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What’s better: Doom’s shotgun or Doom 2’s super shotgun?Vote now as we continue deciding the single best thing in games
Vote now as we continue deciding the single best thing in games
Last time, you decided thatricochet attacks are better than blue shadows on dodges and dashes. I expected this outcome but am still glad to see a good quarter of you favoured cool essence over cool effort. We continue. This week, in honour of Doom’s 30th birthday (we’ve already written aboutJohn Romero’s memories,motion sickness, andinviting monsters to a birthday party, with more to come), I ask perhaps an impossible question. How could anyone ask you to pick between two iconic tools of ultraviolence. What kind of monster would. Yet we must. What’s better: Doom’s shotgun or Doom 2’s super shotgun?
Doom’s shotgun
Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. A repetition so potent, so vital that you’d replace your heart beat with it, if only you could. It’s only your second gun and such a vast upgrade, yet remains viable and versatile throughout the game. It cuts through swarms. It can dump ammo into big faces. It can even pick at a distance. And it makes that noise. It’s monstrous yet almost feels elegant. A pump-action scalpel.
Amazing new Doom mod Voxel Doom replaces 2D sprites with voxel modelsIf you’re revisiting Doom for its birthday, do check outthe amazing mod replacing 2D enemy sprites with 3D voxel modelsWatch on YouTube
Amazing new Doom mod Voxel Doom replaces 2D sprites with voxel models
Doom 2’s super shotgun
“That thing you adore? We’ve made a bigger, fancier, more murderous version.” Rapturous applause. The audience rise from their seats in a standing ovation then fall to their knees, weeping. They did it. They really did it.
It’s astonishing, of course. Alongside your regular shotgun, you now have the option for triple the damage at twice the ammo cost in a little longer. And as a bonus, you get that double-barreled reload animation. You might won’t use it always. You can’t, not with the pace it eats ammo, but maybe you’d want to.
Maybe. Doesn’t it feel overkill, maybe? Inelegant, maybe? Crass, even? But who would entertain these questions when knee-deep in the dead? A fool. A fool desperately hoping to find angles on an impossible question.
But which is better?
I thought I would find this difficult, I thought I would find it impossible, but I asked myself the question directly and I knew instantly: Doom’s shotgun. It’s perfect, it’s just perfect. But what do you think, reader dear?
