John Romero's new Doom episode, Sigil, is out now for free

John Romero, one of the creators of Doom, has released his unofficial fifth episode for the shooter, and you can play it now for free.

Sigil comprises nine new, labyrinthine levels for the original Doom. Each contains “more detail” than the levels in episodes 1-4, but Romero says they should feel like they “belong in the original game as if they were a true fifth episode”. They're playable in singleplayer, co-op and deathmatch.

The story directly follows on from episode 4: Earth is overrun with monsters and it's your job to teleport to Hell and confront the Satanic source before returning to Earth a hero. It's an excuse to blast waves and waves of demons, basically, which is fine with me.

The Megawad—the name given to particularly large Doom mods—is completely free if you don't mind a MIDI soundtrack, but you can also spend €6.66 (roughly $7.50/£6) on a version with a metal soundtrack from guitarist Buckethead.

It was supposed to be out in February, but was pushed back a few times because of delays to the physical edition. Now that it's here, you can buy it on its official website.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.