Doom II RPG is what it says on the label, and it’s ready for PC 13 years later

"Mobile games" were something else entirely in 2005, a time in which Windows Mobile was a viable platform, the only Apple phone was a Motorola ROKR, and none of them had a shot at running Doom, let alone its sequel. That's why id Software made Doom RPG, the weirdest official Doom game that is also still a bit fun. A group of fans known as GEC.Inc ported that game to modern PCs, and they've finally gotten around to its sequel.

Doom II RPG, the iOS version from 2009, is playable the same way Doom RPG was: with an understanding that you, a person in 2023, will somehow have access to the original, potentially still copyrighted assets of the game. The instructions lead you through setting up OpenAL, then loading in an .ipa iOS file (the Internet Archive has a copy). You can use a touchscreen, most modern game controllers, or just your keyboard and mouse. You'll then get to play a Doom II that's not quite like what you're thinking of when you think of Doom II.

How does it play? A bit awkwardly, unless you're used to the turn-based, grid-moving, RNG-dominated RPGs of earlier eras. With each turn, you can move in one of four directions, attack with a weapon, or perform some other action, like ripping a toilet fixture off the wall for later throwing (if you're strong enough). If you end up face to face with an imp, there's not much else to do except trade blows, hoping the random hit/miss mechanics are in your favor or that you have enough health packs or snacks to hold out.

This makes the broader gameplay a risk/reward exercise. Sure, you have the blue keycard now, so you could move forward in the narrative, but there's a second path you didn't take—wonder what's in there? It could be a chainsaw. You definitely want a chainsaw early in this game since it is far more effective up close, and most enemies will end up in your face.

Demo of Doom II RPG from the GEC.Inc team.

It's fun to dip into, though, and as a piece of games archaeology, Doom II RPG is more than worthwhile. You can read John Carmack's blog post about working on Doom RPG. You can see how someone might decode files made specifically for a Sony Ericcson k800 into a modern PC game. You can ponder whether Doom RPG games take place in the same universe as the mainline Doom 1-3 games, as one Wikipedia editor posits. Most of all, you can see what made sense for a mobile Doom game just before the iPhone arrived and changed everything.

An official App Store version of Doom II RPG exists, but it was targeted at iOS 2.0 and hasn't been updated for current devices in quite some time. Thanks to some clever, dedicated code warriors, yet another Hell-ridden research base has been preserved with all its bloody contents intact. Next up may be Wolfenstein RPG. (A tip of the hat to PC Gamer, where we initially saw this news).

Listing image by id Software