actually bad. as someone who likes their fair share of old games, this one just sucks, mainly due to poor level design, and is only thought to be a masterpiece through the power of social inertia. i'm sure mods make it better, but we aren't reviewing mods.
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hello technovalkyrie. if anything spacial awareness would be a more helpful skill in doom 1's (at least relatively) labyrinthine levels, which i think are superior. im not sure how spacial awareness is going to help one on barrels o' fun or the other debug maps of doom 2. the earlier levels are fine, though.
doom's level design looks confusing if you glance at it from the minimap but e1 & e4 are deceivingly linear and e2 & e3 follow structures where they employ multiple branching paths to several key [!] landmarks - your taken route does not really matter and, with that knowledge in mind, they can be navigated quite easily [e3's two puzzle maps differ but they too are trivially difficult]. doom 2, with the [highly amusing] gimmick levels skipped, still has more levels than ultimate doom and far superior combat design to 'shoot at baron of hell until he dies' there-in
yes, that's why i said (parenthetically) "at least relatively", the levels are on the whole easy to navigate, as are most levels unless they're literally labyrinths (if even then). i don't consider more levels unquestionably good and i'm not exactly sure how doom ii's levels have better 'combat design' or what that even means. better combinations of enemies in the right places? i would have to replay both games but all i remember of doom ii was just "shoot at hell knight until he dies" (which at least for me is not necessarily an issue); it was hardly much different in combat, it's just the levels were more annoying to navigate and tended towards feeling like debug maps.
for one, a whole of 8 in-sequence maps in d1 is dedicated to mowing down low-health hitscan enemies eventful only on pistol start nm
for two, the enemy roster has matured extensively: d1's pool can be split into 3 categories of self-stunning slow hitscan, two melee enemies and three projective enemies with only differing amounts of health - all are fought with two tactics respectively, the 'shoot at hell knight until he dies' comment is reference to that, with other factors in play, all fights with one [!] such bulletsponge do not need more input from you than holding down the shoot button and very rarely strafing. this is good for nothing and the only way d1 levels could be made interesting are unrelated challenges of resource starvation and level navigation [e4m1, e4m2, e5]. no enemy in d1 asks of you to take consideration of your positioning in a fight and available fleeing routes, no enemy in d1 can take immediate meaningful priority in a fight, no enemy in d1 would require creatively cheezing their attack patterns [without berzerk] and actually traversing around the area of a fight. the flexibility d2 offers with its roster [demonstrated even better with plutonia] is alone what made it a neverdying game
for three, d1 does the worst possible job at utilizing even what little it has - to accomodate doom's poor optimization around the 486dx, mazes are not open enough allow for any interesting fights and high-tier enemies are used in values of one at a time and have equal value to roadblocks, worse if you have to shotgun them. in and of itself, d1 has not a single trap or setpiece memorable from a gameplay standpoint and deters to splotching lone enemies around the map carelessly and aimlessly. again, nothing in d1 at the very least matches the two fights on map06
for two, the enemy roster has matured extensively: d1's pool can be split into 3 categories of self-stunning slow hitscan, two melee enemies and three projective enemies with only differing amounts of health - all are fought with two tactics respectively, the 'shoot at hell knight until he dies' comment is reference to that, with other factors in play, all fights with one [!] such bulletsponge do not need more input from you than holding down the shoot button and very rarely strafing. this is good for nothing and the only way d1 levels could be made interesting are unrelated challenges of resource starvation and level navigation [e4m1, e4m2, e5]. no enemy in d1 asks of you to take consideration of your positioning in a fight and available fleeing routes, no enemy in d1 can take immediate meaningful priority in a fight, no enemy in d1 would require creatively cheezing their attack patterns [without berzerk] and actually traversing around the area of a fight. the flexibility d2 offers with its roster [demonstrated even better with plutonia] is alone what made it a neverdying game
for three, d1 does the worst possible job at utilizing even what little it has - to accomodate doom's poor optimization around the 486dx, mazes are not open enough allow for any interesting fights and high-tier enemies are used in values of one at a time and have equal value to roadblocks, worse if you have to shotgun them. in and of itself, d1 has not a single trap or setpiece memorable from a gameplay standpoint and deters to splotching lone enemies around the map carelessly and aimlessly. again, nothing in d1 at the very least matches the two fights on map06
perhaps you played the game(s) differently, or perhaps it is all blended together in my memory, because i do not remember a discrepancy in strategies encouraged/required for them. it's all just "circle strafe and shoot until they die". the arch-vile is a nice addition to the roster i suppose. maybe ill replay them.
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1 year ago