Doom

"Gaming at its purest -shooting the !@#$ out of !@#$"

Anyone play the original Doom? Two of you eh? Not the seasoned bunch, you guys? Well to the two of you that have, this is pretty much that. Yep. The the rest of you feeble minded young gamers, this game is about shooting the !@#$ out of anything that walks, shooting anything, everything, and and everyone. That walks. And you shoot the unadulterated !@#$ out of them. The unrelenting, unforgiving, unadulterated !@#$ out them. And you will like it. Oh yes will you like it. If you don't like it, prepare to be shot the !@#$ out of. Or get the !@#$ shot out of you, rather. Either way, it will involve you, !@#$, and said !@#$ getting shot out of you. Read on, if you value your !@#$.

You go space aliens mean friends dead... FIGHT!

So what kind of brilliant story has iD (the game's creators) thought up for you to delve into and be intrigued by? Well start with a little inter-galactic space travel warp zone thinger, add in a dash of malfunctions, throw in some evil demons from Hell, and take some generic space soldiers off the rack, and what do you have? DOOM! No, this story isn't brilliant, no, no, no, it's GENIUS! Who else could've thought up evil Hell demons coming out of space?! Who would've thought every last soldier would be slaughtered, leaving only you to fight against all of Hell's minions?! Nobody, that's who! Because if anyone else did, they would most certainly get the !@#$ shot out of them.

What can I say, shootin' !@#$ is fun!

Well if you know Doom, you know there's two sides to its gameplay. The first, and of course the main draw, is shooting !@#$ up, put simply. I can't tell you how fun it is to blow the crap out of random demons using all of the cool guns. This is definitely the high point of the game, as is for most first person shooters, but what sets this game apart is just how simple it is to get into. Most shooters now days use lots of buttons, have lots of actions, different this, different that, almost drowning newbie players in assorted buttons and commands.

Not so with Doom, this game is truly the forefather of first person shooters, and it still holds up very well. Simple controls (L and R strafe, B opens doors, A shoots, d-pad moves) and no free look make this game extremely easy to get into and have some fun with, making it perfect for the Gameboy Advance's first FPS. The main reason this game can play well with so few buttons though is like I said before -not having free look (being able to move the crosshairs freely). This may sound like... well... !@#$, for people brought up on games like Half-Life and Deus Ex, but worry not, it works out great. It's hard to describe, maybe it's because you don't have to be as accurate, or maybe it's just because of the game being a corridor shooter without many elevated enemies, but one thing's for sure -@#%$ is easy to shoot.

The other part... not... shootin' !@#$

As politically incorrect as it sounds, this game's biggest flaw is when the shooting of !@#$ stops. Luckily, if you're focusing on the game (i.e. not watching TV), hardly any of the puzzles really get to the ''chuck GBA out the window'' level. This wouldn't be much of a flaw if say, there were stories transitioning things, but it's much much worse -you have to hunt for key cards half the time. I can't stress enough how excruciatingly, painfully boring and frustrating this gets. I mean c'mon, this game should be about loads and loads of !@#$ to shoot, NOT finding keys that are hidden in the most obscure of places! This is really the biggest flaw of the game, as it breaks the pace of the action and really brings the ''!@#$-blowed-up'' meter down.

Shooting !@#$ may sound primitive, but this cart is quite the technical marvel

Yes, another high point of this game is really how technically sound it is (I'm such a nerd... :P ). It's not surprising that this game has propelled its lead programmer -John Carmack- to the super-game-making-genius-overlord that he's now considered to be. The developers who ported Carmack's crown jewel to the GBA (David A. Palmer Productions) also deserve some serious credit. The Gameboy Advance is not and was never supposed to be a 3D machine, but DAPP has worked its wonders and somehow put out a great 3D game in Doom.

It's hard to really describe Doom, considering how many times I've played it on so many other systems. If you've played Doom though, you can expect the GBA version to look every bit as good as any other version you've played (well besides a few things that I'll point out later). The levels are very nice, the walls and floors all actually have their textures from the other versions, which is really surprising. The levels are also adorned with some very cool details such as lamps with animated flames and animated lava/acid. Another really impressive feature is how they were able to include the great lighting in the game that actually flickers and lights things up.

Now the downsides. This game is extremely low resolution. I mean the game was originally very low resolution anyway, but now days it really looks ugly. It gives things that jagged look that accompanied most 3D Saturn and Playstation games. The other downside is the animation. I mean I'll admit, I'm very surprised they packed all the animation that they did on to this cart, but there's still a good deal missing. Sure, it does make some enemies look rather funny, but I don't think that's what the game was going for originally :P

Arruuuuuuuuurrrrr!!!! Guaaaawwweeeeggg!!!

It's really surprising how good this game sounds. Even demons from Hell moaning out battle cries of death sound like butter on the GBA's little speakers. It's great how many voice samples are in this game, from your ''Guaah'' and ''Ooompph'' to a random demon's ''Uuuaaaahhhggg'' and ''Raaaaahhhcccttth'', it really makes blowing the !@#$ out of demons all the more fun.

The weapons also sound extremely nice. Some guns, like the shotgun or pulse rifle, are almost as fun to listen to as they are to shoot !@#$ with. Other guns like the hand gun and chain gun sound equally as cool, but probably the best sounding gun (gun?) is the chainsaw. Even when not in use, it's got that motorcycle-like sound, ever rumbling until it meets its next victim, when put to demon flesh sounds even better (coupled with the screams of said demon). Yes, I'm a sick bastard :)

The actual music however, doesn't fare as well as the sound effects. It sounds like it's trying to mimic the other versions of Doom in sound, but doesn't quite pull it off. Even distorted, the music still doesn't sound bad, just not on par with the sound effects. I must say though, the music sounds remarkably better on headphones.

So how long can shooting !@#$ last?!

Well it's no secret that games high on action rarely last too long, that said, how does Doom stack up for your longevity dollar? Surprisingly, not bad. There's nothing extra added not found in the other versions (there's actually 4 levels nixed for the GBA version), but what was already there is pretty lengthy. The game offers 25 levels (yep, 25 levels, all on this little cart) of action fun, and while yes, you can beat the game easily in a few days on the lowest difficulty, turn that sucker up and you'll be ripping your hair out in no time (that's funner than it sounds). Bottom line -if you loved Doom before, you'll love it now, and if you've never played Doom before (bah!), now is a great time to start!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/01, Updated 11/12/01