Doom

"A bad port of a good game; DOOM for the Sega Saturn is completely flawed by its poor framerate."

"A bad port of a good game; DOOM for the Sega Saturn is completely flawed by its poor framerate."

I was always a fan of first-person shooters myself, (such as Hexen, Quake, etc.) and decided to purchase DOOM when I found out it was available for the Sega Saturn. It seemed to me that it would be a great game with the Sega Saturn, however, I was completely wrong when I played this game for the first time and saw everything was wrong. This is a complete sluggish,slow port of a good game, NOT an enjoyable port.

Story - 5/10
Storyline, well.. I never was familiar with DOOM's storyline, but I guess its something real simple, like: You are the only human on some foreign planet (which I forget what the name of it is) and as a marine, you must destroy all un-human like creatures. Im not real complete on how the story goes. So I give it a 5.

Graphics - 4/10
Horrible for a 3D console. The Sega Saturn didn't completely have the best 3D graphics, but compared to some other games, it makes DOOM look like a hackjob of a graphical collection. The game is very dark, or at least it seems that way. There are glitches with the graphics too, and I don't even want to explain those. One thing I hate is that the enemies in the game just look completely drawn-in. Horrible graphics, that's all I have to say. A 4.

Gameplay - 3/10
Ever tried playing a game with a slow framerate? Well if you haven't, then don't play this game. If the graphics don't bother you, then the gameplay surely will. The only positive points are that you have Ultimate DOOM and DOOM II, which gives you about a little over 60 total levels. You also get four levels of difficulty, and they are actually completely balanced, which is really good (i.e. the easiest setting is a walk in the park, the normal setting is as normal as you would expect, and the hardest setting will make it a near impossible experience.) Those are only the positive points. No multiplayer, even though the back of the game cast strictly says big as day "2-Player Deathmatch," it is not present. Once you start the game, it will play very slow and jerky, even when there are no enemies on screen, it feels as though it is hard to even get through the room without any problems. But once not even one, but a few multiple enemies get on the screen and are even visible whether it is in the distance or up close and personal, the game slows down so quickly and the framerate is so horrible it is enough to make your life in this game a living hell. Abysmal gameplay, this gameplay receives a 3.

Control - 3/10
The control is not very good, I didn't spend much time on configuring it anyway. A 3.

Sound -3/10
The music in this game is inaudible, unless you turn the music volume up, then it gets really loud. But the sounds are kinda bad. Another 3.

Replayability- 1/10
If you are looking for a solid playable shooter for the Saturn, go with either Hexen, Quake, or PowerSlave. Other than that, DOOM is unplayable, not even at the least decent. I would suggest you play the PC version of DOOM, because the framerate is A WHOLE LOT BETTER!!

Story - 5/10
Graphics - 4/10
Gameplay - 3/10
Sound - 3/10
Control - 3/10
Replayability/lasting Appeal - 1/10

Overall Score - 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Doom (US, 03/31/97)