Doom 2 In City Only (Second Playthrough)
By myolden et al. - 36 Maps
Format: MBF21
[Download]
Started: August 13th 2026
Finished: August 19th 2026
Status: Completed
[STARCANNON399'S DEAN OF DOOM SEASON 4 WAD REVIEWS: PART 5 - DOOM 2 IN CITY ONLY]
What a journey this wad is. D2ICO was something I picked up with no knowledge of what I was getting into, right when I needed something to be wad #50, and I ended up getting a fitting challenge to commemorate that occasion. Clambering over the finish line beaten and bloodied, I felt like I experienced something truly one of a kind, and also that I never needed to play it again. And then I did anyway. Doom 2 In City Only is one of my favorite wads, despite the numerous issues it has with scale and difficulty balancing. It's abrasive in a way no other wad I've played is, a gauntlet of lengthy endurance tests, wildly fluctuating quality, and several steep difficulty spikes. This time around things did go more smoothly with nearly 100 more wads under my belt since the first playthrough, which did ruin the magic a bit, but I don't think I can ever play this wad without the rose-tinted glasses of that initial blind playthrough. D2ICO is everything incredible and terrible about community projects all put into one packaged, wrapped in great theming that's right up my alley. The low points are lower than the abyss itself, but the highs reach all the way up to the skies above.
This is my new favorite Dean of Doom episode, no question. Back when Season 4 got announced, this was one of my dream episode picks. I was desperate to see it get covered in full because of how monumental my first playthrough felt, and GOD did it deliver. This episode perfectly captures all the highs and lows of D2ICO in video form, and shows off MtPain27's strongest writing yet, both intricately poetic and playfully fun. Seeing Map 24 get absolutely DUMPSTERED made me feel incredibly vindicated after how ungodly miserable it was to play, and hearing "Did not finish, but Grade: F anyway" was an INCREDIBLE feeling. Getting an excuse to replay this wad front to back was pretty great too, and gave me a more concrete opinion on many of these maps now that the novelty of the first playthrough experience had worn off (at least a little). Whatever else we get this season with the few unknown episode slots left unfilled, I'm satisfied.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Map - Map 36: "Anti-Life"
Least Favorite Map - Map 24: "Blur Affinity"