How do you feel the vanilla game has aged?

If I was somebody who lost interest in Doom during the late 90's and then tried to return back it right now today, and I had ONLY the original base games to judge the games on, I would probably not give them more than just a 6/10.

This is just my opinion of course, but honestly I feel that the design of the game has seriously showed it's age. Mods and custom level packs massively amend this, but as a mere standalone game I feel Doom hasn't actually aged that well. My biggest problem is the level design. It sucks.

Well ok, that is a bit harsh. There are few maps in Doom 1 that I still think look pretty cool, and a handful in Doom 2. But for the most part, the levels are just a confusing collection of mazes with unrealistic and random design that don't look like anything at all. Even just Doom 64 which came out 4 years later was a very considerable improvement in this regard.  I also think the playstation port has aged a bit better than the PC version because it has thicker atmosphere. But that's just me.

What do you guys think? If you were somebody who had not played Doom since the 90's and you came back to it today and played only the vanilla version with maybe a source port how do you think you would rate it?

Agreed, I'm in the "like a fine wine" camp.

When I came back to Doom after quite some time, I was shocked how short and „simple“ some of the maps are. I remember getting lost in them for ages as a kid and now suddenly everything feels so small now. That‘s probably the only thing that doesn‘t hold up anymore.

Other than that I was surprised — almost shocked — how well it still plays. With that I mean the controls, the feeling of moving around and of course all the feedback like enemy growls, the punching sound of the SSG, etc. Especially the enemies are incredibly well thought out, fun to play against and hold up quite well, too. Generally Doom is just tremendous fun to play and after coming back to it after having played a couple of more modern FPS, I was surprised and thrilled by this.

Also, the texture work still holds up in my opinion. Many indie games try to recreate some sort of „retro feel“, some even try themselves on „retro FPS“-like games, but almost all of them can not compare to the original Doom assets. The mix of photorealism, more abstract imagery and hand pixelled goodness is quite unparalleled imho. It definitely stands out, even to this day. 

God, I still love this game so much.

The large majority of usermaps (including lauded wads) look unrealistic and like nothing at all. That's part of Doom. All the realism is thrown out in favor of abstract, gameplay-oriented environments. And no offense but I can't imagine being confused in a Doom 1 level, sure they look maze-like from the automap but they're small/compact and full of landmarks.

The only aspect of vanilla game I can't take today is the resolution.  So I play in a port that supports higher res.  Other than that, it is still great as far as I am concerned.

I was given up on Doom after Duke3D released, simply because Duke leveldesign and features made Doom obsolete. I returned back to the game when Romero released his two new levels, and I enjoyed them a lot. Since then I try to catch up with all the things I've missed, simply because the game's assets are still fresh and fun. NRFTL is something I can't stop playing, it's awesome. However I still see why I've given up back in 1996. Many of the original levels didn't age well, particularly Sandy Petersen's clueless leveldesign. Doom is also much more fun to play with fancy lights and extra GZDoom features, this vast improvement helped the game to keep up with the XXI-st century.

To be honest. while the game play is solid to this day. the maps did not age well IMO. Vanilla Doom was a product of its time, due to technical and design limitations.

the Id team were able to squeeze so much power from the relatively primitive hardware for the time, and they made a solid product compared to other FPS game in that era, but those hardware limits also limited their creative capabilities in terms of the mapping.

I don't play the original maps Vanilla anymore and usually play them with ZDoom + Mods. there is nothing more beautiful seeing Doom in full 1080 60fps glory.

I'm surprised by how many have posted saying the maps haven't aged well. Honestly, I think Doom 1 and 2 have phenomenal level design. Imperfect, sure, but I always enjoy myself when I replay them. I don't think I've played a PWAD yet that I liked better than Doom 2.

Doom 3 aged worse than the Doom and Doom 2, the areas themselves look pretty good still but most of the character models look like they're made of playdoh.
though I got to admit that I've never been a big fan of about half of Doom 2's levels 

The design and gameplay philosophies are still true and will never age. I just feel the maps themselves look ...90s.

I played newer mapsets and those just look and play better, because they built upon the simple foundations the original Doom created.

I love vanilla Doom, warts and all. Some of the Doom clones from that period have "better, more realistic" mapping, yet a lot of them just blur together in my memory. Doom features a lot of unique elements despite essentially being the template for the FPS genre and I think they play to it's strengths.

Even when we're talking vanilla Doom, to this very day, there has yet to be a game where the player can move as fast as the Doomguy for prolonged periods which also features pretty darn excellent weapon balance. This is especially noticeable in deathmatch and it results in an irreplaceable, blood-pumping experience - It's still the fastest PVP you can get in a first person shooter. The fact that all of this was true in 1994 and is still true this minute is really impressive. It'd be dishonest of me to call the game anything less than great, even in it's most bare bones state.

doom's got a few suspicious levels, cacodemons are boring, half the props are tacky gore and the plasma sound is too loud

rating: A+++++

edit: the fact that something can be improved upon doesnt take its towering pioneer status away. it kinda reinforces it - look how close Doom was to perfection that years of first person games were so close to identical to its template

21 minutes ago, jazzmaster9 said:

The design and gameplay philosophies are still true and will never age. I just feel the maps themselves look ...90s.

Its almost as if the maps were designed in the 90s!? ;)

Im in the fine wine category. Vanilla Doom is the GOAT as far as im concerned.

1 minute ago, Crunchynut44 said:

Its almost as if the maps were designed in the 90s!? ;)

 

Im in the fine wine category. Vanilla Doom is the GOAT as far as im concerned.

That is true and they were also made with the limitation of the 90s tech.

Screen resolution aside, I think Doom has ages like fine wine. It is still as great as it always was.

The core gameplay is phenomenal. I would still be hard pressed to find another fps that has better weapons AND beastiary (especially of doom 2). But the level design has definitely aged. Doom 1 ep1 is okay but ep2 and ep3 feel very maze like and not enjoyable for me. Doom 2's levels are less maze like and have more verticality but they are very abstract in their design.

Duke 3d came about 1.5 years after doom 2 and blew away doom 2 in the level design department. But Duke3d's monster roster cannot beat doom 2's beastiary.

With the amount of love and playability it has gotten over the years and still getting is a sure way to say that it has been one of the most successful and adored series of classic games out there!! <3

#DooM4ever

Like a bowl of fruit on a hot summer's day.

If it ain't playable in ZDoom, I ain't interested.

9 hours ago, Ex Oblivione said:

Like a fine wine.

a delicious pint of software rendered 320x200 goodness....

2 hours ago, meapineapple said:

I'm surprised by how many have posted saying the maps haven't aged well. Honestly, I think Doom 1 and 2 have phenomenal level design. Imperfect, sure, but I always enjoy myself when I replay them. I don't think I've played a PWAD yet that I liked better than Doom 2.

Episode 1 is still brilliant, and playable every day. But that's it, very few levels after that can really hold the candle. Even Romero's work beyond E1 is mixed bag.

Doom has aged like a fine wine, yes. Much better than any FPS before it.

10 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

unrealistic and random design that don't look like anything at all.

Sounds to me that you're playing the game for the wrong reasons.

The only things I can say that didn't age well for Doom was the very original DOS version. I didn't like the music, controls, or resolution in that version.

Otherwise, grab a source port for the true experience, and Doom is still untouched to this very day. Everything from the satisfying and fun gameplay, recognizable enemies, iconic weapons, kick-ass music, and unique level design have all aged phenomenally well. It has the charm that barley any FPS can match even to this day.

Am I the only one that prefers Doom 2 over Doom 1?

It has aged wonderfully. Gameplay, graphics. Sure, it could use a few improvements here and there but that's what we have Smooth Doom for. I found that pixel art ages far better than 3D graphics. I was playing Witcher 3 a few hours ago and it has surprisingly already begun to show its age.

1 minute ago, DooM_RO said:

It has aged wonderfully. Gameplay, graphics. Sure, it could use a few improvements here and there but that's what we have Smooth Doom for. I found that pixel art ages far better than 3D graphics. I was playing Witcher 3 a few hours ago and it has surprisingly already begun to show its age.

I find Witcher 3 to be kinda overrated. Played it for a little while but suddenly got bored and stopped playing it.

it was 10 months ago that i found out about doom, i played the whole first game in a week, even though i had played many games before which were better and more intricate, the visual storytelling and simplistic design drew me in, it was like unlocking a long forgotten treasure chest!

4 minutes ago, Thedoctor989 said:

it was 10 months ago that i found out about doom, i played the whole first game in a week, even though i had played many games before which were better and more intricate, the visual storytelling and simplistic design drew me in, it was like unlocking a long forgotten treasure chest!

That's how it draws you in, played a small taste when I was a kid in 98 but never had my own PC till six years ago, first thing I bought was Doom.

15 minutes ago, Thedoctor989 said:

it was 10 months ago that i found out about doom, i played the whole first game in a week, even though i had played many games before which were better and more intricate, the visual storytelling and simplistic design drew me in, it was like unlocking a long forgotten treasure chest!

I had a similar experience, only I had already played the game when I was a small child and although I'd had a long hiatus from Doom, the game never really left my mind. I guess I could say I "rediscovered" the game in 2009. I didn't know about its modding community, I just felt drawn to the game and slowly I finally understood what made it so good. Then I discovered Doomworld and its modding community and never looked back.