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We are still trying to find the key of eternal happiness when the answer has been right in front of us since 1993: using the shotgun in DOOM and one tapping every Imp you come across.

Today is one hell of a day for me huh? Not only it's the day I've FINALLY finished DOOM after multiple attempts at getting into it, not only this is my 150th review, which just saying it's fucking coo-coo crazy to me, can't believe I've written so many reviews on here in just a bit less than a year, but today also happens to be my birthday! So, today is the day, the stars align and my time it's right, it's time for me to shook the entire world with what I'm about to say, my opinion on DOOM will forever change the course of videogame discourse, so buckle up motherfuckers, 'cause this is it; Deemon's verdict on DOOM is..............









Yeah game good.


DOOM is, in a ton of ways, THE PC game, it's not only THE grand-father of the so called ''boomer-shooters'', but it's alsoTHE FPS; we now have the meme spawned by both the press and some players about how ''everything is Dark Souls'', but during the 90's, if your game was in first person, it was bound to get universally compared to DOOM in some capacity. It revolutionized the industry in such a way it's effects are still palpable to this very day, and it spawned a series that time and time again has caused discourse around it. Many people still put hundreds of hours replaying this game or trying many of the community made maps or levels, also known as WADs. It's a game that finds way to modernize itself while never truly changing, sporting level and enemy design that some of its contemporaries and even modern outputs could only dream of.

And here I am, 30 years later, 30 goddam years after it released, to talk about a game almost 10 years older than me. Out of all the games I've written about, this is the one that it feels comical to try to say something new, to add a new perspective to the conversation, because what’s left for me to say? What value can I contribute to the overall conversation around the legend of DOOM? The honest answer, being totally realistic, is… probably none, and while that may be discouraging… but that won’t stop me from trying to sing its praises and faults with my own voice!

And singing its praises I will, and to be honest, I lied. Game isn’t good. Game is FANTASTIC. DOOM’s approach to design is not to introduce as many elements as it can, to make very level distinct by making it have completely new stuff, but instead it focuses on only a bunch of elements and makes the absolute most out of them. You can count all the enemies with the two hands, including bosses, and yet, at no point the repetition settled in. Traversing this seemingly endless mazes, the variety on how challenges and encounters are designed is staggering; no two shoot-outs really feel the shame, and the seeing the non-stop moment that made Eternal so much fun for me being already present in 1993 made feel a certain feeling of happiness I really can’t describe. Kiting around enemies, dodging projectiles or running backwards from Pinkies while pumping bullets onto them produces that feeling of adrenaline so unique to DOOM. It isn’t scared to mess with you; new small rooms filles with enemies will open up after grabbing an item or activating a switch will open up out of nowhere, or maybe enemies will surprise you behind corners, right after open doors or hidden within darker areas, and it not only it never feels cheap or unfair, but also keeps you on your toes and makes it so certain sequences can be kinda scary and creepy, and make you doubt even the most innocent of empty rooms. But the greatness of the enemy placement only means something because of how fantastic the level themselves are: the three chapters have their own flare to own another and overarching elements, the first one for example is the one that introduces all the elements that will be explored upon in the next maps and focuses around shorter, more easy to navigate mazes, while the third one, Inferno, explores the limits of DOOM’s level structure and experiments upon that, one of the maps being a small sandbox.

Even beyond this chapter to chapter distinctions, no two levels feel the same; they all present an unique new perspective within the same ‘’find the correct color key’’ structure; they all feel like real places while at the same time being artificial enough to offer fun and weird- ass moments, and when you factor all the secrets, hidden weapons, power ups and the such, it compels you to look to each and every nook and cranny that the levels have to offer, and who knows, you may end up finding the wonderful BFG or a secret exit that might send you to an extra map. It’s all feels purposeful, natural and… kind of ethereal, the music manages work both as a perfect battle companion and as incredibly atmospheric background, like the grunts and sounds of demons heard across the walls. Those moments of quiet creepiness, like walking around the corpse filled rooms or seeing demons surrounding monuments to a greater superior being, blend with the non-stop weapon changing action and the 90’s dumb ‘’coolness’’ so well it still surprises me; a game that at the end of each chapter presents you with a overly stupid and cheesy ending text and basically makes you lose all your progress but still manages to be so fantastic and have so many more serious moments within gameplay, it’s a game unlike any other.

DOOM shys away from perfection: bosses feel unbalanced, like they Cyberdemon pretty much one-shoting you even at ‘’Hurt me plenty’’ difficulty, and even anti-climactic, like the final boss; some secrets feel too hidden and I think the backtracking, while mostly done excellently, in the final levels is too much and some of the exists should have been a bit clearer, and yet, despite this few gripes, I only walk away from this experience feeling a great sense of joy; DOOM is amazing, dumb in all the right ways and masterfully designed, everyone involved felt for this nothing but a great passion and work, and that it’s made clear through each pixel of this hellish lands. Such confidence emanates from this game that in a lot of ways, it feels like they already wanted to make a DOOM 2 in the future, and I only applaud them for it. Here I am, 30 years later, and having enjoyed this game as if it came out yesterday; Doom is indeed eternal, and even if some may not enjoy it, I think everyone should be compelled to at least try it. This is one of those games which I think everyone will feel completely differently towards, love it for different reasons, hate it for different reasons; maybe everything that has to be said about has already been told, but shouldn’t stop anyone from writing their own piece, from talking about it as if it was 1993 again. The magic of some games should forever relished, talked about, hell, some more flawed games also deserve discourse around them, both positive and negative. Because when everything is truly said, then there’s not much room for enjoyment or surprises, and those are the only things I felt during my playtime in the lunar bases and hell. What a Big Fucking Great Time…

And also, if it just so happens that today it’s also your birthday or it is at the time you are reading this… then happy birthday, and stay safe!

And on the 7th day, god gave us the resources to make sure doom was on every single thing with a screen and buttons because he’s just chill like that.

Doom definitely lives in one of those sorts of times where it has become so respected, some people just can’t live without it. It stands alongside games like final fantasy VII, Super Mario bros., and Tetris to become one of the most beloved titles of all time, a title that wouldn’t have had such a sick ass name of it wasn’t for Ethan Hunt from mission impossible himself. It’s certainly the game that truly coined the term first person shooter, and a game that has inspired countless after it.

You play as doom guy (or doom slayer or whatever the hell you want to call him) as he is posted on Mars and is forced to fight off a bunch of demons. It has a bit more to it but I can’t really be bothered to get into it. The game consists of 3 episodes, and an extra fourth episode, which are filled with simple levels with enemies and secrets to find and shoot.

Gameplay is pretty simple but it makes sense. You go around these simple maps, hunting down aliens and finding keys to open up new areas until eventually you make your way to the end. It’s pretty simple honestly but it definitely set the staple for how other fps games would work and build off it. They had quite little to work with so it makes sense why it seems so minimal. The music also works well with the levels. Some of it makes it seem so liminal and I think it works wonders with what the plot is trying to go for and meshes so well. My only complaint would probably be the lack of enemy and level variety. Most of it seems very similar and it kind of lowers it for me. It’s still a good game but it just slightly misses that variety that could’ve made it excellent.

So does doom still hold up? Surprisingly yes. It’s still an excellent precursor to most fps games and can still be enjoyed today. There are a few parts that stop it from being a masterpiece in my eyes, but it’s still a really solid game.

Good gameplay, excellent ambience, decent weapons, them bosses…

For those who are familiar with first-person shooters, you would know that it is a genre that is pretty easy for developers to take advantage of. I mean, most games simply just have you, some random dude, be given a gun, and you then go off and start blasting every single thing that moves around you, until you ultimately succeed in stopping the force you are fighting against. That in itself is easy enough to replicate, and it has been used time and time again to make plenty of titles over time, but this then comes with an issue: most of these games are insanely generic. Yes, they can be a bit of fun at first, giving you the proper amount of excitement and adrenaline that these titles should be giving you, but most of them at the end of the day don’t really show any signs of creativity or innovation. You just shoot guys, and that’s it, which is enough for a lot of people (including me, in some instances), but it doesn’t evolve the genre any further from where it already is. Truly great FPS games, however, manage to do that while also keeping the base game fast and fun, such as the case with one of the best and most important FPS games ever made, Doom.

I have played many different FPS games over the course of my life, ranging from generic ones to the more experimental ones, but out of all of them, the Doom series is, without a doubt, my favorite set of FPS games ever made. They may not have the most creative gameplay over all of the other games, and some of them just flat out aren’t that good, but let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying and cathartic then the feeling of just taking a shotgun and blasting off the faces of many different demonic freaks in a slaughtering frenzy, which Doom usually manages to nail perfectly. With that being said though, I am more so referring to the modern Doom games when it comes to my complete adoration of this series, with Doom Eternal in particular being not just my favorite FPS of all time, but one of my favorite games in general. As for the original Doom games though, I still love them to an insane degree, and in terms of the original Doom, the one that started it all, it manages to be a pretty great time even to this day. At its core, it is very similar to other FPS games from before and since, but it manages to do so much with seemingly so little, while also innovating the genre more than any other game at that point in time.

The story that we have here is one that is primarily kept out of the game, because most people just usually settle with “demons are here, go kill them all”, which is all anyone needs to get going, but when you take the time to check out the story, it is pretty good, the graphics are incredible for the time, and while future games would take what was done here and make it look much better, the original still holds up supremely well even after almost 30 years, the music is amazing, with so many rocking tunes to hear throughout the entire game, and if you try to tell me that you don’t at least like the At Doom’s Gate, then you are a fucking liar, the control is pretty great for this game, and while it does take some getting used to, you can take full advantage of it to kick some demonic ass, even if movement can be pretty wonky at points, and the gameplay is classic FPS action in the best way it possibly could be.

The game is a first-person-shooter, where you take control of an unnamed marine that we all collectively just call Doomguy, go through plenty of different stages through abandoned research facilities on Mars and even Hell itself, use whatever equipment you have to mutilate and destroy any demonic scum in your way, whether it be by shooting them to bits, slashing through them with a chainsaw, or even ripping through them with your own two hands, find plenty of different weapons, health, armor, and keycards throughout to help you proceed forward and deal more devastation, and take on more demonic forces that get bigger, badder, and more aggressive, even though at the end of the day, the only thing in these facilities anyone needs to fear…… is you. As you could probably gather, the main gameplay itself doesn’t differ too much from other FPS games at the time, but it manages to innovate and be exciting in many other ways, such as with the graphics, the music, the levels, the puzzles, the annihilation at hand, and many more.

There are a lot of video games out there that are all about starting at the essentials, getting better through getting stronger and getting new equipment, and being able to thwart any evil force that stands in your way, and Doom is one of the best examples of this that I have ever seen. You start out with a mere pistol, which is enough to handle what is thrown at you at the beginning, but as you keep going, you find more weapons, more ammo, more powerups, and enemies everywhere you look, and if you play your cards just right, you can end up absolutely decimating hordes of demons with the right tools, and it feels oh so sweet whenever you do so. In addition, the weapons you use are just as sweet as the gameplay itself, with there being many you can obtain like shotguns, rocket launchers, a plasma rifle, a chaingun, and without a doubt, the best weapon in the game, the BFG 9000, or as we all know it as, the Big FUCKING Gun. This baby can be used to absolutely obliterate enemies and it makes bosses absolute jokes, and that is why I will forever love it until the day I die.

Aside from the main campaign though, there are several multiplayer modes that you can try out as well, such as the co-op gameplay where you and others can run through the campaign together, and your typical deathmatch, where you can fight against a group of friends until you or one of them comes out on top as the ultimate Doom Slayer. I myself don’t typically play multiplayer modes in FPS games, except for FPS games that have nothing but multiplayer modes, but hey, if you ever wanted to experience classic Doom with your friends, there you have it.

I really don’t have any huge issues with the original Doom, or at least, none that bring down the game as a whole. Even from the beginning, they had a solid formula that could be improved upon further and made even better in future games. But, if I had to get extremely nitpicky, I guess you could find the gameplay to be pretty repetitive. There isn’t much else that you will be doing through the entire game other then going through these levels and slaughtering demons, which is all good in my book, but if you are the type who wants more variety in their games, and different guns and demons just won’t cut it, then you probably won’t get too invested in this. In addition, obviously, future games would take what was established here and improve upon it even further, which does make this game feel somewhat hard to come back to, but the core gameplay is still solid enough to the point where I don’t really even care about that. It is still classic Doom at its bloody, demonic core, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Overall, despite being repetitive and not having too much over other installments, the original Doom is still an incredible FPS from the early 90s, and a great way to start off what would become one of the most iconic and legendary FPS franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are Doom fans, as well as fans of FPS games in general, because if you somehow haven’t played this game yet, then… what are you waiting for? Besides, it's available on all modern platforms, and not just video game consoles either! You can play it in your car, on your smart fridge, on your microwave, and you can even play Doom INSIDE of Doom! Hell, I would say that, if you managed to somehow implant a screen into the palm of your hand, and you managed to load up the game in there, you could play Doom on your hand as well. That is just the magic of Doom, folks.

Game #399

Slightly exposing my age here, but Doom 1 is the first game I’m reviewing that out-ages me. I knew going in it had a reputation of being the first person shooter in a pre-Half Life world & that intrigued me whether this reputation was overstated looking through a current day lens or it has aged like wine.

To probably not many people’s shock - this game definitely is on “Age like wine” side of things. For somebody who grew up with fully 3D shooters, Doom 1 is without a doubt a more primitive presentation compared to later games in the same genre, but during my playtime I didn’t feel its simplification was much of a hindrance. You cannot aim directly where you want, but the hitbox still is quite generous to make up for this.

…And that’s really my only thing that took me a bit of time to get used to, but otherwise Doom 1 holds up fantastically & there’s a ton to like. The levels are sprawling & generally really well designed - filled with lots of hidden secrets that generally are worth trying to find if you’re willing to go for some extra challenge. Gameplay is superb, it just feels punchy/intense & does a great job supporting wanting to dive head first into your enemies instead of being overly cautious. Guns are varied, enemy variety is solid, etc.

Heck I’ll also mention another thing that really caught me off guard in a positive way. I had never heard before going into Doom 1 that enemy infighting was a thing, so that really surprised me! It makes the game feel alive that enemies also react/take eachother out on occasion. Even if it wasn't a super common occurrence it really put a smile on my face the odd times it happened.

If I had to give 1 complaint though it probably would be later levels become a bit too infested with enemies. Not to an outrageous degree, but for me it was just slightly noticeable where I started questioning if it was becoming excessive. Though otherwise I can definitely wholeheartedly recommend Doom 1. Might be a 31 year old game by now, but damn is it a great time even nowadays.

Can't believe I was even allowed to make an account on this website having never completed even the first episode of this until today smh.

1/3rds of this game being given away completely free on launch AND id making the game completely open source just 4 years after launch is an act of kindness that the games industry has never repeated on this scale ever again.

Like the weirdo mishmash of painted textures, stock art, fun stop motion dudes and G.I. Joe figures that people thought was Mussolini's corpse.

Um clássico absoluto.

Doom é um dos jogos que me introduziu à tecnologia. Praticamente aprendi a mexer no computador só pra jogar Doom.

Apesar de hoje ser conhecido apenas por ser o pai dos boomer shooters, Doom deu início à popularização do gênero FPS, e também à comunidade de modding pela internet (há novos WADs até hoje).

Quem está acostumado com os FPS atuais pode estranhar a ausência da mira vertical e também do ADS, mas pega o jeito rapidinho e ainda é divertidíssimo!

O fator terror continua presente mesmo hoje em dia. Jogar os mapas que têm corredores escuros usando fones, é susto na certa.

A música da primeira fase é um dos melhores temas de todos, que delícia de track.

Parece que esse jogo nunca vai envelhecer.

Somehow I managed to spend 30 years of gaming and not getting around to playing Doom and that is a damn shame. I can confidently say that the Grand Father of the FPS genre is still a very enjoyable game to play in 2023. I was surprised at how many puzzles were in the levels. I always just imagined Doom as just a point A to B straight line kill em all but the puzzles and the bangin sound track kept levels fresh all the way through. The weapons were varied and fun to use even though i basically just used the shotgun and the plasma gun 95% of the time. If I would have played this when it first came out I feel like my nostalgia for it would be unreal and it would probably have been one of my favorite games growing up.

If you are someone that has never played this game but wanted to but also wasn't sure how it held up do youself a favor and try it out.

O pai do gênero FPS.

Esse daqui é um dos jogos que envelheceram MUITO bem. Doom apresenta um level design simplesmente brilhante, e um jogo de 93 que permanece desafiador até hoje merece um reconhecimento.

Olhando para época que o jogo saiu é compreensível entender o motivo dele literalmente roubar a cena. Doom consegue unir bem o ritmo frenético de tiroteio + puzzles desafiadores e bem pensados (Cada fase é muito bem feita, cheia de detalhes e segredos).

Diferente do Doom 64 que zerei semana passada, aqui no primeiro Doom a trilha sonora é UMA DELICIA (As músicas das fases dão um clima absurdo pro game).

(O Boss final desse game não é NADA comparado com o Boss final do Doom 64).

PRÓS:
- Level design satisfatório.
- Ótima trilha sonora.

CONTRAS:
- Mapa caótico.

Along with it being a genre-defining landmark of the first-person shooter genre, the birthplace of speedrunning, and a haven for a mod community that is thriving to this day, John Romero's Doom is also known for the slew of game consoles, calculators, thermostats, and pregnancy tests that it has been ported to both officially and unofficially, and while I did like how this gave me a ton of options to choose from when I decided to finally give the game a shot, it also made actually settling on one somewhat difficult due to how different some of these versions are. Initially, I played up to the 14th mission using the Doom 32X Resurrection hack of the Sega 32X port, but since that version wouldn't let me make any kinds of saves for some reason, I decide to cut out the middle man and play the original MS-DOS version after wrapping my head around how DOSBox worked (although not before accidentally downloading and playing through the shareware version). This was a very good decision on my part, as it meant that I got to play this awesome game the way that it was originally intended to be played, and I had an absolute blast while doing so.

Even with all of the innovations that have come to first-person shooters over the years, Doom is still as fun of a game as it's ever been in part due to its simplicity. Whether you're blasting the armies of Hell away with a shotgun, ripping them apart with a chainsaw, or decimating them with the iconic BFG 9000, the combat in Doom is consistently hectic, thrilling, and satisfying, and that applies to both the power fantasy moments of turning waves of demons into assortments of gory pastes and the more tense encounters where you're low on health and ammo and need to make every shot count. There were several times in my playthrough where I was so invested in the game's action that I was literally ducking and dodging my head in real life whenever an Imp's hell-fire or a Cacodemon's ball-lighting came my way, and I feel like that sums up just how fun this game is to play. Doomguy's blisteringly fast running speed not only made maneuvering around enemy attacks and even tricking them into fighting each other by luring them out feel responsive, but it also helped with the game's moments of exploration, as each level is filled to the brim with secrets that lead you to ammo dumps, powerups, and even hidden levels. Doom also features some immensely charming presentation, as the 2.5D blend of nightmarish 2D sprites and 3D environments ranging from futuristic military bases on the moons of Mars to the fleshy, rugged terrain of Hell were a great match for both Bobby Prince's blend of blood-pumping metal and ominous ambient music and the humorous text crawls that show up at the end of each chapter.

Before I got into Doom, one of my biggest worries about the game was that I would spend most of it just trying to look for where I was supposed to go next due to how often I've heard people make that exact criticism, but thankfully, that rarely ever happened. Because all of the halls and rooms in each level end up either looping back to a central hub or overlapping with each other, I pretty much never got lost (especially with how the corpses I'd leave in my wake ended up serving as markers for where I had already been), and I rarely even checked the in-game map because of how distinct every area felt. I will say that I wasn't that big of a fan of the more open levels that showed up later on, though, because while they were still good, the amount of empty space that they featured made them a lot less interesting to navigate than the rest of the game's levels. Despite this, Doom was still a fantastic first-person shooter that aged incredibly well, and not only am I excited to check out Doom II and Doom 64, but I also want to try out a few more of the earlier boomer shooters such as Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, and Blood as well.

It definetely is Doom (1993).
Yeah this rocks even 30 years later, it's amazing how well they nailed everything at ID almost on the first go while basically inventing one of my favorite genres of gaming (sorry to the 3 people that like Wolf3D, you can paypal your hard earned money if you really want me to play it because I feel nothing towards that game and have no desire to replay it. I guarantee no playthrough tho, I just want to get Soldier of Fortune on GoG). Really, gramgram hasn't aged a bit in those three decades and I was surprised to find out how short it really is, about 4 hours on ultra-violence while doing little secret hunting. Yeah I'm one of those that doesn't really care for secrets, high scores never really got to me as a kid so I was never much of a completionist.

Please, play this thing, it's really as good as that one friend you have that you know it's a freak because they always have some knowledge on whatever you're talking about with them says.

On to Sigil

This is one of the earliest games I remember playing as a kid, and BOY did it leave an impression. It's obviously not the first FPS game, but it is probably the most successful of the earliest in the genre and remains one of the very best. It is a smooth, simple game that has some of the best level design in gaming. All of the weapons are cool, the enemy design is incredible, and the FPS genre owes so much to everything this game pioneered. Special kudos to the music and sound design--that door opening/closing noise lives in my head rent free.

I played this on my Xbox One S, but there was no platform option on my console, so the Xbox 360 was close enough.

I loved playing through Doom and I absolutely ADORE the soundtrack. I am definitely adding this to my Spotify playlist. I would give it a 5/5, however 1) sometimes on the easiest difficulty, I found it quite hard (but this is more of a skill issue 😆), and 2) I want to keep 5/5 rated games as my absolute favourites of all time.

I really need to play Doom II, 3, 64, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal now... I am HOOKED!

Shockingly good. This is only an 8 out of 10 due to a few levels (mostly in the later half of the game) that really annoyed me, particularly e4m2 (fuck the platforming) and e4m6 (fuck lava floors), which felt designed that upon first run through you'd be out of heals and die. While e2m6 has the benefit of once you know what to do its fine, e4m2 really just...sucked.

I definitely plan on replying this one day with a secrets guide, and could easily see myself trying to beat levels faster and faster. The fact that a game from the early 90s is better than most games coming out today blows my mind.

Todos los shooters son bastardos, y si alguien lo niega, te está mintiendo.

Ahora bien, partiendo de ser un cagón y un negado en este tipo de juegos, las primeras impresiones tras jugar a 'Doom' por primera vez en mi vida fueron bastante positivas. Esperaba algo porculero, petado de enemigos, un tanto cringe considerando como era la esfera satánica de los 90s, y un montón de sucias trampas para hacerte sentir el pavor del infierno. 'Knee-Deep in the End' no es nada de eso, sino una primera campaña muy acogedora, accesible, y altamente rejugable por la dulce curva de dificultad que propone. Poco a poco introduciendo nuevos enemigos, mapas con una geometría más compleja, más armas, áreas secretas, etc. 'Doom' se siente como una aventura más que un carrusel de profanaciones y demonios aterradores, te anima a aprovechar las coberturas y la mirilla exageradamente generosa que tiene tu armamento, te llama a buscar secretos entre sus paredes en busca de armas con mayor capacidad destructora, el juego que hace con luces intermitentes está muy bien aprovechado también para alterar el gameplay. Aun siendo un episodio tenebroso, su atmósfera parece más caricaturesca dada la amplia variedad de colores y que los sprites de algunas criaturas son bastante básicas como para espantar a nadie (aunque quizá la sociedad se haya insensibilizado hasta que lo anormal de 'Doom' nos parece tibio de violencia).

El carácter survival eleva la experiencia a otro nivel, siempre y cuando puedas manejarte por las profundidades que conducen al mismo infierno. En ese sentido, conforme el juego va ganando en intensidad y las horas de enemigos van creciendo en número y peso, el pavor es inevitable que surja en algún momento y las grietas de su jugabilidad sean más evidentes. En 'The Shores of Hell', el diseño de niveles adopta formas laberínticas y coloca más puertas que sólo pueden traspasarse con 1-2-3 llaves, naturalmente rodeadas de trampas que se activarán en el momento exacto que obtienes el objeto en cuestión (¡qué casualidad!). Estas emboscadas pasan a ser algo más a lo que acostumbrarse, los jumpscares son más recurrentes, e incluso los ruidos que hacen los monstruos (que resultan hasta cómicos durante el primer episodio) consiguen que tus piernas tiemblen antes de tomar la iniciativa al pulsar un interruptor, al abrir una puerta. La munición empieza a escasear, y si por algún casual mueres y tienes que reiniciar el nivel de cero, es mucho más difícil progresar con el inventario vacío de salida. 'Doom' aquí deja de percibirse como algo placentero o que transmite vibes de frac y cervecita, sino como un legítimo desafío que conviene tomarse en serio para terminar la partida.

No sé si hasta cierto punto, 'Doom' prefiere perder su enfoque como padre del boomer shooter y el 3D contemporáneo, buscando ser más sádico con el jugador en las fases más avanzadas de la aventura. 'Inferno' trata de exprimir los límites del cerebro de Carmack (un capullo de manual) con fases más abiertas, más propensas a ser flanqueado de enemigos en todas las direcciones. Forzando a que el jugador transcurra por lava y superficies tóxicas que hacen pupa, escondiendo salidas en rincones que no podrías visualizar en la cabeza, multiplicando puntos de teletransporte para que no sepas muy bien hacia dónde dirigirte (si bien la función de mapeado y sus gráficos vectoriales es estupenda). La motivación de seguir es un poco lo de menos, y el factor supervivencia reina por la aparente imposibilidad de doblegar a todos y cada uno de los demonios que tienes delante. Así que sí: 'Doom' terminó convirtiéndose en aquella pesadilla que imaginaba al principio. No en vano, el camino hacia el infierno no deja de ser un canto a la desesperación y la locura de aquellos que se creen sabedores de sus horrores.

Una cosa no quita la otra: jugar a 'Doom' te hace reflexionar sobre la capacidad de asombro que tiene el videojuego contemporáneo. Para ser una obra con +30 años de antigüedad, 'Doom' ha soportado muy bien el paso del tiempo y se mantiene como un juego muy intuitivo e impactante desde el primer balazo. Su banda sonora y la mayor parte de sus diseños artísticos siguen molando mucho, la gente detrás del juego quizá no tanto. Al mismo tiempo, el 'Doom' original parece existir en una realidad paralela cuya influencia no parece tan latente en el triple A moderno, aquel que necesita recrearse en su presentación y ser quisquilloso hasta la saciedad para que su jugabilidad se sepa genuina. Lo tenemos todo muy visto y es difícil que algo nos sorprenda. Pero 'Doom' fue único cuando salió al mercado y parte de su encanto parece recluido en esa extraña proyección 3D en la que fue concebido, y que inspiraría a tantos desarrolladores a posteriori. Es un juego especial y ha sido muy bonito descubrirlo, aunque personalmente no sea mi tipo, ni tenga mucha intención de probar otros juegos por el estilo.

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[Esta reseña viene de la versión remasterizada en PC que Bethesda e id Software publicaron en 2018. No he tocado el episodio extra 'Thy Flesh Consumed', añadido en posteriores ediciones del juego. No creo que hubiese alterado mi visión del juego, de todos modos.]