introduced, namely a smaller, very weak Arch-Vile, with no hitscan attacks, ghost versions of the Imp and Lost Soul, suicide bombers, yet another version of the Imp, this time equipped with dynamite, and a final boss, the pirate Black Beard. Certain weapons also have mounted versions, such as the pirate cannon, which is the main means of destruction on a level where the player is tasked with sinking a few enemy ships.

The difficulty curve is traditional, starting easy and getting more difficult as you advance, but the game never becomes very difficult, in fact the difficulty is very similar to Doom 2 and a few maps from Plutonia. Certainly, fun and immersion are the main elements at work here.

The music has atmospheric, ominous, and more action themed tracks, and this would be one of the more intriguing parts of the TC. This is because it contains copyrighted music, namely AC/DC's classic Highway to Hell. No idea how permission was granted to be used in a non-commercial Doom TC, but it sure is a welcome addition.

After all is said and done, the journey ends with a battle against the famous pirate Black Beard, in his ghost form and with powerful attacks, capable of summoning minions and using a variety of magic attacks, an expected and well executed final battle. Perhaps the only real problem in the TC are the underwater levels, this is because movement is very slow and difficult there, not to mention that one can barely see a damn thing. Thankfully, these maps are short and straight to the point, so they don't ruin the experience.

All in all, Pirate Doom manages to create something fresh, fun, and unique with a surprising theme that fits remarkably well, in addition to preserving the core essence of the original game. It's most definitely worth the time, even if you're not necessarily a fan of pirates, I myself am not. So grab yer Cutlass and prepare to slash some demons, arrrrrrgh!

0. The peaceful world and sense of Monkey Island was taken and thrown away.

1. The cannibals trying to kill the player, not to discuss the way of healthy nutrition or not to simply catch and eat him. It's really annoying.

2. In some places the textures ain't chording.

3. The main hero is not The Guybrush Threepwood. It's the marine.

4. The chordes of demony creatures don't let me to watch the map.

5. The second map had the script (before I fixed it in mine) killing the player playing in soft.

6. At the Winds Of Hell, the Port Royale and Plunder Island Fort and other large opened places the monsters in crowds gather to shower me with knifes, skulls and chaingunners simply bullet me out.

7. The main hero is an old one-eyed drunkard burping all the way he heals himself by simply drinking.

8. The Circus is the most unwanted place IMHO.

9. No Rollercoaster Of Death at the end.

10. No spitting contest.

11. No Largo LaGrande.

12. The LeChuck voices contain the parts of music. There still is the way to rip them properly, but who will?

13. The LeChuck theme music makes me think the game ends. Then the game quickly becomes boring.

14. The trampolines are cool. But solid. Jumping with falling damage is deadly.

15. When I firstly heard the Largo Theme, I thought he will appear to take my boomstick, but he didn't.

16. Pirate DooM is imp ate door easy speedrunnable.

17. The darkness isn't scary, it simply annoys me.

Over all, that's all great work!!!

so many abstract ideas in this TC that it deserves full praise. the cutlass is a very good melee weapon on a lot of enemies, and the flying hats from dead enemies were hilarious. very replayable. to put into further detail, this TC reskins all the enemies and does a number on the weapons while giving weird but setting-oriented levels that each have their own ideas. the enemies are mostly reskins apart from a few new ones, like tikimen that are the witch doctor (arch-vile) underlings, some use blowdarts and the gray masked ones are really fast and have a melee attack, while there's dynamite-throwing imps in the later levels. the weapons are certainly appropriate. dynamite is incredibly nasty to use, and the dynamite launcher can flat out murder most enemies in one hit. meanwhile, the cannons are okay, although the fire flash with the main one pisses me off (I think this was a new addition to Pirate Doom, and it's an addition I'm not a fan of). the shotguns are faster, and the dual pistols are okay, while the gatling gun is a love/hate weapon in my eyes.

the zaniness doesn't end here, as there's more shit to see in just the levels. ship levels (though the sunken ghost ship is annoying due to enemies always attacking), land levels (a western level, a graveyard level, a tiki level, a few bars here and there), nice ways to introduce new enemies happen in each map. i'm gonna admit, LeChuck is actually a pretty annoying boss, but it's worth it for a nice ending to this thing.