No.0005 & No.0006 Doom & Doom II

By hsvlad January 14, 2012 1 Comments

1001 Videogames I must play before I die!  
 
No.0005 Doom 
 

Lets be honest, there isn't much I could say about Doom that hasn't been said already so instead of teaching grandma to suck eggs I tell you a little story. I first saw Doom at one of my brothers friends houses. They had a basic LAN set up between the two computers in the house and they were playing a one on one death match. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Partly because it was so violent and up to the point my parents had been quite strict about keeping me away from that sort of imagery, but mostly because of the first person perspective. I was looking though the eyes of the player character. It wasn't isometric, it wasn't top down and it wasn't restricting my view of the world in anyway.  It was probably the moment that games became my favorite form of entertainment because I realised that I could do what ever I wanted in them. I was completely unrestricted. 
 

 
 
Now, that wasn't strictly true, but its how I felt, and games are getting closer and closer to realising the limitless potential I envisioned them having back when I was six years old. Coming back to Doom was a blast. I played the Steam version which was fun because at some point they've added strafing controls to the game which I don't remember it ever having. Mind you, I used to play with just the mouse and the Space bar so what do I know. I've played so much Doom and Doom II that I decided to set myself a challenge for my refresher session. See how far I could get on Hurt Me Plenty before I died. In the end I managed to get all the way through Knee Deep in Dead before ballsing it up on the first mission of The Shores of Hell.  
 
No.0006 Doom II 
 
    

 
When I eventually got my own copy of Doom II it was long after it initial release. My father was a loyal Acorn Archimedes user and so I had to wait several years for a port to be made. When it did, it included the original Doom as well but I never played much of the first one until much later because of one simple addition... 
 
    

 
 There is something about the super shotgun. Even though it only uses maybe four or five frames of animation it was the most impressive thing I think I've ever seen (relative to its time of course). The sound of the breach opening, two shells being slammed in with a single hand movement and then barrels closing again. The muzzle flash reflecting in the barrels as it fires. It was amazing and, whenever possible, it was the only weapon I wanted to use.
 
I didn't last nearly as long in Doom II for some reason. I only made it to the second level before getting iced but I was ok with that. I've seen it all many times before. I just wanted to hear the deep thud of the super shotgun one more time. 
 
  

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