One word. Doom. It's a simple name that can invoke a lot of things. Deathmatch, modding, programming. Doom is and was a lot of things to a lot of people. It's also known for being ported to everything. Why is this the case? Why Doom and not its older brother Wolfenstein 3D? I have compiled a list of six reasons why I think that's the case, based on my own knowledge of Doom and programming in general.<
Doom is one of the most iconic games ever made, the forerunner of all FPS. Equally iconic, is its soundtrack. A mix of thrash metal and suspenseful tones, the soundtrack really set the mood for the game. Probably the most iconic of those songs (we're all three levels of iconic now), the song to the very first level: E1M1. Standing for Episode 1 Map 1, this was every Doom player's first taste of the action. The track itself is actually called "At Doom's Gate", which is a fitting name since the first level is really the entryway into the game. (The first level of Doom 2 is called Entryway, as it turns out). The song itself is very evocative of the map it represents; it's a very quick and action packed song. Keys and environmental tricks like lifts (barring secrets) aren't introduced until the second level. For E1M1 it's just run 'n' shoot. To celebrate this track, we've compiled a list of covers of this song, everything from comedy, to intriguing, to full on headbanging enjoyment. Catch 'em after the break.
So if you don't know, id Software is running an open beta for the new Doom (confusing, yes it's just called "Doom"). Doom is going to come out on May 13th, so it’s about a month away. I spent some time with the open beta, and I have to say it’s looking promising. Just like Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom is looking to be a good mix of old and new styles of shooters. However, the open beta is multiplayer only, and is pretty light on content so it’s too early to say for sure. While there are certainly things I love about this open beta, there are also things I don’t quite like about it.
I absolutely love the Doom games, it's a close contender for my favorite game series. I love to get more Doom whenever I can, and thanks to all the mods and addons constantly being created that's never a problem. The guys at id Software felt the same way, they wanted more Doom even as they were making it. This is why they were very open to the modding community, and very open to licensing their engine to other companies. Midway handled the console ports of Doom to the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. However, when it came to the Nintendo 64 they decided to not just port the game and go with something more original. Originally titled Absolution, they went with the much less cool name of Doom 64.
What was that about it being too PC heavy around here? Sorry, but I'll get to that later. The recent article on Doom inspired me to give my two cents about my favourite "Doom clone" Heretic.
Released in 1994 using a modified version of the Doom engine Heretic and its "expansion" Shadow of the Serpent Riders was a great FPS that in my mind, trumps Doom 1 or 2.
The original Doom is one of my all time favorite games. I love it, everything about it. I love the guns, I love the enemies, I love the levels, I love the art. I'm a little obsessed sometimes. Doom 1 came out 1993 in Doom 2 came out in 1994, then came Doom 3 in... 2004. See, I'm an odd position compared to most fans of the classic Doom fans; I played Doom 3 before I played the original two, on the original Xbox even. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little late to the FPS party. While games like Halo were gaining popularity I was sticking to my platformer guns (and starting to suffer because of it, lest we all forget all the bad Sonic titles that came out around this time). Eventually my friend Macoy showed me games like Halo and, you guessed it, Doom 3! I thought Doom 3 was pretty cool, but wondered what the first one was like. Remembering that SRB2 (see Fan Works #1) was built on the original Doom engine I began searching online, and discovered that the original was shareware. Oh wow! I played the hell out of it. That said, I enjoyed both of these games, but which of them is better? I've been playing both of these games, and I'm going to tell you which I feel is the more enjoyable game.
1
0