Doom and Doom 2: are Nightdive's latest remasters the definitive editions?
Not quite perfect - but excellent nonetheless.
For many, scaling Mount Everest has stood as the ultimate challenge of one's strength and endurance. An achievement of a lifetime. For long-time Doom players, however, there is an equivalent: NUTS.WAD. Legend has it that NUTS.WAD descended upon Doom players in the year 2001: a map from the future in which players are dropped into a single map with more than 10,000 enemies and a handful of power-ups. And now - for the first time ever - it's playable on a games console.
I'm half-joking, of course, but the ability to load in any Doom mod is just one great feature found in the latest version of Doom and Doom 2. Helmed by Nightdive in cooperation with id Software and Machine Games, this new version is worth looking at as it is the most feature rich, best-performing version of Doom on consoles. It's available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series consoles, Switch and even last-gen PS4 and Xbox hardware. The game was transitioned over to Nightdive's KEX engine and brings with it a vast array of enhancements - 120fps support on consoles, 16-player multiplayer including co-op, and a new soundtrack from the legendary Andrew Hulshult.
But it was the mod support that was my first destination and with it, the chance to see how Nightdive's work would cope with the NUTS.WAD challenge. This pushes beyond the limits of what Doom engine was intended to handle and now we can test it on console and the results are interesting. Before we go on, it's worth stressing that all current-gen machines can handle 4K gaming at 120fps - and yes, that includes Series S. The engine is optimised and fast - all the included content and every map I tested runs like greased lightning. I wanted to raise this caveat because the challenge of NUTS.WAD is so extreme and cruel that I don't want people to get the wrong idea. The fact that you can run NUTS.WAD at all is cause for celebration!
The other caveat is that the Switch version is limited to selected mods - you cannot freely run whatever you please, so keep that in mind. While at first I thought this might be due to performance it's more likely that Nintendo doesn't allow it since anything goes.
So I started here on PlayStation 5 - using 120fps mode, it was clear that, suddenly, the frame-rate had fallen significantly, as expected. It's only once you engage the enemies, however, that you know true horror. As a MIDI rendition of Led Zeplin's Kashmir plays in the background, the frame-rate continues to struggle. This is expected, though, given that this test stresses the engine in ways it really wasn't designed for.With this fresh in mind, then, I booted up Doom on Xbox Series X and then Xbox Series S. It was time for the showdown.
The results? As I dove into the crowd below, the Xboxes cried in unison for the gods above did not smile upon them. The frame-rates came tumbling down barely able to scratch the 20 frames per second mark. I must admit, I was confused - the PS5 is outperforming Xbox but it's not clear why. I then decided to push further - I downloaded another variant of NUTS.WAD - one even heavier and it's here that all three consoles began to scream out in pain. Scraping the bottom of the frame-rate barrel barely reaching 10 frames per second. The ghost of Perfect Dark laughs in the distance.
As to why PS5 copes better when it actually has a slightly slower CPU than Xbox, I asked the developer and it seems likely either CPU threads are sleeping when they shouldn't or there are issues with code generation. Yes, it turns out that this new version of Doom is designed to replicate the original visual experience and, as such, it is entirely software rendered, so it does not take advantage of 3D acceleration. While Carmack's original BSP renderer persists below the surface, the development team made some serious improvements. The lead engineer wrote an entirely new texture mapper that changes how the game draws its graphics - it's better suited to modern hardware and faster as a result.
This new version is also multithreaded but the way this manifests is unique - essentially, the screen is split into multiple chunks with each thread drawing its own window. Due to variable complexity, though, a load balancer was implemented which dynamically adjusts the width of each chunk according to demands. It's a slick way to divide up the work across threads.
So what's the benefit of going software rendered? Well, as an official release, this is a way to offer a nice blend of enhancements, such as higher perceived frame-rate, higher resolutions and the like, while staying very true to the core of Doom's visual design. There are plenty of cool source ports out there which enhance the visuals, but the purpose here is to be faithful and I think they achieve that. That's not to say there aren't some visual improvements - for instance, in certain maps, the animated sky that was first seen in the PlayStation version of Doom, has been implemented and looks great. It's also possible to boost the rendering resolution all the way up to 4K on all the current-gen platforms and even Xbox One X. Switch is limited to 1080p but all consoles have variable pixel scaling options allowing you to replicate the original Doom resolution if you desire.
The one caveat I have with this version, though, is camera rotation - it's not clear why, but rotation isn't quite as smooth as it should be. If I slow it down, maybe you can more easily see what I mean? There are tiny stutters in the movement that aren't present in the previous version of Doom released on modern consoles. It's not super noticeable during gameplay but once you see it, it's difficult to unsee it. So what about the PC version? It has the same camera rotation issue and while the game is impressive overall, Doom purists may prefer to stick with source ports like GZ-Doom thanks to a superior range of rendering options.
Still, while the menu is somewhat simple for a PC game, it's actually rather robust for a console release. Aspects like field of view can be adjusted along with many other customisable options. Everything is also wrapped in a beautiful and fast shell which brings together all Doom related content into a single application and this brings me to another key feature - and arguably one of the best things about this port. The music. So, firstly, there are two main options - a remixed soundtrack option and the original sound, but that's just the surface. The remixed soundtrack was composed by Andrew Hulshult - for Doom 1, this brings the existing IDKFA tribute album Andrew made into the game officially, which is cool, but the big draw for me is Doom 2's soundtrack. Andrew had made a few remixes in the past but, finally, the entirety of Doom 2's soundtrack was redone and it is sublime.
However, there are fallback options - many WADs feature their own music plus some folks may want to use the original audio. Firstly, there's the general MIDI option which does a good job recreating the sound of a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 module. This is the device on which Bobby Prince composed the soundtrack so it's very faithful. The other option is FM synth and this one surprised me. There is an FM option which simulates the typical OPL2 sound you expect from a Sound Blaster or Adlib card back in the day, of course, but the DMX option is a game changer.
This one is an FM patch set that leverages the OPL3 sound - something few games ever did - producing a much punchier, more interesting sound. Speaking of which, music MODs exist as well. I own Sigil 1 and 2 in their big box form and prefer playing with the digital soundtrack - thankfully, that was uploaded and can be installed on consoles as well via the mod menu. Speaking of mods, though, there is one flaw currently - the uploading process doesn't exclude content authored for Z-Doom. Mods that take advantage of Z-Doom do not currently function which, alas, means things like myhouse.wad are not playable even if you see them in the browser.
Lastly, beyond everything else, there's a brand new episode called Legacy of Rust created by members of Nightdive, Machine Games and id Software. This is a crazy new episode with new monsters, weapons and massive levels. It's also perfect for showcasing the new co-op features with up to 16 players running around. Plus, there's modern co-op options such as respawning occurring only when the living players manage to get away from the action.
Ultimately, while it may seem somewhat redundant to re-release Doom once again, all I can really say is that this is a version of Doom worth playing, granting access to the most amount of Doom that we've ever had on consoles. Even better, if you owned the previous version of Doom - this new version is available as a free upgrade. While not quite definitive (not yet, at least), we can highly recommend this excellent release.