REELism is an invasion style
Game Mod for
Doom II by Kinsie.
In REELism, gameplay is divided into several "rounds" each lasting 60 seconds, with a different combination of
randomly chosen slots that affects gameplay. Each of the three reels have different themes to them; the effects in the first reel are basic modifiers such as low gravity or infinite ammo, the second reel either affects what weapons are spawned and ammo dropped by enemies, or transforms the player. Finally, the last reel affects what enemies are spawned during the round. After a certain number of rounds has passed, a
boss will appear and the player must defeat it to win the game.
There are four modes of play;
Standard is the normal mode of play, in which the players must endue five rounds before fighting the boss. In
Endurance, the player must survive ten rounds before the boss appears. In
Infinite, the player must survive for as long as he can before he is killed, with a boss appearing after every five rounds. And finally,
Boss Practice simply pits the player against a boss with no other monsters spawning.
It was first released towards the end of 2011, and has recived two expansion packs since. It was also awarded a
Cacoward
near the end of 2012.
It can be downloaded
here, and requires
GZDoom and a copy of
Doom II: Hell on Earth to play.
Tropes found in REELism:
- All There in the Manual: A manual is included with the recent version, with descriptions for all the reel effects and bosses.
- Boss Subtitles: The name and a brief description of each of the three reels is announced when a round begins. The name and description of a boss is also announced the same way when it appears.
- Chain Reaction Destruction: Bosses explode like this when they are defeated.
- Cyberspace: The "Internet Machine" map is set in one.
- Easter Egg:
- Getting three same numbers across the reels will result in a special jackpot bonus.
- Four is Death: Getting 444 will instantly kill the player four seconds into the round.
- Number of the Beast: Getting 666 will transform the player into a Cyberdemon during the round.
- Time Stands Still: Getting 101010 will freeze everything, including the player, until the round ends.
- If the round consists of "HYPERPOWER!" and "Crate Shower", large golden chests will appear. If the player breaks one, it has a chance of dropping a Holy Stone. If the player then throws a Holy Stone at a boss, it will trigger a secret Gainax Ending.
- Frictionless Ice: The "Grease is the Word" effect in the first reel.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: And how! Nearly pretty much all of the bosses count.
- The World's Most Boringest Ghost, a spectral entity who shoots plasma at you.
- There's Dog Pope. It's a dog wearing a pope hat, who shoots out bees at you when he barks.
- There's MacGuffin, a gigantic green hobo who breathes fire at you.
- And to top it off, there's a wizard who drives around in a monster truck.
Manual Description: You know what? I think this pretty much explains itself. Have fun getting run over! - Gratuitous German: Mecha-Hitler's description in the manual is written in German as opposed to English.
- Grave Humor: Present in one area of the "Creature of Chaos" map.
- Level Ate: The "Candy Planet" map.
- Ludicrous Gibs: As usual for a Doom mod, the graphic violence is increased.
- Luck-Based Mission: Sometimes, you get to drive the tank. Sometimes, the tank gets to drive over you. Sometimes, you just explode...
- Mega Crossover: Weapons from other glorious 90s-era FPS games are snuck in.
- No Fair Cheating:
- God Mode does not protect you from instant kill effects, such as leaving the map boundaries, falling into Bottomless Pits or certain bodies of water, such as ocean, or getting crushed by The Jerk, Imp Tank, Ms. The Jerk, or the Wizard's monster truck.
- If you cheat yourself all the weapons, your score counter is replaced with the words CHEATER!, and then the end of game results screen will record you having zero points.
- Punny Name: Heh heh, reel, realism, get it?
- Retraux:
- The "JRPGvile" map, which references the 16-bit JRPG era, such as Final Fantasy.
- Most of the music throughout REELism is taken from the 16-bit generation, such as from the SNES or the Sega Mega Drive.
- Sequential Boss: Both Mecha-Hitler and the Wizard are fought in two phases.
- Shout Out:
- "Dog Pope" shoots out bees when he barks.
- Tank Mode's flavor text quotes Cowboy Bebop's intro. (Which is, obviously, named Tank!.)
- One slot gives you regenerating health, at the cost of slow movement. The manual description states this was done to appeal to racist 12-year-olds who are only interested in modern FPSes.
- The "Creature of Chaos" map is based off of the Castlevania games. To complete the reference, the boss spawns in a throne room in a keep seperate from the rest of the castle, where Dracula would normally be fought, complete with a secret room up above accessable by invisible stairs.
- The victory theme that plays when you defeat the boss is taken from ActRaiser. Additionally, the Game Over theme that plays when you die is taken from Clock Tower.
- The secret Gainax Ending is followed by a curtain call sequence presenting all the maps in the game in the same way all the worlds were presented in the curtain call from the end of Super Mario Bros 3.
- HYPERPOWER!, one of the slot possibilities, is named after a track from a Nine Inch Nails album.
- Take That:
- Bronies - depicted as fat neckbeards in jeans - are one of the enemy slots, and don't do much but neigh and talk about the show in stilted, high-pitched voices, and serve as cannon fodder, meatshields, and ammo drops. Given that the mod author's a goon...
- The "iReelism" effect is one at games ported to, well, smartphones, by plastering the screen with useless smartphone-styled "controls". The manual's description of the effect further states that using Windows Surface is less useful than self-flagellation.
- The "poorly-censored health kits" that can be released from the random crates is this towards the Bowdlerised health pickups in the BFG Edition rereleases of Ultimate Doom and Doom II, which replaced the Red Cross symbols on them with a red and white pill.
- The Regenerating Health effect states it was done to appeal to angry 12-year-old elitists who are too into modern games.
- This Cannot Be!: The Wizard when his monster truck is destroyed. Much like when bosses make their entrance sound, the voice clip can be heard anywhere on the map regardless of distance.
Wizard: No! NOOO! Not like this! Not like thiiiiiis!
- Video Game Flight: The "Wing and a Prayer" effect allows the player to fly during the round.
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