It's more a touchstone of history than a entertaining experience...

User Rating: 6.5 | DOOM PC
Doom can only be fully appreciated if the player understands it's contribution to the genre of FPS. Though it was not the first FPS, it was the most atmospheric first person game of its time. With the detailed level designs and lighting it perfected what had already been done before in Wolfstein 3D. However this game is more a touchstone of an emerging genre than an actual classic.

Classics are games that have withstood the test of time and remain just as fun today as they were upon their first release. Doom doesn't do that. Then again, maybe people's expectations of the FPS genre were extremely low to begin with during that time period. I have to remember that I'm looking at this game from retrospect. But I can't help being a little critical of it when I compare it to id Software's Quake. Yes, Quake was heavily influenced by Doom, but Quake packs such a bigger bang than Doom that the two games don't even really compare. I know the games are three years apart, but id Software out did itself with Quake as it still holds a very entertaining experience. Doom doesn't have that...

It doesn't take long for Doom to start feeling mundane. Within the first 30 minutes, I had already had enough; and from that point on, I only played it in 15 minute intervals. I see why this game was a good selection for the Gameboy Advance, years later, as it is very much "pick-up and play" but doesn't deliver with commitment. There just isn't enough variety to keep the game going.

Yes, I know I'm looking at this game as a post-Quake player, but honestly if you were to ignore the hype about how revolutionary this game was and just concentrate on the gameplay as it holds up today, you can't deny it's pretty weak.

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