Doom

"Even the grimmest hardware limitations haven't been able to overshadow what makes Doom great: pure action gameplay."

This is a very difficult review for me to write. It would be so easy to fall into the same trap as many others, giving the game a totally unfair comparison to the PC original and the other higher-end counterparts, and equally as easy to give into my nostalgic feelings toward and love for this game, ignoring it’s obvious faults.

With this in mind, I reach into my memory, back into the days when I didn’t have a PC, and into my moderately large Tupperware box of SNES cartridges. Doom is easy to find; the cartridge is red…

But all gimmicks aside, Doom running at all on the SNES is a noteworthy technical achievement. It proves that our little gray and purple box is capable of quite a bit. But what is lost for the sake of this technical achievement? Can the gameplay possibly withstand the beating a relatively primitive piece of hardware will give to something like Doom's engine? Even though I have a history with SNES Doom full of fond memories, I think I can answer this question with an unbiased 'yes'.

THE GREAT EQUALIZER

At the end of the day, gameplay is what it's all about. Graphics don't mean anything without fun. Even the most mediocre controls can be overlooked by the hardcore if a game is really involving. So is Doom fun? If you don't know the answer to this question, you are a seriously deprived gamer.

Doom's theme and mood (what the action is based in) set it apart from similar games. In Doom, you play a space marine alone on a deserted moon. Something, though you're not yet sure what, has invaded. You'll have to find out the hard way, fighting your way through swarms of monsters while navigating puzzling instillations alive with computer monitors and keycards, laboratories filled with radioactive ooze and infested with demons, and fiery madhouses inspired by the pits of Hell. The atmosphere is unmatched and timeless. Doom is populated by many seriously scary monsters, and the world itself is dark and foreboding. Toward the end of the game, walls made of human flesh and skulls slowly start to replace the man-made themes, which can really mess with your head if you're a first-timer to Doom.

Apart from the enemies, the landscape itself is can present a challenge. A red key opens a red security door. A switch lowers a timed elevator in the distance, beckoning to you to find it before it raises back up, hiding its secrets. Discolored walls yield to reveal hidden rooms full of tricks and treats. It's simple by today's standards, but that's not the point...

In the grand tradition of twitch action, Doom focuses on two things: defeating the enemy and surviving. It simply has what I believe to be the best balance of gameplay elements in any pure action game to this day. Finding out what weapon does the best job in what situation, coming to understand how to tackle each enemy, and creating a strategy to come out alive from combat against the hoards of droning demons is what Doom is all about. While puzzles and keys and a really cool atmosphere distract you, the core of Doom is about combat strategy. Simplistic it may be, but it survives today as a genius formula.

GAMEPLAY: 10
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IS THAT A SHOTGUN IN YOUR POCKET, OR... UM, IS THAT EVEN A POCKET?

Admittedly, Doom's cosmetics aren't exactly flattered in this downgrade. From the farthest visible distances, the sprites look like something that crawled out of an Atari 2600, and if you get too close... well, then they look like something REALLY BIG crawled out of an Atari 2600 and expanded itself 500% in MSPaint. And the little SuperFX2 chip that could still can't push the textured walls at any more than about 10 frames per second. Sometimes, when there were a few too many sprites on the screen, the player's weapon would even start skipping frames. Anyone who had spent more than a few minutes with an x86 PC and Doom would have probably been insulted by the way this game moves.

But the SNES isn't a x86 PC, and many or most of the people who purchased SNES Doom did so because they didn't have access to a better Doom. To those people, Doom's visuals were quite a treat. They didn't know any better. Star Fox had been in 3D, but a first person shooter was something completely different (and a first, if you ignore the more cartoon-ish Wolfenstien 3D and *ha ha* Wisdom Tree's Noah's Arc game). You move, and the entire display moves. It was something new to SNES gamers, and was to me a novel concept that thrilled me to no end. I didn't know how smooth the original Doom had ran; I had not been spoiled, so I was able to focus on what really makes Doom look cool: the dark and claustrophobic corridors, the realistic textures, and the dynamic lighting system.

You control your character in Doom from his point of view, staring paranoidly (you provide the paranoia) down the barrel of all manner of guns. Thus, the environment is 3D. Stairs can lead up to a high lookout point or down into an underground tunnel. You can look out a window and see enemies, then duck behind it again and decide whether to snipe or jump down. Doom also features an advanced lighting system. Outdoor areas are fully lit, providing a fair ground for firefights, while things can get almost pitch black once you get away from a light source, giving the ungodly hoards the advantage. Lights flicker, pulse, and flash, and even react to you. All the objects in Doom's world are 2D sprites, and in SNES Doom they only have a front side, meaning that the enemies are always facing you. This doesn't really detract much from the realism, though, because the atmosphere presented will suck you in before you have a chance to worry about it. But, as stated before, all this high-tech mumbo-jumbo comes with a price, and the framerate is what really suffers. However, as I'll go into momentarily, this is something that can be gotten used to.

So, given a fair comparison to other SNES games of the time, Doom's graphics are flawed, but massively innovative and just plain cool. Nothing even similar was ever attempted on the SNES. There are several ways to look at the graphics here, but to for an SNES game they aren't really that bad. I personally would trade much for just 2 or 3 more frames per second, but I have to say that all in all, SNES Doom does the best that it could to make every aspect of the graphics equally... um, lacking.

GRAPHICS: 8
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OF BANG, ROOOOAAAAR, SWSSSHH, AND AAAAARGH!

Here's where developer Williams had no excuses - the audio. The SNES sound architecture is an unfaltering marvel, capable of producing brilliant sound in the right hands. Suffice to say it can do most of what the average PC of Doom's day did. And Doom comes through here as well... sort of.

Doom's sound effects are crucial to its mood. Hearing an unseen enemy hiss from around a corner can send chills up your spine. The sound of your heavy arsenal getting back at those annoying imps is wordlessly satisfying. Sliding electric doors, screams of pain, exploding barrels, and even the whirr of a teleportation pad make this sci-fi movie gone bad dream all the more believable. Because of the aforementioned frame synchronization problem, sometimes the audio sounds out of sync as well, but this is usually only for the player's weapon's sounds. This is another sacrifice made to keep the engine running consistently. The only sound that really stands out as offensive is the chainsaw. It's just awful. Shame on whoever let that pass as a chainsaw.

Doom's original music returns here in all its glory. Action packed levels boast fast, upbeat rock music, while some of the darker areas present you with more haunting melodies. Doom's music is always catchy, and usually pretty effective too. The midi style of musical voices is not bad either, but it seems like it could have been done a bit better. And all of this is hard to say because of one more glaring flaw: the onscreen action and sound effects always take precedence over the music, often causing certain tracks in the songs to disappear momentarily. This can be remedied by simply turning off the music (not a bad option at all), but it's one more scratch given to a game that was squeezed through a hole it was probably never meant to pass through.

SOUND: 6
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A CHALLENGE WITHIN A CHALLENGE

SNES Doom's control is clunky compared to other ports of Doom and other SNES games. I won't even bother to try to think of a way around that statement. It seems to be unalterably tied to the jerky framerate. There is a considerable lag in the controller response time. You push a button and a split second later something happens. It takes much patience and an open mind to even think about really mastering these controls, but it's not impossible. Once you get used to it, it's sort of like Oddworld or Prince of Persia. You have to anticipate pressing a button and then press it a split second ahead of the action on the screen. ''Oh, great!'', I hear you scoff. ''He starts off saying he's going to be unbiased, and then tries to make the game's biggest flaw seem intentional!?'' Not exactly. I mean that for anyone who wants to go through the trouble, the controls are doable. The impatient or FPS-hardened will likely outright hate them, and they're by no means even ''good''. Let's just say that although you may like it or hate it, you probably won't love SNES Doom's control because of it's unresponsiveness.

Now, on to issue number two. The controls can't really be that responsive when the framerate is so hurting so - this I understand. But the designers left out one more detail that could have saved the day. You cannot strafe (side-step) and turn simultaneously. This single yet all-important control blooper keeps the game's controls from having much of a chance of competing with most of the other ports. This is, again, completely possible to get used to, but cannot be excused away so simply. If you could use any of the ambulation buttons together, I might be willing to forgive the poor struggling SNES, but as it stands, this self-imposed movement limitation will turn many off, and keep many more from really getting good at this version of Doom.

CONTROL: 6.5
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Doom is a classic by any definition of the word. It features fast and addictive action-based gameplay and as original and scary graphics as any designers ever dared to digitize. This port is marred by hardware limitations and some lack of insight, but even the grimmest circumstances haven't been able to change what made Doom great to begin with.

OVERALL: 9
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RUNDOWN:
GRAPHICS - 8
SOUND - 6
CONTROLS - 6.5
GAMEPLAY - 10
REPLAY VALUE - 8
OVERALL: 9

[ + ]
Advanced graphics for the SNES
Arguably the best action game ever (Doom, not SNES Doom in particular)
Very drawing atmosphere, especially for a first-timer
[ - ]
Clunky controls
The engine takes a toll on the framerate
Admittedly, most (other than collectors, connoisseurs, or those who have no choice) do prefer a different port

If you like this, try:
Any other version of Doom
Quake
Halo
Hexen

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/02, Updated 12/17/02