Doom: The Classic Game That Set a Standard
Review by Jacob Malewitz
Persian Wars of Board
Doom, Mecha Generals
100,000
What’s this you say? A first person shooter with monsters
from another dimension featuring a character who’s influenced more people by
shooting than any single country? Or, how about the whole violence factor of
games: Games hurt you more than help you … shooting games are too violent … I
want a positive experience for my son or daughter … only dudes with no job play
gory blood n’ mayhem games! Actually, gaming is the art form that took from
other mediums in order to interest fans.
That means horror games, action games, car theft games,
games where politicians are evil … and even games where a guy can take a few
shotgun blasts to the head … guess what? They all come from other media! Sorry
for yelling.
A half century ago, comic books were considered too violent
in the U.S.
I digress …
Doom, that classic game which set the standard for the first
person shooter, with a detailed, cheesy storyline, but with the right
ingredients: action and more action, tough opponents and tougher opponents,
bosses from another time, big guns. It, in my mind, influenced more games than
any other. The strategy game Civilization set the bar for conquering the world,
while Doom and its followers showed you how to blow it up.
Gameplay:
Doom 1, the classic game, was originally a PC game. At it’s
best, it’s a PC game. I used a joystick while playing the game, which made
shooting all the better. It’s pretty straightforward, but the levels can get
complicated. It takes, guess what, thinking. It makes us gamers solve puzzles in
a sense, trying to get past each level. You shoot down monsters who blow balls
of fire, zombie-like dudes who were once human, and a host of other odd
creatures.
Story:
You’re a hero with no name, sent to Mars as punishment for
refusing to kill civilians. A space
marine who finds himself in the way
hell. Hell opens. Monsters come out, and the other space marines are either
killed or turned into zombies. Enter you, Doom Guy, and a few big guns. There
are three episodes containing 9 levels each.
Graphics:
Yes, this goes way back, but it’s more advanced than many
games of the time. The creators, id, first developed Castle Wolfenstein, then
used a similar engine for Doom. It’s a simple first person view, with original
renditions of many kinds of monsters. Think Super Nintendo in terms of
graphics, as this is a very old and outdated engine.
Replayability:
I recall cheating my way through later versions of Doom.
Ignore cheat codes, occasionally glance at a walk through, but don’t cheat. It
makes the game too easy. The replayability is the very best for any first
person shooter at the time. Only the lack of multiplayer hurts the original.
No comments:
Post a Comment