His Review with Ian
19 years is a long time in video games. Since its birth, Doom’s been ported, tweaked, sequelled, ripped, modded – hell it’s even been blamed for Satanism and the Columbine massacre. It’s about time I found out what is the ever lasting appeal of this game?
For those people who’ve lived far away from a PC or a console for the last two decades, Doom is THE original First Person Shooter (FPS), with pioneering 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming and is widely considered one of the most influential cultural artefact of the last two decades. I am an unnamed space marine who’s been posted to Mars because I’ve assaulted my commanding officer and rained bullets on civilians. Posted on the red planet, I have to kill everything and anything to get me the hell off this hole.
The levels are super sized with sprawling rooms linking to corridors linking to control rooms. The possibility of losing myself is genuine and surprisingly this isn’t frustrating. Hidden lifts and button triggers unlock level progression and proves much more exciting compared to modern console games where there’s easy linear progression through each level. In Doom there are mini mazes, labyrinths and baddies around every corner meaning my brain is active throughout and it feels great to be challenged.
The anticipation of stepping (if feeling fearless) or peeping (if feeling sheepish) around a corner is always present. Sometimes there’s nothing, but sometimes there’s a - BOOM - shotgun wielding former human sergeant who takes off 12% of my life with his meaty weapon. The first time I thought I saw a spectre when the lights were slowly flashing on and off; I paused, reflected and felt I was playing a truly great game. It built a sense of fear with its limited technical capabilities but created a cinematic atmosphere and playing experience with just flickering lights and a shadowy enemy. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it was a seminal experience.
It doesn’t matter that the targeting isn’t particularly accurate, I can forgive its pixels, I can learn to love its box art and I can even embrace the tip of the hat to both Aliens and Evil Dead II in its thematic influences. This is video game gold.
The soundtrack, composed by Bobby Prince, is relentless and he takes various songs from heavy metal bands like Pantera and Alice in Chains, and stays just the right side of legal to take inspiration from each one to compose those famous riffs. It completely takes the atmosphere, isolation and gun play to the next level. The midi riffs and guitars feel a lot older than mid 90s, but somehow it fits with the graphics and the world that is created by Doom.
The stats bar at the bottom of the screen, showcasing in percentage
terms how little or how much my face is mangled, depending on how much of a battering I’d taken, engraved caution in me. I knew if I only had 18% life left with 4 shotgun shells I wasn’t going to feel particularly brave. This was also when it got quite tricky, because of the lack of any save points within each level. If I died, I had to go back to the beginning of the level. It was teaching me a lesson in life and ammunition conservation. Even if the soundtrack is making me want to race round the levels like a lunatic, I had to be careful otherwise it’ll be back to the start of the level for me.
Who needs a story in a game that crafts heady combat situations and pits me against too many foes to be fair? Doom excels in creating a live and exciting single and multiplayer experience on the Xbox 360 arcade and one that has rarely been bettered since id software launched this little beasty nearly 20 years ago.
Her Review with Tracey
There are some games that hold sentimental value for me and some that are genuinely brilliant classics. Happily Doom is both and I welcome its smooth transition onto Xbox’s Live Arcade. With steely grey walls and flashing control panels, the sci-fi world is subtle but effective with every pixel used to maximum effect; instantly I’m 10 years old again, playing on my friends PC and aiming to beat her brother’s high score, much to his annoyance.
Angled, interrupted sight lines, hidden sliding passageways, toxic pits and dead ends twist and turn. Doom still looks great after all these years and continues to be an addictive, evocative title. Early on in my attempted escape from the infected Mars base, the exit door was agonisingly glimpsed through a window and finally getting there required skill and patience. Doom is simultaneously satisfying and frustrating but this combination provides some genuine, compelling, challenging and engaging gaming. As Ian says, watching the characters face become swollen, bruised, bloody and beaten if I got in a tight spot was all the worse when freedom was a corridor away and death would mean replaying the whole level. The joy of staggering through the door at the end of every level though is worth the repeated investment. The first run through is terrifying and fun. Mistakes are frequently made (oh, I’ve just walked into a chamber with no ammo and am greeted by 6 mutants. Guess
next time I’ll remember to visit the secret ammo room first…) and the layout is designed to disorient and scare. A second run through is emboldening but no less fun. Pacing out the ammo, using the correct weapon against different foes, taking the racing line through the maze and not feeling nervous when a growl rolls up from an unknown source is rewarded with yet more fabulously designed challenges. Memorizing routes through (as where I’ve been and where I need to go got swivelled around) became key as was picking up some tasty weapons and ammo to put down the zombie marines, hairy beasts and ugly, lumpy raw skinned monsters that ran at me when I least expected it. Even when the level was etched into my mind, only ever being able to shoot directly in front of me, in the direction I was facing meant a high speed run was off the cards; a fine balance of accuracy and strategic boldness had to be obtained. Repeating some of the more difficult levels never became boring or tiresome as the sense of progression is always there. My ultimate life motto of “just one more minute” is not only tapped into here but fully exploited and pandered to and I love it.
The story is more an overall concept rather than a plot. Survival and freedom is the same aim on every level. There’s usually one route through and the baddies appear in the same place every time, so dying a second time is definitely down to human error. This is a game to become proficient on, to learn off by heart and beat the hell out of. Be it clearing a stage in the fastest time, discovering all the secret rooms, collecting all the items or just feeling smug that it’s completed, Doom isn’t complicated, glamorous or always thrilling, rather it delivers a core experience where each moment is carefully crafted to leave the player feeling joyfully in control.
