StupidBunny
Junior Member
Posts: 209
Registered: 09-07 |
There are a lot of things I like about Doom. As it happens, the reasons are similar to why a lot of my other favorite games are also old ones.
First of all, I love the environments. In modern games, the locations attempt to look like real places. Even games which take place in the far future create environments which are meant to feel like they could logically exist. But with Doom, the graphics and engine are so limited that trying to create a realistic environment would be silly and wouldn't meet much success. (See truck in TNT MAP19.) What this means is that the levels focus much more on gameplay and a unique aesthetic which uses realistic graphics on rather abstract environments. None of the levels really feel like places that would actually exist, with mazes and donuts with nukage in the middle and stuff, which I think makes exploring them much more fun.
Then there's the enemies. There are very few games out there that have as vibrant, diverse, and well-balanced a cast of foes as Doom has. Because of the 256-color palette and use of sprites to represent characters, only so much realism could be achieved, and therefore I imagine id could be a lot more flexible with the enemy design. In a newer game, with 3D models and high-def colors and such, creatures like the cacodemon would look cartoonish and unrealistic. But in Doom, there's a lot more being left to the imagination and the creatures all fit in much better. Strange though it may seem, the limited capabilities of the Doom engine make the enemies seem more real, and therefore much more frightening.
These aesthetic qualities wouldn't matter much to me without the gameplay, which is Doom's most lasting contribution to gaming. Where Doom wins where newer FPSes don't do it as much for me is in pure simplicity: run, strafe, point and shoot. There's none of these grenades and inventory and special functions and all that, which can be fun but detract from the murderous mindlessness which gives Doom so much replay value. And yet, unlike Wolfenstein 3D, the levels themselves add a nice aspect to the game, so that wandering and shooting is made into a much more dynamic exploration. One of my VERY favorite things about Doom--and this kind of goes back to the realistic environment thing--is the way in which enemies will just seem to appear out of nowhere. It's so perfect when I turn a corner and I find a Baron of Hell in my face where there wasn't one before, or I pick up a key and I hear the dreaded sound of teleports in the next room. I really haven't found any other game which recreates this feeling.
The last thing I'd add is the story, or lack thereof. There are practically no cutscenes, no missions, no special goals on specific levels, but one level of uninterrupted gameplay after another. I like story-oriented games, but it hinders the replay value of a game to have to deal with a story progression each time. Doom makes it marvelously easy to just jump in and start blasting the fuck out of demons.
So I think I've ranted long enough now. But I've more or less summed up my thoughts anyway. :)
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06-30-08 06:27 
