Doom goes live
One of gaming’s most beloved — and controversial —
titles is back, and time hasn’t worn it down…much. Doom, long considered one of the grandfathers of the popular
first-person shooter genre, and a gaming classic, has been resurrected via
Microsoft’s online service Xbox Live Arcade. For the most part the game has
aged gracefully. However, in translating it to run with current hardware like
the Xbox 360, this version of Doom encounters
a few pitfalls.
The graphics, sound, and gameplay
have remained unchanged from Doom‘s
original release. Doom’s gameplay modes are intact, from the four single-player
episodes, to deathmatch, to — perhaps most
compelling of all — cooperative play, where players work together online to
complete single-player missions. These various parts have held up remarkably
well over the years and are still lots of fun, either a testament to Doom‘s original design, or a critique of
current FPS developers for not having surpassed it.
As to the pitfalls there are two: one is the online time lag
that sometimes can cripple the experience. Maybe there’s an explanation as to
why a game that’s more than a decade old would be laggy
when played in the cutting edge world of Xbox Live, but it’s still a mark
against it. Then there’s the $10 price tag, which seems a bit pricey, as you
could probably find a copy of Doom in
a software store bargain bin (without Xbox Live, naturally) if you look hard
enough.
The Xbox Live Arcade version is a tough sell, but still fun
should you decide the price of admission is worth it. Doom is rated M for
Mature.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2006.
