The Ultimate Doom: Knee-Deep In The Awesome

You would think playing Doom would be a wonky experience for a game as old as it is. After all, with the game having been released over a quarter of a century ago, it's something that you would expect but it couldn't be further from the truth. It's old news by now, but Classic Doom is just as accessible then if not more so now...at least, that's because I didn't use a completely faithful source port of the game. For those who don't know, with many classic PC games of the 90s, the source code for the game could be released - not all of them would do that, mind you, but many of them did. And Doom was one of those games. As a result, many, many, many source ports have been made for Classic Doom which help to either create an authentic experience, allow for easy access to multiplayer or create a fun singleplayer experience - which is where the source port I used, GZDoom, comes in. GZDoom is a source port generally considered to be the best of it's kind. It's one built for a modern singleplayer experience with modding in mind, and it's the source port I've used the most. Albeit, that means it comes with less "Doom-y" features like proper mouselook, jumping and crouching...which can break most levels in the original games.

But that doesn't matter because Doom is still bloody awesome, even without those features! It's managed to hold my attention consistently and that largely has to do with the short-ish playtime. I played on the Hurt Me Plenty! difficulty for the first three episodes of the game and on Hey, Not Too Rough! for the fourth and final episode, Thy Flesh Consumed ('cause that episode is kinda hard) and I got through all four episodes in about 5-6 hours in total. Only 6 hours! Thank goodness for Doom II, Final Doom and the hundreds of thousands of mods made for Classic Doom - because after those six blissful hours came to an end...

...I wanted more Doom.

Because at its core, the gameplay is just fun. Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! Nah, get outta here with your story and writing, who cares? It's DOOM! It doesn't need a story, and that's because the core gameplay is so well-crafted. The gunplay is satisfying with practically every weapon being useful (other than the starting pistol which isn't quite as punchy as you'd like it to be, which I'm pretty sure is by design), the level design is clever with plenty of secrets tucked away in little corners and behind false walls, and the monsters are all distinct - you can look into a horde of enemies and quickly determine what weapon is best for each situation. And the game teaches you all of this environmentally! There's no traditional tutorial to speak of, it's all taught through the design. Like how Episode 1 ends in fighting two Barons of Hell...which then crop up as semi-regular enemies in later episodes indicating that you should hitch up your trousers and prepare yourself for some harder levels.

But it isn't all fun times and rainbows. Oftentimes, Doom can have rather maze like levels which, though satisfying to eventually figure out, can lead you to running around in circles, getting frustrated before finally having it all "click" for you leading to an "Ohhhh, I see" kinda momen-HEY, how did this negative turn into a positive?!

In all seriousness however, the fourth episode (which is kinda non-canon...?) is pretty difficult (which isn't really a negative, but hey - worth mentioning). When I played on the second lowest difficulty, it was the equivalent for me of playing on Hurt Me Plenty!, maybe even slightly harder. Plus, the level design was much more of a mixed bag in this episode than in previous ones. There are some excellent levels with great progression but there are also, unfortunately, more confusing maze levels and some forced and relatively unavoidable teleport traps. I particularly despised the level E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly which has a lava pit that, although contains a limited-time radiation suit that prevents damage, can lead to frustrating moments where, after falling off one of the platforms, you have to find your way up to the centre pillar/teleport while taking lava damage.

Overall: DOOOOOOMMM! (It gud). If you have any interest in the FPS genre of games whatsoever, and you haven't played Doom yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Right now.

EDIT 2019-06-29: I added this review to my Steam account and added this little intro bit at the beginning: 

"Don't be alarmed at my incredibly short playtime. The vast majority of my time with this game has been through a source port called GZDoom..."