Doom 1 is a historically interesting game. It’s a first person shooter game on the Microsoft DOS operating system released in 1993 which is mind blowing because it was also 3D, kind of. It uses 2D sprites for the enemies and other things but that is generally impressive for the time. This will be the review for the PC version.
Quick rundown of Doom 1’s plot, demons are rising from the underworld to Phobos, the Mars moon and the player has to defeat them. The game play is much more interesting to talk about because of how it’s done. Shooting doesn’t require aiming because of the limitations of a DOS game. Instead if you shoot at the enemy no matter the elevation, it will hit. Very simple. Range is also interesting because it almost doesn’t matter for you and vice versa. Anyway, that is basically all the interesting stuff in this game.
The Single Player content is the campaign which is split into episodes as the game calls it. Episode one is fairly basic. It introduces the enemies and the game play concept fairly quickly which is killing demons and having quick reactions and it will test them. Enemy placement can be quite difficult in some areas like a little maze. The scoring system is interesting as it’s basically percentage based with 3 things, enemies killed, secrets and items. It also includes how much time you took which is neat. This encourages killing all demons and exploration. The enemies are very easy to deal with, especially with the weapons you can get. A pistol isn’t one of them but it’s just a stepping stone to the other weapons like the shotgun. It works how you expect it to, great damage, close range, but the drawback of less power the further you are is reduced. You can get the minigun which deals more damage but drains a lot of ammo and the rocket launcher which deals more damage than that but you can damage yourself at close range. There is only one enemy that is kind of annoying and that is this shotgun guy who can deal a decent amount of damage, especially when they are hidden in rooms that open up. The final boss is 2 Baron demons who are just like that one enemy that throws fireballs except faster, stronger and more tanky. They are pretty easy because you can use rockets. Overall, a good episode and it’s short too.
Episode 2 is set in Deimos, the other Mars moon. It makes the overall level design more open which isn’t bad but not exactly good either. Also when you start a new episode, you lose all your stuff but it doesn’t matter much because the first level usually gives you a bunch of your weapons back through exploration. It introduces the Pain Elemental enemies which attack by dashing at you which is neat. The Cacodemons are an enemy that just shoots fireballs but very fast and they can take more hits. It also introduces one weapon, the plasma rifle, which is basically your highest damaging weapon at this point. It also introduces the chainsaw but it sucks so who cares. The levels look more interesting with the more varied settings such as a depository and closed hallways. The levels take longer which is also just a mediocre decision. The boss from the first episode becomes a standard enemy in this episode which is neat. The boss for this episode is the Cyber Demon which is an enemy that shoots rockets. It’s a way tougher boss because one hit can take all of your health but you can just run circles around him and shoot rockets yourself. This episode is a bit tricky to rate because the level design changes are a mixed bag but it’s alright for the most part despite the level design changes being mediocre. Overall, a decent set of levels.
Episode 3 is the last episode of Doom, kind of. There’s a fourth episode but that’s just the preview of Doom 2. Anyways, it’s set in the underworld which at least makes a neat change of setting after the two moon base settings. It introduces the final weapons left from the game like the BFG 3000. It deals the most damage at the cost of a lot of ammo. The levels here can be a bit much with the enemies because there’s way more of them and the level design is way more enclosed and maze-like. The first two levels also reduced the amount of ammo that you can get, so you have to use the pistol more often and conserve ammo. This episode in general requires more ammo conservation and more thinking from the player. The boss is a mechanical demon spider which is odd. This episode is okay, it could have been better overall.
The 4th episode doesn’t really count because it’s a preview for Doom 2 essentially, but it’s in this version so let’s do a quick review. If this is what Doom 2 is going to look like, then the review for Doom 2 is going to be quite negative. Extreme amounts of ambushes and the amount of enemies is too much. It’s not an enjoyable experience even playing one level of it. It is too difficult, with too little reward, don’t play it.
Overall, this is an alright game but it’s more neat that it innovated in the first person shooter genre of games. It may have a couple of bad levels but overall it’s a good game. You can play it on PC and consoles or a DOS computer if you have that thing laying around.
