Doom II

"A great port suffering from one little drawback..."

This is Doom II, make no bones about it. Ported straight from the PC code, its roster includes all of the levels, enemies, and weapons that made the PC title a great follow-up hit. For myself, this game and its precursor became the main reason I bought a GBA in the first place. Ever since I played the original back around '92-'93, I dreamed of carrying a portable version of Doom around with me anywhere I went. Now I can. I was very impressed with the first Doom for the GBA that came out last year. It was fast, fun, and a great incarnation of my portable Doom fantasy. This year's Doom II had promise, but, for unfortunate reasons described below, it fails to make as big an impact with me.

Story:
If you've played Doom, you know the story. After fighting his way out of Hell itself, our space marine hero has gone back to Earth only to find, much to his dismay, the hell-spawn he fought so hard against has arrived there as well, and intend to set up shop. Wearily, the marine (and excitedly, you the player) prep yourself for more demon blasting action. Simple and effective.

Audio:
Offers a notch up from the simplistic audio of the last GBA Doom. A metallic locking sound replacing the weak sounding pistol piff on the main menu is one of many auditory improvements. Music is better, sounding more complex. However, enemy noises are not exactly spot on from the PC title. Certain enemies have no movement motions. Most notably for me, the Cyberdemon does not have the same impressive thumping walk that he has always had. He moves in silence like all the others, making noises on occasion, as when he fires at you or growls to himself. Some audio samples are a little off, most notably the chaingun.

Video:
The major thing to note here is the engine used. If you were one of the people who didn't appreciate the visuals of the first GBA version of Doom, you are in for a treat in this game. Visually, this game is very sharp and provides a much clearer vision of the enemies. No longer pixelated, they now look like solid sprites with very little blockiness, and for a screen the size of a GBA screen, it's very impressive that you know who you are shooting at and who is shooting at you. Neat little effects such as random buckshot patterns on the wall are another piece of eye candy. Unfortunately, this clarity seems to eat up processor speed, causing slowdown which is the bane of this game in my eyes. I will expand upon this later..
The options menu and title screen are nicely done, and look smoother than before. Wall, floor, and ceiling textures are another story and may seem a bit muddy at times, though with all the combat going on it won't be too noticeable. Unless, of course, you're like me and like to soak up a digital environment's ambience. In that case, some of the browner textures are a little bland and blurry at times.
Blood is still green and bodies still disappear in the second installment of the Doom series on GBA. These things never really bothered me, so these don't really take away from the overall score here.

Gameplay:
Like I mentioned in my intro, this is Doom II, as ported from the PC code. As such, all levels, enemies, weapons are present. I was more than a little miffed with the last GBA Doom when I learned that my favorite character, the Cyberdemon, was left out. But believe me, he's in here. Like I said before, he walks silently, with no intimidating *THUMP* KA-THUMP* as in other versions, but oh well.
The disappearing bodies are all that disappears. Enemy information remains on the ground, and for a very good reason: so that a certain enemy can resurrect them (the Arch-Vile).
Choosing between static and dynamic lighting is no longer an option, but an overall gamma control is present. This does not really seem to affect gameplay speed, though.
Adjusting turning sensitivity allows you to tweak how fast you turn, but it can seem difficult to find a setting that works. I always ending up seemingly moving too fast and overshooting while aiming, or too slow and missing while firing.

The drawback mentioned in the title of this review is one that may seem trivial to some, but to me, detracts from what would otherwise be a great game. The aforementioned improved engine, while lending to some greatly improved visuals, seemed to have sacrificed gameplay speed for visual clarity. This game is in no way, shape, or form as fast as the first GBA game, which always feels to me as if I am gliding on ice. Doom II instead feels as though the whole package has taken a hit in the speed department because of the choice of engine used. Certain gameplay elements are wounded because of this, and as a result some strategies so popular (to me, at least) on the PC version cannot be executed here. For one, using a chainsaw on the pink demons becomes more of an exercise in frustration than a feasible way to conserve ammo (or vent some rage, depending on your style of gameplay). The blade seems not to want to stay in their mouths. Turning on a dime is not an option for the earlier mentioned reasons of overshoot (turn adjustment difficulty) and screen choppiness.
In addition, I frequently find myself firing a fraction of an inch to the left or right of an approaching enemy. It's hard to get a bead on incoming enemies when a nudge of the D-pad will frequently bump you over a lot more than you had intended. Imp fireballs are so much harder to dodge because strafing feels so unresponsive. As a result, diving into a crowd of baddies now seems like a good way to get oneself killed. This is not the essential Doom gameplay that I grew up on. That Doom had fast multiple enemies on screen at once, fast fireballs that missed me by a mere fraction of an inch because of skillful strafing, shots fired while strafing that actually hit the enemy thanks to weapons that were easy to fire because the game ran smooth. Sadly, I didn't encounter much of that here.

In fact, I found virtually the opposite to the classic Doom gameplay in certain areas. Walls that were not in the PC version were added here presumably for the direct purpose of preventing too many enemies from becoming activated at one time. That speaks volumes to me about how the developers knew that this engine was slow to begin with but went ahead and used it anyway. For shame. I for one would rather have had the same type of engine, resolution, whatever the first Doom GBA had that made it so fast, than have this crisp, clear, and slower sequel.

Overall:7/10
I believe in truth in advertising, and right on the box of the original Doom for GBA, above the title, it says
''On the go, Intense 3-D action!''. This is entirely accurate. That version of Doom, while cut in many respects, offered a blazing fast run-through of an all-time great shooter. I've experienced no noticeable slowdown while playing the first game, and even if it is a little blurry, it's still more playable.
Doom II, on the other hand, while carrying such potential because of everything else it has going for it, loses much because it isn't very fast. It is just fast. It is playable, but it is by no means blazing.
Because of this, I regret that I can't give it the high score I want to. It looks great. Everything is in there. Levels, baddies, everything. But when I miss for the umpteenth time and get hit by an enemy that in any other version of this game would have been giblets on the ground before he even noticed me, I am sore to the idea of a high score for this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/25/02, Updated 11/25/02