"What's the Best Doom mod?"

[Marnetmar]

So, my friend is pretty new to Doom and asked two questions:

1. Are there any Doom mods with an actual storyline?
2. What's the 'best' mod for Doom?

Now I know that "best" is pretty subjective, but what would you recommend to a guy who's pretty new to Doom? Before you mention brutaldoom, I've showed it to him and he loves it, but I think he's looking more towards partial/total conversions.

His taste in games is pretty expansive, so he's not really looking for any particular style.

[Megamur]

I don't play many conversions, but as far as add-ons go, I've recommended Perdition's Gate to newbies before. The levels are small and relatively simple--good material for the modern "run towards the spot the NPC told you to" FPS gamer.

[DuckReconMajor]

Not sure what he wants in a "story", but here goes

Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl - along with the complete conversion of Doom into something awesome, it has a story with multiple endings.
Assault on Tei Tenga - first Doom hub, but also a cool story
Galaxia - this is a really old one (1995), it has a story in a textfile but still pretty cool.
Cyberdreams - this one has no storyline but it's awesome and everyone should play it.

Action Doom 2 is the only one that could be considered a 'total conversion', but it's not really a Doom conversion it's an entirely new game that runs on ZDoom.

[esselfortium]

RTC-3057 hub1.

[Xaser]

this is the part where I link end1.wad

But yeah, the Action Dooms if you're looking for something TC-ish. Also Phocas Island 2, if you want a serious adventure. ;)

[EDIT] I know the community is polarized on this one, but he might get a kick out of Legacy of Suffering.

[Marcaek]

Galaxia is excellent, also Zen Dynamics.

[kmxexii]

The Osiris PC is pretty cool.

[purist]

For a WAD with a story, the Progressive Fiction Community Project was started with this very thing in mind. It's not complete yet but the beta has about 25 maps in, with hopefully a couple more to be added at the end of the month.

For a TC how about Harmony? I've not played it myself but it won a Cacoward and I've played TVR! by the same author so I'd have thought he'd be in safe hands.

[fiend-o-hell]

Cold As Hell fits the bill.

[Memfis]

TRUST

[lupinx-Kassman]

A lot of good ones I have seen here, but here are some of my personal favorites:

Massmouth and Massmouth 2 (moreso the sequel). Also, the ZanZan TC.

I would list the "Community is Falling" series as well, but you would probably already have to be part of the community to enjoy it's humor :P.

[Katamori]

Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos is my ultimate favourite.

[HavoX]

The Ultimate Torment & Torture, if your friend doesn't mind the extra details.

S.T.R.A.I.N. also comes to mind.

[40oz]

esselfortium said:

RTC-3057 hub1.

That would kill doom forever for that person.

[Tango]

i think as far as wads go that don't really alter doom's classic playstyle, dvii can be pretty remarkable. the cathedral in particular is pretty impressive, but it's always so frustrating trying to get someone new to understand why something so amazing like that is in fact amazing.

[DeathevokatioN]

STRAIN, Hexen, and Heretic.

[fullmetalvaran33]

Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos
ZanZan TC
Paranoid
Cold as Hell
Unloved
The Island
The Island 2
Void
Brotherhood of Ruin

Dunno if those are to his liking but, he may find one or two appealing.

[Gez]

Marnetmar said:

So, my friend is pretty new to Doom and asked two questions:

1. Are there any Doom mods with an actual storyline?

What's the criteria for "actual storyline"?

While the places themselves can convey a story, the typical storyline in Doom mods is "this is another facility that has been overrun by demons and possessed zombies, clean it up, also you might have to go to Hell to show the demons how it feels to have people barging at home and killing everybody, see if they like them apples".

If "minimalist story in a readme and maybe if we're lucky some dehacked string replacement for the intermission text screens" isn't enough to qualify, if he wants a story that's presented during the game with messages and scripted events, then the choice is pretty much restricted to a subset ZDoom stuff (and some Legacy mods).

That said: definitely this and that. It's all story.

Kidding aside, Barista, Claustrophobia, Doom Resurrection, Eternal Doom 4, RTC-3057, Space Station Omega, and Void, among others.

For GZDoom, BGPA, The City of the Damned - Apocalypse, Cold as Hell, Legacy of Suffering, Paranoid, Stronghold, The Ultimate Torment and Torture, Unloved, and ZanZan which is very weird.

For Legacy, but works okay with GZDoom, High Tech Hell 2 (fun fact: there is no High Tech Hell 1).

(I wouldn't really recommend the Community is Falling and Massmouth mods. Even though they have storylines and stuff, and are partial-to-total conversions, they rely too much on oooooold in-jokes to be very attractive to a newbie.)

On the other hand, if storylines implied by the setting without having text cutscenes and stuff are okay, then there's just far too many stuff to list. I'll mention the recent releases of Lunatic and Reverie.

Marnetmar said:

2. What's the 'best' mod for Doom?

Now I know that "best" is pretty subjective, but what would you recommend to a guy who's pretty new to Doom? Before you mention brutaldoom, I've showed it to him and he loves it, but I think he's looking more towards partial/total conversions.

As far as partial-to-total conversions go, Harmony is very good while still offering a true-to-form Doom experience. Both Action Dooms are great, Urban Brawl being especially impressive. CQ3 is actually fun, despite the silliness. The Darkest Hour is good too. Star Wars Chibi Rebellion is worth a try, too. In more classic style, Aliens TC and Batman Doom.

There's also a ton of excellent mods that aren't really conversions.

Megamur said:

I don't play many conversions, but as far as add-ons go, I've recommended Perdition's Gate to newbies before. The levels are small and relatively simple--good material for the modern "run towards the spot the NPC told you to" FPS gamer.

In that category, Scimitar. Short levels, well-made, can be seen as a partial conversion thanks to the dehacked work, doesn't become insanely hard contrarily to Scythe.