Doom, first released in 1993, is considered by many to be the grandfather of all modern shooters and arguably the most influential videogame of all time. No other has spawned as many clones, nor brought its genre into the mainstream to the same extent. Primarily the work of the five individuals (John & Adrian Carmack, John Romero, Kevin Cloud and Tom Hall), Doom expanded on the success of id Software’s prior hit, Wolfenstein 3D.
In Doom you play as a UAC marine, “Doomguy,” as you fight your way through the hordes of hell on a seemingly endless quest to stop the demonic monsters from invading our reality and exterminating human civilisation. Experiments with teleportation conducted by the UAC on Mars’ twin moons, Phobos and Deimos, resulted in them opening a gateway to hell, through which the demons arrived.
The invaders came in many forms; Imps, Demons, Spectres, Cacodemons, Lost Souls and Barons of Hell, plus the reanimated corpses of your former comrades. Leading the demonic forces are the Spider Mastermind and fearsome Cyberdemon. To stop them you have access to a powerful arsenal including your Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, Chainsaw and finally, the awesome BFG9000.
Ultimately, Doomguy would fight his way through the techbase corridors of the Phobos complex (“Knee-Deep in the Dead”) before teleporting to nearby Deimos, where the labs were showing more evidence of demonic conversion (“The Shores of Hell”). Finally he would find himself descending into Hell itself to put a stop to the threat, once and for all (“Inferno”).
Doom has five difficulties, though the two hardest provide different challenges. “Nightmare!” is considered the most difficult primarily due to the fact that the demons respawn when killed. This creates a situation where success is down to avoiding fights as much as it is killing demons. I’m playing on Ultra-Violence, the next step down. On this difficulty you are encouraged to fully explore the map, exterminate any demons you come across and discover all secrets. Doom tracks three statistics as you play; Enemies Killed, Items Collected and Secrets Found. This is a 100% Kills & 100% Secrets run, known as UV max. I achieve this in every level, except where it isn’t possible as I’ll explain in the relevant videos.
Doom has been ported to just about every system that has existed since its release in the 1990s. The original game famously sold more copies than even Windows, with “Can it run Doom?” being a running gag throughout its history. In these videos I’m playing “The Ultimate Doom” (store.steampow..., a re-release from 1995 that included a fourth episode and several minor changes. However, due to Doom’s age, for the best experience you should download a 3rd party sourceport that will better utilise modern hardware. I’m using GZDoom (zdoom.org/down...) which makes some minor quality of life improvements while remaining faithful to the original vision.
Ultimate Doom was released in 1995, two years after the original game. It was the first time all three original episodes were available together, having previously been released as separate episodes. Some minor alterations were made but for all intents and purposes, the Ultimate Doom is the same as the original. To entice people who might already own the originals to buy the new collection, a fourth episode named “Thy Flesh Consumed” was added to the game. This bridges the narrative gap between Inferno and Doom II. Thy Flesh Consumed is a significant ramp up in difficulty over the old episodes and contains what many consider to be some of the hardest levels of classic Doom.
If you enjoyed the video and want to see more classic Doom on my channel, consider checking out these playlists:
Doom: • Classic Doom (Ultimate...
The Ultimate Doom: Thy Flesh Consumed: • Playlist
Doom II: Hell on Earth: • Playlist
Playstation Doom: • Playlist
Doom II: No Rest for the Living: • Playlist
Master Levels for Doom II: • Playlist
Final Doom - TNT: Evilution: • Playlist
Final Doom - The Plutonia Experiment: • Playlist
Doom: Sigil: • Playlist
Doom 64: • Playlist
Doom 64: The Lost Levels: • Playlist
15 сен 2024
