Most video game fans know just how influential the original Doom games were, not only to the first-person shooter genre, but to video games as a whole. As such, the Doom modding community is huge, often creating amazing mods for Doom and Doom 2 that completely change the game.
Now, one modder going by the name Szuran has showcased another incredible Doom 2 mod called "He Came From Beyond." What makes this Doom 2 mod really stand out is its art style, as the mod looks like it's completely made out of sticky notes with hand-drawn graphite textures.
Szuran posted a short work in progress teaser on YouTube that shows what the mod looks like in the early stages of development. Right away the art style of the mod is visually striking, as it looks exactly like it's ripped straight off of doodles drawn across multiple sticky notes. The pale yellow background color makes the dark, graphite textures of the surrounding environment pop while lending an eerie, desolate feeling. There are only a handful of games that can pull off pencil-drawn art styles, and while "He Came From Beyond" is still an early work in progress, the texture work is already very impressive.
Szuran explains a bit about how the idea for the mod came to be on their posts to the ModDB forums. Szuran writes in one of the ModMD forum posts that they draw the environments on post-it notes and scan them to bring those same drawings into the game as textures. Szuran says they were also inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, which heavily influenced the overall look and feel of the game. Szuran admits in one of the forum posts that they don't have much experience in game design, but they've teamed up with other members of the forum who reached out to help bring the game to life.
Though Szuran thinks the game is only about 20 percent complete at the moment, they are aiming to release the game around the end of 2021. While "He Came From Beyond" is built from the Doom 2 engine, it looks like it could play really well as its own standalone game. Projects like the "Call of DOOM: Black Warfare" mod are impressive in many ways, but Szuran's "He Came From Beyond" seems to be an entirely unique adventure, simply using Doom 2's engine as a pre-built base.
Even in 2021, the original Doom titles continue to surprise gamers decades after they were first released. It's impressive to look back and see how far the Doom series has come after playing modern entries like Doom Eternal, but the original Doom games still haven't lost their charm after all those years. Especially when their engines are so versatile and the community surrounding the older games is alive and well. Hopefully, Szuran manages to make steady progress on "He Came From Beyond" as time goes on and hits their estimated release window later this year.