Doom II mod Trench Foot ships a gnarly standalone prequel — and it actually matters

Trench Foot’s bite-sized prequel proves the mod still has teeth

I’ve been watching Trench Foot-a Doom II mod that fuses World War I grime with medieval Templar fanaticism-because it’s the kind of weird, ambitious project modding communities live for. But after development hiccups and a recent sourceport shuffle, the team’s new three-map prequel, Butcher’s Summit, is the kind of focused deliverable that actually matters: playable, standalone, and short enough that people will actually finish it and talk about it.

• Small, immediate payoff: three maps, roughly two hours, no Doom IWAD required – download, run, play.
• Ambitious scope in miniature: you’re a Templar knight assaulting a mountain to destroy a heretic surface-to-air battery, fighting “over 40 new monsters” and using multiple new weapons.
• Signal over noise: this release keeps momentum while Chapter 1 continues after delays and a sourceport move from GZDoom to UZDoom.
• Not a full preview: lead dev L0kken warns Butcher’s Summit doesn’t represent Chapter 1’s final design—single difficulty and fewer cinematic flourishes were chosen to ship faster.

Breaking down Butcher’s Summit

Butcher’s Summit is a standalone mini-campaign distributed on ModDB that drops you into a compact, cohesive story slice: ascend a mountain, smash a heretic surface-to-air battery, and survive cultists, suicide attackers, and a parade of grotesques. It’s about three maps long and the team estimates roughly two hours of playtime. For a mod that earlier promised epic scale and a brazen mashup of WWI aesthetic and gothic religion, this is the kind of concentrated bite that showcases style and systems without asking players to wait for a sprawling release.

Technically it’s notable because TrenchWork weathered a public sourceport shift—modding ecosystems for Doom have been rattled lately as developers reckon with UZDoom and GZDoom compatibility. The team opted to keep this drop simple: a single difficulty, pared-back cinematics, and an emphasis on gameplay and exploration so the build could ship without the whole team needing to be tied up. L0kken told PC Gamer that the episode was deliberately scoped down during slower development phases so the team could complete something without dragging everyone deeper into Chapter 1’s complexities.

Why this matters right now

Big mods die quietly in the gap between hype and deliverables. Releasing Butcher’s Summit buys TrenchWork three practical things: it keeps the community engaged with something playable; it gives the developers real-world feedback on enemy encounters, pacing, and weapon feel; and it signals ongoing momentum despite delays. That matters for mod projects that rely on volunteers, community testers, and word-of-mouth to stay alive.

There’s also an ecosystem angle: modders are increasingly shipping tight, polished experiences rather than waiting for sprawling total conversions. We’ve seen that in other corners of modding recently—shorter, genre-focused projects tend to sustain interest and feed larger campaigns later. Butcher’s Summit fits that pattern: it’s both a demo of artistic direction (WWI grime + Templar mania) and a testbed for mechanics the team plans to expand in Chapter 1.

What players should expect

If you’re curious, the best part is how frictionless it is to try: grab the file on ModDB and run it standalone. Don’t go in expecting a full taste of Chapter 1—L0kken explicitly says this isn’t representative, and the single-difficulty focus means the team prioritized a tight, immediate experience over the full breadth of systems they plan for the main campaign.

For players who follow Doom modding, it’s worth playing both as a fan of ambitious level design and as a practical check-in on TrenchWork’s progress. Expect chunky, atmospheric maps, a heavy dose of gothic/WWI hybrid visuals, and combat tuned for spectacle. If you like seeing mod teams iterate publicly (and you want to avoid the “will it ever come out?” fatigue), this is a welcome move.

TL;DR

Butcher’s Summit is a compact, standalone prequel that proves Trench Foot can ship playable content amid delays and a sourceport transition. It won’t replace the full mod, but it’s the exact kind of slice that keeps a community alive and gives devs something real to build on. Download it from ModDB and judge for yourself—just don’t mistake this for the finished Chapter 1.