"A surprisingly good port of the PC classic."

After the success of PC Doom in 1993 a range of home console ports were announced. Whilst the standard 16-bit Genesis wasn't capable of a decent port, the 32X offered a lot more power and so Doom 32X was made. Doom is a first person shooter which pretty much started off the first person shooter genre. You play as a marine investigating a base on Mars which has ceased communications. When you get there you find that hell has quite literally taken over the base with all kinds of monsters and demons running around. It's down to you to obliterate as many creatures as possible whilst escaping alive.

PC fans will be pleased to know that this version of Doom is fairly good. Whilst not running quite as smoothly it still has a very good frame rate and all the guns, monsters and items are still in the game. The biggest difference is that the game window is smaller (with no option to change it) but it's still large enough ot fully see what's going on. The other downside is that there are less levels than before with a few being cut out due to memory issues, but most of the classic levels are still in the game.

However if you haven't played Doom before it's about running around different levels shooting monsters and finding your way out. The early levels are very easy but as you progress the maps become more complicated and hazardous, with things such as lava and toxic slime to look out for. You'll also have to find a number of differently coloured key in some levels to progress anywhere. It gets more difficult when you run into teleporters which transport you to different areas of a level. The further you get in Doom the more monsters you get to see and fight and the more weapons you get to use.

Doom wouldn't be Doom without guns and every weapon from the PC version is in. Classics like the shotgun and mini-gun can be gotten fairly early in the game but it takes a while to get the more powerful weapons like the plasma rifle and rocket launcher. Almost every weapon requires ammunition and it's best to think which is the best weapon to use before entering a room -running around guns blazing is not a good idea when playing Doom as you'll find you'll die pretty quickly.

As stated there are a lot less levels in this version of Doom, with seventeen in total, making it quite small compared to the PC version which had twenty seven levels. PC fans will probably dislike this version due to how short it is. SEGA have put all of the best and most memorable levels in 32X Doom, but it still could have done with a few extra levels. If you haven't ever played Doom before then this isn't much of a problem.

Doom was always best played over the network in the multi player death match mode, but there are no multi player options to speak of here. This is unfortunate as Doom was made for multi player, but understandable as the 32X wouldn't have had the power to offer a split screen 2 player option without something having to give, such as the graphics or the frame rate. Still, after you finish this Doom there isn't really much reason to play through it again unless you are desperate to search through every level to find anything you missed the first time.

In terms of graphics, at first glance this port looks just as good as the PC version, but after a while you can soon see the cuts -monsters no longer have turning animations (so they cannot fight each other) for example. This Doom was rushed out by SEGA anyway, sadly, so it isn't as good as it could have been. For those of you interested, this version isn't censored like the SNES Doom so all the blood and gore is still in there. The music and sound effects are lifted directly from the PC so you get the mostly simplistic but effective MIDI tunes and the generic monster yells and weapon shots.

Although it isn't as good as it could have been, 32X Doom is still an enjoyable port. PC Doom fans should ignore this, but anyone who wants a decent port of Doom should try 32X Doom.

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/05