doom

review

look. is doom influential? yes. is doom a requirement for us to get where FPS games have gotten? absolutely. but this is one of the most poorly aged games i think i’ve ever seen.

first, the glaringly obvious: the lack of vertical camera movement is… uncanny, to say the least. it makes a lot of the vertical combat in this game feel extremely off, and removes a lot of the possibilities for this game to have fun level design.

secondly: the aforementioned level design just hasn’t held up. most of the levels are mazy and confusing, but not in a fun way. there are moments, for sure, and there are levels that are very fun scattered throughout, but a good chunk of the time, i don’t feel gratified when i beat these levels - i feel annoyed. the bosses are also PITIFULLY easy; not even close to as hard as the levels. i played most of the game on the middle difficulty, for those of you wondering.

not to say doom ‘93 is an awful game, not at all. the music is excellent, the enemy designs are unique, and there’s a good amount of content here for a game released when computers had less power than a damn calculator. but, realistically, it’s not a game that holds up in 2024.

i think you should at least play doom ‘93, as it’s worthwhile as a piece of gaming history (and it’s pretty short). as FPS games go, though, there are definitely better options out there today.

score

5/10

notes

• developed by id Software
• published by id Software
• released in 2019
• played steam port
• played on pc
• crossposted to backloggd