John Romero just released his first Doom level in over two decades

This year will mark the release of an all-new, gloriously gory Doom and to get gamers warmed up for the impeding carnage, John Romero has unexpectedly released a new classic-style Doom level.

While Romero has long since moved onto other things, but now the designer released his first Doom level in over two decades.

Romero said that while he built the level with modern tools, he had the same limitations as he would’ve in 1993. It’s his version of E1M8, Phobos Anomaly, the final (non-secret) level of the original Doom’s first episode. “Time to lock and load”.

The E1M8 level, with music inspired by Metallica, Pantera, and Nine Inch Nails, really stood out back in the day because it mixed in elements of horror with fast-paced run-and-gun action. Those who already played it say that they felt exactly as they did 21 years ago when they first entered the Doom reality faced the pentagram boss or had to deal with the Hell Barons.

I was just playing DOOM II last week. But now he’s made a new one. You can download his level through this Dropbox link, and then use something like ZDoom to play it. Note that you will need to own a copy of Doom in order to do so. Instructions on installing the map can be found on the Doom wiki page.