Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth are both renowned for the creativity they have fostered in amateur game-makers the world over. For over two decades, its creative community has remained highly active and engrossed, crafting content that, despite the age of the idTech 1 engine, still manages to astonish and astound. Perhaps the most recent example of the passion this community harbors can be found in Brutal Doom, a relatively recent and jaw-droppingly awesome addon for both the original Doom titles that adds more gore, more savagery and more kickass action to an already action-packed game. The mod is particualrly notable for its inclusion of melee executions, a feature which was so popular it made its way into the 2016 reboot of the franchise. Of course, while Brutal Doom does a lot to squeeze more out of the ancient engine it's built upon, and does a lot to revitalize the title it was creative for, it's still undeniably a mod for an old, old game. Not so with Total Chaos. Conceived as a survival-horror game by the modder 'Wadaholic', Total Chaos takes Doom II out of the two-dimensional realm and slathers it in gloriously detailed and lovingly-crafted visuals in a manner unseen since Team Psykskallar published their seminal work Cry of Fear on Steam. And like that equally terrifying tale of woe, Total Chaos doesn't just look pretty; it feels and plays amazingly too. The open alpha version (available on ModDB) offers a level of creative quality seldom seen in any modding community. In order to run it you'll need to download GZDoom, a source-port of the original, and a working Doom II '.wad' file, which you can just copy over from the game itself, which is available on Steam for just $5.99 (though if you look really hard I'm sure you can find another source). Also, it might be wise to download a front-end launcher like ZDL, which helps with loading and running custom content for the elder Doom games. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, this is all rendered in-game. Yes, this is the Doom II engine, known for it's 2-D sprites that burst into giblets in stop-motion. Based on my experience with the alpha, the creator seems to have taken quality nods from the Soulsborne franchise in terms of level development and gameplay, while mixing in thematic elements that bring to mind the harsh, unforgiving wilderness of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. The player is fragile, easy to kill for even one enemy if caught unawares. The game encourages approaching foes one or two at a time, luring them around corners and side-stepping their attacks with the double-tap dodge mechanic.more powerful weapons have a limited usefulness, and will break, forcing a player to strategically plan their encounters even further. Hunger and sanity are both ever-present mechanics as well, along with a stamina bar tied to both. Combined with a clever interconnected level layout very much reminiscent of Bloodborne (complete with all manner of nooks to explore and deviously laid traps for the incautious), progression and pacing felt remarkably well-balanced. Of course it wouldn't be a proper horror game without atmosphere and a good story to boot. The initial setup offered by the opening info scroll is that you are part of a one-man investigation team sent into the bowels of Fort Oasis, a mining colony that went suddenly and disturbingly silent three years prior. While the current story offered by the alpha is somewhat sparse and delivered chiefly through notes and visuals, what there is has chilling implications for the fate of the former inhabitants, and smacks of a Lovecraftian nightmare waiting to be unearthed. As for the atmosphere, the music and soundscape provided are more than enough to have you jumping at shadows and creaks less than five minutes into the game. As if that weren't enough, if you don't keep an eye on your sanity, the auditory spookiness just gets better. Do you like spiders? How about really, really big spiders? How about spiders that look like they crawled out of a web spun in the far reaches of the Outer Darkness? No? Too bad. The visuals also complement things as well. Apart from being just downright astonishing, the vision of decay and abandonment Wadaholic has created is shockingly creepy. Garbage and graffiti cover the floor and walls, while lights flicker ominously in long corridors. Also, despite expectations, the color palate manages to avoid being too gray and dark, which speaks volumes for how much love and consideration was put into the creation of the level design. Too often mod makers just settle for a great big bottle of brown or a variation thereof and throw it at the wall textures like it's about to expire. Here, each area is relatively identifiable by its coloration and atmosphere, making navigation without use of the auto-map that much easier.
Of course despite its advantages, Total Chaos isn't perfect (though it comes damn close). The frame-rate sometimes experiences hiccups when enemies are performing their majestically smooth animations, and it couldn't hurt to add a few more notes to flesh things out (or maybe even some voice-acted recordings to find if Wadaholic feels confident enough). I also can't really comment as heavily as I'd like to on the effectiveness of the sanity mechanic, since I always kept mine in tip-top shape. Maybe that in itself is a problem too, because while I really enjoyed having to make trade-offs and use my items strategically, it just feels like some things should be rarer than others, yet somehow I always remained well-stocked to the point of running out of inventory space. Perhaps it would be interesting to have certain enemies drain sanity while fighting them, which would encourage more tactical application of certain items. Regardless of its shortcomings, Total Chaos is a masterpiece waiting to happen. If it came out for money on Steam, I would definitely buy it. As previously mentioned, the alpha is already available, and while there have been a few development stalls here and there, according to the man himself, the full game (or a beta at least) is set to release at some point later this year (hopefully around Halloween). Until then, I'll continue to enjoy what he's produced so far, and hope that the final product is as great as what this mere glimpse has led me to believe
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