History VideoGame / DoomII

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Level 7, "Dead Simple", has the exit switch on a waist-high platform that the player normally cannot jump over. What unlocks the exit in regular gameplay is a set of stair steps that rise from the ground once all enemies are killed. Should the player be playing a source port that allows jumping, the level can be finished in five seconds just by jumping over the platform.

* LivingStructureMonster: The Icon of Sin, a wall with a picture of a demon on it and the FinalBoss, attacks you by summoning his various demonic flunkies to fight you. Its weak-point is on a point on his "head" which lets you pump rockets directly into its brain.

* NoobBridge: Once you reach "Dead Simple" and "Tricks and Traps", you're not going to progress much further if you don't know how to switch weapons or invoke monster in-fighting (especially if you're fresh from ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' where switching weapons was almost never necessary, and explicit monster in-fighting didn't exist).

* PermanentlyMissableContent: Just like in the first Doom, some maps have areas and secrets that can only be accessed once, and should you fail to get into those areas before access to them is closed off or once you leave them, you'll be unable to access them again without restarting the entire level. The most infamous of these is a secret in the 27th map, "Monster Condo", where there's a secret area that's opened for 30 seconds upon starting the level, and should you fail to get into the area within the first 30 seconds, walls will come down and close it off permanently, with no way to open them back up, requiring you to restart the map if you want to tag all the secrets.

* UnwinnableByMistake: "Dead Simple": The central staircase raises once you kill all Arachnotrons to allow you to leave the map. If played on Nightmare, Arachnotrons can respawn and be killed off again, allowing you to raise the central stairs out of reach.

* LastLousyPoint: "Industrial Zone" has a not too hard to find secret teleporter - specifically, it's both a teleport pad and a secret-flagged zone. To register finding the secret, you have to touch the floor of the teleport pad; trying to do so will teleport you away right before you touch the floor. It took until 2018 before somebody managed to officially "find" it (by getting a Pain Elemental to spawn a Lost Soul directly on the marine's head at the right instant, shoving him into the pad's floor ''before'' the teleport took effect). John Romero [[https://twitter.com/romero/status/1035609232501030912 confirmed on Twitter]] that this obscure method which appears to be a bug was in fact the ''intended'' solution.

** Lost Souls do not count towards your kill percentage score at the end of a map, due to them being infinitely spawnable by Pain Elementals. So besides saving a player the hassle of having to hunt down every Lost Soul spat out by a Pain Elemental, it also safeguards against 100% kills becoming unachievable in instances where a common glitch occurs that leaves Lost Souls permanently stuck in walls after being expelled from a slain Pain Elemental. This behavior was also backported to the original game with v1.666, which was released concurrently with the launch of ''Doom II''.

** The BFG Edition and XBLA versions [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1snCRIl16ks completely purged]] the secret ''Wolfenstein 3D'' levels of every ''Wolfenstein'' element: NoSwastikas nor Hitler portraits, the SS guards are replaced by zombiemen squads, the unique map music themes have been replaced by the theme of [=MAP05=] for both maps and the levels have been renamed ("Wolfenstein" to "[[ClassicCheatCode IDKFA]]" and "Grosse" to "[[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Keen]]") The red crosses on health packs were also removed, replaced with little red-and-white pills because of complaints by the International Red Cross about use of their symbol. The two levels were eventually mostly restored in the Unity ports as of the January 2020 patch; the SS troopers were brought back to their original spots, but are called the "Schutzkämpfer" instead. The crosses, portraits, music, and names are also restored, but with the swastikas bearing the triangle emblem of Germany's version of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', and Hitler's portrait being mustacheless. The pills that formerly took the place of the red crosses have been replaced as well, now as a green cross.

* StationaryBoss: The final boss of the game, and by extension, most monster spawner based final bosses from the third-party map packs never move. Though it's kinda hard for them to move around when they're ''literally just a wall texture''.

* RealPlaceBackground: "Suburbs" is based on two real houses, one owned by Sandy Peterson and the other by his father. He gives a tour of his house on his Youtube channel.

* SecretLevel: The game contains two secret levels with maps more or less [[NostalgiaLevel directly ported]] from ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''. The second secret level was only accessible from within the first.

* {{Shareware}}: Subverted. Unlike the original, ''Doom II'' did not receive a shareware release. This was because, according to John Carmack, many people who downloaded the shareware episode of Doom and beat it mistakenly considered themselves to have "beaten Doom" when they beat the demo. Also because shareware was essentially a distribution method: download the (longer than average) demo, and if you like it, mail order the full version. ''Doom II'' was conceived as a retail product from the start, so all of that was unnecessary. And then Id decided to rerelease ''Doom'' at retail, as well...

* ShortRangeShotgun: The double-barreled shotgun was probably the {{Trope Maker|s}}; it shoots 20 pellets for a combined damage equivalent to a direct hit from a rocket, but its spread is so huge, including vertical spread the basic shotgun doesn't have, that you need to be close enough to hug the demon first. The sheer power and great ammo efficiency of it, combined with the player's [[RoadRunnerPC agility]] that allows them to safely weave in for close-ranged shots, makes the Super Shotgun extremely useful to the point that it's generally the default weapon to use among higher-level players.

* TechDemoGame: Although it obviously wasn't the first game to use the ''Doom'' engine, its first ''Wolfenstein 3D'' level makes a point of showing off all the sorts of things it can do that ''[=Wolf3D=]'' couldn't - in the middle of a very faithful recreation of ''Wolfenstein''[='s E1M1=], 90-degree surfaces and unchanging floor heights and all, there's a new secret which includes walls at every angle imaginable, floors and ceilings of varying heights, and animated textures.

* ArtificialStupidity: There are some levels where, at least on high difficulties, the only way for the player to survive is to trigger in-fighting to either reduce enemy numbers or get other monsters to take out or weaken one of the big bads like the Cyberdemon; one level, "Gotcha!", is even titled such because its main set-piece is an arena with both a Cyberdemon and a Spider Mastermind in it, which is incredibly easy to set them to fight each other.
* AscendedGlitch: Because the first two ''Doom'' games aren't true 3D, a rocket's splash damage isn't a sphere as might be expected; it's a cube (or square prism) of infinite height. Likewise, actors are considered to be infinitely-tall as far as collision is concerned, allowing you to hit enemies you can't even see over the edge of a pit (or for enemies at the top of a wall to scratch you if you're standing next to the wall). These bits of questionable behavior are what allows you to damage ''Doom II'''s final boss.
* AsteroidsMonster: The Pain Elemental will spawn up to three Lost Souls when it's destroyed, in a triangular formation. However, if you let it live, it'll ''continually'' spawn them. Get a Pain Elemental into a fight with another monster, and it'll spit the things like missiles. The manual referenced this, saying that "killing him is almost as bad as letting him live".

* DeathByCameo: Creator/JohnRomero's head is the BigBad (more accurately, the Big Bad's hit-box, and it can only be found using the "idclip" cheat and walking into the boss' brain).

* DummiedOut: A piece of code that was dummied out was intended to allow for doors to slide sideways. This was meant to be used in the secret levels which are based on ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', which had doors that slid open to the sides. The code was commented out when id decided to scale down the amount of ''[=Wolf3D=]'' assets in the WAD file. Therefore, the doors in the secret levels still open just like those found throughout the rest of the game.

** This can even be seen under the hood. Patch [=v1.666=] for the original ''Doom'' removed Lost Souls as enemies included in the end-of-level tallies. This was because the Pain Elemental, a monster introduced in ''Doom II'', spawns more Lost Souls the longer it stays alive so more Lost Souls can be in a level than were spawned when it loaded (which would mean monster counts at the end of a level could exceed 100% without this change).

* IconicSequelCharacter: For a given value of "character", the Super Shotgun (or double-barreled shotgun). Making its first appearance here, the Super Shotgun has become a mainstay of the series, possibly eclipsing the BFG 9000 as the series' signature weapon and one of the most influential and widespread weapons in any shooter.

Following the events of the first game, the Doom Marine returns from Hell after killing the Spider Mastermind. When he arrives on Earth however, he finds that the demonic hordes have launched a full-scale invasion and are currently in the process of slaughtering the remnants of humanity. The only hope for civilization is to escape the Earth in a vessel of spaceships, but a force-field set up by the demons is preventing them leaving the planet. It's up to the Doom Marine to tear through the demonic forces, deactivate the force-field, and journey back into Hell to stop the apocalyptic invasion permanently.

Relying on the same game engine as its predecessor, ''Doom II'' doesn't stray far from the original's gameplay. It was released as a single installment, unlike the episodic releases of the first game. A new roster of enemies were added to increase the difficulty and force the player to come up with new strategies while traversing the game's levels. The game also features the addition of the Super Shotgun and the Megasphere, giving the player new ways to kill demons to their heart's content.

* ActionizedSequel: ''Doom'' was hardly a slow burn, but its levels tended to have just as much of a focus on exploration as they did on demon-battling, and even had some understated horror sequences and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZQc9Uf5eSE&t=44s spooky music tracks]]. ''Doom II'' levels focus far more heavily on combat, with enemy counts that routinely number in the hundreds and designs that are frequently centered around wide-open areas that allow plenty of space for monster hordes.

** The Archviles can't resurrect certain enemies: most importantly, they can't resurrect other Archviles, for obvious reasons, but Spiderdemons and Cyberdemons are also unable to be revived, since that would be just plain unfair given the amount of punishment they need to put down the first time. They also can't resurrect anything that doesn't leave behind a corpse, so no resurrecting a Lost Soul or Pain Elemental, although this is likely due to game limitations rather than a deliberate design choice.
** Lost Souls do not count towards your kill percentage score at the end of a map, due to them being infinitely spawnable by Pain Elementals. So besides saving a player the hassle of having to hunt down every Lost Soul spat out by a Pain Elemental, it also safeguards against 100% kills becoming unachievable in instancea where a common glitch occurs that leaves Lost Souls permanently stuck in walls after being expelled from a slain Pain Elemental.

* AscendedGlitch: Because the first two ''Doom'' games aren't true 3D, a rocket's splash damage isn't a sphere as might be expected; it's a cylinder of infinite height. Likewise, actors are considered to be infinitely-tall as far as collision is concerned, allowing you to hit enemies you can't even see over the edge of a pit (or for enemies at the top of a wall to scratch you if you're standing next to the wall). These bits of questionable behavior are what allows you to damage ''Doom II'''s final boss.

** The BFG Edition and XBLA versions [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1snCRIl16ks completely purged]] the secret ''Wolfenstein 3D'' levels of every ''Wolfenstein'' element: NoSwastikas nor Hitler portraits, the SS guards are replaced by zombiemen squads, the unique map music themes have been replaced by the theme of [=MAP05=] for both maps and the levels have been renamed ("Wolfenstein" to "[[ClassicCheatCode IDKFA]]" and "Grosse" to "[[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Keen]]") The red crosses on health packs were also removed, replaced with little red-and-white pills because of complaints by the International Red Cross about use of their symbol. The two levels were eventually mostly restored in the Unity ports as of the January 2020 patch; the SS troopers were brought back to their original spots, but are called the "Schutzkämpfer" instead. The crosses, portraits, music, and names are also restored, but with the swastikas bearing the triangle emblem of Germany's version of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', and Hitler's portrait being mustacheless. The pills that formerly took the place of the red crosses have been replaced as well, now as a green cross[[note]]Although that was a case of ScrewedByTheLawyers due to the Red Cross coming down on entities using their iconography in unauthorized ways[[/note]].

** The BFG Edition and XBLA versions [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1snCRIl16ks completely purged]] the secret ''Wolfenstein 3D'' levels of every ''Wolfenstein'' element: NoSwastikas nor Hitler portraits, the SS guards are replaced by zombiemen squads, the unique map music themes have been replaced by the theme of [=MAP05=] for both maps and the levels have been renamed ("Wolfenstein" to "[[ClassicCheatCode IDKFA]]" and "Grosse" to "[[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Keen]]") The red crosses on health packs were also removed, replaced with little red-and-white pills because of complaints by the International Red Cross about use of their symbol. The two levels were eventually mostly restored in the Unity ports as of the January 2020 patch; the SS troopers were brought back to their original spots, but are called the "Schutzkämpfer" instead. The crosses, portraits, music, and names are also restored, but with the swastikas bearing the triangle emblem of Germany's version of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', and Hitler's portrait being mustacheless. The pills that formerly took the place of the red crosses have been replaced as well, now as a green cross.

** This can even be seen under the hood. Patch [=v1.666=] for the original ''Doom'' removed Lost Souls as enemies included in the end-of-level tallies. This was because the Pain Elemental, a monster introduced in ''Doom II'', spawns more Lost Souls the longer it stays alive so more Lost Souls can be in a level than was spawned when it loaded (which would mean monster counts at the end of a level could exceed 100% without this change).

* ActionizedSequel: While ''Doom'' is fast-paced, it is generally willing to have scary moments as shown with several fights through a maze filled with Pinkies and imps while the lights flicker on and off. The second game goes for the "EXPLOSION TIME" brand of fun people associate with the series.

* GameMod: ''Doom II'' runs on the same game engine as ''Doom'' but contains the Super Shotgun, several new enemies, and a couple new features of its own, so besides all the examples of this trope from [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} that article]] applying here as well (and the list of mods on [[FanWorks/{{Doom}} this page]] still being relevant), map packs and mods that are specifically designed to run on ''Doom II'' generally have a longer list of features than those designed only for the original game. Additionally, due to all the new content added in ''Doom II'', the vast majority of Doom wads and mods use it; in fact probably over 95% of Doom wads and mods are for ''Doom II'' instead of ''Ultimate Doom''.

* ExpansionPack: ''Doom II'' had two unofficial commercial expansion megawads by Wrath Corporation, ''Perdition's Gate'' and ''Hell to Pay''. The former had a few new textures and graphics whereas the latter featured new weapons and monsters.

* MissionPackSequel:
** ''Doom II'' to its forerunner. Same engine, only a single new weapon (the double-barreled "Super Shotgun"), and a handful of new enemy types. However, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad because ''Doom'' was a great game and a slew of new maps is not unwelcome, while the Super Shotgun and expanded bestiary added a lot of potential to the game's map making and modding potential; it's safe to say if ''Doom II'' was never made, Doom's modding scene would have never become as huge as it did, as people probably would have gotten bored of playing a game where the only mid/high tier enemies were Cacodemons and Barons, with no Super Shotty to kill them reasonably quickly without rockets and plasma. That being said, in the base game itself, much of the level design choices in ''Doom II'' don't exactly hold up as well as you'd hope.
** Most of the console ports in the '90s are an almost literal example, taking the original UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar code ported from ''Doom'' v1.2 and simply adding the new ''Doom II'' assets to it, resulting in a few oddities like the fact that Lost Souls still count for the kill percentage. Some, particularly the [=PS1=] version, take this to the logical extreme by combining both games into one massive 50+-level game, placing the Super Shotgun and new enemies of ''Doom II'' into the original game's levels (e.g. replacing individual Barons with two or three Knights, or adding Mancubi in the "Tower Of Babel").

* DarkerAndEdgier: Where ''Doom'' had most of the game with a soundtrack of rock and metal, ''Doom II'' mostly opted for slower, darker, mood setting music.

** "Level 19: The Citadel" may be confusing to navigate as many of the paths are accessed by secret passages, including the three keys to the exit (you only need 2/3 in the correct pairs to exit however).

** Finding the first secret level exit in "Level 15: Industrial Zone" can be counter-intuitive. You need to unlock a secret area inside the lavapit at the top region of the city, and enter this secret, then backtrack to an earlier area and find that a secret room has opened in a NonSequitur manner. Due to how one secret sector is possitioned, it is also normally impossible to trigger it due to a teleporter line toggling before you can touch the secret sector, unless you use an obscure bug where a Pain Elemental spawns a lost soul that pushes you onto the sector.