¢DOOM - THE SPECIAL EDITION¢¢Doomed¢by Dan ODI Baverstock, 5/1/95.¢¢¢The Intro¢¢ As his gigantic, heaving, metalic firearm smoldered, large demonic creatures were turned from frightening beasts intent on ripping you limb from limb, into small piles of undercooked mince meat!¢¢ He was a quiet man. Violence wasn't his "cup of tea". He had never owned a gun let alone fired one. This, however, was about to change.¢¢ Lionel, quietly wandering home after a wild night of bridge with a few close mates at the O.A.P Community Centre, just happened to be strolling past the gates of hell when all of a sudden his mates were horrifically dismembered. Bones crunched, internal organs were hurled about the place. Severed heads stuck on poles and corpses strung from walls and ceilings.¢¢ Well, Lionel wasn't going to stand for this! His mates weren't going to die for nothing. After thinking long and hard he decided it was the only thing he could do. He would phone his local MP and complain!¢¢ After a peaceful nightsleep, Lionel got up bright and early and dialled the number... engaged... Oh well, time to fall back on plan B. Grabbing a few items and putting them in the back of his green Morris Minor (to name a few - a rusty old knuckle duster, a pistol, pump action shotgun, chain-gun, rocket-launcher, plasma-gun, BFG thunder rifle and not forgetting the chainsaw) he hopped in his car and drove to the gates of hell! (Popping into a self-service station to buy a Chicken Tikka sandwich on the way.)¢¢ O.K, so this is all made up, but it's not the intro you were expecting, was it?¢¢ As far as games go, DOOM is possibily one of the best games ever to come out of a programmer's brain. It oozes action, graphics, atmosphere and has an exiting element of puzzle-solving. It also has an exceptional amount of mince meat and tomato ketchup - or to put it another way - GORE!¢¢¢The Review¢¢ DOOM - THE SPECIAL EDITION is a first-person perspective game. In fact it is the first, first-person perspective game. You control the character, seeing the environment through his eyes in 3D.¢¢ Originally shareware (you could down load it from any PC BBS), the programmers, ID Software, decided they could do with the loads of cash Doom would inevitably make. It's now available in the shops.¢¢ Doom places you, a soldier (not Lionel!), smack bang in the middle of Hell. Using items scattered around the levels you simply have to survive long enough to figure out the hidden puzzles, collect keys to open doors and get to the exit. Trouble is, your journey takes you through the domain of Demonic creatures. Not your average-Joe, 'namby-pamby' demons either! We're talking zombie troops and sergeants, demons, imps (not small and cute, but rabid versions of Star Wars' Chubakka with spikes), lost souls, cacodemons (great one-eyed globs who like to belch fireballs) and the horrific Barons of Hell. These are giant satanic creatures who will kill you in two blows with green flame from their claws. They are the most frightening, letting you know of their presence with a mighty below and roar.¢¢ Strewn about the various locations are weapons, ammo packs, first aid kits, health potions, armour upgrades and the very handy berserk packs (explained later).¢¢ You can get up to 200% armour by collecting helmets and body vests. Your status panel indicates your ammo supply, health, keys found, armour percentage strength and weapons available. In addition to health percentages, your face is displayed. Depending on how bruised and bloody your face looks gives you an indication of how far from dying you are. He also moves his head when hit and looks in the attacking enemies direction.¢¢ The variety of weapons totals seven as well as your trusty knuckle duster. "Fat lot of good the latter is against some of these creatures", you may well ask? You'd be surprised!¢¢ Initially, you always start a level with the one weapon, a pistol, and as you venture into your hostile environment you find more powerful weapons.¢¢ Although the different weapons you find are placed at random, you usually find the next best and bigger weapons are more abundant in the larger and harder levels. This also depends on the level difficulty setting.¢¢ Next up is the pump action shotgun. Slow but powerful, this gun fires a shell that can take out the enemy with one shot, sending them over a wall, or six feet in the air 'Cowboy style'! You even see your hand pump the barrel after firing.¢¢ The revolving chain gun is fast, making the enemy dance, despite eating up loads of ammo.¢¢ The rocket launcher is the second most powerful of all the weapons, firing a self-propelled rocket toward the victim(s), and on impact showering most of the internal organs (remember mincemeat and ketchup) in all directions! I love using this one!¢¢ The plasma-gun fires blue plasma-bolts very fast and can do a lot of damage in a room full of enemies.¢¢ Last but not least is the mother of all weapons, aptly named the BFG. Quite slow the first time you hit the trigger until you see what it can do. Here's a step by step guide on how to use it:¢¢Step 1 - Take the BFG into a large area, preferably full of rabid demons of all shapes and sizes (say around 10 of them).¢¢Step 2 - Aim the open end of the gun (make sure you get this correct) towards the creatures.¢¢Step 3 - Squeeze the trigger and wait.¢¢Step 4 - After a few seconds an igniting sound should engage, followed by a green flash. This should grow bigger until you go blind and it leaves the barrel as a huge green ball of energy.¢¢Step 5 - Wait until the dust clears and observe. You should be seeing, well... a mess! What was once rather grotesque living tissue should now be a pile of red meat-covered ribs among eye balls and entrails!¢¢ Each creature's animation and detail is extremely well done, as are their individual death sequences. Some fall back spitting blood, some turn inside out, some bounce off the walls and explode, and some collapse into a pile with a blood curdling moan. All act as though they are real 3D creatures in a real environment and are therefore bloody scary! Unlike some games of this type, the demons still keep their detail even when they are up close.¢¢ If you're really lucky, you can even get demons to fight against one-another. Most helpful in tight scrapes.¢¢ The last of the weapons, which strangely isn't documented in the otherwise helpful manual, is one of the most fun to use. Carving up the Christmas Turkey? Don't use a knife - use a chain-saw! It's hard to come by, but once in your hands why not carve up an imp or zombieman. Second greatest when fighting in close quarters. The first is coming up.¢¢ The most fun you can have with your fists is had with the 'Berserk pack'. It couldn't be a more appropriate name because thats what your fists act like after collecting it. Normally, around 5-8 punches will knock out a zombieman or imp. Even then he'll just fall on his back and spit a little blood. With the berserk pack engaged, just one punch will turn him inside out and knock his remains back 10 feet!¢¢ There are many power-ups. Two types of armoured vests are available (green and blue; the blue being the most protective). Radiation suits enable you to walk through the lakes of acid and lava. Backpacks enable you to double or triple your ammo carrying capacity. Soul spheres increase your health percentage by 100% over the usual limit to 200% maximum. Invunerability artifacts allow a limited invunerability against attack, turning the screen a shade of purple.¢¢ A map is provided in which the level can be seen. Initially it maps as you progress in the level, so you can only see that which you have mapped. However, you can collect a Computer Map which updates your automap fully, the grey areas showing parts which you have not yet reached. Simple keypad buttons allow you to zoom in and out of the map and rotate your character to face in the direction you wish to travel.¢¢ The automap isn't essential for completing a lot of the levels as a truly excellent level design allows you to find your way around easily. This is one of the many advantages of Doom over Alien vs Predator and Wolfenstein 3D.¢¢ The levels are a work of art, really showing off the Jag's capabilities. Walls, ceilings and floors look very realistic and lighting is used to great effect. For example, the sun shines through holes in walls, rooms with more windows look lighter, and tunnels are lit realistically as you move through them.¢¢ The acid and lava pools and lakes that surround much of the level (sometimes marooning you on islands) look very real, the animation giving the effect of them swirling and rippling. Falling in one of these slowly eats away at you, and if you don't find a way out soon you die with a blood curdling scream!¢¢ Levels range from stone castles to metalic strongholds, cobblestoned courtyards, grassy castle gardens, deep dark dungeons and lime green and red stony lairs. Strange satanic symbols adorn the walls, and spikes protrude from floors. There is so much variety that you will rarely get bored, with new surroundings to explore around every corner.¢¢ Every few levels, the environment and atmosphere changes, showing your descent into the deeper and more deadly levels. These are accompanied with appropriate names like the 'Phobos Lab', 'Deimos Anommaly', or 'Unholy Cathedral'. For example, the first few levels depict a metalic bunker and concrete style environment, which shows out onto the castle grounds. Then a sandstone castle with a bright white sky and mountains. Later, the sky changes to a menacing deep blood red, spiked severed heads and corpses hanging from chains on walls and ceilings. Sometimes only the upper parts of the corpse is left, blood seeping down the walls.¢¢ Other level details include green, blue and yellow flames, lava fountains, skull sculpures in stone, marble and metal and lion heads on doors.¢¢ The perspective of the levels as you move is a joy to see. As you move toward windows or up stairs the view of the mountains or red skies moves in perspective.¢¢ Everything moves extremelly fast (even when the screen is full of creatures) and by holding down a console button, you can run.¢¢ Doom allows you to move up and down stairs, in lifts, fall down chasms, and on some levels walk around the outside of the castle; the mountains and skies panning around as you move. It is a true virtual world in itself. ¢¢ Instead of only being able to fire at ememies on your own level, you can fire at them on outposts, up and down stairs, down into courtyards, and from ledges.¢¢ Keys are essential so they must be found. There are three types: Red, Blue and Yellow, sometimes in the form of cards, and in the later levels, skulls.¢¢ Often, to be able to complete a level (or gain access to other parts) you have to visit certain areas to activate switches or trigger light activated mechanisims. Doing so can do anything from rise a hidden bridge from a lava pit to opening a secret passage in a wall. Discoloured or misplaced looking walls and ones with symbols carved into them often hide secret passages and rooms, so its worth keeping a look out. Every level has a certain number of secrets to be found, which is shown at completion of the level.¢¢ Transporters are common place in later levels and switches can come in all shapes and forms, from the typical pull-down type to skulls and demonic faces.¢¢ Barrels of highly explosive chemicals and radioactive substances can be harmful if one explodes near you as a result of an ememy's or your own firepower. However, you can use them to you own advantage by hitting one right next to an ememy, with messy results!¢¢ Sampled sound effects are used to great effect, whether it be your shotgun pumping, the creatures roaring and grunting, the sound of body inards as they fly through the air hitting the floor, or the sound of doors, walls and switches moving.¢¢ The in-between level screens show you the percentage of kills, items and secrets you have achieved and obtained.¢¢ Music plays between levels, and is fairly good. A few could be improved slightly, but they do convey the mood of the levels satisfactorily.¢¢ There are five difficulty settings that you can choose at the beginning option screen:¢¢I'm a wimp¢Not too rough¢Hurt me plenty¢Ultra-violence¢Nightmare¢¢ As you choose, a glowing skull indicates your selection.¢¢ 'I'm a wimp' is still extremely hard, so the other settings are literally a 'Hell' of a lot worse! The harder they become, increases the number of ememies that are present and the damage they can inflict upon you.¢¢ The Jaguar version (an improvement on the PC version, hence DOOM - The Special Edition) has 23 levels. A majority of them are massive, while some are small but with puzzles that make it hard to complete.¢¢ A special RAM on the cart saves the level you have reached, so you can choose to start from level 1 up to that level. Of course a fresh start means you only have the pistol, which can be a tad hard. It takes 100 pistol shots to kill a Baron of Hell!¢¢ The beauty of the Jaguar version is it's ability to connect two Jags together using a special link and have two players unite against the rest of Hell. In Deathmatch mode, connecting up to 32 Jaguars means you can play against the other player(s). No demons in this mode, just you and the other player(s). Two players will also be able to play and talk to each other over a special voice/modem link that will be made available sometime in 1995.¢¢ The only other formats that this version of Doom is available on is the SEGA 32X, and in 1996 on the ULTRA64. The games TV programme 'Bad Influence' rated the Jaguar version of Doom far higher than the 32X version in graphics and speed and also because the Jaguar version has around 8 more levels. Plus the fact that Doom on the Jaguar has a helpful pad overlay card (as with most Jaguar games). It was awarded a score of 5/5.¢¢ Overall, DOOM - The Special Edition is THE game on the Jaguar right now. It has had cult followers on the PC and will almost certainly have ones on the Jaguar.¢¢ Rumours are that Doom2 is in the pipeline, and Hollywood is even planning on making a Doom movie! You can bet we'll see some pretty messy effects here, and it certainly won't be a U certificate!¢¢ At 50 pounds mail order, you should definitely spend your money on Doom before you buy Alien vs Predator or Wolfenstein 3D. It is far better than both of these! Incidentally, Wolfenstein 3D was also made by ID Software.¢¢¢100% for graphics, action, atmosphere, and puzzles!¢¢80% for music!¢¢110% for gore!¢
