Doom

"Doomed."

Doom is the unbelievably overrated follow-up to another unbelievably overrated game, Wolfenstein 3D, Wolfestein was the first one in its kind, that was why it became a cult classic, it introduced a new way of playing using a first person view, aside from that it was a pretty mediocre game, but well, it was original, and deserves credit for that. But that is not the case of Doom.

There is one main reason why Doom is a doomed game right from the beginning, the monotony. All, and I mean ALL the stages look exactly the same, it is like a joke, if in the first level there is a long corridor that ends up turning to the left, in the second stage we will see the same corridor with the “big” difference that this time at the end it turns to right instead of the left. I repeat it is like a joke, and guess what you will find at the beginning of level 3?. It is amazing, and all the levels have the same designs, the same colors, the same textures, the same everything.

And if all that weren’t enough, in each stage everything consists on finding stupid keys to open looked doors, like if having to play in the same scenarios one hundred of times weren’t enough. In each one we have to do the same thing all over again one time and another, BORING, and that not to mention that this game is hard as hell, the enemies come is enormous groups and are extremely aggressive and powerful, then add the lack of ammo and health kits and the result is an extreme sensation of frustration.

The weapons are another terrible feature, they are completely useless, aside from the shot gun, the rocket launcher, and sometimes the pistol, the rest of them are a complete waste of time, because they will run out of bullets in no time. It is safer to spit at the enemy faces rather than trying to kill them with that BGM super mega big cannon or whatever it is. The weapons suck.

I read that there is a plot an everything (I say I read because in the game you are not told anything), about an intergalactic station in Phobos were suddenly everything gets messed up because of some aliens that like to impale soldiers like roosted chickens, then I don’t know who sends a bunch of soldier to investigate, those soldiers get horribly mutilated and it seems that the only survivors was you.

The visuals are quite good, the enemy sprites are very pixilated, but they look good, and their designs are very good I have to admit, and the way they explode scattering their limbs and guts all over the place is pretty well done considering the age of this game.

The music is good because while a bit crappy, it is creepy, and that helps to make the game a little bit more frightening and for that reason a little bit more enjoyable.

I don’t want to forget about the ending, Doom (as well as the infamous Doom II) could easily win the “most insulting ending imaginable contest”, the ending is supposed to be some kind of reward for beating the game right?, and even more if it such a tedious game, but NO hell NO, if there are worst endings out there, I have yet to see one.

Conclusion:
Extremely overrated, and yes, I used to play back when the game was released, so I am not bashing it because I find it worst than the new generation first person shooters. With all, I am a bit ashamed to admit but, I remember having some fun while playing, that is why I can’t rate it lower, at the beginning, if you have never played a first person shooter before (and that was what happened to me, Doom was my first game in the genre) the game is interesting, I have probably spent more or less five or six hours playing, I can’t say I enjoyed that time at all, but the point is that the game kept me playing more than the average mediocre game, because that is what I think Doom is, a mediocre game. But well, it is also true that it is by far the best one among all the first generation of first person shooters like Blood, Heretic or Hexen.

”My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry about that.”

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/25/04