Doom

"A true testament to what the Jaguar was capable of"

I am a Doom veteran. I have been playing Doom since it came out for the PC quite a while ago. It was one of the original first person shooters and it was my first first person shooter. The game had huge success and, as such, was ported to a number of home video game consoles, including the Atari Jaguar. This is only the third port of the game I have played (the Sega 32X version and the Gameboy Advanced version being the other two) and as such the following review will be in comparison to those two versions (mainly the 32X version) as well as the original PC game.

Game Play
Being one of the earliest first person shooter games ever, and probably the first good one, Doom puts you on futuristic Mars. On the red planet everyone disappears but you and in order to escape the planet you must go through hell killing soldiers who have been turned into minions of hell as well as some other crazy enemies with a wide array of weapons available to you. The levels are like mazes, you have to get from the beginning to the end. Along the way there are traps as well as some excellent, well hidden secrets. The levels and enemies get harder as the game goes along, which is something that should be expected. What can be finer than shooting a gigantic eye ball with the BFG (if you don't know what the BFG is then you weren't alive when Doom first came out).
There is also a co-op version that is new to the Jaguar. It requires multiple Jaguars to be networked together and since I do not know another person with a Jaguar, I have not tried it. Also, there is a death match mode that takes advantage of the Jag Link as well. I have heard that these modes are fun, but I have not tried them my self. Just the fact that the game has these options available to it gives it a perfect score.

Score 10

Graphics
The graphics of the Jaguar version are awesome. Unlike the 32X version where there was a border around the screen because the system couldn't handle full screen resolution, the Jaguar version takes up the whole screen. The lighting is much better as well. It is bright, but not so bright that the eeriness is gone. Also, the enemies are complete. Unlike other ports of the time where only the front of the enemies were actually existent in the game, the Jag version has all 360 degrees of the enemies drawn. The enemies are also easy to see from far away and easy to discern. The levels are drawn very well, especially at the high speed that you can move in the Jaguar version. One little thing that bothers me is that when you pick up an item, you do not see the prompt. What I mean is, when you get a clip, the "You picked up a clip" does not appear on the screen. Same thing happens with the weapons, health and armor too. Overall though, the graphics are on par with that of the original PC version.

Score 10

Sounds
Usually I call this category "sounds and music" but in the Jaguar version, there is no music (at least in game anyway, the title screen and in between levels do have some music). Even though there wasn't very pronounced music in the PC version, there was music. The Jaguar version has no in game music. I do feel as if this is a draw back, but if something had to go to make the rest of the game awesome, I'm glad it was the music. The sounds are, however, pretty awesome. Loud gunshots from yourself and from the enemies. The exploding barrels sound good, and even the sound from picking up items is there. It would be unfair to give the game a low score for music because there is no music. However, there should have been something there in the background other than the growling of monsters.

Score 7

Control
The Jaguar version of Doom has a feature that I have not seen in any other port of the game, the run function. With the run function it is actually possible to beat each level under what the game calls "par" (even though the time is not kept in the Jaguar version). Firing and opening doors is easy as well. Walking side ways is a little bit of trouble because you have to take your finger off of the fire trigger to do so, but it isn't too bad. Changing weapons is very easy thanks to the Jaguar's number pad. You just press the number of the gun, just like in the PC version. This is much better than having to cycle through weapons like other versions of the game. The directional pad does cause a little bit of trouble. While it is responsive, I feel as if it should be a little bit more responsive. It isn't bad, it just takes some time to get used to it. One thing I love about Doom though is that you don't have to aim your gun at all. Same hold true in the Jaguar version.

Score 9

Overall, Doom is simply one of the best games ever. Gamepro magazine recently said it was the 6th best video game franchise of all time. While it may have been the PC version that made it famous, it was ports to systems like the Jaguar that keeps Doom alive today.

Pros
1. It's Doom
2. Excellent graphics for a console

Cons
1. No in game music is disappointing

Overall Score 9.0

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/05