Doom

"Should've kept the same publisher..."

Doom, yes, the game that started the first-person shooter revolution on the PC and new systems to come, was complete with complex maze-like levels, large numbers of baddies, and even more amounts of weapons, also stocked with graphics that would make a nerd crap his pants, has come to the Game Boy Advance. Not published by the original publisher, David A. Palmer studios thought it was up to them to port this game to the new 32-bit handheld system that was released by Nintendo. The new Doom isn't as good and complex as the older Doom, but it still pleases.

First off, you're going to notice the hilariously bad title screen. It's probably going to give people quite a few shivers right off the bat, but people can handle it. After going through the menus and setting your game up, you get plunged into the depths of different planets, and, worst of all, Hell. Yes, that fiery place where the Devil himself hangs out, Hell. The gameplay is really quite smooth, when you think abou it. You only start off with your fists and a little handgun, meaning you're going to have to adapt to your surroundings very quickly. No need to panic, the enemies are quite easy throughout the game to defeat, regardless of what kind of enemy they are.

There are quite a few different types of guns in the game, you get the simple handgun, the Shotgun, the Chaingun, the Chain Saw, the Plasma Gun, and then, the BFG 9000, which just so happens to be the God of all guns ever made in the history of the universe. It just so happens that all the different guns, save the handgun and the BFG, can be used more effectively in different areas of the game. It's not like some shoot 'em up games where each gun gets better and better as the game progresses. I'm saying, as you move through the game you'll notice faster enemies, meaning the Chaingun would come into use at that time, but when you run into enemies that are slower than Hell, you can find the Shotgun and blow 'em away with that. This also makes the game quite deep, although the amount of enemies isn't exactly staggering, it's more embarassing, if you ask me. Throughout the game, there's a good 5-6 enemies, none of which will make you toss your game in frustration, as each can be destroyed quite easily with the BFG 9000. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the BFG isn't equipped with weaknesses, it's start-up time is hilarious, which can allow you to get destroyed before you can even fire the thing off. No need to worry, it's more devastating than one of Fat Bastard's farts.

The difficulty of the gameplay is quite easy, depending on which difficulty level you choose. The hardest difficulty level, I have to admit, is quite hard to beat, but it's nowhere near impossibility, with a few medi-kits and armor peices here and there, you should finish the game quite easily. But then there's the amount of levels that are thrown in the game; there's a grand total of 24 levels that are in the game, each of which are quite long, and maze-like making some of them hard to defeat when you think about it. But, after you run through the level(s) three or four times, your going to gradually start to memorize the level, and, before you know it, you've beaten it. There is but one secret level, which is quite easy to access, mind you. Other than those things, the game is quite easy, and quite difficult at times, all those depending on the gun in your hands, the level you're at, the difficulty you're on, and, of course, the amount of health left in your body.

The story of the game isn't exactly a beastly one that will get you deeply involved, in any way shape or form. Simply, Hell's demons have unleashed their wrath upon several different places. And it's up to you, a pissed of marine, to destroy them with all you got - simply, the story isn't supposed to be complex, and it isn't.

I think that graphics should be good

Well, after I think about it for a while, the graphics could've been a tad better. Although they were pretty good for a firstperson shooting game, I have to wonder how much time they actually spent on detailing the game. The title screen, however, has no similarities whatsoever to the game itself, seeing is if it did, my ass hair would look better than the game. Ok, now let's get to the graphics, here. When you start off, the game seems quite dark, and it's quite annoying, running into baddies occasionally, and not being able to see secret passages, guns, boxes, health, etc. But all those can be fixed with a quick changing of the 'Brightness' button, and that quickly clears up any doubts. And then there's the graphics that occur when you're moving around rooms, shooting baddies and stuff. Well, the graphics of the walls, and pretty much everything you see while you're moving, is quite blocky and lame, the backgrounds aren't exactly detailed in the game, especially the mountains and stuff in the background, when you're in a part of the level, where it happpens to be outside. When you look at the baddies, you'll notice they're just a bunch of different colored blocks when compared to the backgrounds, not only is this disgusting and embarrassing to look at, but they also look stupid. You can tell what they are when they're at the perfect distance, but it depends. From up close, they look horrid and like a waste of time, and from far away, they're just a simple blur. Altogether, I think the graphics in this game could've been a lot better, portable or not.

And then there's the various bleeps that you hear in the game. Also known as the 'Sound' The sounds obviously weren't supposed to be a big part of the game, seeing as you're only going to hear the occasional gunshot and the scream of a dead Hell creature. Each different gun makes somewhat of a different sound, and you can hear the footsteps of your fellow marine you're being. Besides from that, you can hear him grunt when you're trying to open something that's not possible to open. You can hear him breath loudly and randomly when he's stuck in any poisonous liquid/lava, trying to indicate that he doesn't like being in the current siutuation. And then there's the sounds when you pick up armor and health, just a little bleep to signify that. There's also music in the game. It's not all that bad, but it's not all that great either. Each level has varying music, but I've heard levels with the same music, so they didn't exactly spend large amounts of time perfecting this game, either. The music of the levels can drown out the other sounds at times, which can be quite frustrating, especially if you pick up a key, and you don't know it; although the message at the bottom of the screen clearly tells you you picked it up. Overall, the sounds and graphics certainly aren't the high points of the game, and they certainly pull the score of this game down.

And, overall, the whole game itself isn't particularly great. It only shines a tad in the gameplay category, and even there it has some ban cons that pull it down. The sounds and graphics of the game will spell Doom to the game itself, in my opinion.

Gameplay: 6/10
Story: 2/10
Graphics: 3/10
Sounds: 5/10

Final Score...(not an average)...5!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/02, Updated 02/08/03