Doom becomes a Borderlands 3 style loot shooter with this new mod

Back when Doom released in 1993, the carrot on the stick pulling us through the game was that it was fun (and a technical marvel). Nowadays a lot of us expect more: XP, an abundance of loot, Steam achievements. BorderDoom 1.0 is a new mod for Doom that basically turns it into a Borderlands 3 style loot shooter, and frankly, I need it in my life.

The work of modder Sunbeam (you can see their ZDoom thread here), the trailer above neatly summarises it. Basically, every dropped weapon and item has variable attributes, so for example, if you pick up a shotgun it'll have its own damage output, a precision rating, clip size, a fire rate, recoil and a numerical loot value.

Shields drop too, with their own capacities, recharge rates and delays. If you're familiar with how loot works in Borderlands, well, that's pretty much how it works: you can even get a rundown of an item's stats just by pointing your reticule at it. Likewise, pointing your reticule at an enemy will show its level and current health. If the enemy level is in red text, you probably want to strafe away.

Of course there's an inventory system, and three weapons can be wielded at a time. Among these is a weapon you won't find in vanilla Doom: the demon staff, which looks like it belongs in Heretic. There's a video showing how it works here, and it definitely works.

The mod can be downloaded here (though take your own precautions: I haven't installed it). In addition to the trailer above, check out the feature showcase below:

PRODUCTS

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.