Game Review: Doom II (Xbox LIVE)
Now the first-person shooter classic Doom II is available on Xbox LIVE. But how well does the 15 year old game hold up today? Read on to find out.
In comparison to today’s shooters, Doom 2 is as simple as it gets. Lots of run and gun with demons and monsters. You’ll wander through mazes and flip switches and pick up keycards to open doors and other passages. But mostly you just shoot monsters.
Controls translate well to the Xbox 360 controller, but greenhorns may be confused as to why you can’t aim up and down or jump. When an enemy is above, the game just auto-aims for you. It’s a challenging game, but luckily you can save whenever you want. Which is also good since it froze up on me a couple of times while playing.
Graphics remain unchanged, pretty basic by today’s standards but this was cutting edge back in the mid 90’s. You can play online via Xbox LIVE or with up to four nearby players on one split screen. While it may look and play dated, 800 points isn’t a bad price to pay to relive a classic shooter, if you’re into those sorts of games.
Kid Factor:
Doom II is rated M for Mature with ESRB descriptors of Blood and Gore and Violence. You do shoot demons and monsters who collapse in a bloody mess when you kill them, but the graphics are so pixilated it almost seems humorous now. When you get hurt, the face of your guy on the screen does get bloody looking, too.
Doom II was one of the big scapegoats back in the day, and was blamed for violent behavior in children and other farfetched claims. It was the Grand Theft Auto of its era. But time is the great tolerator and it doesn’t seem so bad as compared to some of today’s modern games. Even so, Doom II is best for older gamers. I would be OK with an older, mature teen playing this. Heck, I let my 17-year-old brother Jeff help me play this game for the review. He liked it pretty well and enjoyed the history lesson as to how popular shooters like Call of Duty and Halo got their roots.
May 30th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I played the first at a friend’s house, and it was a lot of fun, so I’ll pick this up at some point, although probably on Deal of the Week. I agree about the gore (based on my impressions from Doom 1), compared to modern stuff like Gears it just seems silly.
May 31st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
This is for 13 and up. Fun game, one of the first FPS ever made.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Doom was jaw droppingly gory and shocking for its time… but that time was 20 years ago. It does seem silly to consider it M today. Other that I’ll say thanks for the write-up Cary and tell all the kiddies out there to consider getting a copy of Doom on whatever system you’ve got. It’s the beginning of the FPS craze (yes, Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima Underworld were first, shut up) and easily the most influential game ever made. It created shareware, modding, deathmatch and a million other cliches. Plus, the game is just plain arcade-style fun.