Final Doom – TNT: Evilution (Game) / Jonathan El-Bizri, Josh Martel, L.A. Sieben & Tom Mustaine – TNT: Evilution (OST) (1996)

September 21, 2021

Frequent readers of the site may have noticed that I’ve started accumulating a few posts about Doom WADs. What became a nostalgic plan to replay the original Doom games in the recent version of Brutal Doom (Google it!) has now become a frequent past time for me. Its the perfect way for me to unwind from life, work, and the adult responsibilities of being a dad. For an hour or so every few nights, I fire up Doom, throw on a heavy album, and blast demons into dust.

Honestly, its a system that works. But the relaxation of it can quickly turn to shit if you’re playing on bad maps. This is the risk you running playing mega WADs such as TNT Evilution; there are so many fingers in the pie, some map contributions are bound to be a bit shit. All in all though, TNT plays well. The levels are for the most part quite long, and the whole 30 map campaign (secrets aside) was a fair undertaking for me. The hell-based maps at the end were pretty challenging and designed well, and the Icon Of Sin tribute final boss was well made.

At the time, this was pretty much as good as it got with Doom modding, to the point where id software took this and another mega WAD called Plutonia (I’ll be getting to that soon enough) and released it commercially as Final Doom. Confusingly, the PlayStation version of Final Doom was a super cut WAD campaign of levels from this, Plutonia and even The Master Levels For Doom II, all reorganised into another 30 map campaign. This is the Final Doom I played as a kid, not that I can remember it. However, to Doom purists, TNT and Plutonia stand separate, outside of the Final Doom situation, and to be fair they are 2 seperate 30 map WADs so I understand why.

I enjoyed this one a lot.

The soundtrack, just to add, is a decent composition in the MIDI format. As you can tell by the names listed above, the task was shared amongst many of the modders (Soundtrack designer Aubrey Hodges did the PlayStation version, which I will do a separate entry for). I appreciate when a WAD comes with its own soundtrack, which really helps because a.) the same Doom II music over and over is tedious, and b.) it helps convey the mood and atmosphere of the levels the music has been designed for. It adds a whole new aspect. Great stuff! (Its worth noting the TNT Evilution itself has been used by many other custom WADs.)