Rating: 
Summary: Still my favorite game of all time!
Review: I really only bought this pack for the Doom 3 trailer and screen shots that come with it (which are outstanding, by the way), but I went ahead and installed the older games as well. When I started playing the original Doom again I got kind of nostalgic and said to myself "what the hell," and played through the entire library. This took me right back to my junior high school days. This was really the very first computer game I ever truly got interested in. Anything before this was just silly kid games that I never really stuck with for more than a few hours. Examples: Super Boulder Dash, Threshold, Paratrooper, Number Munchers, etc. Nintendo and Sega don't count. Those aren't computer games. They are "Entertainment Systems," and since then I've grown to abhor such things, but I digress. Most of the computer games that I had a casual association with were severely dated even back then. So, one day I went over to a friends house and saw my friends father playing this game, and I was absolutely transfixed by what I was seeing. I didn't even know there WERE such games of this type until I saw it being played. That is, games from the first person perspective. I had always wanted to see a game of that type, and I creamed my jeans when I finally saw one. So, I waited for my friends father to go to work, and then I started playing it myself. Needless to say, I was addicted from the word go. My friend wouldn't have been able to pry me away from that computer with the jaws of life and a pair of oven mitts. My number one recurring thought was "just bring me a bed pan, and a case of Snapple and I could probably sit here and play this game non-stop until I've beaten it." I would have done just that too, if my mom hadn't finally called and said to me "It's after midnight. Get your @$$ home." I didn't stay away long, though. I was back in front of that computer right after school the next day, and I was there everyday after that until I conquered all of the first three episodes. On "I'm too young to die," mind you. Then I played it again. This time on "Nightmare." That took me a little longer to beat, but I still made it.
Yep, those were the good old days. In fact this game may be the one thing that kept me from slashing my g*ddamn wrists during my painful adolescence. Junior high was a nightmare, and oftentimes this game was my only refuge from the horrors of seventh and eighth grade life.
Obviously the game is totally out dated now. What with all the new computer hardware and software out there, and the ungodly AI capabilities that most game engines have today. But whenever I get overwhelmed by the system requirements of today's gaming market, I like to just load up Doom and relive my youth. Blowing off the heads of zombies, and pretending that they are my teachers and so forth. Ah, that's mighty fine. So, if you have never played a first person shooter in your life, and want to get a look at where it all started this is a nice place to start. At less then $20.00 it's a steal. Since this game contains Doom, Doom 2, Thy Flesh Consumed, and Final Doom. Four games that would have gone for about $45.00 each back when they were new. Not to mention the fact that the CDROM includes a nice preview of Doom3, as well. Great collectors item, great gift, great stuff, great everything.
Rating: 
Summary: No denying it
Review: I'll be briefSure--
---The graphics are pixelled and outdated-----
---The control style hurts (no mouse)
---There's no dialogue or cinema
---The music is cheesy at times
---The story is paper thin
---It's technically incompetent by today's standards But I'll tell you what, in spite of all this, when you play DOOM, there's no escape the overwhelming feeling that your playing a classic, one of the best games ever made. Without the reward of fancy ending cinematics (just some hammy dialogue and a painting) or in-game movies or other humans, this is a satisfying experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasted opportunity
Review: I'm a big Doom fan, and I'm glad to see it back on the shelves in any form, but this bundle is nothing more than a wasted opportunity. It's The Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom thrown onto a CD with some PDFs instead of tangible manuals. That's it. No extras, no features, no new levels, no new anything. Generally "Collector's Edition"s have some sort of exclusive content which help justify their name; this package would be more accurately described as "Repackaged Edition." To make this a worthwhile purchase, Activision could have done any number of things. They could have included the Master Levels; that's an omission I just can't understand, since they're not available in retail anymore and the CD certainly has lots of extra space. They could have included the early alphas and beta versions of Doom to show what the game looked like during its development. They could have included any of the Doom posters which were made, or a pewter Doom-monster figurine, or an updated version of the Book of id which was included in the id Anthology package years ago, or scans of concept drawings for the game, or, most notably, any of the new Windows or hardware-accelerated versions of the Doom executable which have been made since the source code was released years ago. Sadly, the package has none of these. If you've never played any of the Dooms, then this certainly is worth buying simply because it's cheap. For people like me who own the games, however, it is nothing more than a waste of twenty bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: A newcomer's point of view
Review: I'm a late bloomer to the Doom phenomonon. My previous experience with the game consisted of playing the shareware version of the first game when I was eight years old, and playing bits and pieces of Doom 2 at a friends house. Other then that, I have not played the Doom games. But when I saw the box containing all three games for only fifteen dollars, I decided, "What the heck?" And bought the games to try them out. My first impressions are recorded below.
Ultimate Doom:
The origianal game. I started up a new game and started blasting through the martian base. The first thing I noticed was the re-made music. When I first played shareware Doom, the music creeped me out. Here, it's too rock-n-roll for my tastes, getting rid of the suspenseful tunes. Aside from that, I was having fun killing everything in sight. The first high moment was when I confronted the Cyber-Demon in the tower of Babel (quite cool). By episode three, I was starting to notice that the levels were all acting the same. Kill beasts, find key cards, escape level, repeat. I was dissapointed by the severe lack of any kind of story. I decided that the first game was OK, but it desperatly needed any kind of story. The fourth episode, Thy Flesh consumed was hard, and a bit disapointing.
Doom 2:
After finishing Doom 1, I immediatly jumped into Doom 2 and started playing. But by level 2, I was very dissapointed. Find key cards, blast enemies, escape level, repeat. It was exactly the same as the first game. I was quite dissapointed until I watched a screen with text telling me about what was going on. Delighted that ID was trying to tell a story, I continued blasting through the game, eager to see how the story would turn out. Doom 2 does have more memorable moments then the first game. My favorites included fighting ten hell knights and a cyberdemon all at once, and fighting the cyber demon and the final boss of the first game at the same time! There were a few annoying levels near the end, but the final confrentation with the games final boss was amazing. I also liked that after you won the game, you got to kill all the charachters endlessly for your amusent. My final analysis was that while it was essentially "More of the same", it did offer some nice changes in scenery and the attempts at an actual story were well appreciated. But some of the music was awful. Some of the tracks sounded like tropical music, which does not fit into the game!
Final Doom:
Oh man, I gave up after dying the tenth time on the first level while playing on the easiest difficulty level. This chapter was way too hard, and I have yet to complete it. I did cheat my way to the last level, which was pretty cool (Fancy fighting off seven cyber demons at once?)
Doom 3 preview content:
I only browsed this stuff for about ten minutes before quitting. A bunch of screenshots you've seen before, three wallpapers that are OK, and a non frightening trailer. I liked the creepy sound effect that played when you switched menus.
Final analysis:
These games are fun, but the simplistic gameplay gets annoying after a while. There were lots of moments where I had no clue where to go next. I think a "Go here" feature would be nice to have in case you get hopelessly lost (it would be optional of course). The graphics were OK, but I just focus on gameplay (which I think is more important then graphics). I dont think there was a single moment where I got scared. A bit creeped out, but never scared outright. These pixelated beasts are not very threatening in todays world of frighteningly realistic beasts in movies and games. My first impressions of Doom is that it's getting a bit old, but still has its charms and of course, lots of demon killing action. And face it, getting three full length games for under twenty dollars is a very hard bargin to beat. I recommend this set for anyone who loves the origianl games and want to have them all in one set.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Gaming expirience
Review: If you are looking for the game that started all the first person shooters, look no further than DOOM. I just recently bought this, and I love it. I have been a DOOM fan scince 93', and cant get enogh of it.
I like all the new fps games games too like Halo and James Bond, but I think I'll stick to the classics.If you like this game then I suggest you check out the four books they have also.
Rating:
Summary: It's Doom for cryin' out loud:)
Review: It's Doom, such a great game. They aren't going to improve the graphics because that would be like changing the traditions of a family. This game was once the greatest game on Earth, and there is still some influence of that today. Back then people could't turn on a PS2 and play some high powered shooter or go online with Xbox, they had Doom to come home to when they came home from work/school. It was some peoples life back then, and this celebrates their hardships as they passed through each level, hoping that the next one will be even more challenging. I hope you think of that the next time you play Doom.
Rating:
Summary: Well it's Doom...
Review: My title says it all. This game was one of the high points of my childhood. I remember playing the orginal Doom at a friends house when I was about 7, and then rushing home to download the shareware version with my dad, saving up my money, and buying the full version of The Ultimate Doom. I still have that CD. It's better than this.
Pros: All 3 Doom games in one package.
Only $10 (At Wal-Mart, it's $15 elsewhere)
Doom 3 trailers, but then again, Doom 3 has been out for months now, so it's hardly necessary
Cons: No special jewel case
No manuals
No special add-ons, new software, or information
Only 1 CD. I would have preferred a different CD for each game
Nothing extra. NOTHING.
This package could have been a lot better if it had contained the following: Jewel cases, multiple CD's, extra information on the Doom series, mods, and manuals. I would have gladly paid $50 for it.
I'm also having some trouble installing it. I have an orginal Pentium that I tried installing it on, but apparantly I need Direct X 8. For what, I have no idea, but it won't support it. Beware if you want to play on an older PC. I installed it on my Windows XP machine, and I can't even get the mouse to work. Also, I beleive that the Doom 95 Interface is complete crap. It's way of launching games has never worked for me, and the backgrounds of my desktop often bleed through.
One other problem. The music sounds a lot tinnier than I remember it. Maybe I'm remembering wrong... but it sounded so much nicer before.
In the end, it's worth the $10 I spent on it, but it could have been so much more.
Rating:
Summary: The best game ever made - period!
Review: Of course you have to take a step back to the time it was published, but for the time period it was released it was the most revolutionary game ever made. Wolfenstein 3D came out first, and it was a good game, but did any game make you jump out of your seat like Doom? Plus, at the time it came out - what was the competition? Commander Keen? Epic Pinball? Doom was the first game that compelled people to rush out and buy a computer - simply for the purpose of playing this game! Remember kiddies, there was no such thing as 3D acceleration when this game came out. In fact, video cards were rarely looked at when purchasing a computer. Now aside from processor power, it's probably the most important piece of hardware gamers look at. Before Doom came out, the PC wasn't even considered a viable gaming platform. That's saying a lot! Don't forget, Id Software also revolutionized the entire idea of shareware. Companies like Apogee pioneered the idea but they included maybe one level of a game in their shareware. Id was the first to distribute shareware that was good enough to be considered a game in itself. The entire first episode was given out - for free! By the time you were finished, you *had* to buy the remaining two levels. It turned the gaming industry's arrogant "no return" policy on its head. Decision to purchase a game was (finally) based on the strength of the demo instead of slick ads or clever packaging. It's a bummer this contains "only" Doom. As this was a DOS game, I would suggest Activision (Id or whoever owns the license now) come up with a real collector's bundle containing Doom, Doom 2, the Master Levels, etc... and revamp the startup software so it'll run good on current PC's. If they were really ambitious, they could even revamp the game to allow internet play. That said, Doom is the best PC game ever made, not only for the game itself but for its impact on the computer industry.
Rating:
Summary: Doom collectors edition review
Review: Ok, this is quite simple :)
I first played doom and doom 2 when they came out all those years ago and I was hooked from the word go. Over the years. . like many I suspect I misplaced the original disks and recently decided to play the games again as in a few months I will be able to play Doom 3.
One of the things I remember about the Doom series is the music. . it set a great atmosphere. On playing this particular format I noticed that the music had changed. In the configuration I was only able to set the number of channels for the game music, sound effects etc. There was no way to select the appropriate sound card option i.e Ad Lib sound blaster or pc speaker.
The game instead comes with this horrible very un tributery old bit like sound that you cannot associate with a sound card. Not only that but on opening the box all I actually saw were two disks in a plastic case. Ok, it only cost me 16 dollars but I would at least expect to find some form of manual. For this reason I cannot give this version the five stars that it deserves for being a real masterpeice of a 3d shooter.
I do not recommend this one to anyone unless they are prepared to either listen to the music that this game offers or like me are prepared to go without music.
Rating:
Summary: DOOM revisited..
Review: One of the greatest video games of all time has finally resurfaced in the incarnation of a greatest hits bundle, one CD features a little DOOM 3 teaser with some screenshots, wallpapers, interviews with creators and a trailer just to drive you nuts, in the other disc is the three games, Ultimate DOOM, DOOM 2, and Final DOOM, through these three great games we see the evolution of the mechanics, in Ultimate DOOM there is more of a shoot-em'-up, tag em' and bag em' kind of feel to it, DOOM 2 sees a more of a puzzle side to the DOOM series with some tough challenges, Final DOOM sees the fusion of Ultimate DOOM and DOOM 2, creating the ulitmate destructive experience..
I reccomend this collectors addition to amatures as well as veterans to DOOM and at $9.95 it is a bargain you can't beat!
|
