Arguably one of the most influential first-person shooter releases in history, the iconic Doom turned 30 over the weekend. The game continues its legacy three decades later, with tons of mods and new content being made by the community all the time. Even the title’s co-creator is still releasing maps for it.
GZDoom is recommended
Along with John Carmack, developer John Romero and the rest of the id Software team was instrumental in bringing the world Doom all the way back in 1993. Now, Romero himself has just released SIGIL II, a new WAD file for the game that features some “classic hardcore Doom punishment.”
You can download the maps here, which contain nine levels overall. The 2MB file itself is completely free, but if you want to play Romero’s new level with the THORR soundtrack, it’ll set you back €6.66. Because of course that’s the price for something like this.
As you will have guessed from the name, the campaign is the follow-up to SIGIL, which was released by the former id developer in 2019. When asked on Twitter, Romero recommended the client GZDoom for the best SIGIL II experience.
Leaving the Doom and Wolfenstein company after the release of Quake in the mid-90s, Romero has still been something of a presence in the video game industry. While his 2000 game Daikatana was released to poor reviews, he’s stuck around, working on projects here and there.
Despite how much it’s aged over the decades, it’s hard to overstate just how influential the original Doom was, and still is.
Building off Wolfenstein 3D, the game showed what was possible in development at the time. It established id Software as a formidable studio but also was an early example of how the individual developers themselves could be front row center.
