Porting a game to a different console was not an easy task in the olden days. Cutbacks and sacrifices often had to be made in order to get it running. DOOM is a perfect example. Now it’s unlikely that anyone needs a copy-and-pasted diatribe about how DOOM revolutionized gaming for the better, or how fantastic the graphics, gameplay, soundtrack and modding tools are, even to this day. Thing is, it was only the PlayStation port by Williams Entertainment that was described by co-creator John Romero as the “best DOOM yet”, and aptly so.
The reason why it’s so important to me is because it was the first video game I ever played, and is still fun as hell to play today.
For years, I thought this was the original game. Imagine my surprise when I found the original on the PC.
DOOM packs in content from both The Ultimate DOOM and DOOM II: Hell on Earth. You arrive at a moon base on Mars, only to discover all Hell is literally breaking loose. Demons are roaming the halls, and the marines have been either massacred or turned into the undead. You need to fight your way through various military installations and even Hell itself on multiple occasions. Of course, games like this were never about the story, now matter how badass it may be.
In each level, your goal is to reach the exit in one piece, while killing everything in your way. While the level designs have been notably tweaked, with textures replaced or chunks of maps removed completely, what’s on offer is still very fun to traverse through. The same goes for the brilliant, console-exclusive missions that are packaged in alongside. Hunting for keys, dodging traps and exploring secret areas are key ingredients in DOOM, and thus remain untouched.
Even