Hunt down a resurrected Maggie Thatcher in this frightfully British Doom campaign
Descend into the original Hell on Earth (Great Britain) later this month.
Back in July, I fell in love with an ongoing project to recreate a grim English high street in Duke Nukem 3D's Build Engine. As it happens, another developer was already well underway on their own grim retro-coloured descent into Blighty—though there's more gore than Greggs to be found in the depths of Thatcher's Techbase.
Arriving on September 24, Thatcher's Techbase is a free level pack for the original Doom (compatible with emulators like Boom) that sees you descend into "the tenth circle of hell—the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" in the hunt for a resurrected Margaret Thatcher.
On September 24th, Margaret Thatcher will rise from her grave. Only you can send her back to Hell. 3D: Doom Daddy Digital is proud to present 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐄, a new 𝙳𝙾𝙾𝙼 adventure for PC, Mac, Linux and whatever the hell you want to try running it on. pic.twitter.com/ssSwk45EoSSeptember 15, 2021
You'll be blasting the stiff upper lips off hordes of reskinned zombies and demons from the bunting-clad halls of parliament to Thatcher's own grave, with a handful of new weapons like the Trident Launcher and the BFG 1990, with full support for online co-op. Amazingly, Techbase has even wrangled the voice actors of Demeter and Persephone from Supergiant's Hades to lend their vocals to the campaign.
I'm a massive sucker for this kind of grim representation of the UK in games—a more honest look at this weird, dour island than Forza Horizon 4's sunlit uplands. Director Jim Purvis has even hinted that there'll be a wry reference to Limmy's stand-out "Honk if Thatcher's dead" highlight.
More screens and info can be found on the game's official site, where Thatcher's Techbase will launch for free on September 24.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.