After 28 years, id Software’s classic Doom has finally been voxelised, its 2D sprite graphics given an extra dimension in space thanks to modder Daniel Peterson – aka Cheelio – providing us with another excellent excuse to revisit one of the greatest titles in gaming history.
In recent times, various source ports have become the method of choice in playing the game on modern hardware and one of the key features over and above the visual overhaul is the inclusion of mouse look. Original Doom was a 3D game effectively playing out on a 2D plane with no ability to look up or down. If you are shooting enemies that are elevated above, you have a hard time seeing them and the game just chooses to automatically aim vertically for you. This can be a bit frustrating to someone with modern sensibilities for first person games but it can also be annoying as Doom’s auto-aim often had strange ideas on what it is you’re actually looking to shoot.
So this new voxelised mod not only looks to add a welcome 3D look to the 2D sprites, it also helps to make the more modern ‘mouse look’ enabled version of the game even better. If you’re looking up at an enemy you’re about to shoot, you’ll get a perspective-correct rendition of the enemy in front of you. On top of that, the overall sense of ‘believability’ is enhanced as circling enemies or objects doesn’t give the same flat view any more as the sprites are given 3D dimensions. This applies to all camera-facing sprites from the original game so health packs no longer just rotate to face the camera, but instead have tops, bottoms, sides and more that such a box should have in 3D space. Enemy sprites? Those required a bit more work.
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