We have seen so many mods come and go for Doom, and they have kept it thriving throughout the decades since its release in 1993. One of these mods was Brutal Doom. While we will not get into the creator of this mod, given his reputation, you are well within your rights for looking it up. What we are focusing on here is the moderation itself. We're also taking a look at some other mods that have subsequintly come out as a response to this, creating new and exciting experiences for Doom and its many iterations of BRUTAL!
These mods not only bring about new life to the game, but also gave us a taste of what Doom was supposed to look like, according to the original developers. Given PC restrictions back then, they obviously couldn't do everything they wanted. These ports make the game 10 times more violent and has some very amazing weapons to go along with it. These mods, along with GZDoom, transform the game into a full 3D experience with 2D characters. Does that make sense? Kind of?
What you'll notice right off the bat is that they add new flavors to the gameplay in the ways of spectacle. Your guns pack more punch and the blood sprays even harder. Not only that, but their ammo type does different things according to their nature. If you're using the flame-thrower from the Mancubus, the monsters will burst into flame and even begin to panic before they are left a dried, sizzling husk on the ground. Plasmarifles will turn them into a literal pile of dust. Head shots will also have their heads pop off and spurt blood from their neck. Yes, these have "brutal" in their titles for a reason.
There are so many versions of this game, it's kind of hard to review all of them without going into great specifics. It really depends on which one you download and they come with their own features, weapons and even alternate monsters.
There are black Imps that fire multiple fireballs at once, there are zombies with super shotguns and plasmarifles and there are Cacodemons that spit out smaller Cacodemons. So, now you have some technical Lost Souls coming out and firing fireballs at you as well. They don't do as much damage, but any Doomster will tell you, that adds up.
Walking up to a monster in the game and hitting the melee button will prompt a cutscene of you basically doing a full on glory kill. You'll punch them or rip them apart until they are splattering blood across the screen. Instead of the predetermined pile of viscera you normally see, they will fall to pieces and those things fly FAR. You even get some gory death animations if a Cacodemon somehow comes up on you and EATS YOU! Hell Nobles can grab you and literally rip you in half with their bare hands. Do not play this game if you are squeamish about gore. You're Doomsters, so my assumption is that we're on the same page. If not, SACK UP!
These mods are also BRUTALLY difficult. If you go up to one of the higher ranking difficulties, you're going to feel the pressure. These monsters are faster and their attacks do more damage, but so do yours! Your guns pack more punch and you can blow apart a lot of them with the supershotgun. There is also the automatic shotgun, which eats up your ammo but also munches some amazing demon flesh. So long as you're moving and circle strafing, you can get out of a lot of situations, but do not stop moving for any reason!
Project Brutality 8.5 is equipped with a vast array of different guns at your disposal as well. There is one known as the Black Hole Generator and it does exactly what the name implies. Now, it is awesome and all that, but it also comes with its own little pitfalls. The generator takes a few seconds to actually fire, and when it does, it will literally vaporize anyone in its path, especially the smaller mobs. It will suck in all of those around it and even bring the Cyberdemon down to a fraction of his health. Be VERY careful, though, because if you touch or even get near this BLACK HOLE, you will also die immediately, no questions asked. Your death animation will often show you becoming a small pile of dust and it's rather humorous.
Brutal Pack V10, developed by JTC3, dropped in September of 2024 and it has a very different twist to its mod. The weapons are more grounded with the Doom weapons of old, but they also do a tremendous amount of damage. This, however, is to make up for the absolute ferocity of the monsters within. These monsters are fast and they run at you like a linebacker, ready to break your face on their horns! The Barons of Hell, you can blast rockets in their faces all day and they will keep firing these multiple fireball attacks at you until you burn. This mod earns the name Brutal because sweet mercy!
The great things about all of these mods and updates are that they are completely free and they can be paired with any facet of Doom. You can create maps of your own and put any of them through the meat grinder! There are mods that pair Brutal Doom with Doom 2016 and you can basically get the more 2.5D experience, if that's what you fancy. The possibilities are limitless and we have barely even scratched the surface!
Just give it a try. All you need to do is download it, get GZDoom and the Doom 2 pk3, put drag them all to one place and you're set! Look up tutorials for it if you need to, you'll get the experience. It is worth it! Do not miss out on these amazing mods and make sure you tear those demons a new one! The Icon of Sin may come out with mutliple heads, the cyber imps may shoot rapid fireballs at you and they may come at you from all angles! You are the one who grinds them into meat! Show no mercy!
