#658: Preacher (no, not the comic)

Kick ass for the Lord in this musically-inspired Doom wad

Initial release: December 4th, 2018
Platform: PC (Doom episode for Boom-compatible source ports)
Developer: Darch
Mods used: Gothic Doom, Magna Carta, Flashlight++

“And I say to you, my brothers and sisters, Hell is a deep, dark, foul-smelling prison of the damned, filled (filled!) with fire and brimstone, lost souls and demons. And how do you escape this eternal damnation? You blast the nasty pink demons right between their beady little eyes!”

— commercial for the Atari Jaguar port of Doom

Doom is a lot of things, but perhaps its most defining feature is its premise, pitting the player in a war against the forces of hell itself, the embodiment of ultimate evil. For the most part, it takes a very campy, sci-fantasy tone with the concept, the protagonist already a hardened badass from the future before he picks up his first shotgun and starts mowing down the legions of the damned. But there are other ways to approach this concept. I’ve seen character mods where you play as all-powerful wizards; there’s plenty of survival horror mods out there too. And outside of the Doom sphere, Blood puts you in the boots of an evil immortal cowboy out to destroy the quasi-Satanic cult that betrayed him and all the vaguely demonic aberrations they’ve summoned. But have you ever felt like something was missing? Like there might be someone uniquely qualified to fight the hordes of Satan? Say, a Preacher, perhaps?

Mod disclaimers before we continue: A pretty limited set this time. As usual, I used HorrorMovieRei’s excellent Gothic Doom reskins, Flashlight++, and something called Magna Carta, a weapons reskin specifically for Preacher that re-animates all the weapons and adds a bunch of new effects, making the game feel a little more alive.

Darch is a long-time community member with a rather limited body of work, but what work he does have released has placed him rather firmly on the map as a potentially powerful creative force. After a few halting early entries, he’s had nothing but hits: Pirate Doom, Preacher, and Pirate Doom II all earned Cacowards. But where Pirate Doom was a GZDoom-based work — ZDoom being what Darch started mapping for — Preacher, his second big release, is a Boom affair, converted early into development. The premise is somewhat quixotic: it’s described as a “musical,” with some tracks (the title, stats screen, intermission and credits map) being authorized selections, complete with lyrics, from the gothic metal band Those Poor Bastards. The rest of the music is all MIDI tracks composed by Darch himself.

With Pirate Doom, Darch exhibited a sort of whimsical humor very much in line with the Monkey Island adventure games that inspired it. While Preacher is very different in tone, it nevertheless has Darch’s trademark sense of fun, with the protagonist being a constantly cackling religious fanatic, collecting such varied items as Jesus-spheres, prayers being an actual weapon, written down on sheets of paper and used to fuel your more mystical weapons — I left the church decades ago but I’m pretty sure that grimoire and that staff might be heretical, but what do I know?

But as silly as all that is, what really sets this wad apart is its structure. Each level starts you off in a small, enclosed area, at the end of which is a large pentagram teleport. Depending on where you step onto the pentagram, you’ll be zapped to one of several random places around the map, some more advantageous than others. Most of the maps follow the same basic formula: freewheeling nightmare worlds, abstractly-designed temples and ruins sitting amidst dark fields and rivers, their open design making for frantic encounters and a fluid progression around the map. Darch’s design style leans heavily on multi-tiered combat zones and broad lines of sight, so you can expect enemy fire to come at you from clear across the map sometimes. It makes for some of the most chaotic gameplay you’ll ever find. While enemy counts are rarely below 100, it doesn’t really dip into slaughter until the very last level, when the monster count suddenly jumps to 800-plus and you’re expected to just prayer-BFG most of it away, putting it more in the Darkwave0000/Speed of Doom school of slaughtermap design.

Special mention must be given to the music. I don’t know that Those Poor Bastards is quite something I’d usually listen to, and I like gothic music, but the track selection is at least fitting with the theme of the wad. If nothing else, I appreciate the concept, and I think if used at the right moment, some “real-world” music would be a useful way to enhance the overall experience of your wad.

If you’re looking for a humorous yet utterly chaotic experience, give Preacher a try. Just remember to say a prayer before you head in.

-june❤

Preacher can be downloaded from /idgames.