We're all DOOMed

There isn't a gamer alive who hasn't heard of DOOM®. There are a lot of games out there that have made headlines, defined genres, and earned spots in the history books for creating whole new ways to play: Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Tetris. But DOOM changed all the rules, not only defining a genre, but changing the way we play, and what's more, changing who was playing.

The one, the only DOOM.

The History
Prior to 1994, video games were 'kid stuff', and with a few exceptions, were mostly consigned to consoles, which were bought, merchandised, and sold as toys. DOOM rearranged the whole business: Who was playing, how they played, and what they played on. Bankers, laywers, housewives, and truckers took one look at DOOM and had to play.

Much has already been said about the groundbreaking innovations that DOOM precipitated outside of the game itself: The shareware system of distribution that broke all the rules and still worked, or the much-publicized history of Id and the breakup of its two key personalities, John Carmack and John Romero.

You don't wanna mess with these guys.

Books have been written on the subject, and thousands of webpages filled with material, some apocryphal, some less so. Rather than bore you with the Wall Street details, we'll stick to what brought us here in the first place: The game. Or, more appropriately, The Game.

The Name of the Game
The title of the game came from John Carmack, who loved the scene in The Color of Money when Paul Newman, when asked what was in his ominous looking cue case, replied simply, "Doom." Carmack wanted to be able to make the same comment when opening a laptop running the game. The game that he and Id introduced to the rest of the world turned out to be far cooler than a clever one-liner.

Wolfenstein Roots
DOOM was not the first game of its kind, rather its predecessor, Castle Wolfenstein, could lay claim to that title. A successful FPS in its own right, Wolfenstein laid down many of the basic principles DOOM would later use. DOOM, could, however, claim the title of being the first game to truly set a mood through gameplay elements.

Truly Original
The basic gameplay of DOOM was modeled after Wolfenstein: Collect keys, kill enemies, progress through levels, etc. What DOOM did that no other game had done before was to scare the crap out of you. John Carmack played Christopher Columbus, giving gamers a world that was no longer flat. His coding was responsible for dynamic levels that rose and fell, and that had stairs and elevators.

These guys used to be on your side.

Dynamic lighting was also introduced in a way that had never been seen before, and in a way that still holds its own ten years later. A corridor itself isn't very intimidating, but add a badly flickering light, which often blacks out altogether, and the snorting growl of an unseen but approaching enemy, and you're suddenly getting very twitchy.

DOOM 's audio was also legendary, combining music and sound effects to create a perfect mood for the game. Driving metal, often reminiscent of Metallica's Master of Puppets alternated with a quietly ominous score. The growls of monsters, the chunk of a reloading shotgun, the whoosh of a fireball as it flies past your head, all these elements combined to draw in gamers like never before.

The Appeal
In DOOM you take on the role of a United Aerospace Corporation Marine sent to a station on one of Mars' moons to investigate reports of all hell breaking loose. You find that you are the last human in this mazelike warren, and as you fight your way through a complicated chain of levels, you encounter zombie Marines, fireball-hurling Imps, floating Cacodemons with giant mouths, and the Hellknight, a cyborg demon carrying a chaingun.

Starting with a simple handgun, you collect more and more lethal weapons as you progress, including a chainsaw and the fabled BFG (Big F*****g Gun). The game takes place over four episodes, each divided into a dozen or so levels. Each episode is played separately, telling another chapter in the story of your heroic Marine.

The monsters are on the prowl.

At the end of each level and episode you get a scorecard, giving you your time and par time for level completion, percentage of items collected and enemies killed, and the most maddening statistic, how many secrets you discovered. Many players go back over and over again, striving for that 'perfect' completion.

Deathmatch Goodness
DOOM 's success owes as much to its multiplayer mode as it does to the innovations it introduced. DOOM gave us the terms Deathmatch and frag, icons of the multiplayer scene. Anywhere two computers could be networked together: Dorms, offices, labs, could became a DOOM playground. Scientific studies have been conducted showing how many man hours DOOM stole from businesses. It was even demonstrated that the game had a negative impact on the stock market and our national productivity. Sysadmins and IT pros scoured computers looking for copies of DOOM to erase. Hopefully its home on Xbox 360™ will be safer.

Come to the Consoles
DOOM comes to the Xbox 360 for the first time, but this isn't the game's first sortie on consoles: DOOM was released for the Super NES, the Sega Genesis, the Atari Jaguar, even the Game Boy Advance. DOOM was even available on Xbox® through an available port on both DOOM® 3 and its sequel.

Nerve's new translation of DOOM for the Xbox Live® Arcade is, however, the first perfect home appearance of DOOM since it appeared on PCs, as for the first time remote multiplayer, via Xbox Live, is supported. Half of DOOM's appeal was the multiplayer, and now gamers can experience it the way it was meant to be, full screen, intimidating, visceral, and threatening.

DOOM also supports co-op play via Xbox Live as well. Strap on your headset and head into the UAC complex with your friends on backup, using voice chat to coordinate strategy, use of supplies, and combat tactics, making for a whole new game.

Earn a total of 200 points toward your gamerscore with unlockable achievements such as finishing each episode, clearing all the enemies in a level, or scoring 100 kills in multiplayer.

DOOM . Revisiting it or playing it for the first time, don't miss out. You'll find the game is as compelling, as gorgeous, as frightening, and as deadly as ever.

Article by Xbox Addict