Doom (Xbox Live Arcade) Review
Posted by Steve McHugh on 10.23.2006
Doom still rules...I know it's a shock.
Doom is not an easy game to write a review about. I mean it’s over 15 years old and by now anyone who has played games has already played this over and over. So I’m going to tell you something to get it out of the way. Doom is still great. Yeah I know I should probably wait till the end of the review to break that startling revelation but what’s the point in waiting. It was great back then and it’s still great now. Rocket science it isn’t. The real question is whether or not it’s aged well enough to be worth the 800 points that Mircosoft have deemed it should cost.
The story of Doom, for the three of you who haven’t played it, is pretty simple. You are a marine on Mars and you have to kill everything that’s trying to kill you. Which basically means you kill everything and anything that moves. There’s no real story (well there’s something about you getting off Mars but at no point is that really explained or cared about) except to travel from one end of each level to the other and kill anything in between.
Graphics
This game has aged, as you would expect a 15 year old game to and in some respects it’s aged badly. The textures are blurry and all of the backgrounds look very dull and lifeless. The enemies, whilst looking initially impressive, don’t look good close up and move like crabs, scuttling from one side to the next. However you won’t care. Everything is clear enough that you can see what’s going on and once you get to see the effects of blasting everything with a big gun of your choice you realize that the graphics work very well.
In fact it does things that even new games don’t do. Firstly the little picture of your characters slowly getting more beaten as the more damage you take is a wonderful feature and I wish more games would take a similar approach. The other thing Doom does that I wish more games did is that when you kill something it stays where it died for the entire level. Considering this was way back when, it’s a very impressive feature.
Gameplay
As I said before the main aim is to get to the end of the level and kill anything that gets in your way. It’s a very simple game and the controls mirror that. You can shoot, strafe and change weapons each one with a press of a button. That’s it, there’s no looking up or down, which actually helps the game achieve the sense of claustrophobia it’s going for.
The controls are actually very tight and responsive and it makes the game a lot of fun to play. In fact I didn’t at any point miss the keyboard and mouse, which on a PC port is always a sign of a good control system.
There are other excellent aspects to the game, the ability to save anywhere at anytime is an especially good feature.
On top of the excellent single player game you can also go online and play too. I’m hoping all of the lag issues have been taken care of by now and if they have it’ll certainly be a lot of fun to play online. There’s also the option to play split screen with up to 4 people, which is awesome and something that many more games of this nature should do. In fact you couldn’t even do that on the original Doom and it’s certainly a great new edition.
Sound
The game sounds as good as it ever did with the music playing throughout the bigger battles that you’ll come across. The sound effects are also excellent, the weapons in particular sound great and you’ll never forget the first time you blast a demon in the face with a shotgun.
Now you're in trouble
Lifespan
Well there are 5 levels each with several parts to it and each one of those can take anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, especially if you want to find all the secrets.
In fact the secrets are a massive part of the game which very few games these days do. The idea being, that if you can find these areas you’re rewarded with extra health, ammo or even a power up. Finding these areas can be hugely difficult and you’ll always feel good when you figure out where some of the harder ones are. I just wish that more games these days would have a similar approach.
In fact just playing through all of the game and finding the secrets will take you a good long time, probably about 10-12 hours. On top of all of that you’ve also got the achievements. Most of these are quite easy but some require you to play on the harder difficulty levels, which are (as you’d expect) really hard and will take you ages to get them all.
Once you’ve played the single-player to death you’ve then got your multi-player which is certainly something you’ll want to go back to when you’ve got friends over. And if you’ve got the Gold membership you can play over Xbox live too which adds yet more length to a game that’ll keep you happy for many an hour.
Fun Factor
Anyone who says Doom isn’t fun has something seriously wrong with them. This is a fantastically fun game that is sure to raise a smile on anyone’s face. It’s also something you can come back to time and time again without ever feeling like you’re bored. If you’ve had a bad day put Doom on and you’ll be feeling better in no time.
Overall
So is this game worth 800 points. Eh…hell yes of course it is. Apart from the extra content in being able to play it with your mates and all of the achievements available it’s still at the core a great game. Is it the best game on Xbox live? No probably not but it’s certainly up there in the top 3. Anyone who has Xbox Live should get this and then maybe that’ll show Microsoft that people want great classic games to play at a good price and not some of the bizarre prices they’ve had for the older games thus far. Now let’s hope they put Duke Nukem on there too.
Graphics
5.0
Textures are not very good and character animation has taken a hit but everything is still clear and it still has nice touches you don't see anymore.
Gameplay
9.5
Still classic Doom gameplay with fantastic controls and an excellent multiplayer.
Sound
5.5
Music has not aged well but the sound effects are as good as ever.
Lasting Appeal
8.0
Hours or even days by yourself but weeks and weeks with friends.
Fun Factor
9.5
Doom was always fun and time hasn't lessened this at all.
