LGR - Doom II 25 Years Later: A Retrospective

Yeah, the game was on the "Index für Jugendgefährdende Medien" and as such still buyable but not over the counter and it is forbidden to advertise for the game. Bethesda finally removed it from there, tough. And the ban on Nazis in games is on the way out too so that this is handled like movies are, which means as long as you don't praise and glorify them you are in the clear. Which would lift the total ban on Wolfenstein 3D, by the way.

BastetFurry

I thought that too, until I got them! Then I realized how much I still loved the FM synth sound, ahh. It's just so fitting.

LGR

I nearly included some information about the German versions in the video, but didn't make the final cut. Was really surprised to see that Doom 2 was never banned in the country, at least entirely. Due to the level cuts, apparently it was still available for sale "under the counter" in stores? Just couldn't legally advertise it. Apparently, 30% of overall Doom 2 sales came from Germany regardless of this.

LGR

Aw yeah. Visiting Dallas for the first time was like seeing my own personal Mecca. Being near the original locations where Doom and Duke3D were made felt utterly surreal.

LGR

If I ever have a kid, I can only hope for that kind of bonding someday :)

LGR

I understand the feeling! It's why Duke Nukem 3D absolutely blew my brain wide open back then. I'd never seen anything like it, not even close. Kinda wonder how I'd think about Doom 2's levels if I'd happened to play it first, instead of Duke3D.

LGR

Happy to hear that's appreciated. I always figure that, like, people know that subscribing is a thing already, haha.

LGR

Curious if you happen to have any of those levels still? Because argh, I seriously wish I had any of my levels from back in the day. Too many corrupt floppy disks and too little initiative taken to back things up.

LGR

Oh dang, crossover LAN Doom. Fancy! And an excellent set of memories indeed.

LGR

I assume you went to work anyway, but I hope you enjoyed some Doom 2 afterward regardless.

LGR

Thank you kindly!

LGR

Definitely a thing I hope to get to in time.

LGR

Thank you! Like pizza, even when it's not the best it's still pretty darned great.

LGR

Happy to hear it!

LGR

Hahaaa, ahh keyboard guy. I was that guy for so long. What an epiphany once I discovered there were other ways to strafe.

LGR

I've read this a number of times now in the comments on the video! Really wonder what it is that makes that kinda sickness happen in this case.

LGR

Pretty similar memories here as well! Played Duke3D and Heretic before Doom 2. But man, it still left such an impression.

LGR

Ha! Well that's about the most unique Doom 2-related story I've read here so far.

LGR

Every couple weeks? Impressive! About how I am with Duke 3D, heh

LGR

Well now I'm curious about your first two

LGR

Entirely worth it.

LGR

Hope it lived up to the excitement :D

LGR

High school floppy disk duplication was one of the earliest ways I played it as well. Study hall, turns out it *was* good for something.

LGR

I skipped OPL and got an Ultrasound.

Lennart Sorensen

once i've gotten an SC55 and MT32, i'll never go back to opl sound anymore 8)

Tom Schaack

The German version had the Wolfenstein maps cut out for obvious reasons and the exit on MAP15 just brought you to MAP16. Which meant having the original in its box on the shelf and playing the pirated copy just so that we had all the maps.

BastetFurry

Yep. we love our guns here in Texas. I can proudly say that both ID software and 3D Realms were both born right here in the Dallas area.

The 8-Bit Guy

1994. I was in my late 30s and played cooperative with my 12 year old son. Doom 2 was father son bonding :)

Neil Harris

Strangely enough the urban levels excited me the most back then, and still a little bit these days. Maybe not because they are particularly good, but they were something different that appealed to me. Much more than the last few levels anyway, of which I literally unintentionally tend to forget some of them exist.

Marnix

A little off topic, but one of the things I enjoy most about LGR videos is that Clint doesn't end by asking me to like and subscribe. I end up feeling like I'm having a nostalgic conversation with a friend, than helping monetize a YouTuber. Well played sir

Peter Bridger

whenever i was home sick from school I'd fire up doom level editors and mess around for hours making multiplayer maps. ahhh the good old days. Vaguely recall having to upgrade the PC a bit to get it to run, not sure my 486 ever actually coped with it :)

Blair Harrison

DOOM II memories? Well my first memories of playing a FPS is Final DOOM Plutonia Experiment, it's not really DOOM II but close enuff Remember playing it late and getting nightmares, since I was only a wee lad of 7-8 something. But I also remember when mah dad bough Ethernet cards for our two computers and a crosswire LAN cable, and we could play DOOM co-op, that was a great father-son activity, less scary in that way. In retrospect it prolly wasn't the best idea to let a tiny kid play such games but at least it got me onto the right track of PC shooters.

TBthegr81

Oh boy I wanna play Doom 2 today and not go to work!

Dan Milner

We rushed home from school to play this at my home over 0-modem and we knew every nook and cranny of the world of Doom 2.

BastetFurry

Very nice video :) I love the amount of details and extra information, and how you add criticism but end the video with an overall praise. I never played doom 2 actually. I only played the shareware version of doom 1, and I played it only using a keyboard and no strafing, so to me it was a more slow paced scary game. Add a mouse, strafing and a faster computer and you can play the same game as more of an action game. That's interesting to me.

Uncleawesome

Saw you had Descent on the shelf there. Would love to see a series retrospective on Descent at some point as well.

Michael Romero

Awesome review! Doom II is such a phenomenal game and I completely agree that some of the levels are a bit weaker, but overall it's an amazing experience.

Alyxx the Rat

Excellent retrospective, thanks!

AlexPeaks

One of my favorite words!

LGR

Persnickety... haha second time I heard that word in a YouTube video recently. The other time was Technology Connections.

Brodeur

Bringing all the computers together for a LAN party deathmatch ... mmm. And there was always the "keyboard guy" sliding along the wall face-first like a drunkard, only to blow himself up getting overzealous with the rocket launcher.

Jason Olshefsky

I remember excitedly booting up a 'borrowed' version of Doom II I found online after I had built my first PC in 1995, and wow! I started playing and within minutes was sweating. The game made me want to puke in record time, nudging out Doom on the 32x. I still can't get past a couple of levels in any doom game without wanting to puke, and that includes Doom 3. Meanwhile Quake really didn't bother me as I'd play Team Fortress for hours without an issue. But 10 minutes of Doom would nearly put me in the hospital. Never made any sense.

Chris Munch

Nah. Blood, Ion Fury, Shadow Warrior, Duke 3D, Quake. They're all incredible

Chris Wigman

Dude, the memories... It's hard to imagine a video-game present without Carmack's and Romero's brilliance; from the core concept of the FPS genre to level design to modding and game-centric communities, this game(s) is high on the pantheon of gaming history. Now, regarding personal memories: fun fact, I didn't play it until I was about 12 or 13 around '99. My FPS games were Blood, Heretic and Duke. It was somewhere around late '98 that I found Quake II and then Doom shortly after. Thanks as always for such great content!

LJFox

Oh wow, Doom 2! As for my own personal memories of this, I was with a few friends when it was released, we all attended a computer show in Melbourne, Australia, where we all lived at the time. It had been released either JUST before the show, or maybe the same day, and we didn't think we'd be able to buy it, as the oldest of us was I think 15 at the time, but they didn't care as long as we had the cash, so we cut short seeing what the rest of the show had to offer and rushed back to one of my friends houses to install it on his beefy (for the time) machine, with a 486DX4 100MHz and SoundBlaster 16. That machine had the audio out connected to the audio in for their big stereo system, with speakers almost half as big as I was and enough volume to shake the windows at only half volume. It wasn't long before one of us had the idea to open one of the windows, put one of the speakers in the window, facing outside, load up Doom 2 with the super shotgun and no music, so there was only quiet, and wait for a car to drive past as workers from the local factory finished their shift. As the cars drove past, with the volume turned right up, we'd fire the super shotgun and the whole room shook as the sound reverberated and our ears rang for days afterwards. And I think it's safe to say the drivers of the vehicles heard it too, as they all floored it to get away from what they must have thought was a real life shotgun being fired - this was not a friendly neighbourhood we all lived in.

Troy Wilkins

Oh boy. This game means a lot to me. I used to play it for hours as a wee lad with my old man. I'll still boot it up every couple of weeks and play. One of my favorite games of all time! Thanks for this one, Clint!

Aggs

First a thrift-episode, now a Doom II review? Clint, Christmas isn't for another two months! Doom II is my third favorit game of all time... So thx for the review!

Grunk

Ahh, Doom II. The game that got myself and three of my friends four days of school detention for "using the computer lab inappropriately." Totally worth all four days. 🤣🤷‍♂️

My early memories of Doom are playing DOOM96.EXE demo when I was 11 and being totally blown away by the power of the shotgun, and by gibbing the penultimate imp in E1M1, and the zombies in E1M2, with the barrel 😂

One of my favorite channels doing a retrospective of one of my favorite games?? Aaaaahhhhhh yiss!!

DFawlt Uzr

I was in high school when Doom 2 came out. My friends and I chipped in money to buy it and a box of blank floppies for duplication (again, high school). Playing it was something else and in many ways I prefer it to the original.

Doom (classic) is the only fps that matters, even today!

Adam Christensen