Doom turns 20 today

[Teoes]

Pretty sure it's something TB mentions in that video linked above, but it's pretty sad in this day and age that a game like Doom/Brutal Doom feels refreshing and perhaps even revelatory; what with trusting the player to manage health resources, more than two weapons and sprawling maps.

Cheat codes? Secret areas? KEY CARDS? What is this, the 1990s?

Oh wait.

Happy Birthday Doom, you fabulous bastard!

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I can already hear E1M1 in my head. Where's my shotgun?
After playing The Stanley Parable for a while I feel some violence is in order!

 

[Poppy JR.]

Happy Birthday Doom!

 

[Signa]

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

You could look at it like that, but then you miss the important things, the things that gives fps games depth like: Enemy types/ Enemy behaviour, Weapons and level design. Doom has very complex level design that gives the game massive depth because of the way it influences the players relationship with the enemies. Then there's the small things like staggering, where the timing is different for each enemy, this is incredebly important on high difficulties.

Depth isn't reloading and headshots, that's realism, one of the many things that helped turn the fps genre as simple as it is nowadays.

 

[Signa]

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

You could look at it like that, but then you miss the important things, the things that gives fps games depth like: Enemy types/ Enemy behaviour, Weapons and level design. Doom has very complex level design that gives the game massive depth because of the way it influences the players relationship with the enemies. Then there's the small things like staggering, where the timing is different for each enemy, this is incredebly important on high difficulties.

Depth isn't reloading and headshots, that's realism, one of the many things that helped turn the fps genre as simple as it is nowadays.

Oh, don't think I'm trying to be insulting to Doom for lacking that complexity. Casual games can be very legitimate games, despite lacking complexity. The word casual just gets associated with a lot of games that aren't very legitimately deep or good. It's a rare and beautiful thing when a game like Doom manages to strike both demographics simultaneously.

Plants Vs Zombies is a great modern example of a deep casual game. The choices and tactics you use are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but it still offers a lot of depth for the hard core players. Doom is exactly the same way.

 

[the December King]

Happy BFG day, Doom!

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Just as old as me and my first fps on the Playstation.
Man I loved that game. I think I still have my old disc for it. I feel the urge to play it now...

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

So it's getting the drinks in then? It's old enough to pay its own way now

 

[MrBaskerville]

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

You could look at it like that, but then you miss the important things, the things that gives fps games depth like: Enemy types/ Enemy behaviour, Weapons and level design. Doom has very complex level design that gives the game massive depth because of the way it influences the players relationship with the enemies. Then there's the small things like staggering, where the timing is different for each enemy, this is incredebly important on high difficulties.

Depth isn't reloading and headshots, that's realism, one of the many things that helped turn the fps genre as simple as it is nowadays.

Oh, don't think I'm trying to be insulting to Doom for lacking that complexity. Casual games can be very legitimate games, despite lacking complexity. The word casual just gets associated with a lot of games that aren't very legitimately deep or good. It's a rare and beautiful thing when a game like Doom manages to strike both demographics simultaneously.

Plants Vs Zombies is a great modern example of a deep casual game. The choices and tactics you use are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but it still offers a lot of depth for the hard core players. Doom is exactly the same way.

Ah i see the issue, we define Hardcore/Casual very differently (which isn't strange, considering how ill defined those terms are). Now i see where you are coming from and from that perspective i would agree.

 

[Signa]

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

You could look at it like that, but then you miss the important things, the things that gives fps games depth like: Enemy types/ Enemy behaviour, Weapons and level design. Doom has very complex level design that gives the game massive depth because of the way it influences the players relationship with the enemies. Then there's the small things like staggering, where the timing is different for each enemy, this is incredebly important on high difficulties.

Depth isn't reloading and headshots, that's realism, one of the many things that helped turn the fps genre as simple as it is nowadays.

Oh, don't think I'm trying to be insulting to Doom for lacking that complexity. Casual games can be very legitimate games, despite lacking complexity. The word casual just gets associated with a lot of games that aren't very legitimately deep or good. It's a rare and beautiful thing when a game like Doom manages to strike both demographics simultaneously.

Plants Vs Zombies is a great modern example of a deep casual game. The choices and tactics you use are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but it still offers a lot of depth for the hard core players. Doom is exactly the same way.

Ah i see the issue, we define Hardcore/Casual very differently (which isn't strange, considering how ill defined those terms are). Now i see where you are coming from and from that perspective i would agree.

I don't hesitate to use that definition of casual either, but there really isn't a better word to use with a game like PVZ or Doom. Streamlined could work in some cases, but both games are somewhat pioneers in their genre (PvZ redefining a lot about tower games, and Doom being Doom.) so that doesn't really fit at all. To be streamlined, you need to be taking away unnecessary complexities from previous games. Aiming and reloading are more or less necessary, and at that time, no game had them for it to be removed from.

Woo! Break out the LAN cables and party like it's 1993!

I didn't catch this until now. What 1993 were you living in? Doom wasn't a LAN game! Not at that time at least.

 

[piinyouri]

I never actually played Doom itself, but I did play a couple of its clones (namely Hexen and Blood) which I enjoyed back in the day. Pretty solid stuff for its time.

Wait, is Hexen considered a clone?
I thought the same company made it, along with Heretic?

 

[FinalDream]

I didn't catch this until now. What 1993 were you living in? Doom wasn't a LAN game! Not at that time at least.

I'm sure it was four player on LAN back in '93. Then again it was a while ago so I could be wrong!

 

[DataSnake]

I never actually played Doom itself, but I did play a couple of its clones (namely Hexen and Blood) which I enjoyed back in the day. Pretty solid stuff for its time.

Wait, is Hexen considered a clone?
I thought the same company made it, along with Heretic?

Both were made by Raven, though with advice and playtesting from John Romero.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I never actually played Doom itself, but I did play a couple of its clones (namely Hexen and Blood) which I enjoyed back in the day. Pretty solid stuff for its time.

Wait, is Hexen considered a clone?
I thought the same company made it, along with Heretic?

Raven was ID Software light at the time, similar games with worse level design (culminating in Hexen 2, which features some of the worst level design of all time!). Heretic and Hexen

Man, I love me some Doom. After all these years, and the advancements that have come to the FPS genre, Doom still blows most games out of the water. I call it a casual shooter now, but it's far, far better than any other casual shooter that is hot on the market right now or in the last decade.

How is it casual? It demands more skill from the player than most other singleplayer games in the genre^^. Especially if you play Plutonia, that games is gruesome!

I miss games like Doom, i still hope that one day, someone manages to make spmething similar, the fps genre needs to be revived.

Casual games usually strip a lot of complex mechanics out. It's not entirely fair to call Doom striped down, but standard features we take for granted like aiming with a cross-hair, head shots, and reloading just didn't exist. Doom has you face and fire. It's the bare minimum for interactivity. Most of the time that's a bad thing, but in Doom, it keeps the game flowing at a faster pace shooters today wouldn't dream of achieving.

Back in it's day, Doom also had massive mainstream appeal, just like modern casual shooters. It was rumored that it was installed on more PCs than Windows in its heyday.

You could look at it like that, but then you miss the important things, the things that gives fps games depth like: Enemy types/ Enemy behaviour, Weapons and level design. Doom has very complex level design that gives the game massive depth because of the way it influences the players relationship with the enemies. Then there's the small things like staggering, where the timing is different for each enemy, this is incredebly important on high difficulties.

Depth isn't reloading and headshots, that's realism, one of the many things that helped turn the fps genre as simple as it is nowadays.

Oh, don't think I'm trying to be insulting to Doom for lacking that complexity. Casual games can be very legitimate games, despite lacking complexity. The word casual just gets associated with a lot of games that aren't very legitimately deep or good. It's a rare and beautiful thing when a game like Doom manages to strike both demographics simultaneously.

Plants Vs Zombies is a great modern example of a deep casual game. The choices and tactics you use are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but it still offers a lot of depth for the hard core players. Doom is exactly the same way.

Ah i see the issue, we define Hardcore/Casual very differently (which isn't strange, considering how ill defined those terms are). Now i see where you are coming from and from that perspective i would agree.

I don't hesitate to use that definition of casual either, but there really isn't a better word to use with a game like PVZ or Doom. Streamlined could work in some cases, but both games are somewhat pioneers in their genre (PvZ redefining a lot about tower games, and Doom being Doom.) so that doesn't really fit at all. To be streamlined, you need to be taking away unnecessary complexities from previous games. Aiming and reloading are more or less necessary, and at that time, no game had them for it to be removed from.

Woo! Break out the LAN cables and party like it's 1993!

I didn't catch this until now. What 1993 were you living in? Doom wasn't a LAN game! Not at that time at least.

I will sat though, with that defineation of the terms, almost every Fps ever made should be considered casual, with the exception of those that mix in rpg elements like System Shock or Deus Ex. Especially new fps games, as it doesn't get much more accesible than that.

 

[Something Amyss]

Just think. Twenty years and one day ago, crazy people didn't have video games as an excuse.

This topic makes me feel old.

As a side note, did anyone else read the four Doom novels? A few years back I stumbled upon them in an airport book store while I was waiting for a delayed flight. For video game novels they were actually pretty decent.

I read the first one. It was...Strange.

 

[piinyouri]

@MrBaskerville
@DataSnake

Ah okay, thanks for that clarification.
Was Hexen's (1) level design really that b-
*remembers the level "Seven Portals"*

Oh god you're right.....

OT: Awesome. I may boot up Doomsday and play some Doom 64 to celebrate.

 

[Generalissimo]

I think it's good to see that milestone classics are still being recognised today for their greatness. Hell, I might even go and get it just to try it.