Doom II: Hell On Earth - Gameplay

Gameplay

Doom II was not dramatically different from its predecessor. There were no major technological developments, graphical improvements, or substantial gameplay changes. The game still consisted of the player navigating large non-linear levels. Each level is infested with hellish demons that can be killed with a variety of weapons that can be picked up throughout the game. Levels are completed by finding an exit, whether it be a door, elevator etc, the goal is simply to advance to the next area. The levels in Doom II can be completed in a somewhat linear fashion, however, because the levels are non-linear players can wander off the beaten path, and those that do are often rewarded with bonuses, like health pickups and more powerful weapons. Due to the larger and more complicated maps with larger groups of monsters, the game had somewhat higher system requirements than the original.

The main additions to the game were new monsters to fight. Doom II doubled the number of non-boss monster types and started using bosses from the original Doom as normal level enemies. In addition, the multiplayer functionality was greatly improved in Doom II, including "out of the box" support for a vastly increased number of dial-up modems. The two player dial-up connection allowed one player to dial in to the other player's computer in order to play either cooperatively or in deathmatch style combat. There was also LAN functionality added, which was improved upon as patches and updates were released. This functionality was later incorporated into the original Doom.

The only new weapon addition was the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, in-game known as the "Super Shotgun". It uses two shotgun shells per fire but could fire out twenty pellets, compared to the regular pump-action shotgun that released seven pellets per shell. This gave the double-barreled shotgun much more firepower for the same ammo, making it strong enough to dispatch crowds of enemies or large monsters. However, it takes twice as long longer to reload and has a much wider spread which was less effective in medium to long range situations, thus allowing for the standard shotgun to still serve a purpose in the game.

Other than the Super Shotgun, there was also a new powerup named "Megasphere", which gave the player, no matter how low his/her health/armor may be, 200% health and 200% armor. It resembles the "Soulsphere" but more brown, and the facial sprites have been altered.

Rather than the player playing through three related episodes as in the first Doom, gameplay takes place over one giant episode, albeit with interludes for when the story develops. Instead of watching the player's progress on a map (as in the original episodes of Doom), the screens between each level simply show a background (as in the bonus fourth episode of Doom available on The Ultimate Doom expansion pack). This also means the player is never forced to lose all of his or her inventory after completing a level.