Doom

"Possibly the best version of Ultimate Doom out there"

It's hard to believe it, but the original Doom has seen action on the PC, the SNES, the 32X, the 3DO, the Atari Jaguar, the Playstation, the Saturn, the Xbox (in the form of a bonus disc with Doom 3), the Gameboy Advance, and even on cell phones. That means Doom has been on the majority of systems since the 16-bit era, with only the Nintendo 64 (which, consequently, got its own Doom anyway) unable to play the game (Gamecube has the GBA player and the PS2 is backwards-compatible). With that absolutely crazy realization out of the way, it comes as absolutely no surprise that Doom is back. Again. This time, however, Doom isn't satisfied with merely being a port. Oh no, it's time to bring back what made Doom so great in the first place: online deathmatch! Over Xbox Live, the deal is sweetened even more. And, besides, can you really go wrong with a perfect emulation of Ultimate Doom, complete with online multiplayer and co-op for ten bucks? John Carmack laughs at anyone who says "no". That's not to say everything's flawless in Doom-land; the game lack Doom 2, which even the Playstation version contained. It also doesn't support widescreen and has no filtering (not that it would've made much of a difference with the Build Engine). It does support dual-analog, which has a larger impact on the game's controls than you'd think. For the first time, on a console, the fluidity of Doom can be achieved. You can now strafe the Cyber Demon in all his glory as he fires those missiles fruitlessly.

Graphics

Well, it's Doom. We're talking about a game that technically predates 3D; the Build Engine was designed to simulate 3D architecture by very impressive scaling trickery, and even now it's very hard to tell that the game isn't actually polygonal. That said, Doom looks pretty nasty by today's standards and the Xbox 360 does little to clean up the mess. Sure, it runs in high-definition, and the framerate is as smooth as it ever was on PC, but it's still a pixellated, garbled mess. But hey, we all knew that.

There's something pure and glorious about Doom's 2D sprites, and the 360 does nothing to mar that purity. In a way, it's nice to see Doom in its most natural form.

Sound

Doom has awesome music. Heck, it even spawned an internet fad. Certain versions of Doom (notably the 32x version) literally butchered the soundtrack beyond all recognition. Not to worry, as Doom 360 sounds fantastic and maintains the great soundtrack from the PC version. Of course, no Doom game will ever match the awesome bass of the SNES version, but then again the SNES version was nearly unplayable.

Enemy death screams are as wonderful as ever. I still can't figure out how the imps make those weird gurgle noises.

Gameplay

Again, it's Doom. It's the first-person shooter that launched a thousand clones. Oh, sure, you could make the argument that Wolfenstein was the catalyst, but at the end of the day it was Doom that really got things rolling. And for good reason. Doom has simple, intuitive gameplay that is neither complicated nor easy. You're placed in a level filled with demons, and there are at most three different keys in the level, which unlock their corresponding doors. There's an exit somewhere in the level, and reaching the exit takes you to the next level. Along the way, there's plenty of side-areas in levels, as well as secret areas to explore. It's a solid mix of linearity and non-linearity that begs for replay.

On the Xbox 360, Doom features dual-analog controls, which do a lot to improve the game's accessibility on a console. The game's faster and more precise than ever. Added to that is the entertaining (though admittedly quite old-school) online deathmatch mode, as well as the cool online co-op mode. Doom has it all. And it's Ultimate Doom, too, so you get an extra set of levels to boot.

Overall

Doom's a great game and always has been. It's been ported to more systems than anyone wants to admit, but to be honest this is probably the best (and most affordable) Doom since the original PC version. Xbox Live Arcade users would be wise to pick this one up.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/08

Game Release: Doom (US, 09/27/06)