Doom

"A classic...with the classic problems"

Doom. The name alone carries a certain aura with first person shooter fans that has carried on for years. Beginning with the days of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom pits you in the middle of a war with demons on a back-world planet, one man...one weapon...a whole lot of problems. Even though Doom is the descendant of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom is the grandfather of all first person shooters on the market today, from Quake to Unreal Tournament.

-Visuals 6/10-

First person shooters mainly rely on the player's perspective of the world ahead of them. When you have that, you need to have a visual accuracy and detail that allows you to immerse yourself into the world that you're playing in. Unfortunately, Doom doesn't quite do that with grainy visuals, and half-decent effects to greet you. While the mood of the game is dark, the biggest help is the darkness helps with keeping the lack of detail hidden.

-Audio 6/10-

Tinny and synthesized music doesn't give you the Doom feel that the games of the PC do. Placing the player in a world that is dark, the music matches every stage, with decent highs and lows. Effects included grunting, growling and groaning with gunfire and explosions thrown in. Unfortunately, they all come out as a tinny mix of sounds that becomes annoying after twenty or thirty minutes.

-Control 6/10-

Hard to play and hard to control go hand in hand. Strafing with the shoulder buttons is easy after plenty of practice, but weapon switching in the heat of battle can be down right murderous. Moving around corners, up stairs, opening doors, and getting weapon accuracy down to a science can take some time. Veteran Doom players will have problems from the start with just the weapon switching and keeping the weapon firing in the spot they need it to.

-Gameplay 6/10-

Same Doom, same game. You're trapped on a planet of demons, where the only way off, is to kill everything. Think of Hell, and this is where you're at. Giving you several different demons to fight, ranging from the easy to the ridiculously hard, you'll find that if you're ganged up on, you'll find that getting killed is all too familiar, and you'll find the computer A.I. {even on easy} is rather cheap. Add in a few puzzles to the mix, and you're looking at a partially solid game.

One player only, there are secrets to find, but you're not unlocking anything important by finding them. Most of the game is about killing off enemies and finding keys, weapons and opening doors to be able to proceed. Unfortunately, once you've killed off all the monsters, you'll be wandering around looking for a door to get out, and the stages can be massively intense. Be aware....

-Overall 6/10-

Doom is a great game on the PC, but on the SNES, there isn't much of a game. Giving you the same game, but with grainy visuals, tinny audio, loose control and cheap, bordering on repetitive gameplay, you're looking at a game best played on the PC. One upside is that if you're lucky, you can collect the special edition red cartridge that was released along with the original version of the game. It doesn't offer anything new, but it does add variety to your SNES collection. Fans might want to pick this up, as well as any other game collector out there, otherwise...leave it alone. It's not worth the money.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/01, Updated 04/29/01