Knee Deep in the Dead (Doom (PC))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Doom (PC)
Date:	26/06/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hugely addictive, full of character, fantastic gameplay, immensely satisfying to play

Disadvantages: Graphics are inevitably dated, (but still retain their charm!)

Released on PC way back in the early 90s, 'Doom', the successor to the tremendously entertaining WW2 shooter 'Wolfenstein 3D', took the gaming world by storm. Following an invasion by the residents of Hell, mankind has been all but wiped out and it is up to you as the last marine left alive to fight your way through the demon-infested human colonies on Jupiter's moons Phobos and Deimos before plunging into Hell itself to repel the otherworldly menace.

The game's simple 3D engine does not allow for looking up or down, but this works to its advantage, allowing for a very pure gaming experience devoid of distractions in which you can concentrate wholly on strafing from side to side to avoid coming under fire whilst trying to deal with enemies coming at you from several directions at once. The enemies are all simply-animated sprites, which means that even back in the days of 486 processors dozens of them could be displayed onscreen at any one time, and it is this that is the key to Doom's success.

The enemies are all lovingly created, with each pixel carefully placed and each frame of animation painstakingly crafted, and are full of character. Your adversaries range from undead marines, fireball throwing imps, massive, slobbering dog-like monsters, and huge, cloven-hoofed goatlike beasts, as well as a towering, rocket-launcher wielding cyberdemon whose clanking gait resonates ominously, and the Spidermind; a giant brain-like monstrosity suppoted by huge metallic legs and sporting a chaingun.

The enemies are inactive until they spot you, whereupon they will rove about the level relentlessly in an effort to find and kill you, and whilst the levels may ultimately be linear find-the-red-key-to-open-the-red door affairs, the presence of literally hundreds of enemies all after you at once means that the levels play out differently each time, giving you wide scope to set up killing zones and fall back when neccessary. They will also attack each other, should they suffer friendly fire, and there is great fun to be had luring groups of enemies into each other's lines of fire and watching them wipe eachother out. The death animations are fantastic too, pulling no punches on the gore front, and it's hugely satisfying to take them down with your arsenal of weapons, which include a shotgun, chaingun, plamsa-rifle and even a chainsaw.

The game is hugely atmospheric, occupying that nightmarish space between science fiction and supernatural horror that the film 'Event Horizon' described so well, and dotted everywhere are pentagrams and demonic images, alongside tortured souls hanging from crosses and impaled on spikes. The music is fantastic too- like the gameplay and graphics it is basic but powerful, consisting entirely of MIDI music. Some tracks consist of ominous atmosperic ambience, whilst others are hugely addictive bombastic tunes with a heavy metal edge- including a number of tracks that are almost note for note conversions of Pantera songs!

Doom is a game that is as fun to play now as ever, relying as it does on solid nonlinear gameplay rather than flashy graphics and gimmicks, although that said, its graphics still exhude buckets of charm. Utterly addictive and deliciously dark, 'Doom' is an all time classic and, for my money, easily the best computer game of all time.

Oh, and the multiplayer mode is an absolute blast as well!

Summary: The best computer game of all time