Twilight Warrior (TWILIGHT.WAD)

For awhile, Doom was perhaps the most realistic FPS kicking around, as laughable as that sounds. It was, though, and it's only natural that authors would try to manipulate the core aspects of Doom's gameplay in order to facilitate an experience even closer to conceptions of what a realistic first person shooter experience would  be. Two wild and crazy guys - "Ziggy" and "Sidearm Joe" - made a series of levels called Hostage Rescue that tried to emulate this experience, but their efforts came to a head in 1998 with the release of Twilight Warrior, published as Black Shadow Software with the aid of some other authors, some now quite famous in the Doom community. It's a ten-map episode for Doom II, originally designed to be played in what is  now an ancient version of the Legacy engine. Nowadays, any modern port that supports mouselook, jumping and DeHackEd should be able to run it.

KZDoom1 (KZDOOM1.WAD)

KZDOOM1
by Kurt Kesler

Kurt Kesler made a lot of single map releases for Doom II. KZDoom marks the series that was made solely for Doom's most advanced port at the time, ZDoom. Of the seven maps in the series (not counting the unfinished KZDoom8), KZDoom1 was the first, released in 1999. It's a medium-size MAP01 replacement, fielding just over 150 monsters. It's in a bit of a tech theme with most of the action taking place in some kind of factory with the rest occurring in a more natural outdoors section. There's no plot; Kurt just describes it as dumping you into the center of a highly secured factory which you have to escape.

Herian 2 (HERIAN2.WAD)

Ian Wilson published Herian in 1998; about a year or so later in 1999, we saw the release of Herian2, its sequel, and to date the last entry in the series. Like the original, H2 is a thirty-two map replacement for Doom II that features a number of sprite replacements for Doom II enemies culled from Heretic. There are some differences, though. Herian2 actually features a story, first of all. It makes more sense if you use Wilson's TC package (this download bundled by the late, great Jive), which replaces all inappropriate enemies and the weapons with stuff from Heretic and Hexen. Essentially, it takes place pre-pre-pre-Doom, and post-Herian. It turns out Herian was the player character's war against infernal powers, back when the forces of Hell and the Serpent Riders were united. He thought he had won, but when he prepares to settle down, there's another assault that he must fight off.

Demonfear (DMONFEAR.WAD)

Adam Windsor created Demonfear over the span of several years, releasing it in six episodes over 1995 and 1998. When finished, he collected the levels into a megaWAD and published it in 1999. The final product consists of a full thirty-two maps for Doom II, playable in vanilla. The intention was a complete replacement functional in solo, co-op, and DM play. It even has a story .TXT to go along with it which helps to set the tone of some of the levels with the occasional hint. As usual, Hell has caught Earth by surprise, and it's up to you to defend the planet, starting with the military base you were stationed at. After running around (and beyond) Terra for the first half, you enter a portal and continue the fight in a sort of twisted facsimile of our dimension.

Crusades (CRUSADES.WAD)

Richard Wiles thought he was done with Doom after releasing Nessy. You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave, and his natural tendencies led to him continuing his abandoned SPOOKY series until he decided to collect the done levels as a set of its own and throw in four more, creating the now-immortal Crusades, an episode 4 replacement for OG Doom. Of course, Wiles thought he was done with Doom then, but we all know the truth, as history proved out. As usual for Wiles, there is no given story to go along with his level set, not that it really matters with an aesthetic theme as strong as this.

CHORDG (CHORDG.WAD)

CHORDG
by Malcolm Sailor

There's something about loading up a Malcolm Sailor map - particularly the CHORD series - that evokes a sense of dread and impending loss of all self-respect. Sailor nailed a very distinct style on UV play that I'd label as, I dunno, scavenger. They're super-hard for a variety of reasons and the monster count has little do do with it (sitting at a little more than seventy to start with). The levels are often claustrophobic with Sailor acting as an authoritarian when it comes to things like weapon and ammo placement. If punching revenants with the berserk pack isn't your bag, well, too bad! CHORDG is the fourth level in this mapset, occupying the MAP29 slot in Doom II.

Assault on Tei Tenga (TEITENGA.WAD)

ZDoom has a long and colorful history of being the most feature-rich Doom sourceport. Assault on Tei Tenga, released by Sam Ketner in 1999, stands alongside others at the forefront of this legacy, being one of the first mapsets to take its target port's features and run with them. It's six (very small) levels for Doom II in a hub arrangement that tells the same old story of another UAC colony that's gone to seed. You've been in cold sleep when your shuttlecraft is diverted to the Tei Tenga settlement after a lack of communications. After arriving at the orbital station, your goal is to reestablish contact with the colony and assess what condition the condition is in.

Jägermörder - 01 : Chemical Lab (DMDJM01.WAD)

JÄGERMÖRDER 01
CHEMICAL LAB
by Derek "Afterglow" Mac Donald

Derek Mac Donald, otherwise known as Afterglow, is more known for his deathmatch works than anything, so it's interesting to see such a dedicated author take a run at the single player side of Doom. Mac Donald wouldn't release the second Jägermörder level until 2005, but in 1999 he published this single level - Chemical Lab - for Doom II, to be run in Boom-compatible ports. It's a short MAP01 replacement in a techbase style. The supplied story describes a Hellish invasion in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where UAC computer anomalies were ascribed to ever-infamous Microsoft malfunctions. The oversight allowed the demons to slip in, so it's up to you to fight to the teleporter technology they used to enter and slay the source on the other side.

Batman Doom (BATMAN.WAD)

You never forget your first superhero. Some twenty years ago, my big two faves were the X-Men cartoon and Batman: The Animated Series. I only have one of those on DVD today; you can probably guess which one. It's TAS, by the way, because B:TAS is awesome, and even though I am a much bigger Spider-Man fan, when I go DC, it's Batman all the way. Batman Doom, released in 1999, is a fun throwback to that 90s Batman fever. It pulls a lot more from the comics than either TAS or the movies, but you can see where they intrude. It's also designed for DOS (not vanilla!) Doom II, doing an unprecedented amount of mod work with DeHackEd. Batman Doom comes from the ACE Team - Andres, Carlos, and Edmundo Bordeau. I think this is where they started their work; nowadays, they're releasing actual games for money, most recently Steam favorite Rock of Ages.

The Darkening Episode 1: The Nameless Project (DARKEN.WAD)

1998 seemed to mark the death of super cool community projects for Doom. Everyone seemed to be too busy playing Quake, realizing Warren Marshall's very public fear. So imagine when The Darkening debuted its first episode in 1999, "The Nameless Project", looking very much like Doom but with a keen eye for lighting characteristic of many of these authors' earlier works. Lighting isn't the only element borrowed from Quake. It's nothing like Iikka Kernanen's ode to the big Q in Requiem, but there's a certain aesthetic clearly echoed with the use of Shub-Niggurath slipgates and the new textures that clearly shows that Doom II wasn't the only thing on the minds of this team. Still, they managed to stop boxing Shub-Niggurath long enough to put out eleven more levels for Doom II.