Title: DOOM
Doomed since: 1993 and has refused to die ever since.
Doomed platforms: Everything
Doom is a Science-fiction horror game set in the first
person. A lot of people consider this game to be the Grandfather of all FPS
games … except for the ones which came before it. Some games should never be
reviewed after so long but I shall try without offending anyone.
On first impressions, the game appears to be something which
everyone says you must play but never believe it themselves. Yes, the game is
nostalgic but only for people who were actually alive at the time. You don’t
see people playing pong or using typewriters from 1874. Yes, QWERTY is great
but now you need-not worry about the jamming of mechanisms so just let us
change to DVORAK. It is like remembering your favourite game, dusting it off
and finding that your ‘Legendary Hero’ couldn’t aim and shoot properly, while
the camera gave you vertigo (thanks MGS3). I will agree that history is
important but DOOM 3, whoops! I mean QUAKE, was released 3 years later along
with the ability to nod your head – because that clearly means it’s good.
Joking aside, Doom did revolutionise and popularise First
Person Shooters in many people’s -ise: Imagine if Call of Duty changed – that
kind of shock to gaming; including the stale sequels afterwards. We may laugh
at the game’s graphics today but back in the day, (saying that as if I’m old),
there were no age restrictions and Doom added to the spawning of the violence
in video games argument. Doom caused much GTA controversy even though people
had been shooting aliens, smacking heads onto bricks and stamping on turtles
for over a decade already.
For people who have read my Quake review, you may have
noticed that I believe these games are still fun in multiplayer. You can carry
these games around in a memory stick and it doesn’t take 10 minutes for the
game to install or load. The system requirements are just shy of a spellchecker
and the intro consists of setting your display and the LAN. Between Quake and
Doom, I’d have Doom. Doom appears to have more character, less bunny hopping
and mutant nonsense. Oh yeah, www.zdeamon.com
allows for global multiplayer, too – just don’t expect the ‘nostalgia’ to give
you Priapism.
Score: Good but over-rated these days, I guess I’m too young to
understand.
