In a just world, I could just tell you that Doom: The False Angel stars a character called “Victoria Noire,” and that’d be the end of it. Everyone would rush to download it, sending it skyrocketing to the top of the mod charts off the back of its ridiculously cool protagonist name.
But we live in this world, not a just one. So instead I will tell you that Doom: The False Angel is a mod for Doom 2 whose mission is to bring the mobility and breakneck pace of Doom: Eternal and the garish cool of Devil May Cry to the sprite-filled halls of Doom 2. And it looks like something I’d have drawn up in the back of a school notebook when I was 13.
Victoria Noire is a human whose abilities have been enhanced to superheroic levels by a technology that has lent her “pseudo-angelic” powers. Where once she was nothing but a tool used for evil ends by, um, someone (probably a megacorporation, if I had to guess), she’s now gone rogue and decided to wield her dual pistols for good instead of evil. In gameplay terms, that pretty much means you do a lot of parkour while shooting masses of Doom enemies with a vast library of cyberpunk guns, and a few swords.
The way the protagonist effortlessly swaps between katanas and enormous guns reminds me a bit of EYE: Divine Cybermancy. The False Angel is over the top in every way possible: every shot from every gun is wreathed in its own personal light show, enemies paint the walls red when they explode, and movement happens at mach speeds as you bunnyhop, rocketjump, and otherwise do everything you can to keep your inertia going.
It looks great, and maybe even too great for some. Some of the comments on the mod’s page are from people frustrated that their relatively modern PCs seem unable to run a Doom 2 mod, but that’s the price we pay for such a buffet of ludicrous effects. Regardless, it’s a free mod for an ancient game, so if you’re as enamoured by it as I am, you can find it over on its page at ModDB.
