Doom
Posted October 2, 2006
Ahh the good ol' days, I remember spending countless hours playing Wolfenstein and Doom on my old PC. They were simultaneously the most entertaining and most frustrating games of my youth, but more importantly they were the games that introduced the masses to the first person shooter experience. The good folks at id games decided to allow us nostalgia seekers to get our fix of the no nonsense shoot-em-up action that is Doom through the wonderful Xbox Live Arcade. But does it stand up to the test of time? I like to think so.
Gameplay:
Anyone older than 23 has undoubtedly played the original Doom. But for those of you who thought id magically birthed Doom 3 out of nothingness I'll fill you in on what it's all about. A base on Mars has been overrun by monsters from hell and you need to kill them all as you make your way through the complex. Sounds easy enough right? Well it's a little more complicated than that or else all your dead buddies (those bloody piles laying everywhere) would have made it out alive.
It's been years since I've played Doom and over time I've forgotten many things about the game. For example when you're shooting at an enemy you aim in the direction of the enemy horizontally but you have no vertical movement; all of your vertical aiming is done automatically. The controls are simple as pie; Left analog is you directional movement the right is your panning movement. The right trigger fires your weapon and when you hold down the left trigger your character sprints, the "A" button opens doors and the "Y" button changes weapons; selecting down on your directional pad will bring up your map. That's all there is to controlling your character it really is simple to pick up and play within a matter of seconds.
Your enemies while being aggressive and really doing their best aren't really the big challenge in Doom but if you feel that you'd like more of them to fill the screen you can always turn your difficulty up to the maximum setting and the game will be sure to accommodate you. The real challenge to Doom is finding your way out of any given level, and this happens to be what makes Doom great. The entire game is really just one huge maze, while the first level is laughably easy it also shows you what you're in for and is overall a nice tutorial, complete with a couple secret passageways that will become commonplace on every level. The items you collect on each level including health bonuses will carry over from one level to the next but if you die of course you lose them all so it's always a good idea to make sure you save often.
I'll admit that when I first started playing Doom my feeling was that of disappointment because I thought it was just going to be too easy but I quickly remembered how difficult the level layouts can be. Entering a room may cause a secret passage in a wall to open or a lift to come down that you can ride to expose another area of the map. Many times these areas will lead you to a colored keycard needed to open an area further into the map, or possibly right next to your entry point. You may often find yourself standing in front of one of these doorways dumbfounded as to what you missed. While it can be frustrating it's also really cool to find these passageways and it's a blast covering every square inch of a map to find all the items and kill all your enemies along the way. Upon completing a level your stats will be given to you based on kill percentage, items collected, secret areas found and total time to complete the stage compared to "par" or the amount of time you may want to try beat if you're into that sort of thing. Personally I take my time.
Online Deathmatch is included for up to four players. Of course you can create a match and invite people to play or you can go into the quick match mode and get a game going in an instant. This option works well but my overall impression of the multiplayer is that it's laggy and generally not entertaining. You continually spawn with a pistol in front of the player that just killed you while they still have the same rockets they nailed you with two seconds before, and watching players skip across the screen leaves you wishing for more. Maybe we can look forward to a patch to get the bugs ironed out.
If online Co-Op is your thing then look no further, you can team up with a buddy and complete the same missions as in the single player mode all the while showing your friend the secrets they couldn't find on a map and vice versa. In fact I did this with a kid that I was playing deathmatch with earlier. The Single player mode combined with the ability to complete missions online with a friend makes this game worth playing over and over again. There were a couple instances where I finished a map with a measly kill percentage and went back to figure out where those cowardly monsters were hiding.
Graphics:
This game is old, and the graphics didn't get an update. Doom is played in 4:3 aspect ratio and while it doesn't have breathtaking high definition graphics like some of the other arcade titles that have been released it does look nice and sharp on my HDTV, in fact it looks just like I remember it looking, which is a good thing.
Audio:
I don't know what everyone else thinks of the music in Doom but I love it, it's a cheesy midi soundtrack that changes with each level. Admittedly the tracks can get quite old after you've been searching high and low for fifteen minutes for a yellow key; thankfully there is always the option to kick on your custom soundtrack. The sounds of gunfire and chainsaws mixed with the growls and screams of the monsters really add to the experience and doors opening and closing in the distance will help you find where you need to go at times. Overall the soundtrack is sharp, but don't expect anything new because it is exactly as it was years ago.
Conclusion:
Doom is a classic and is left completely unspoiled on Live Arcade with the exception of the laggy multiplayer. If you've never played this series and you'd like to start from the beginning I say go for it. If you loved playing through the single player years ago and would like to do it all over again, then it's more than worth it. Just playing the single player mode will keep you occupied for hours and the online co-op play can make for a casual good time with a friend. Costing 800 marketplace points can be a deterrent for some people but I say it's well worth it. Recommended
Gameplay:
Anyone older than 23 has undoubtedly played the original Doom. But for those of you who thought id magically birthed Doom 3 out of nothingness I'll fill you in on what it's all about. A base on Mars has been overrun by monsters from hell and you need to kill them all as you make your way through the complex. Sounds easy enough right? Well it's a little more complicated than that or else all your dead buddies (those bloody piles laying everywhere) would have made it out alive.
It's been years since I've played Doom and over time I've forgotten many things about the game. For example when you're shooting at an enemy you aim in the direction of the enemy horizontally but you have no vertical movement; all of your vertical aiming is done automatically. The controls are simple as pie; Left analog is you directional movement the right is your panning movement. The right trigger fires your weapon and when you hold down the left trigger your character sprints, the "A" button opens doors and the "Y" button changes weapons; selecting down on your directional pad will bring up your map. That's all there is to controlling your character it really is simple to pick up and play within a matter of seconds.
Your enemies while being aggressive and really doing their best aren't really the big challenge in Doom but if you feel that you'd like more of them to fill the screen you can always turn your difficulty up to the maximum setting and the game will be sure to accommodate you. The real challenge to Doom is finding your way out of any given level, and this happens to be what makes Doom great. The entire game is really just one huge maze, while the first level is laughably easy it also shows you what you're in for and is overall a nice tutorial, complete with a couple secret passageways that will become commonplace on every level. The items you collect on each level including health bonuses will carry over from one level to the next but if you die of course you lose them all so it's always a good idea to make sure you save often.
I'll admit that when I first started playing Doom my feeling was that of disappointment because I thought it was just going to be too easy but I quickly remembered how difficult the level layouts can be. Entering a room may cause a secret passage in a wall to open or a lift to come down that you can ride to expose another area of the map. Many times these areas will lead you to a colored keycard needed to open an area further into the map, or possibly right next to your entry point. You may often find yourself standing in front of one of these doorways dumbfounded as to what you missed. While it can be frustrating it's also really cool to find these passageways and it's a blast covering every square inch of a map to find all the items and kill all your enemies along the way. Upon completing a level your stats will be given to you based on kill percentage, items collected, secret areas found and total time to complete the stage compared to "par" or the amount of time you may want to try beat if you're into that sort of thing. Personally I take my time.
Online Deathmatch is included for up to four players. Of course you can create a match and invite people to play or you can go into the quick match mode and get a game going in an instant. This option works well but my overall impression of the multiplayer is that it's laggy and generally not entertaining. You continually spawn with a pistol in front of the player that just killed you while they still have the same rockets they nailed you with two seconds before, and watching players skip across the screen leaves you wishing for more. Maybe we can look forward to a patch to get the bugs ironed out.
If online Co-Op is your thing then look no further, you can team up with a buddy and complete the same missions as in the single player mode all the while showing your friend the secrets they couldn't find on a map and vice versa. In fact I did this with a kid that I was playing deathmatch with earlier. The Single player mode combined with the ability to complete missions online with a friend makes this game worth playing over and over again. There were a couple instances where I finished a map with a measly kill percentage and went back to figure out where those cowardly monsters were hiding.
Graphics:
This game is old, and the graphics didn't get an update. Doom is played in 4:3 aspect ratio and while it doesn't have breathtaking high definition graphics like some of the other arcade titles that have been released it does look nice and sharp on my HDTV, in fact it looks just like I remember it looking, which is a good thing.
Audio:
I don't know what everyone else thinks of the music in Doom but I love it, it's a cheesy midi soundtrack that changes with each level. Admittedly the tracks can get quite old after you've been searching high and low for fifteen minutes for a yellow key; thankfully there is always the option to kick on your custom soundtrack. The sounds of gunfire and chainsaws mixed with the growls and screams of the monsters really add to the experience and doors opening and closing in the distance will help you find where you need to go at times. Overall the soundtrack is sharp, but don't expect anything new because it is exactly as it was years ago.
Conclusion:
Doom is a classic and is left completely unspoiled on Live Arcade with the exception of the laggy multiplayer. If you've never played this series and you'd like to start from the beginning I say go for it. If you loved playing through the single player years ago and would like to do it all over again, then it's more than worth it. Just playing the single player mode will keep you occupied for hours and the online co-op play can make for a casual good time with a friend. Costing 800 marketplace points can be a deterrent for some people but I say it's well worth it. Recommended