The Ulitmate Doom Review (PC)

  You've probably heard of Doom. It's was a legend in it's own time, spawning an entire generation of “Doom clones”, first person shooters of the '90s that aped the original violent blockbuster. I was fairly young when Doom originally released, but remember hearing about it in whispered tones from friends and family members, staring for hours in awe at a few too-good-to-be-true screenshots in various gaming magazines. My mind ran wild with possibilities: how could a video game be so dark and Satanic? How could you control a character you couldn't see? What twisted lore did these Hellish landscapes hold? I never had a computer or console that could run this bloody fantasy of mine (or had access to this new-fangled internet technology), so I built my own mythology and hype for the game in my head. The hardcore rebellious spirit of those screencaps and schoolyard tales was only heightened by the misguided political controversies that sprung up around it (and a few other notables) at that time. Once I was finally able to play some version of the game (I can't remember if it was shareware or even Doom 64) I was hooked. It lived up to my wildest imagination, while also containing gameplay I could have never dreamed of. Since then whenever I obtain a new piece of technology capable of running games I make an effort to get Doom installed on it in whatever form is available. Recently as I was scrolling through the hundreds of games I have available to me I got the itch. The Doom Call. Rather than play any of the sequels or remakes or remixes or mods, I decided to go back to square one and see how the original held up in modern times, see if it earned it's place in gaming history. The results may shock you... or not. It shouldn't be any surprise: Doom fucking rules.

  Every aspect of Doom just feels so right. The graphics may be muddy and pixelated by today's HD, obsess-over-resolution standards, but they certainly are cohesive and set a mood. Body parts litter the brown and red environments, the character sprites lie halfway between cartoon and genuinely disturbing/cool, and the death animation for each of the creative and iconic enemy types is disgustingly satisfying. The music gets your blood pumping and for good reason: they are all literal MIDI rip-offs of heavy metal songs of the time, so they're nice and crunchy, catchy, and charming. The level design is almost uniformly excellent, with the vast majority of your rampage through Hell striking a nice balance between combat, finding secret areas, solving key card puzzles, and navigating an expertly designed maze. There are only a few instances of the old-school Dungeons and Dragons design getting in the way of enjoyment: notably the second to last level in Episode 3 which is a nightmare of esoteric puzzles that can only be solved by trial and error guesswork through floor hazards that will deal damage to you. Other than that, the gameplay absolutely holds up, with some stages swinging heavily on either the combat or puzzle solving and most finding a nice mix. On harder difficulty settings (and Episode 4, even on Hurt Me Plenty) a new layer of strategy and resource management appears: every shot is essential, switching weapons to keep your ammo stock full is key, searching for secret areas and the power-ups they hide is necessary, and sometimes just flat out avoiding combat is a better option. Doom feels like the perfect storm of brilliant level design and technology that pushed boundaries but didn't get in over it's head.

  A few little notes about the “Ultimate” subtitle in “The Ultimate Doom”: as far as I can tell this version is the original DOS release, but Episode 4 was a late edition to the game (I'm assuming it was semi-promotional for Doom II: Hell on Earth) and is included in the package. Episode 4 is a crazy jump up in difficulty from the base game and likes throwing shotgun guys everywhere, but it fits seamlessly with the rest of the game. Trying to control the game with just a keyboard as originally intended is doable if clunky, or you can use a keyboard/mouse combination which feels somewhat better but I had some trouble with my marine sliding around because the mouse can control movement for some reason. I eventually hooked up an Xbox 360 controller and ran Controller Companion, and man... that seems like the way to go. It might not be 100% authentic, but it feels great. Just another testament to how timeless the game is.

  I could go on about how innovative and influential Doom was in it's day, but I could hardly do it justice. If you're interested in it's history there are plenty of articles out there, or better yet read Masters of Doom. What's more interesting to me is how the game has molded my outlook on games on a personal level, and just how well the game still plays. Doom is a classic in every sense of the word, and has earned it's place as legend and withstood the test of time.