this meant that source ports that could bring the game to modern systems and add all sorts of new features could be created much earlier than for duke 3d, making it far more accessible.
However, there's four big things that haven't been mentioned yetġ.) doom's source code was released 5 years earlier than duke's.
that's in addition to the game just having better gameplay in general, and being an incredible base to create mods for My goal is definitely not to criticize and take down Duke3D, I indeed like that game and it has its own strengths, I just want to discuss what Doom is better at.Īs mentioned previously, modding the game is a bit easier and doom 2's bestiary is much more balanced and diverse, leading to a larger variety of original mods and such that can be created. Duke 3D is indeed superior in realistic-looging city and interior textures and environments, but Doom has nicer artwork for more abstract environments and nicer green color. Doom has nicer "marble", "wooden" and "hellish" textures and nicer-to-look-at color palette. A person needs to be engineer to create anything. But most importantly, map actions and "scripting" is done via special things you add to map, and sector and thing tags (lo-tags and hi-tags) you need to know and remember what each value does, for example even making a simple door needs an advanced tutorial. Duke 3D has just "Build" editor which is clunky and uncomfortable to use, many things are done with various key shortcuts and combinations you need to figure out and remember. Doom has map format which is much easier to understand and create maps in, and most importantly much better and comfortable mapping tools. Duke Nukem is much more about individual or small-group monster encounters and fights, while Doom is often about fights against big hordes of monsters and many monsters being active at a time. Duke Nukem has less monster types, and most of basic monster types can be killed with about two shotgun shots or single RPG shot. Much wider and more versatile bestiary in Doom2. In Duke 3D, the explosion and splash damage spread is extremely weird and buggy, sometimes a bomb explodes right next to a monster but it barely hurts it. Better and reliable splash damage spread in Doom. Doom's engine feels much more consistent and reliable.
Duke 3d's engine feels quite fragile and buggy, for example it can happen I can sometimes die by simply walking into some corner or weirdly-sloped room, or even crushed by a rotating door. I'd like to discuss what Doom is better at than technically more advanced Build-engine games. However, despite that, I feel that Doom is still better in some aspects, and playing through Doom gives me somewhat better experience and feelings. The two most important things Duke3D is better at are more map geometry possibilities (room-over-room, sloped floors and ceilings etc.) and lots of interactivity with environment (destroying things, using toilets, talking etc etc.). Duke Nukem 3D is indeed technically more advanced game than Doom engine-based games.