Dr. Chaos: Shadows of Mars (Heretic, Gzdoom)

[Impie]

 

DOWNLOAD PAGE

 

Spoiler

Mickey Chaos almost had to run to keep up with his mother, Brenda, as she stampeded up the hall to the study of her other son, Dr. Chaos. Her bun was already unraveling from stress and fury, and Mickey could hear her teeth grinding like billiard balls. He almost felt sorry for his demented brother.

Now nursing his third drink, Dr. Chaos didn’t have the opportunity to greet his mother when she burst into the room.

“YOU SENT YOUR BABY SISTER INTO OUTER SPACE?” she howled.

Dr. Chaos held up his hands to protect his face, backing away from the fuming woman. “It’s not as simple as that, Mom.”

“It never is,” sighed Mickey, reflecting on the many inter-dimensional excursions his mad scientist brother had subjected him to in the past.

Brenda took a few deep breaths. She straightened her hair. She folded her arms and allowed her temper to simmer. “Mortimer,” she finally said, “I’ll give you sixty seconds to explain what’s happened to my daughter, and what in hell you intend to do about it. Then I’m going to tear your head clean off your shoulders.”

Dr. Chaos swallowed. Mickey folded his arms and waited, tapping his late father’s cane on the carpet.

“Look, Mom,” said the doctor. “Didi is precocious and easily bored. Ever since she got the right to vote, she’s been more of a spitfire than ever. She’s bored of the parties, the dancing, the endless drunken adventures with countless suitors overseas. Nothing excites my little sister anymore, so the prospect of visiting another planet intrigued her.

“After I made a few refinements to my Flux Accelerator, she accompanied me on an excursion to ancient Mars, a time before the planet was reduced to a barren desert. We had a little trouble with the locals, and they took the time batteries that powered the thing. It’s ‘running on fumes’ now, you might say, and only has enough juice for a one-way trip back to Mars. I can take the supplies I need and repair the thing on Didi’s side, but the planet is more dangerous than we realized. We would need a company of soldiers to fend off the beasts of Mars while I repaired the Accelerator, and there’s only room for one on this next trip.”

“Mort’s no good with a gun,” added Mickey. “I said I would go in his place.”

Brenda glowered at her two boys. “So Mickey is gonna use your goofy machine to travel to an alien planet in another time period, and he’s going alone.”

“Yes,” said Dr. Chaos nervously.

“And once there, he’s gonna fix your gizmo as best he can, and bring Didi back in one piece, assuming she hasn’t already been eaten by space dragons or something?”

Dr. Chaos nodded frantically.

Brenda took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, picking up the doctor’s chair. “I’ve decided. Mickey will be an only child.”

Mickey held his raging mother back while Dr. Chaos fled the room.

 

Collect the five Time Batteries and reboot Dr. Chaos's time machine. Four more maps to explore hub-style: a treacherous valley split by countless waterfalls, an ancient city collapsing into lava, a decrepit castle full of cultists, and a vast underground cannibal lair. Several new enemies, including dinosaurs! Use the Tome of Power to turn Mickey’s Colt .45 into a crowd-shredding Tommy Gun!

 

Additional Videos:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Impie

[Walter confetti]

Looks awesome!

[Kepehn]

Another Heretic Project? AWESOME! This looks really fantastic! The story seems interesting and I love Hub style exploration. I can't wait to play it!

[Dark Pulse]

Something tells me you were inspired by, well, this.

 

 

[Impie]

1 hour ago, Dark Pulse said:

Something tells me you were inspired by, well, this.

That's a convoluted yes and no. I was making these maps with the dimensional tomfoolery in mind, didn't have a name or plot, thought of that nes game, which was a last-minute revision of a House video game adaptation, and used some elements from it. Mostly the idea of the two brothers, one being a mad dimensional-traveling scientist, the other a soldier or something who saves his ass from his own goofy mad science antics. I'd like to think I made a better go at it than the old game did: if i wanted a proper adaptation, the portals would be impossible to find, and they'd all just lead to the same vietnamese jungle.

Edited March 17, 2019 by Impie

[galileo31dos01]

Dinosaurs in Heretic? I'm sold. 

[Dark Pulse]

2 hours ago, Impie said:

That's a convoluted yes and no. I was making these maps with the dimensional tomfoolery in mind, didn't have a name or plot, thought of that nes game, which was a last-minute revision of a House video game adaptation, and used some elements from it. Mostly the idea of the two brothers, one being a mad dimensional-traveling scientist, the other a soldier or something who saves his ass from his own goofy mad science antics. I'd like to think I made a better go at it than the old game did: if i wanted a proper adaptation, the portals would be impossible to find, and they'd all just lead to the same vietnamese jungle.

Kudos to you then sir. It's not a game good enough to get an official sequel, but it's just weird enough to get some unofficial love.

 

Also one of those rare NES games where you had visible blood (and dripping, at that!). Especially prevalent in the cartridge art.

 

 

Just... please, no sequel based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, okay? I don't give a damn about that Psycho-Wave. And you'd need to kill the player immediately pretty much, like a bad slaughtermap.

Edited March 17, 2019 by Dark Pulse

[Impie]

36 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

Just... please, no sequel based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, okay? I don't give a damn about that Psycho-Wave. And you'd need to kill the player immediately pretty much, like a bad slaughtermap.

Ghoul School is still fair game though, right? (lol)

[Supreme]

this looks so sick!!, cannot wait to play this

[DoodGuy]

Always love some more TCs by Impie

[Dark Pulse]

9 hours ago, Impie said:

Ghoul School is still fair game though, right? (lol)

Ghoul School is a bit better than many give it credit for, so yes. :) 

[Gez]

Well that was fun. I liked the pulpy theme, who knew Heretic worked so well for DINOSAURS ON THE MARTIAN JUNGLES?

 

Some remarks:

• The Hexen-like respawning monsters were annoying.
• The passive dinos shouldn't have COUNTKILL since they're not a threat.
• That wall that must be opened by blowing up the nearby pods was not very intuitive, when the pod survives the battle.
• The timebombs were renamed, but kept their old tag.