Yesterday, Xbox hosted their Partner Preview event, and among the announcements and reveals of games for the near future, a survival-horror game got released that same day. Total Chaos, as it’s called, used to be a large, total-conversion mod for Doom 2, which came out all the way back in 1994. Although you wouldn’t believe that one bit if you looked at a screenshot of the game below. In terms of it being a “mod,” it’s important to understand that Total Chaos was an entire game, running about a dozen hours on a normal playthrough of it, which involves exploring the misty island of Fort Oasis and fighting the twisted creatures that inhabit it. In a good way, it’s a very cerebral, almost oppressive experience, with the tarnished weapons and scavenged resources you find only being just barely enough to stave off the game’s threats. And this new version of Total Chaos lets you experience it all in a horrifyingly beautiful redux of the world created by the mod with more polish and updated visuals courtesy of Unreal Engine 5.  A few years ago in 2022, the mod’s solo creator Wadaholic, or Sam Prebble, made a post on its ModDb page announcing that he and a “friend” had been working on a standalone version of Total Chaos, and that it would get released some time within a few years. And sure enough, last December, publisher Apogee Entertainment put out an announcement video on Youtube confirming the game would be out in 2025.

On the Steam release announcement for the game, there are some rather large claims to fame. Although it’s not the first time this has been in Total Chaos’ marketing, it’s boasted that the game was “…rebuilt from the ground up by the visual effects talent behind Avatar, The Hobbit, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” And none other than Sam Prebble is himself a part of the “talent” the post speaks of. Looking at his IMDB page, he’s listed on all of those movies as working in a VFX position with WETA digital. This will also be the second full game released by both Prebble and his studio, Trigger Happy Interactive, which found great success with boomer shooter Turbo Overkill. Not to mention the other talent he’s attracted to the project; like for example, the renowned composer of Silent Hill, Akira Yamaoka, who has contributed to the soundtrack.

Additionally, Apogee‘s acumen shouldn’t be understated. The studio played a pivotal role in getting an impressive list of what were then considered indie games off the ground at the turn of the century, including but not limited to Doom, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, and Max Payne. And Infogrames, an offshoot of Atari and co-publisher of Total Chaos, is also not a small deal, and pride themselves on publishing games that revitalize older classics, like the recent remake of System Shock, and Missile Command Delta. Both of these publishers picking up this game is a glowing compliment to the developing chops of Sam Prebble, as they both consider themselves seekers of innovative, outside of the box games. Such is the wonder of the current gaming industry; that a mod for Doom can eventually evolve into a game getting announced at an Xbox event.