Bethesda adds 27-level megawad to its Doom re-release

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Base Ganymede adds three huge chapters of classic demon slaughter.

Base Ganymede
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Bethesda has added one of the best unofficial Doom addons to its re-release version of the 1993 classic. Titled Base Ganymede, this megawad adds a new 27-map campaign to Doom set on Jupiter's largest moon.

Unlike many Doom mods, Base Ganymede adheres largely to the style and conventions of the original game, using the base weapons and enemies, but providing different levels to expand upon the challenge originally conceived by Carmack, Romero et al. Its levels also follow the trajectory of the original game, starting out with familiar sci-fi bases, before becoming more surreal and hellish (in a literal sense) as the story progresses.

Base Ganymede was originally created by Adam 'Khorus' Woodmansey back in 2009. Well regarded since its release, it was honored in doomworld's 2012 Cacoawards. "Base Ganymede is a megawad beaming with personality and charm", said Doomworld's Alfonzo back in 2012 "The maps showcase the Khorus design perfectly in being moderately sized with interesting layouts and monster placement, yet are also very experimental".

If you own Bethesda's updated version of Doom (which is available on Steam and Game Pass), you can grab Base Ganymede simply by launching the game and heading over to the Add-ons section. You'll find a bunch of other classic Doom wad's there too, including No End in Sight, the Plutonia Experiment, and John Romero's own addition to the Doom story, Sigil.

Of course, you don't have to access Base Ganymede this way. If you've got an older version of Doom, you can grab the wad over at Moddb. In fact, you don't even need a copy of Doom. You could just head over to the website WAD Commander, whack your Base Ganymede WAD file in there, and you're off to the demon-infested races. And while you're there, why not check out a bunch of other WADs, like Brutal Minecraft, or this extremely NSFW wad that lets you get frisky with the demons.

Rick Lane
Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.