I’ve had one eye on ambitious Doom 2 mod Trench Foot for a while, though it was, admittedly, my weaker eye that requires me to wear corrective lenses. I had assumed Trench Foot was a total conversion set in the First World War, but it turns out it’s much weirder than that. It basically combines World War One chic with medieval religious zealotry and a gothic ostentation that wouldn’t look out of place in Warhammer 40,000.

Notionally, Trench Foot has you play as a master Templar of the one true faith known as the Canonicate, on a mission to wage “apocalyptic holy war” on the heretics who cower in the sprawling trenchworks of the wartorn nation of Cretu. With 14 unique weapons to wield and 15 enemy types to blast into ludicrous gibs, Trench Foot sounds utterly preposterous in the best way.

Unfortunately, the mod has hit numerous stumbling blocks over the course of its development. Some of these were design hurdles typical to mod making, but others were external factors such as the Doom modding’s sudden sourceport shift from GZDoom to UZDoom. Developer TrenchWork has addressed these issues on several occasions. But the project has finally borne some fruit, albeit not what fans were likely expecting.

Out of the blue, TrenchWork has released a three-episode mini-campaign called Butcher’s Summit, which acts as a prequel to the events that will ultimately be portrayed in the mod. Playing as a knight in the Templar order, you’re tasked with eliminating a heretic surface-to-air battery dug deep into the peaks of a vast mountain range. With three maps spanning an estimated two-hour run time, the prequel features multiple weapons and “over 40 new monsters”, which sounds like a lot more than was initially planned for the full mod.

In an article revealing the mini-episode, Trench Foot lead L0kken explained what’s gone on. “It’s no secret that the development of [Trench Foot] Chapter 1 has had its ups and downs,” he writes. “During one of those slower phases of development, I decided to use the free time to begin work on a new project. I wanted to make something with a smaller scope that wouldn’t require the efforts of the whole team to complete.”

I took a very quick Tour of Trench Foot’s opening level, and my initial impressions are that it’s pretty tasty. The mod throws into the action almost immediately, with you pushing through a quasi-World War One frontline as you fight through axe-wielding cultists and deadly suicide bombers with revolvers, rifles, and your own mighty fist. The levels are large and open for a Doom-based game, with moody battlefields wreathed with fog and dusted by snow.

It seems impressive even at a fleeting glance, but L0kken is nonetheless keen to stress that Butcher’s Summit “does not represent” how Chapter 1 will play. “I made a few decisions to keep the project as simple and expedient as possible,” L0kken points out, adding that they opted for “A single difficulty option and kept cinematic moments to a minimum, prioritising gameplay and exploration.”

Regardless, I reckon Trench Foot’s prequel episode is well worth trying. You can download Butcher’s Summit over on ModDB. While the mod is based upon Doom 2, it’s also wholly standalone, enabling you to launch it straight from the file with no additional tinkering required.