---

TheCupboard said:
It set the fucking standard for almost all modern pwad designers. In fact, I think many pwads that come out today look antiquated. They are way too linear compared to the iwad maps and they feature dumb gameplay mechanics that get borrowered from "modern" FPSs that are really just regression to stripped down mechanics in order to cater to the average gamer whose IQ is at least a dozen points lower than the average gamer from the 90s.

---

---

TheCupboard said:
Map29 was Romero's design triumph. Everything about his style matured and peaked at that point.

---

---

mouldy said:
You can replace hunting for door keys with hunting for the special item to give to the guy who will then open the door to let you proceed, its a game mechanic as old as time but is still used today.

---

• This
  

• Sandbox or sandbox-like levels in which you're told what to do and where to go with the assistance of a directional aid of some kind
  

---

What they dont realise is that you arent told a story in doom, you make the story yourself by the paths that you choose.

---

---

Phml said:
Doom E1 always seemed to tell a story to me. Perhaps not in words, but through art direction and level design.

I feel many of the most poignant scenes and settings in visual settings are ones where no word is uttered, because they let your imagination fill the gaps in the best possible way (much like a book does). It takes an exceptional writer to manage to tell a fulfilling fictional story despite giving no leeway for interpretation. By and large, writing in video games is not exceptional.

---

---

Phml said:


Doom E1 always seemed to tell a story to me. Perhaps not in words, but through art direction and level design.

---

---

mouldy said:


This is the best way to tell a story in a game I feel, its something valve seems to appreciate with their games - particularly with half life and left 4 dead (the closest modern equivalent to doom I can think of)

It scares me to see people raving over "trailers" for games these days that show no examples of gameplay whatsoever, just cinematic story telling.

---

---

40oz said:
Yeah sometimes the storytelling becomes a little too much. I've been wanting to play more scary/horror themed games, to feel a little more emotion when playing. A friend of mine gave me a copy of Resident Evil 4, along with the rest of his gamecube games. But just like pretty much all horror games, there's a shit-ton of reading material. Just random books and notes lying around, with pages and pages of uninteresting journals and documents. There was even one letter literally titled "Our Plan" left behind by a group of zombies I killed that told me what they were going to do to take over the world and how they plan to kill me when they get me. That game is also the longest, most tedious and linear game I ever played.

---

---

DoomUK said:

Typical FPSes in this day and age seem to subscribe to one of the following:-

• This
  

OR:-

• Sandbox or sandbox-like levels in which you're told what to do and where to go with the assistance of a directional aid of some kind
  

I'm trying hard to think of a recent FPS where you have to do the hard work yourself and find stuff through exploration (I don't mean Easter Eggs or some such, but things which are critical in letting you progress in the game), but I just can't recall anything. I think I said this in the other thread, and maybe it's more of a personal preference than an objective statement about quality, but half of Doom's appeal for me was spending many hours, collectively, figuring out where to go, as well as uncovering secrets as a by-product of the way the game worked. As you say, Doom's story is wrought by the player themselves, but I think it's also a game where you intrinsically reap the rewards of the effort you put into it.

---

---

Phml said:
To me, E1 felt more complete as an experience than the other episodes. There was a clear visual consistency thanks to its limited texture set and the level design being mostly one guy. Music seemed to fit in so perfectly. Discovery, exploration, gloom, exuberance, oppression, action, dread, and finally despair intertwined with resolution; these words could describe the tunes or the layouts equally as well. There was a gradual build up, a progression with ups and downs. The doomguy didn't need to blather about his emotions because you could feel them playing the game, because the game made you feel these emotions and you were the doomguy. That it all culminated in death in a small, dark room just as the battle was over, as if he had no reason to exist anymore beyond accomplishing his purpose, was a fantastic way to top it all off.

Obviously a very subjective and personal way to look at it. E2 and E3, in contrast, just didn't grab me as much - possibly also because the story felt so right starting and ending with E1, acknowledging the canon continuity would have lessened this perfect experience in my eyes.

---

---

Antroid said:
Except mapping for doom is like a thousand times easier than for significantly newer games. Doom is so much simpler than everything else it's hilarious. Assuming the mapper aims to achieve a level of quality adequate for the game he's mapping for, of course.

---