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Doom turns philosophical in The Revenant Problem

Bone up on your philosophy

A classic Doom 2 combat scenario: A Revenant (its chaotic nature making it one of the most agitating skeletal foes in gaming history) runs headlong down a track. If it reaches its destination, it will inadvertently kill five Imps. If you choose to divert it, it will only kill one. What do you decide?

Okay, it's not much of a question - more Imp-murder is always good - but this and several dozen increasingly complex philosophical conundrums (plus a few surprises) await a baffled Doomguy in The Revenant Problem, a very silly Doom mod to cap off the venerable FPS's 24th year.

The Revenant Problem is the third in a trilogy of short mods by Marphy Black, each taking a deeper look at the most irritating of all of Doom 2's enemies; the chaotic, unpredictable and frequently deadly Revenant. The first project was 100,000 Revenants, pitting the player bare-handed against a massive army of boneheads. He responded to community complaints (usually 'LESS SKELETONS PLEASE') by releasing Infinite Revenants, just in case real numbers weren't enough.

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He did at one point attempt to recreate 100,000 Revenants in the Doom 2016 engine using the Snapmap editor, but found that the game only allows you to spawn a maximum of 12 enemies at any given time, leaving you 99,988 short of a good time.

While The Revenant Problem is one of the most instantly amusing Doom mods of 2017, this has been a grand year for the grizzled old shooter. You can check out the rest of 2017's best over at the annual Cacowards, a yearly community awards ceremony held over at Doomworld. You can also check out a couple of our picks of the year, all collated under our Doom 2 tag here. I cannot recommend Skulldash highly enough - it'll change the way that you play Doom, given half a chance.

In order to enjoy the philosophical conundrums of The Revenant Problems (and possibly its its rather more numerically excessive predecessors), you'll need yourself Doom 2 (currently cheap as chips on Steam), the GZDoom engine, and the mod itself.

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Dominic Tarason avatar
Dominic Tarason: A freelance games critic, Dominic was a regular contributor to Rock Paper Shotgun from 2015 until 2020. In that time he wrote the site's mods column, Modder Superior, as well as flexing his indie game, first-person shooter and Path Of Exile expertise while covering PC gaming news in the evenings. He has also contributed to PC Gamer.
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Doom

Xbox 360, Nintendo GBA, PC, Nintendo Switch

Doom II: Hell on Earth

Nintendo Switch

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