Sigil (mod)

Sigil is an episode of Doom, which retains the original game's core gameplay, and contains no new graphics, sound effects, enemies, weapons, or power-ups. Romero said that he wished to make the levels more difficult than in previous episodes,[1] while still making these levels feel as though they would have belonged in the original game.[2] The episode features a different architectural style to the previous episodes, with a liberal placement of lava, cracks in the floor, pentagrams, and other elements of a hellish atmosphere.

Sigil's level design often blocks the player's path, by requiring the player to find and shoot an eyeball to proceed.

I wanted the levels to feel like they belong to the original game as if they were a true fifth episode. There's more detail in the levels than episodes 1-4, but not overly so. I believe that people playing the SIGIL Megawad will recognize my design style, but see new things I'm doing because this episode does not take place on a military base – it takes place in Hell, which is new to me within DOOM's design space. There's a massive room in E5M6 that is the coolest room I've created in any map.

— John Romero

The events of Sigil take place directly after Thy Flesh Consumed, the fourth episode of Doom.[3] It takes place in Hell, and, after the final mission, Doomguy goes to Earth, to fight the demons there, in Doom 2: Hell on Earth. Like the rest of the Doom episodes, it contains no story or cutscenes, and the only in-game story comes at the end.

On the episode's website, John Romero provides exposition for Sigil: "After killing the Spider mastermind at the end of E4M8 (Unto the Cruel), your next tour of duty is eliminating the hellspawn that is causing unimaginable carnage in Earth’s cities. But Baphomet glitched the final teleporter with his hidden sigil whose eldritch power brings you back to even darker shores of Hell. You fight through this stygian pocket of evil to confront the ultimate harbingers of Satan, then finally return to become Earth's savior. In summary, rip and tear!"[4]

In 2016, John Romero created two single-level WADs, "Tech Gone Bad" and "Phobos: Mission Control". After the positive response, Romero expressed interest in creating a full-sized episode in time for Doom's 25th anniversary. From 2017-2018, Romero created Sigil using Doom Builder, mostly while on vacation and during his evenings.[5]

On December 10 2018, a trailer for the episode was uploaded to his YouTube channel, saying release was scheduled for February 2019,[6] and on May 11, the episode was said to have been completed for "quite a while at this point". Romero also promoted it by live-streaming an early version of it on Twitch in February 2019.[7]

The logo for SIGIL came from Baphomet, a pre-existing painting by Christopher Lovell. Brenda Romero found the image online, and it was promptly selected as the game's logo.[8]

Due to production issues, it was not released until May 22, where it was bundled with a soundtrack by Buckethead for the symbolic price of €6.66, and it was released for free, with James Paddock's MIDI soundtrack, on May 31.[9]

Romero described Buckethead as "enigmatic and elusive", but Buckethead was nonetheless excited to have his music put in the game, as he is a fan of Doom himself.[10] James Paddock had been modding Doom from as early as 2005, having created over 200 WADs, and 600 MIDIs.[11] In 2019, the same year SIGIL was released, he was given his fourth Cacoward, for "lifetime achievement".[12]

Collector's editions, with extra content, such as a signed copy of the game, a shirt with the game's logo, and a documentary about the game's creation, were also made available. Starting in June 2019, SIGIL merchandise became permanently available in the Romero Games store.[13]

In December 2019, Bethesda Softworks added Sigil to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and mobile version of Doom and Doom II, alongside Final Doom.[14][15]

Writing for Bit-Tech, Rick Lane said "Overall, I liked Sigil a heck of a lot more than I expected to. It's far more than just a solid tribute to a classic; it compounds and heightens all of the elements that made the original great, resulting in a rare example of a long-delayed follow-up that makes a significant contribution to the original work."[16] Other reviewers gave praise for the game's elaborate and creative usage of the basic assets available in Doom, however the game's slower pace was noted as a point of criticism,[17] as well as its general difficulty which was considered unforgiving for players not already familiar with Doom.[18][19]

Sigil was a runner-up in the 2019 Cacowards, where it was described as "the most anticipated, previewed, played, pored over, replayed, analyzed, praised, and shat on release of the year."[20]

• Official website