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Optimus

Funny Doom Review

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I found this link.

It's like an analysis of the design of Doom. Well,. actually some of the things at the second part makes sense. Like secrets without hint and especially some acid pits where there is no escape, but those where the exceptions, few cases where the level designer had forgotten to put an escape root in some of the acid pits in e1m3. The vast majority of doom levels avoid those mistakes.

But what had me cracked is his analysis on the sound design. How a sound has to always convey a message. And then he says "What's the point of frogs chirping near the pool? It's realistic but confusing for the player". Haha,. I bet he meaned the sound the imps do when they are nearby! Which is useful. Haha, frogs chirping!

Then he says, sometimes the player breaths for no reason. I LOLed. Most probably he was either tripping on acid floor or some far away hit scanner shot him at rare times. Guy was pwned and he thought it was breathing. Hahaha!!!

And how is it a bad design to put some realistic sounds on your game even if not having a primary function? Like thunders in Hexen for example.

He also wanted the shotgun to hurt you when you shoot near the wall for consistency. Hell,. it was on Brutal Doom and now it's not in the latest version because I guess people don't like to do for accidentally shooting close to a wall while strafing. I also read this is the case of the old failed Daikatana. Too much realism? But he thinks it's good game design to do this if also the bazooka on the wall hurts you. Anyway, nearly no FPS I know punishes you for shooting the wall, but they do for blowing a bazooka in the wall back on your face. Are they doing for player's sake or maybe everyone was copying what Doom first started doing? So, if Doom ever did the "every weapon hurts on nearby wall", maybe our modern FPS would do the same today?

Other than "Why can't you talk to the monsters?", this is the most hilarious review I've read recently.

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A thought on shotgun damage: If you're low on health, too close to a wall and firing a shotgun kills you, that's fucking stupid. Who is actually that physically weak? I guess it makes sense if you're at 1% health, but it's a feature that pisses people off rather than adds any sort of strategic element, unlike a bazooka/rocket launcher which forces the player to think on their feet.

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"What's the point of frogs chirping near the pool? It's realistic but confusing for the player". Haha,. I bet he meaned the sound the imps do when they are nearby! Which is useful. Haha, frogs chirping!


I was under the same impression for longer than I care to admit.

And how is it a bad design to put some realistic sounds on your game even if not having a primary function?


Contrast. Form follows function. There's a whole paragraph dedicated to that point.

He also wanted the shotgun to hurt you when you shoot near the wall for consistency.


He actually said the opposite. The shotgun behavior made him assume the rockets wouldn't hit the wall, and he was disappointed to see that and argues this is a design flaw given the limits. Certainly understandable at the time playing on 320x200 or lower.

This is a much better analysis even by 2014 standards than most of what is being said about video games nowadays.

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Optimus said:

Then he says, sometimes the player breaths for no reason. I LOLed. Most probably he was either tripping on acid floor or some far away hit scanner shot him at rare times. Guy was pwned and he thought it was breathing. Hahaha!!!

Maybe he just heard DSDMACT (standard active sound of most hellspawn) and confused it for Doomguy's breathing.

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Some early version of the doom.exe (up to v1.666 I think?) had a bug in the sound code which caused a "cackling" effect in certain situations. E.g. a room full of growling pinkies would sound like growls mixed with scattered chicken clucks and cackles. Weird stuff.

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Phml said:

He actually said the opposite. The shotgun behavior made him assume the rockets wouldn't hit the wall, and he was disappointed to see that and argues this is a design flaw given the limits. Certainly understandable at the time playing on 320x200 or lower.

This is a much better analysis even by 2014 standards than most of what is being said about video games nowadays.


Wow, I misread there! It's not so bad now. But still, I would expect a bazooka in wall to do much more damage than a shotgun. Maybe that's what I learned to expect from all the FPS.

p.s. Also mouse. The old controls. I thought it was awful to play this way.

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Ok, the part about frogs chirping is hilarious. :DDD Maybe he played Brutal Doom or something?

edit: nevermind, apparently it's an old article.

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scifista42 said:

Imp's active noise sounds a bit like a frog's chirping EDIT: croaking, I have to admit. :)


For me it sounds like pigs snorting. Well, it did when I was a kid and still sounds like that.

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Omegalore said:

For me it sounds like pigs snorting. Well, it did when I was a kid and still sounds like that.


My dad always called them cops because of that.

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My dad always called the Imps pig monsters and then when he came across the Demons he called them pig monsters since they make even more pig-like noises.

A while back I asked him what he called the "actual" pig monsters (Barons of Hell). Can't remember what he said though.

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I had always associated the Imp sounds with snorkeling. or that they all had some really bad allergies that were stuffing them up.

Otherwise, decent review. I kinda get what he means by sounds, but I'm not sure if I agree 100%. HeXen had a number of atmospheric sounds, and while they didn't all really tell you anything important (Although in that game, frogs and bug sounds usually meant water or a swamp was nearby), it added a lot to the feel and mood of the game. He must mean the Imps by Frogs, although I find it odd he always heard it by water. I can't remember right, but Imps may have been at every major water source, or within hearing distance, at least. There are a lot of Imps.

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