The first person shooter video game, Doom 2: Hell on Earth, developed by ID Software and the Xbox live arcade version is done by Nerve Software, published by GT Interactive for the MS-DOS version, Activision for the Gameboy Color, and Bethesda Softworks the Xbox Live Arcade version. Due to being released multiples times, including being bundled with Doom 3: BFG edition as the latest version in October 16, 2012, I will instead tell you the first release of it, the MS-DOS on September 30, 1994 in North America and October 10, 1994 in Europe.

Due to the immense success of Doom, ID Software worked quickly to follow up with its sequel, Doom 2: Hell on Earth. Unlike the initial Shareware and Mail Orders the first Doom went through initially, Doom 2 was released commercially in stores instead. This lead to Doom 2 also being a commercial success. On December 26, 1995, ID Software released Doom 2's expansion pack, Master Levels for Doom, containing 21 new levels for the gamer to play with.

The story is that while Doom marine was busy kicking Demon butts in hell; Demons were invading Earth and wrecking the place up. Now back on Earth, with billions killed, the surviving humanity hatches a plan to escape this nightmare by building spaceships to escape to space, however with the Demons blocking the only Spaceport with a barrier, preventing any ships from escaping, Doom Marine must find a way to break the barriers on that spaceport and even find a way to beat back the Demonic invasion however he can.

Positives:

1. The same awesome gameplay of Doom 1 still resonates well here. Those who enjoyed the first Doom's gameplay will be pleased to see that the gameplay in Doom 2 is kept intact. There are very few changes in this as for the most part, you're still running rather fast in non linear intricately designed levels where massive swarms of enemies are still cleverly placed, especially in the more open areas of Doom 2 where since you're on Earth, you will often fight in urban areas where places are open for you to move around in to reach the level's exit. To balance this, the enemies in Doom come in much larger quantities, and have newer and deadlier enemies.

For your weapons, you only have one new weapon:

Double Barreled Sawed Off Shotgun: The big brother to the regular shotgun. This weapon not only fires two larger and more powerful slugs at targets, but is capable of killing medium level enemies in one well placed shot, let alone obliterating low level enemies to giblets. It's balanced to the regular shotgun in that it has a slower firing rate than the regular shotgun and doesn't handle multiple low level enemies as well as it as a result, and it requires two shotgun ammo per shot so it can consume your shotgun ammo pretty rapidly through heavy usage so use it wisely.

There are also a few new items as swell such as the Megasphere, an item that supercharges your health and armor to 200 each.

In respect to the Wolfenstein games, there are two secret levels based on Wolfenstein here too, including a Commander Keen easter egg in the final one of the two.

2. I personally think the Doom 2 ost maybe slightly better than the original ost, and that's saying something. Thanks to Bobby Prince's background as a lawyer, the composer of the classic Doom games knew how much music he can sample and take from other musics without incurring the wrath of the Music business lawyers. This has led to many pretty awesome osts such as the first level in Doom 2's takes a sample from Megadeth's Hanger 18, The Demon's Dead sampling from Black Sabboth's After All (The Dead), The Demon's dead is my personal favorite theme in the entire game.

For your hearing pleasure.

3. Doom 2 still looks aesthetically pleasing too. Due to lack of any new technologies in graphics at the intervals of its release, there were little changes in graphics outside of newer hardwares allowing them to take advantage of increased performance. Still Doom 2, much like its predecessor still look impressive for a 20+ year old game.

4. The inclusion of expansion packs does help extend the life of this gameplay over its predecessor. With expansion packs in hand, Doom 2 totals to a huge 62 levels compared to the Ultimate Doom's 36 levels. If you wish to acquire both expansion packs Master Levels for Doom and Nerve Software's No Rest for the Living, Doom 3 BFG edition has that for ya.

5. Mod Support is just as great as the first Doom is. Thanks to the active Doom modding community, Doom 2 also has received the same good mod support that will help ensure Doom 2 can age well in this day and age despite being older. Check their forums and mod depositories for many Doom mods to enjoy.

Negatives:

1. The game's narrative is still rather simple. Much like the first Doom, this game does little with the story outside of including text speeches in the few intermissions in Doom 2 to explain the situation and what your character must do. Not a terrible or even a bad thing, but one I feel more narrative loving people won't particularly like.

2. If Doom 1 didn't convinced you, Doom 2 will do very little to as well due to having very few changes to its predecessor. Doom 2's biggest problem is that for the most part, it feels very much like the first video game in the series. This isn't a problem for those who loved the first Doom, but for those who wanted more in a sequel or wanted a better reason to enjoy Doom than what Doom 1 provided; this game will disappoint those few people.

Conclusion: If you wanted more Doom loving goodness, Doom 2: Hell on Earth will provide plenty of that with its vanilla 32 levels that can expand to an awesome 62 levels in total while you listen to some awesome metal osts and find some mods to play this game. Only those who didn't like the first Doom would not like this game due to having few changes that wouldn't convince you to pick up the Doom series.

Score: 9.5/10

Grade: A