I’ve only had a few hours to play the new Doom since it was released yesterday, but I’m digging it so far. A lot.
One of the most surprising and impressive things about it is the SnapMap feature, which allows players to design their own levels, even on consoles. It’s an intuitive editor that lets you sort the layout of a level, arrange objects, place enemies, and even do some simple scripting, triggering certain events when the player reaches a certain point in the level.
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It’s incredibly easy to use considering how much you can do, and so far I’ve had little trouble uploading, downloading, and browsing for user-made levels.
When publisher Bethesda first announced this feature, I was wondering how long it would take before we started seeing players recreate the original Doom levels in the new engine, just as Mario Maker players created levels from the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The answer, we now know, is “immediately.”
E1 M2 Tribute, which is a kinda sorta recreation of the E1 M2 nuclear plant map from the original Doom. It’s a little hard to tell since the games look so different, but the maps have the same general layout, which recreates similar firefights.
This is the SnapMap recreation:
And this is the original level:
The author of the map is listed as “SNAPMAP,” meaning it’s probably one of the levels the developer created to populate the SnapMap community at launch. It’s a great example of just how much you can do with the editor, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what actual players will make in the coming weeks.
The original Doom thrived on a strong modding community, and id is supporting that tradition here in a great way.
