menu

Brutal Doom: Pinky Demon fatality.Our favorite Doom port to play Doom on Windows 11 and Windows 10 is the Doomsday Engine. However, there's a Doom mod out there that elevates the game to unknown heights. It's Brutal Doom and it works with either the GZDoom or the Zandronum source port. Yeah, Brutal Doom IS brutal. And it is not for the faint hearted. The amount of blood released when you shoot your enemies is enormous and may remind you of cult classic Braindead (1992). And you will witness Mortal Kombat like fatalities, performed by a very very angry Doomguy.

So how to play Brutal Doom on Windows 11 and Windows 10?

Install GZDoom

  • Download GZDoom
  • Copy the content of the downloaded zip file to a folder of choice, for example d:\games\gzdoom

Install your Doom game file(s)

As with any other source port for games using the Doom engine, you need the Doom game files (WADs) to play the game.

  • Doom shareware: unfortunately the shareware version of Doom doesn't support Brutal Doom
  • Ultimate Doom: copy DOOM.WAD to the GZDoom folder, you'll end up with d:\games\gzdoom\DOOM.WAD
  • Doom II: copy DOOM2.WAD to the GZDoom folder, you'll end up with d:\games\gzdoom\DOOM2.WAD

Install Brutal Doom

Brutal Doom: brutallizing an Imp.

  • Download the Brutal Doom mod
  • Copy the content of the downloaded zip file to your GZDoom folder, in this example you'll end up with d:\games\gzdoom\brutalv20.pk3
  • You can also check out the high resolution textures for ZDoom here

Play Brutal Doom

There are several ways to start Brutal Doom with the GZDoom source port.

1. Drag and drop

  • Navigate to the GZDoom folder in Windows explorer (d:\games\gzdoom in this example)
  • Drag and drop the Brutal Doom mod file (brutalv20.pk3 or similar) onto the gzdoom.exe file
  • If you want to include multiple mod files with GZDoom, select all of them with the CTRL key pressed and drag and drop all selected files onto the gzdoom.exe file

2. Edit the configuration file

  • Navigate to the GZDoom folder in Windows explorer (d:\games\gzdoom in this example)
  • Look for a file called zdoom-xx.ini, where xx is your Windows user name
  • If you can't find the configuration file: this is automatically created when you start GZDoom for the first time. If you haven't done this, double click the gzdoom.exe file to start it. Close GZdoom again by selecting Quit game in the main menu of Doom
  • Open the zdoom-xx.ini file in Notepad
  • If you play Doom or Ultimate Doom, scroll down to the line with [Doom.Autoload]
  • If you play Doom 2, scroll down to the line with [Doom2.Autoload]
  • Put Path=brutalv20.pk3 underneath [Doom(2).AutoLoad], where brutalv20.pk3 needs to be the filename of the Brutal Doom pk3 file you have downloaded
  • Note that you can also put your files underneath the [Global.Autoload] line, to load the file for any game started with GZDoom
  • If you want to include multiple mod files with GZDoom, create another line underneath [Doom(2).AutoLoad] and insert Path=<file2>, where you'll replace <file2> with the filename of the file you want to include with GZDoom

3. Create a shortcut

  • Navigate to the GZDoom folder in Windows explorer (d:\games\gzdoom in this example)
  • Right click on the gzdoom.exe file and choose Create shortcut. A file will be created like gzdoom.exe - Shortcut
  • Right click on the gzdoom.exe - Shortcut file and choose Properties
  • In the Target field, add -file <file1> to the end of the line, where you'll replace <file1> with the filename of the Brutal Doom file you have downloaded, in this example you'll end up with d:\games\gzdoom\gzdoom.exe -file brutalv20.pk3
  • If you want to include multiple mod files with GZDoom, just add them to the end of the Target, for example d:\games\gzdoom\gzdoom.exe -file brutalv20.pk3 <file2> where you need tp replace <file2> with the filename of the file you want to include
  • Click the Ok button to close the dialog window
  • Double click the created shortcut to start GZDoom with the Brutal Doom mod

FAQ and troubleshooting

If you run into problems using Brutal Doom, be sure to visit the Brutal Doom FAQ. Brutal Doom also has lots of new features. You can, for example, use the weapons of the Mancubus or Revenant when playing Doom 2! Want to know how? Just visit the Brutal Doom FAQ.

Top