Doom is seriously one of those games where you look at the front cover of the game and just immediately beg to get your hands on it. Eventually your loves ones or your parents buy it for you just to shut you up and then you pop it into your DOS PC and immediately you are hooked by just how outstanding it truly is. This game was released back in 1993 by id Software and it popularized First Person Shooters as a genre and went on to become one of the biggest important names in the video game industry thanks to the overall impact that it had on gamers at the time was huge and unprecedented, in fact even bigger than what the earlier Wolfenstein 3D unleashed.
The very first Doom game came separated into 3 episodes Knee Deep in the Dead, The Shores of Hell and lastly Inferno. A later release version called Ultimate Doom added in another episode called Thy Flesh Consumed which has very challenging and difficult levels. You are playing as an unnamed marine to which everyone calls him the Doomguy which is a pretty sick name, you are sent to the Moon Base on Mars by the Union Aerospace Corporation. Your buddies go in only to get slaughtered and you are the last surviving marine and has to clean out the base while searching for better weapons to use along the way. Every episode you play through ends with a brief intermission screen to tell you what happens but it is a very simple premise for a 90s game and it's easy enough to understand what is going and it is you must do.
You start playing the game by selecting what episode you wish to play and then choosing your difficulty setting ranging from “I'm too young to die” to “Ultra-Violence” and then BOOM! You are immediately in the game, no nonsense just you and the game starting you off “At Hell's Gate”. What made Doom a big massive deal is that it is a 3D action First Person which revolutionized the 3D graphics and it is really incredible with what the creators did at the time to render the environments but the enemies and pickups are 2D sprites that are animated and animated very well. Doom was also a subject of controversy alongside Mortal Kombat for its violent graphic content which helped form the video game rating system showing that this was not a video game for kids. The levels show off some impressive level design and layout that is pretty good and reasonably easy enough to understand plus you do have a map that you bring up with a press of a button that points out where you are. The areas you explore also show incredible lighting and shading as well as some lights flickering on and off as shown in episode 1 thanks to the id Tech 1 engine, plus also the texture work on not only the walls but also the floor and celling which is what Wolfenstein 3D couldn't pull off which one of the reasons this game is a technical PC masterpiece. Episode 1 takes place on the Moon Base where is has a brilliant science fiction look to it, episode 2 takes place in the lost Deimos base and has a great mix of sci-fi and hellish elements implemented well and the third episode goes all out in Hell and it is superb in it's execution. Then there's the music composed by Robert Prince which is incredible and memorable to listen to and years after the game tunes are going to be stuck in your head for a long time. Best tracks are the ones set in E1M2, E1M4, E2M1 and of course the most memorable of all “At Doom's Gate” which it's simple catchy beats leaves you head banging while you are fighting the forces of hell and it suits of the carnage really well.
Of course we finally get to talk about the gameplay because that is what Doom is all about, the gameplay and how well it is done. Doom is a First Person Shooter where you start off with a pistol which then gets replaced with a shotgun which does great damage at close range and has good spread that can hit multiple enemies, the chaingun which is cool for keeping enemies in a staggering animation where they have trouble attacking back at you and then the rocket launcher which does explosive and splash damage to large groups of enemies as long as you are not close to a rocket when it hits an enemy. These are the most basic weapons that you'll be using for the first episode of the game but are very effective in many encounters. It's not until the later episodes is where you get your hands on the Plasma Gun which is like a more powerful version of the Chaingun that rapidly shoots cells of energy and is good for dealing with the majority of enemies well but you want to save up that ammo for what is without a doubt one of the most powerful guns in the game and one of the best weapons period the BFG 9000. This weapon is one of the most powerful weapons in the game that requires no introduction and unleashes a charged up plasma blast that damages everything around you. If you got something like more than 10 or 15 enemies in the same room as you and want to clear the room out completely unleash that bad boy and watch everything explode. You also have your fists which is only used if you run out of ammo and is useless unless you find a Berserk Powerup which makes your fists stronger and punch the weaker enemies into a pile of gibed body parts. Speaking of gibing you can also shoot barrels which explode and any enemies hit in the explosion also turn into a pile of blood and dismembered flesh or when their dead bodies are below a door, a block or a crusher that is about to squash them. It's this kind of detail that you don't see much in video games today is why it is this incredible work of art that we don't take much granted in games we get today. Another Doom player's favourite weapon in the series is the Chainsaw which is a melee weapon that tears down enemies and holds some tougher enemies like the Pinky Demons back and watching you tear an enemy down with that thing at close range is epically badass, it is a ridiculously fun tool to use even in low health situations making it a involuntary tool for kamikaze players. What is also an incredible bit of detail to the game is Doomguy's face on the bottom of the screen that changes if you are holding down the fire button at the enemies on screen to show him gritting his teeth or smiles when you pickup a new weapon or when he turns left or right to indicate where you are taking damage from and also if you are at near death health Doomguy's face gets more bloodier the more you take damage. You also find powerups like the aforementioned Berserk Powerup, Partial Invisibility which makes you invisible and throws enemies' aim off, Supercharges, Megaspheres that boost your Health and Armour temporally, a Radiation Suit that allows you to cross acid or lava areas without taking damage, a Computer Map that fills the entire map out on your display completely, Light Amplification Goggles that light up dark areas, Invincibility that makes the screen go all black and white and also makes you immune to damage for a few seconds, small health and armour bonuses as well as ammo for your weapons to keep you stocked up, a backpack which doubles your ammo, and lastly Medikits and other Armour that keep you healed up. I also like that the heads up display shows the ammo for all of your weapons on the bottom right of the screen as well as the weapons you currently have indicated by the numbers that go from grey to green if you get a new weapon.
Doom has a very solid and recognizable enemy roaster, you got the former soldiers and former shotgun sergeants that are possessed, the Imps that are the most cannon fodder of Doom enemies that throws a fireball at long range and swipes at you at close range, then there's the Pinky Demons are one of the more iconic enemies in the game that munch at you alongside the Cacodemons which is a tomato like thing with spikes and an evil grain face that shoots a charged energy ball at you, Lost Souls that are floating skulls that charge at you plus also a Spectre which is an invisible variation of the Pinky Demons. Every end of the episode has a boss to take down, in episode 1 you face two Barons of Hell, episode 2 has you facing the menacing Cyber-Demon and in episode 3 you face the final boss the Spider-Mastermind and they all require a fair amount of ammo from the better weapons like Rocket Launchers and Plasma Gun/BFG 9000 to put them down.
What makes Doom an undisputed classic is how the gameplay is well rounded out, you are memorising the maps you go along, you are learning enemy patterns and prioritising the ones to take out first from former soldiers and shotgun guys that are hit scanning enemies to Imps and Cacodemons that are throwing projectiles at you before coming to the Pinkydemons before one of them lands a hit on you. The levels are really well designed in layout and flow as well ensuring that everything including the action is fast paced. It also throws in some puzzle elements as well which involves activating switches that unlocks other parts of the map and also you find keycards that are needed to access other rooms as well. All of the levels have some hidden secret areas which are found by exploring thoroughly through the levels and many of them are pretty challenging to find and the reward for finding them allows you to get your hands on the more powerful weapons early.
The first Doom game isn't honestly hard as long as you are keeping stock of your health and playing reasonably well and making use of the best weapons possible and like I said prioritising certain enemies types. The enemy AI isn't really too smart or clever without them being too stupid or brain-dead plus you can also use an exploit to trick the enemies into fighting each other which not only works well in the player's favour but it is also hilarious to watch. Doom's levels are easy enough to get by at least for the three episodes and you can get by also using Save or Load features to keep track of your progress. The three main episodes are reasonable to get by in terms of difficulty, progression and fairness and the later levels do get fairly challenging which will force a common first time player to save often so that they don't have to do much again. Added in the Ultimate Doom release in 1995 was a fourth episode called Thy Flesh Consumed which is a more challenging yet unforgiving chapter of the whole pack and the reason I say this is that it throws plenty of tough enemies like Barons in the early levels of the episode when you haven't got much ammo and health to get by them and finding the secrets become very integral in order to progress making the episode unbalanced unless you are playing on easier difficulties. If you don't end up finding secrets in Thy Flesh Consumed or end up wasting plenty of ammo then you are going to die a fair amount of times. Whenever you do die in this game you restart the level with just only your Pistol and you lose all of your other weapons that you had before. This is a 90s game that doesn't use a life system like Wolfenstein 3D but I honestly hate that you restart the level with only a Pistol and have to get all of the other guns again, it feels like that every ounce of progress was lost and in later levels they don't give you much to be able to get by and could die again really quickly. The only way to be able to get through the levels without dying and losing all of your best weapons is to utilize Saving and Loading which you can easily do saving a lot of stress on yourself.
I would say that the most toughest enemies in the game are the shotgun guys because they are hit-scanning jerks that do a lot of damage, lost souls because in the later levels they become abundant, easily swarm all around and block your way making fights with them a nuisance and of course the Cyber-demon is tough as it's rockets can take off a lot of health of you if not kill you quickly.
Controls are great enough even if it takes a while to get used to the movement setup in the original DOS PC version this was before we were used to the traditional Keyboard & Mouse that we all know. At least in the later Doom 95 version you can alter the controls to a more traditional PC gaming control setup and also you can enable the Always Run feature so that you can always sprint fast without needing to hold down the run button making it easier to evade traps and enemy projectiles. The game has a handy auto aim which helps with the elevation of enemies if they are above or below you as was also before the days of looking up or down in more traditional FPS games as well. Still with some minor little nitpicks Doom's classic gameplay is addictive and fun even after all of those years, wither it's getting a chainsaw and cutting up Pinky Demons up close and personal or getting the one gun that dominated them all the BFG 9000 and just watching a large group of demons just fall before the bright energy blast.
Once you finish a stage you are tallied by how much percentage of enemies you killed, the amount of items you found and the secrets you found in a level before you move on to the next. Each level will take you at least under 10 minutes or about 5 minutes max if it is your first time playing and completing all of the episodes altogether will take you about 3 to 5 hours to complete. After finishing it you can try and tackle it again in Coop or Deathmatch with another player or go through again on a harder setting as long it is not on the ultra hard difficulty that is Nightmare Mode which is the most remotely unfair mode that the game even has the curtsy to inform you that.
So does Doom's gameplay still stand the test of time? Yes, yes it does. Doom is one of those old school games still played by people today and the gameplay is still solid and is still enjoyable and manages to hold itself well against many of the new games we have today. Getting your hands on the original PC version is easy enough and you can also run it in more modern operating systems thanks to unofficial source ports that allows the game to be more traditionally and also enhance the game in some big ways. It is also greatly supported by the amount of WAD mod files that exist on the internet and it is incredible to see mods for the game still being made to this day. Doom's massive growth in popularity allowed for sequels, movies and other media following it to come out as well as other games following it's success that would be referred to as Doom Clones, some were aright while others were pretty bad and don't hold a candle to Doom's gameplay. Doom would later be ported to game consoles like the Super NES, the 3DO, the Sega Mega Drive 32X, PSOne and Gameboy Advance to more modern gaming platforms like the PlayStation 4, XBox One and the Nintendo Switch. Many of the ports are really good in their own way despite limitations, some come as close to the PC version original whilst improving the gameplay and controls for a next gen audience while other ports are just extremely terrible ports that are hardly playable and maybe soon I will take a look at each of the ports of Doom that I have currently and see how they fair to the PC version. So if you were one of those kids who wasn't old enough to play it back then or one of the new people who wants to see where the popularity of FPS games all begun than step into the portal to hell and unleash the carnage on the demons of hell. Doom is purely gaming excellence that is impossible to match compared to the games we have now today.
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Game Score: 10/10
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Game Title: Doom
Platform: PC
Developer: id Software
Genre: First Person Shooter
Age Rating: BBFC: 15+, ELSPA: 15 – 17, PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 1993
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The Good Points:
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Fantastic level design with plenty of cool secrets to find
Fast and frantic gameplay
Excellent Soundtrack that fits the carnage
Weapons that are just incredible and fun to use
Brilliant graphics engine technology
The Bad Points:
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Having to restart a level with just only a pistol is annoyingly tedious
Thy Flesh Consumed Levels are unforgiving, brutal and a little unbalanced
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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