Ultimate Doom may be just more of the same, but it celebrates the maturity of the id Tech 1 engine.

User Rating: 8 | The Ultimate DOOM PC

Developing a game engine is not easy to do, so when id Software has found that it could improve the id Tech 1 engine no further, they knew that they have reached a milestone - that if they want to make newer games, they will have to make a new engine from scratch.

Of course, they aren't about to let this milestone go unnoticed by their fans, so they returned to the code for the original Doom, reworked all of it using what they have learned and re-released the original as "Ultimate Doom" - because this is the last Doom 1 game that fans can expect (and because id Software wanted to make a quick buck off their nostalgia too, no doubt).

Levels in the original Doom have had kinks ironed out, certain areas spruced up with new textures or texture-mapping effects (sliding textures appear to be popular) and certain animations made more efficient. Certain areas had also been reworked into versions that the level designers had originally wanted them to be, but lacked the skills and technology at the time.

These areas tend to be the ones that use the new flickering effects, i.e. twitchy, rapid changes in luminosity of these areas. They had been updated to portray the ambiance that the level designers had intended the areas to have.

The controls have also been updated. Originally, Doom was highly dependent on the mouse, so eager that id Software was in promoting the mouse as a usable form of control for shooters. Ultimate Doom featured combined usage of both the keyboard and mouse (though the mouse is still as sensitive as ever and can easily lead to missteps).

Other than the updates in graphics, level designs and controls, it would appear that everything else had remained the same. The core gameplay remained the same, the first-person perspective remained the same (and remained unable to look up or down) and sound designs appeared to have been retained from the original (together with the glitches that can be experienced when there are too many things occurring on-screen).

While these aspects are still what made the original Doom great when it first came out, a more cynical player would see this title as little more than a money-grubbing attempt.

Fortunately, Ultimate Doom is not just more of the same. It comes together with a new chapter that is composed of level designs that the original Doom level designers had worked on but never completed.

Doom's story has never been more than an excuse to slay droves of inhuman creatures that deserve the pain and death that the player can dole out, and this one is no different. Yet, there is some oddball charm to this chapter as it involved very non-canon and goofy details about the protagonist (the so-called "Doom Guy").

Design-wise, this chapter makes full use of what id Software's veterans had learned. Many levels in this chapter make use of the graphical updates, level-exiting methods that have different themes (instead of just another switch and elevator) and standardization of the purposes of the textures that are used to fill in surfaces (e.g. a metal I-beam-like texture denotes that surface makes up a lift).

Perhaps more interestingly, id Software utilized glitches and exploits in the id Tech 1 engine to craft some interesting levels. Many of the levels have platforms that can only be reached by making use of an exploit involving movement of the player character's model; the player has to use both the forward movement keyboard button and the middle mouse button (which also moves the player character forward). The result is greatly increased speed that can take advantage of the id Tech engine's simple falling physics.

Another clever use of bugs in the original involved glitches that caused false walls or doors to disappear instantly. In this new chapter, this is used to hide nasty surprises.

If there is any reason for one to play Ultimate Doom, then it would be to experience these new levels, which are superior to those in the original Doom. Otherwise, this game is just more Doom to play with, only somewhat prettier, which may not necessarily be a bad thing if one was an ardent supporter of id Software back in this game's days.