Doom
“Say hello to the future of gaming” whispered my PC after my first descent into Doom all those years ago. Whilst technically not the earliest first person shooter on the market, id software’s landmark title was the first to truly bring the pubescent genre into the mainstream consciousness. Its success would spawn countless copies which would all be labelled Doom Clones for years to come, and change the entire PC industry, and eventually even the console industry, forever.
As the genre would suggest, Doom is a fast paced action title that allows players to experience the game world through the eyes of the main character, mowing down a legion of foes with a collection of increasing powerful weaponry. The game itself is completely linear, the sole objective of each level being to reach the exit by killing every thing that moves while avoiding enemy attacks and environmental hazards, and collecting pick-ups such as health packs, ammo and key cards to unlock certain doors that bar your way. It is very much a twitch, reaction based game with little thought involved except for anticipating enemy attacks and knowing which weapons to respond best with. To that effect the game supplies you with a small but satisfying collection of weapons including a shotgun, chain gun, rocket launcher, sci-fi themed rapid fire weapon and over the top killing cannon, a load out so enjoyable to use that it would become the staple for most first person shooters to this day. Of course Doom throws hundreds of (for the time) impressively detailed and animated monsters to shoot at, consisting of ten different types, each with unique attacks and other surprises. Some fly, others are invisible, a few will bite your face off while the rest pelt you with fire balls and gun fire. The levels themselves are equally detailed and all but a handful in the second and third episodes well designed with interesting layouts and jump-out-of-your-seat surprises. The audio is also top notch with creepy monsters sounds, beefy weapon effects and memorable music, moody and rocking in equal measure.
Even with a non-existing storyline or characters to invest in, the game play is so fluid, from the movement of you and your enemies to the exchange of weapon fire, that it never ceases to be fun even 15 years later. A lot of that continued enjoyment comes from a host of fan made replacement engines such as Doomsday and GZDoom which can be legally and freely downloaded to modernize the interface and even the graphics to some extent. New features and improvements include modern keyboard and mouse controls, 5.1 surround sound, high resolution textures, fully 3D objects and monsters, dynamic lighting and modern visual filtering techniques.
There is little else to say about Doom. It is the daddy of all first person shooters and, thanks to many talented people out there, still immensely playable today. Five stars.
