"Guess it's NEVER Too Late for DOOM"

Within a cyberbreath of DOOM comes DOOM II : Hell on Earth. What a sweet title. And now, it's out for Mac. Aren't you all happy?

Doom II didn't sell all that well for Macintosh. I wonder why? Perhaps because it was a year and a half late? Maybe because we have better shoot em ups out on the market? Well, ID Software probably figured we Mac users simply didn't have a taste for 1st Person shooter games... hmmm.

Well, this isn't an editorial. It's a review.

If you played Doom 1, you know what to expect here. Really, it's the exact same thing. In fact, it's kinda pathetic. Doom 2 runs off the exact same engine as Doom 1. They've thrown in a couple much needed enemies and politely provided us with a few other additions, but the truth is, this should be "Doom Extreme" or something, not Doom 2.

You are a space marine, the seemingly typical hero of most 1st person shoot em ups these days. A portal to hell has opened on Earth, and its your job to close it, and destroy all the demons that came out of it. Geez, just you alone, huh? Well, they could have given you allies, except then the game wouldn't be Doom. Anyhow, the gameplay mainly premises of you searching for an exit while shooting things. That's it. Just find the exit and keep going. Nope, there's NOT much too it, but that's the core of 1st person shooters.

On your team, you have a basic 1st person shooter arsenal, comprised of a handgun, a shotgun, a super shotgun, a chaingun, Rockets, a BFG (don't ask) and a chainsaw. Why a chainsaw? Why not? It does the melee job quite effectively, and it doesn't need extra gasoline. Also, there's plenty of health to pick up on the way, as well as armor to help protect you and biosuits to protect you from "icky slime."

On their side? Demons, Imps, Zombies, CyberDemons, Giant Floating Eyes, big fat things with lots of guns, icky spider things, and a big huge wall that apparantly keeps reproducing the demons.. that would be your last boss. It ain't alot, but is a bit more than the original DOOM.. which is good.

The game doesn't have a whole lot of depth. Unlike the original, which was split up into several episodes, DOOM II is just one long episode with over twenty levels. There's a bit more variety to the levels than the predecessor had, including some outdoor levels with nice looking skyscapes. Also worth mentioning are the secret levels -- rehashes of Wolfenstein 3D in the DOOM world. Those are actually quite entertaining.. I'd go so far as to say more entertaining than the main levels of the game. However, there is a last boss battle, which gives the game a kind of sense of completion the original didn't quite have.

The graphics, once impressive, are now kinda outdated. Marathon 2 has this stuff beat easy. The textures are grainy, especially when observed close up, and the enemies are choppily animated and are also very low-rez. The environments are always dark and uninviting, with little to offer in the way of variety.. although, those outdoor levels are all right. The levels don't throw much in your way besides more and tougher enemies.. if you're looking for clever first person puzzles like you found in Marathon, you'll have to look elsewhere. Collecting keys and flicking switches is about as convuluted as you can expect from DOOM.

The sounds are good but the library of sounds is small. You might get sick of the same demon groans, the same gunshots, the same squishy squeels. However, the gunshots are convincing, and watching your marine reload his shotgun with the appropriate sound adds something that makes you want to keep playing.

The music is hilarious. Worse than the original. The MIDI compositions for DOOM II are a sad bunch -- many of them sound more like lobby tunes or elevator muzak than the kind of music you'd expect for a button-mashing, heart pounding game such as Doom is supposed to be.

DOOM II is probably the purist experience in 1st person shooters that you can find.. and that isn't everybody's bag of tea. If you MUST play DOOM, get DOOM II or FINAL DOOM. If you just want a nice 1st person shooter for your old Mac, there's better pickings... might I suggest Marathon? Or, if your computer has a little more kick, Dark Forces or Marathon 2? This game is too little too late, not even sprinkled with the mac improvements that graced Wolfenstein. Don't bother with DOOM II unless you need it. Period.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99