Legacy of Rust
By id Software, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames - 16 Maps
Format: ID24
[Download N/A because I'd rather not go to prison]
Started: October 30th 2025
Finished: November 1st 2025
Status: Completed
"Legacy can wait. You ain't finished yet."
Legacy of Rust, despite some flaws, is a really solid official classic doom campaign. Level design is mostly solid, with some especially stunning visuals at points, the custom enemies slot in really really well with doom 2's standard enemy roster, and the new weapons are pretty cool. I even enjoyed the tiny little bit of plot we got in this one, it's surprising how far two text screens and visual setpieces can go to establish a story. Xaser's midi's are excellent throughout, giving this mapset a strong sense of forward momentum, with "The Shores of Heaven" being a fantastic earlygame highlight, and some very fun use of various doom leitmotifs throughout, and a great full circle moment where E2M7's track "THE SKELETON WORLD" remixes E1M1's theme "Welcome to Die". But unfortunately the further in you get the more the cracks start to show. Episode 1 is all around fantastic, making great use of the new custom assets without overly relying on them, but episode 2 feels a lot less interesting than episode 1, with LoR's new additions being much more sparse in terms of usage, and some maps that feel very bland compared to what the first episode had to offer, both in terms of gameplay and the visuals. It does sorta come back around with the final 2 maps, but I think most of E2 needed a second revision to smooth out some confusing progression and better work in the new enemies and maybe some more liberal use of custom textures just to give it the same visual flair that E1 has. As much as I like most of the new enemies, the chaingun arachnotrons feel pretty pointless, and the weakened cyberdemons go heavily underused since they only exist to be cannon fodder during the final level. In terms of weapons, the flamethrower is excellent, being a cool twist on the plasma gun with lower range and the potential for self damage, with a much stronger damage output and very high stunlock potential, but the calamity blade just feels bad to use. It takes forever to charge up, doesn't deal quite as much damage as it seems like it should, and for some very weird reason can't be aimed vertically whatsoever, not with doom's built in autoaim or with freelook enabled. It's a shame considering how cool the concept is and how it sometimes comes together to feel great to use, but every time I needed to use it for a section I just kept thinking how much easier it'd be to have the regular BFG. Despite how jank that feels to use it's much more immediately effective and versatile compared to the calamity blade. Overall I still had a really solid time with Legacy of Rust, it feels like a fusion of the original games with the several decades of modding advancement the community has made since then, and it makes grabbing the new Doom re-release worth it even if you're just gonna use a sourceport like I did.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐½
Favorite Map - E1M4: "Descending Inferno"
Least Favorite Map - E2M3: "Dis Union"