Doom

The Good
Action, Action, ACTION. That's what Doom's all about, and that's what it delivers perfectly. Doom is the grandaddy of FPS's. Not the first, not the original, but certainly the first big bang. Few other games can mark a before and after as well as Doom and there's a reason for that.

Thanks to a lighting fast and extremely detailed 3d engine (and full-screen mind you) Doom delivered the most intense action ever to hit a PC screen not to mention smoothly animated beautiful graphics, which coupled with a dark and grim setting turned the game into an unforgettable experience. No one who has played this game can forget the moments where a demon crawled from some dark corner right in front of you scaring the hell out of you as you tried to frantically shoot something, Anything, just to stay alive... and tough that seems tried and true today, it was a first at the time.

The level design was top notch, featuring levels that were truly fun to play in, displayed an amazing level of 3d-ness for the time, and provided reasonable challenges without going to the anal extremes of games like Dark Forces and it's god forsaken labyrinths. Further praise has to go to the sound department which became another hallmark in gaming history. I don't know if I'll ever remember the sound of Wolf's machine guns, but Doom's demonic shrieks and that sound doors made when opened... man, that will stick with me forever. Not to mention Bobby Prince's strange yet wonderfully paced music, which only helped elevate the already magnificent ambience.

In short, Doom's greatest strength was (and is) to trigger a completely emotional experience. It's a complete ego trip, and a wholly satisfying one at that. You get scared, you get desperate, you feel fear like you've never felt before and then you just let it all go in a gory, testosterone-powered ultra-violent climax with more action than a John Woo HK flick. Simple pleasure? Yes, but so is sex if you think about it :) and happiness is after all in the little things.

Plus Doom is the forefather of everything you think is so cool nowadays (read: Counter Strike, Half-Life) and unlike those games, the fanbase it spawned wasn't nearly as obnoxious as these new l33t-speaking bastards :).

The Bad
Doom quite frankly has few to none shortcomings. The reason for this is because it's a tremendously honest and upfront game when it comes down to defining itself unlike other games that sell themselves like something they aren't (hello Diablo 2!). So it doesn't have a story you say? Heck, Doom never wanted to have a story! Or interesting characters, or none of that. It's not about that pal. Most intellectual pseudo-jerks make a point of dismissing Doom because of it's intellectual shortcomings, when they fail to realize than that is because Doom is a purely emotional experience, not an intellectual one. And failing to see that is a huge flaw of reasoning :).

Doom is about being scared shitless, doom is about pressing the fire button millions of times per second, Doom is about not caring for stuff like story or background or stuff like that. And tough today that alone isn't enough to hold a game, Doom was the first one to do it really well, and was completely honest about it (id not being a million dollar-making juggernaut at the time). Judging Doom for that is like criticizing a scary movie for being scary! If you don't like scary movies go see Bergman, but if you want a scary movie here is your Doom baby. :)

...having said all that, I'd like to point out that tough the base gameplay is nothing short of stupid, it never managed to get tiresome or boring. Most people who claim that the "shoot-get key-exit" gameplay was boring and repetitive, do so without placing themselves at the time and place when Doom was first released, which meant that such a stupid gameplay premise was still novel and fresh. Plus Doom was really a short and sweet ride that never managed to get stale (Doom 2 is another story however)... So yeah, Doom's gameplay made Robotron seem like rocket science, but at the time we where all mesmerized by it. You know it, and I know it. And why the hell am I writing this in the "bad" part???

Ditto the graphics, yeah NOW they look like Lego, but at the time nothing moved faster, smoother and with such variety of critters, levels, etc.

The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that Doom is like sex. If you want to think about it go see a Woody Allen film, if you wanna do it then here's Doom (well actually get your butt off the computer and get yourself a girl). She's the baddest, sexiest mama in town, and she'll give you the ride of your life. But be warned, she only takes real men (or women too really ;))

...Oh, and if you found that to be completely over-sexed and uncalled for then you are right on the money. Because in a way that's how Doom is, for better or for worse. If you are feeling touchy-feely that's fine by me, but if you feel like heeding the call of the wild... then I've got a shotgun and some demons to show you. ROCK&ROLL!!!