A game when you can chainsaw your way through hell.
What finally got me to enter the Doom universe was the fact of the movie Doom starring The Rock. Yes, that movie! I thought the movie was great hence decided to play Doom in 2006 to see what the heck all the fuss was about.
Now I know why.
Doom must be one of the greatest FPS of all time; if not the greatest. For the game back in 1993 you can easily still play it today and enjoy as much (as I presume) back then. Just look at the Gamespot reviews; at the time of this being submitted its well in the 90s!
The story of Doom starts of as you, a hardened space marine who assaulted a superior officer three years ago for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians (that my friend sounds like the movie - a prelude to the game). For this, you are shipped to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC - get used to that as you will see plenty of UAC logos throughout the game - very cool as it builds part of a story) which the military (UAC biggest suppliers) are conducting the art of teleporting. Then all hell broke loose in Phobos and Deimos disappeared and it's up to you to solve this issue...
Now that my friend is an excellent story to start off (comparing to Quake which the story was quite poor). There are some great arsenals to use and the two famous ones are the chainsaw (now I understand the hype - I couldn't stop using it on the demons and the spectres - man it's a drug...) and of course the likely most famous word in FPS - the B.F.G.
It gets better!
The game play is nothing short but brilliant. There are massive improvements comparing to id's first attempt in FPS, Wolfenstein 3D. There are now height differences, maps are not gridlocked, stairs, elevators and huge outdoor maps (especially Episode III - Inferno). However the objectives are quite simple; as in grab a key (or skull), open doors and move to the next level. If id got a little more creative I would have little choice but to rank game play a perfect 10!
The graphics and sounds are simply hellish (oh the puns). Nothing sounds better than shooting imps with a shotgun and watch it fly backwards with a thud or using a chainsaw on a demon and see it split in two (well close enough anyway). That, my friend wants me to seek more blood! I had more adrenaline than a raging bull seeing red. The chainsaw I'm telling you is a serious narcotics drug. You say to yourself 'I can quit anytime' but once you press 1 and the sound of the chainsaw revving there is no hope for recovery (even in the movie when the FPS sequence was playing the marine used the chainsaw - gotta love that!).
At the end of each level, the game gives a summary of how you performed - as in how fast, how many secrets located and items collected. A top level view of the area map also been provided as this gives you a sense of progression and awaiting to see that next section. This gives you a great sense of achievement and replay value as you want to obtain that perfect score in all or most of the categories.
Overall, it's a real shame for me not have to played Doom during the early 90s (or maybe it was for the better). Doom carried its weight extremely well and for a game that is over 10 years old, it ages like wine...the older it gets, the better it tastes. People, no more reading, install it, play it!