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The fertile world of Doom WADs never ceases to amaze me, and Vault 666 is a recent release that really tickled my fancy. Modder Carl Asami’s Vault 666 is a send-up of both Doom and Fallout that asks: What if the Doom Guy had to save the wasteland?
It’s a goofy, parodical sort of deal, but has the attention to detail and love of the source material to really make it sing. The WAD begins with a silly take on Fallout’s grim openings, delivered by a shockingly good stand-in for longtime series narrator Ron Perlman.
Seriously, I was worried it was AI at first, but the narration (which also shows up in-game and in the endings) is credited to one Henry Schultz. He has a natural delivery with some genuine variance that dispelled my AI fears—there are points where you can tell a real guy is slipping out of Perlman mode. To be clear, this is a good thing.
In-game, you can straight up turn around at the start and leave, triggering a catastrophically bad narrated ending slideshow. Even playing the WAD normally, there are a couple variations you can get that account for whether Dogmeat survived and if you found certain level secrets.
Speaking of Dogmeat, the WAD’s take on the pooch is an absolute tank, an Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura-tier Dogmeat that genuinely helps you more than he stresses you out. It doesn’t feel like you’re playing a Doom escort mission or something.
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Vault 666 nails the aesthetic of 2D Fallout as well, with sound effects and assets lifted straight out of the game and otherwise expertly imitated. The WAD even reskins the Doom arsenal to better resemble the Fallout 1 lineup—Doom Guy’s Berretta 9 millimeter, for example, is upgraded to a nice and boxy Fallout 10 mil.
Otherwise, Vault 666 is populated with the standard Doom enemy lineup, with the notable exception of a bespoke riff on Fallout 1’s Super Mutant honcho, The Master, who serves as the WAD’s final boss while also taunting you throughout over the Vault’s loudspeakers.
Vault 666 is a real treat as a classic Fallout celebration, and it’s worth checking out over on ModDB. This crossover between Fallout and Doom has me wistful for the long-quiet Fallout: Bakersfield, a proof-of-concept trailer for a Fallout-themed WAD from prolific Fallout fan artist Alexander Berezin. That project seems to be on ice, with Berezin’s focus taken up by development on New Blood’s Fallout-inspired, retro futurist CRPG.
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Kurt Indovina
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