Doom vs. Half-Life

There seem to be a lot of people who revere Doom to be the greatest game of all time. Well, I dare anybody to play Doom, then play Half-Life, and tell me Doom is better. Half-Life is probably the BEST fps to date. Doom pales in comparison. First of all, the stories better, but thats's trivial, though it helps add to the game. Half-Life uses fear similarly to Doom, with scary atmospheres and creepy music, especially on Xen, the alien planet. Trust me, when you find that a very large blue alien that has just wiped out a room full of soldiers is now staring at you, you will be afraid. Half-Life's levels also blend seamlessly together, so you can move from level to level without cheesy loading screens like Doom. The enemy AI is about 100 times better. Try taking on a squad of well coordinated soldiers, and you will see what I mean. Finally, the game is scripted. Things happen for a reason. A guard in a locked room just got eaten by a bullsquid, and since the only we to get to the surface is to hit a switch in that room, you have to navigate through the entire complex to get to a series of pipes which will lead you to a vent that gets you to the room that has the switch to open the door to the surface. Some people say they don't like the weapons because they're unrealistic. Well take a look a Doom's weapons! They aren't exactlly normal, are they? If anybody can give me a reason why Doom is better than Half-Life, please tell me.

You are correct of course. Doom is really just a crappy, dated, sorry excuse for a game by today's standards. But damn me if I don't love it anyway :) It's hard to explain really. Somehow it's managed to engage me more than any other game I have played.

My reason doom is better because without doom the games probably wouldnt be this advanced. The engines are just very up-to-date doom engines if you think. Besides my main reason is DOOM IS DOOM! And actually Doom has about all the stuff you named for Half-Life, for smarter AI get MBF. Scripting is in Zdoom. and ecetera

Duke Nukem said:

My reason doom is better because without doom the games probably wouldnt be this advanced. The engines are just very up-to-date doom engines if you think. Besides my main reason is DOOM IS DOOM! And a

While it's true Half-Life,and a lot of other games, would probably not be around if it was not for Doom,that does not necessarily make Doom a better game. Doom probably wouldn't be around if not for Wolfenstein3D, but that doesn't make Wolf3D better, now does it?

I'm not going to give you a reason why DOOM is better... you don't need my opinion, you've already made your decision, does mine matter?

Anyway, now that I've said that I'll tell you I do prefer DOOM myself. And I'll tell you why (didn't I just say I wouldn't, oh my mind has split!!). Realism does not really impress me much. I can say; not bad... but then, nah, this "archadey" game is more fun, and leaves more to my imagination... some kind of less conscious perception, that is actually more convincing in the end, cause it comes (more) from myself than what I get when I play a game that's more "complete" perceptually speaking.

So gamey games are fun and you can really play them (as opposed to experiencing them empirically). And DOOM deathmatch is really exciting too!

What do you prefer: classic chess or Sid Meier's (right spelling?) Civilization?

I'm afraid I've given you a valid (though pariticluar) reason, as you asked.

Well I think doom is a fantastic game, dated graphics and such but a unique gameplay style unmatched by any port. BUT, halflife I think is the only FPS which has been a worthy sequel to doom in that it is fantastic yes. But its a different game, with different appeals and as such its difficult to compare to doom.

You cant compare those two games.

Half-life´s got better graphics storyline and so on, but thats a new game, DO NOT compare an old game and a new game with 6-4 years difference.

Half life relies on mouse control,says it all really

BUT-anarchy 2 is gonna be for half life,if i figure out the editors

Which reminds me,doom editors are easier to use.Now i was stuck in console-land for nearly my whole life and things got boring-look at all the doom addons for pc though-and the editors are good enough to be able to make a tc on my own (called anarchy)

Stphrz said:

You are correct of course. Doom is really just a crappy, dated, sorry excuse for a game by today's standards. But damn me if I don't love it anyway :) It's hard to explain really. Somehow it's managed to engage me more than any other game I have played.

Ok...I don't think I can give a reason as to why Doom is better than Half-Life...BUT I can tell you why I like Doom better.

Half-life is a great game. Great graphics, cool enemies (such as headcrabs), and interesting wepons, my favourite being the Magnum...It was a difficult game, with things that you have to accomplish before going to the next part, like mission objectives...but THAT is where Half-life got me bored.

Doom, on the other hand, has gotta be about 4 - 6 years older than Half life, but I like it better. The weapons aren't necessarily realistic, but they're cool! The enemies are cool, too, the Cacodemon being my favourite, as it's always smiling as if it knows something. And the levels can get from easily finished (Dead Simple, from Doom 2) to extremely complex (Halls of the Damned, from Doom 1). It may not have the best story to explain what happened and why, but I can cope with that.

Now HERE is why I like Doom better...the absence of objectives and side-missions. If you ask me, the shooting games of today are getting so boring because there are objectives that make you have to run around, searching for a computer or whatnot, instead of shooting the bad guys. Half-life had many mission objectives, in a way, and I found myself getting extremely bored of running around and trying to find a few things while NOT shooting anything. Doom, on the other hand, has the same objective for each level. Kill bad guys, find the keys, get to the exit, and occasionally destroy a boss. That is why I like it so much...many people may not understand, but I'm sure those who DO understand, understand well.

Doom is just running and shooting, and frankly, I never get sick of it. Going through the levels and just blasting everything in sight is...well...FUN!!! But in the objective based games, there are certain things that you are not allowed to destroy or kill, or must find a way around, but in Doom, you just plow through it with your weapons, pounding bullets into anything that moves. THAT, my friends, is why Doom is so damn good. No rules and regulations, no prime objectives, just shooting and running...and that, is where Half-life, and other objective games fail to capture my attention, such as GoldenEye, and Perfect Dark. Great games, but too many rules and boundaries. Doom also has the effects of today's shooter, Half-life, in the fact that it WILL startle you from time to time. Doom doesn't need headcrabs to do that...

So THAT is my explanation for liking Doom more than any other shooting game in the world. It's the most fun shooting game there is! Just pounding a Cacodemon with the Double-barrelled Shotgun and watching him fly back makes me want to keep playing.

Doom is a legend...
Doom is a game...
And Doom is fun.

Damn right!

Icon Of Sin

(P.S. If anybody wants to, they can look for me on ICQ...I'm on it a lot)

Hey, that's cool. I'm not trying to make you all renounce your love of Doom or anything. Hey, I like Doom too! If I didn't, why would I be hear? I just thought I could use an argument like HL vs. Doom as a challenge to all Doomers to voice their opinions on why they like Doom.

You went through all that trouble to set up a forum account and your first post on the Doom forum is about how Doom is dated and stuff. Heh...

Icon of Sin said:

Yes, Doom is fun. I also like better. It has long been surpassed in the technical area but not in gameplay.

Deus Ex makes Half-Life its bitch.

That is all.

Where's your freaken agility and speed in HL, bitch? So much for the element of defense.

Stphrz said:

You are correct of course. Doom is really just a crappy, dated, sorry excuse for a game by today's standards. But damn me if I don't love it anyway :) It's hard to explain really. Somehow it's managed to engage me more than any other game I have played.

Doom in and of itself is a sorry excuse for a game, but when you get that brand spankin' new source port like "edge", you change your mind quickly and soon it becomes almost as fun to play as quake or quake 2 (sure, level data structure is still abit primitave, it has newer options like jumping and it's really easy to edit).
NTM: I thought some of the monsters on half-life were really stupid (some of the aliens looked too weird, the people seemed to be stretched out of proportion, wuz up wid dat?).