Some DOOM to help with the GLOOM

A DOOM WAD DOUBLE FEATURE

xa-psych & keymaster

Written by: Lain

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Psychic Slaughter in xa-psych

Have you ever wanted to play a Doom mod that puts you in the boots of Manchester Black from Superman? xa-psych isn't that mod, and it's unlikely one exists, but this one lets you play as a lightning-shooting psychic.

Created by Xaser, a Doom scene legend now at Nightdive, xa-psych from 16 years ago feels ahead of its time. Weapons avoid power-trip excess, spells can be cast off-hand to expand your arsenal, and a shop system unlocks new powers and upgrades weapons.

The mod simplifies pickups by giving weapons infinite ammo and converting ammo drops into money. Money also drops from wounded or killed enemies, bouncing around to be spent on upgrades and psychic power recharges.

While guns are mid-ranged, psychic powers can be upgraded to extreme levels. Plasma, for instance, evolves from a rocket to a railgun. It's a fresh way to play Doom.

The store and psychic power swapping are clunky. Powers function like Hexen items, so bind keys to switch and select them. Despite the jank, variety shines: bouncing wind blades, freezing ice bolts, or earth spikes in a line. Overcharge with money to unleash devastating darkness.

Powers add variety to Doom's formula, filling gaps in the weapon set. Overusing them drains health, like in psychic-themed media, so use the shop to restore it.

This mod remains impressive and influential. Screenshots are from the Arcadia Demade map by JP LeBreton, a Bioshock-inspired mod played on a Bioshock level demake by a Bioshock developer.

Keymaster: A New Way to Play

Keymaster is a simple to describe mod that totally changes how you're expected to play through a map. By JP LeBreton, who has more than a few mods to his name. It first spawns you with all the keys (though this can be turned off!) and locks off the exit with a special key.

That special key is held by the titular KEY MASTER, a randomly picked monster given extra health, strength and invincibility until you pick up the ARROW OF SLAYING! This special item grants you bonus damage and the ability to dish out that boon on the key master holding your only way to finish a level.

For the most part the mod is only as good as the map set its being played with. With the stock maps's it plays pretty well as for the most part they don't have exits behind points of no return. But there's a cavitate! While you have access to all the keys to the kingdom, you still need to know the levels pretty well. The game gives you access to a radar that makes sounds to indicate how close you are to the Arrow (and after, the keymaster) but if the Arrow is behind a secret, you're going to need to work out how to get to it.

This isn't an uncommon occurrence since the Arrow of Slaying will replace any item in the level, that's just one of the issues with the mod. The other being points of no return locking you off from going back. MAP1 on REVERIE.wad as seen in the screen shots is a good example of both the issues this gameplay mod can have with level design.

But these are minor issues for a really creative gameplay mod and if you have a map set you know and enjoy, this can give it a brand new way to enjoy it with the (mostly!) vanilla gameplay of doom! You can play the mod with GZDoom and from my experience, it works pretty well with other gameplay mods if you have one you really like!