Confusion - Boredom - Guilt - Rate - Comment - Repeat (Doom (PS))

Name: Peakly

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Product:	Doom (PS)
Date:	07/07/01 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gameplay, Atmosphere, Imagination

Disadvantages: Graphics

Close your eyes. Go on, close them. Now.


You didn’t did you. Why? Because you think I’ll never know? Because you’re above such childish behaviour? Because you want to read the opinion? Fine. Just don’t blame me when, despite my more then adequate description, the decaying shreds of your imagination fail you and my latest quirky introduction is again wasted. I’ve never reviewed a computer game before, so I’m relying on the pre-information inventive bit to win you over. Indulge me.

Ok so you’re a solider, um, many years into the future. Obviously, the concepts of space-travel, hand-held nuclear weaponry and grotesque mutation are all every day realities and common occurrences in your still-as-small world. As a solider, your task of protecting the Earth (or America) frequently puts you in great danger, as well as giving you the excuse to kill lots of nasty things with big guns.

One day, while carefully polishing your space boots and sucking thoughtfully on a hologramatic cigarette, a tinkling in your spinal implant lets you know one thing – it’s time for war. In an instant you’re boarded on a space-ship, packed like a bean-fish (typing error or a prophecy about genetic modification? You decide) beside a thousand other sweaty men and shot into the sky.

Arriving on one of Earth’s space stations, you and your fellow men are slowly lead out of your ships to investigate the strange noises coming from inside. Walking slowly at the very back, you’re wondering while everyone in front of you seems to be screaming, and how come bloody limps keep hitting you in the face (and staining your best vest with puss). Then you realise. Thanks to some kind of nuclear accident/evil doctor/ancient curse/coming of Satan, the place is invested with some of the most truly vile, low-pixel space mutants you have ever seen.

Everyone else has been eaten.
Men you’ve fought beside. Men you’ve shared drinks and reminisced about your girl back home with. Men who have saved your life. Men, who have seen you naked, all dead. So what are your options? Do you cry? Do you run? Call for help? Or do you pick up one of the conveniently well-placed shot-guns and get your revenge? After a moments consideration, you decide on which. With angry tears washing the blood slowly from cheeks, you take your copy of Doom to the counter and purchase it. No need for a bag thanks, ta. Slam, click-click, cough, vroooom….


Obviously, that isn’t (italics) exactly (end italics) how the Doom story goes. I’m allowed to make it up a bit for two reasons, firstly - it’s my opinion and I’ll do what I like, and secondly – Doom doesn’t have much of a story anyway (potential nerd discussion point #1). Some games are just fun, that’s all. No need for a trying-so-hard-not-to-be-clichéd storylines (Tomb Raider), no need for embarrassing characters voices (Resident Evil), and certainly no need for complex and engaging plots, complete with twists, turns and historical insight (Final Fantasy). Just plain, sadistic killing. Blood, guts, brain, puss – all that good stuff. Doom’s also extra special, because it was pretty much the first computer game ever to truly exploit and cash-in on mans nature desire to kill (potential nerd discussion point #2). Yes, there was Space Invaders (which involved ‘killing’ falling blocks), and yes apparently Quake was conceived before Doom anyway (#3), but all in all Doom is the grandfather of shameless computer-generated kill-fests. So there. Final Doom (Doom’s sequel), or the Playstation version at least, is really quite similar to the original, so you’ve no need to worry about that. It was invented to satisfy the gaming worlds craving for ‘more of the same’, and to fill the void before t
he arrival of Quake – the game that the new generation will grow to admire as we/I do Doom.


So, what’s it like then? (aren’t fictitious questions an excellent way to disguise your inability to write with a natural flow??). First thing I should mention, I suppose, is that the game graphics no longer look like a technical achievement (in this respect, the computer game industry in unusual compared to other areas of entertainment – while films, from a technical stand-point, generally need to be decades apart to be clearly distinguishable, computers games can change dramatically over a very short period of time. Considering games themselves have a history running little over ten years long, the difference in appearance between say ‘Pong’ (the first) and the latest Playstation II and PC games is quite remarkable). Doom, though unbelievable (as in good) during its day (weren’t they all?), now seems relatively low-spec and pathetic. The low frame-rate and grainy pixels make things look almost ancient, even though the game was released only five or so years ago. The lighting and shadow effects that we have now come to expect from games, were merely pipe-dreams in the days of Doom, which, although strictly 3-D, looks very flat and poorly curved.

However, as anyone with a pinch of persistency will know, graphics are of minor importance to how good or bad a game is - I give you Lemmings, Micro-Machines, Space Invaders and Tetris (not literally, of course, although I do have a mate that knocks them off for two pound a go on his computer, if you’re interested). Although Doom looks a little grainy and flat these days, it seems time has done little to spoil the atmosphere that originally made the game so great. In fact, playing Doom today, I still feel as absorbed and involved as I ever did. Perhaps it’s the delightfully spooky in-game music, perhaps it’s the level structuring that still
beats any other game in the genre today for imagination and surprise, but somehow playing with the light off is still enough to have you biting your nails (‘light off’….’biting your nails’… did I really type those most hideous of game review clichés?! I might as well be working for a magazine for Pete’s sake, drinking coffee and dealing with a lost passion for my writing and my life)

The game is classed as a ‘shoot ‘em up’ (by me anyway), and plays from a first person-perspective view-point. The idea is to work your way through a series of similar looking levels, based in increasingly gloomy landscape, collecting keys and reaching the exit without dieing. Far from being brainless, however, Doom challenges other skills then your firing accuracy. Navigating the levels require patience, considered thinking and strength of memory - often killing all of the levels evil creatures is the easy part. Also, as an added incentive to fully explore each level rather then blasting your way quickly to the end, each environment is littered with secret compartments and hidden rooms. A more determined player will try to explore and un-cover as much as the level as they possibly can, so that at the end, when you’re told how well you did, the ‘secrets’ counter will be as 100% - meaning you successfully sought out all there was to offer. Killing the variety of evil monsters is made easy by the choice of eight different weapons (providing you manage to find them all), which range from your bare-fist (ok nine then), all the way to the aptly named ‘BFG’ (guess) – a wide-ranged plasma gun.


What makes Doom the best game ever is how fun it is. Obvious, really. Anyone, no matter how experienced in computer-games, will find Doom an instantly playable and instantly rewarding game. No great thinking required (unless you try for all the secrets, but then that’s a
choice), just blast away and have fun. Despite having aged poorly in many respects, Doom is still an incredibly atmospheric and engaging slice of computer entertainment (…“slice of computer entertainment”!? I make myself sick, NU me, please). Longativity (?) is ensured, as Doom features around 50 levels, and gets bloody (both) hard towards the end (even if you set the hardness at ‘I’m A Wimp’ before you begin). Even though each level looks fairly similar, the creators never give you an opportunity to doubt their creativity and imagination. Each level is a work of individual structural genius, never ceasing to impress. Every environment slowly unfolds through your map, and the whole picture is often as impressive as the smaller details – such as the tactical positioning of switches in relation to the doors they open, and unexpected attacks from hidden enemies. With over fifty levels, each as over-flowing with imagination as the next, it’s easy to appreciate the amount of time and effort the creators have spent on carefully crafting the game.

Another area where Doom triumphs is in its multi-player mode. Although it lacks a split-screen function, a little effort and organization on your behalf (and the purchase of a link-up cable) should mean that you and a friend (or team of friends) are able to fight against each other using two separate television screens. Even if placed opposite in the same room, link-up Doom (combined with drug taking and light prostitution) can be the source of mucho funo for all. Either run around trying to kill each other, or simple help each other through a harder version of the single-player game. Call me old-fashioned (look, there’s an easy comment for you to leave), but the inconvenience that is link-up is much preferred to a dodgy split-screen game with removes all element of surprise and tension.

Um, just to complete the rounds – sound effects and mu
sic wise Doom is also still pretty good. The snarls and grunts of distant mutants are still enough to worry you, and the discreet music is actually rather superb in creating the required uncomfortable atmosphere.

Right, I’d better stop. This is the final paragraph, so I presume you’ve stopped skipping bits by now. Are you a consumer, trying to decide whether or not to buy the game? Or are you a member of Dooyoo, egar to do the necessary and hopefully improve your reads? Either way, I’m sure you’re about to reward me for writing enough things for you to not really read or even care about. Personally, I quite liked my opening, but that middle bit there was really boring. Take my word for it. Getting back to the game for a moment, Doom will always have a special part in my heart, and shelf! (sigh), and I strongly recommend you give it a go. Though graphically poor, it is still unmatched in terms of atmosphere, imagination and good, plain fun. The world needs fun, the world needs simulating killing, the world needs Doom. Cya next time.

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