One of the coolest new Doom weapons in years—the Shieldsaw—just revealed over the weekend during Summer Game Fest 2024, is already available in the original PC version of Doom.
Announced officially over the weekend with a trailer at the big Xbox showcase, Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to the recent Doom games from id Software and looks rad as heck. It features a more medieval-looking world and introduces new weapons, including a gun that crushes up skulls and shoots the bits back at enemies. But one of the coolest parts of that trailer—a chainsaw shield wielded by the Doom Slayer—is already a playable mod in the OG Doom and Doom 2.
On June 11, Doom modder Craneo uploaded a video to Twitter showcasing the Doom Shieldsaw mod in action. The mod swaps out the original chainsaw from the classic FPS games and replaces it with the newly revealed Shieldsaw. In the video demonstrating the new weapon, Craneo plays through the opening level of Doom 2, which conveniently hides a chainsaw (now a Shieldsaw) at the very start. You can download the mod and play around with it right now.
As you can see in the video above, the Shieldsaw in Doom and Doom 2 can be used to rip and shred demons up close and block damage, too. It appears to put the player in God Mode when you raise the shield, which is a smart way to incorporate “blocking.” You can also, if you change some settings, toss the shield at enemies and do damage to them just like in the big Doom: The Dark Ages trailer.
I tested out the mod real fast and had a blast ripping through the opening levels of Doom 2 with the badass Shieldsaw. It feels like it’s always been a part of the game. I’m not sure I can go back to the chainsaw.
While this is very cool, it shouldn’t be surprising that Doom modders are doing cool shit again. They have been doing that for decades now. Oh, and Craneo is already working on a Skull Crusher mod for OG Doom, too.
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