Game Reviews

n the early 90′s, if you were a gamer, chances are that the Doom franchise was a staple of your gaming rotation. While Wolfenstein may have come first, Doom is widely accredited with popularizing the first-person shooter genre. It’s no secret that FPS’s may be the lifeblood of modern gaming systems, and to return the favor Doom, and now Doom II, have been released on the Xbox Live Arcade. The question that looms over Doom II is: “Is it really a timeless classic, or has Father Time been unkind to it?”

Depending on who you ask, it seems that everyone has a different favorite Doom game. Up until Doom 3, the games were very much the same, with new levels being the only major change between titles. For what it’s worth, I had always considered Doom II to be my favorite of the Doom titles, but this was probably because it was one of my first computer games as a kid.

Upon loading the game on my 360, I realized very quickly how different this experience would be than my hours spent on the PC version. As a tot, “idDQD”, “idKFA”, and “idCLIP” were more important to me than all the BFGs in the world. For those of you not in the know, in order, those are the cheat codes for God Mode, all keys, weapons, and full ammo, and the ability to walk through walls. Even on the first few levels on the lower difficulties, it was apparent how frustrating the game would become. It seems that Doom, while a pioneer for the space marine formula, does not afford you the luxury of being a complete bullet sponge like Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

When starting a new game for the first time, you’re prompted to select between the Hell on Earth campaign and the No Rest for the Living campaign. Hell on Earth is the traditional Doom II campaign, and No Rest for the Living is a nine level (one of them being secret) add-on made specifically for the XBLA port. These two campaigns weigh in at a hefty total of 41 levels. That’s quite a bit of bang for your buck, if I may say so.

The gameplay itself is very much in the classic Doom vein. There are a ton of demons and monsters everywhere, and every switch you flip and every door you open just leads to lots more. Without the assistance of my trusty cheat codes, I found that the second best strategy is to heed the advice of Patches O’Houlihan – dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge. You’re going to need to constantly jump behind walls and avoid those pesky fireballs. As I mentioned before, your space marine’s health drops pretty quickly, so while there are usually a lot of health kits lying around, you don’t want to get too careless in the heat of the battle.