Final Doom
PlayStation
Nostalgia Factor:
I was always a big fan of the Doom series when I was growing up. I never owned Doom I or II, but I played them more than my fair share of times. I remember renting Final Doom for the PlayStation at some point, but I don’t remember much about my time with the game other than the fact that I played it and I beat it. I am pretty familiar with the first two Doom titles, so when I got my Retropie a few months ago I decided to skip over them for now and check out Final Doom, since I can barely remember it at all.
Turns out it is no surprise I didn’t remember it very well, seeing as how it is pretty much the same thing as the first two games (but with new levels).
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Let’s find out!
Story:
Does it even really matter? You’re Doom guy. There’s a portal to hell. You fight demons. If you’ve played pretty much any old-school Doom titles you’ll know that this game’s storyline is a complete afterthought. You play Doom to shoot things, not to enjoy its story.
Gameplay:
Final Doom is a first person shooter. You play through about 30 stages. Your goal is to make it from the starting point of each stage to its end point. In order to reach the end, you have to collect keys, open doors, push switches, and solve puzzles. Oh, and shoot a lot of things in the process. And by a lot of things I mean a LOT of things.
Doom itself is a chaotic series, and Final Doom is no exception. Hordes of enemies are always coming at you. Enemies with shotguns (who seemed more annoying in this game than in any other Doom game), demons that bite you, demons that launch fireballs at you, giant robot spiders, rocket launching skeletons, flying skulls. This game has it all.
Your typical Doom arsenal is at your disposal. No new weapons, which is a little disappointing, but it is what it is. Cycling through these weapons in the heat of battle is as easy as can be. Enemies drop ammo all the time, and there are plenty of hidden caches to be found, so running out of ammo is rarely something that happened to me. My weapon of choice was the double-barrelled shotgun, which always made pretty quick work of my enemies. I got darned good at aiming with that thing, too. I enjoyed using the machine gune as well, but you can burn through its ammunition in no time at all if you aren’t careful.
Final Doom does literally nothing that you haven’t seen in Dooms I or II. In fact, if I wasn’t so familiar with those games you could probably give me Final Doom and tell me it is one of them, and I would have believed you. This game did seem at times a little clunkier than I remember the other games being, but it's been so long since I have played them I don’t know if that is true or not.
All in all, if you come in expecting just another Doom title, you probably won’t walk away disappointed. If you come into this expecting it to be different and unique, you are going to be in for a rude awakening, fast.
Graphics:
For the most part Final Doom looks like your average Doom game. The stages are dark. The enemies and environments are pixelated and a little messy looking, but that’s fine. Everything is permeated with that classic Doom creepiness.
Again, I don’t know if this is just my bad memory or what, but I seem to remember Dooms I and II looking better than this game. No one is going to say that any of the old Doom games look beautiful by today’s standards, but I don’t remember Doom I and II looking quite as messy ast this game. Blocky textures, messy frame rates, decore that can be flat out ugly looking at times. You’d expect the third installment in the series to look better than the previous two, but for some reason that didn’t quite happen here.
Sound:
At least Final Doom still does its sound right. I love the game’s grim and moody atmospheric music. The sounds of the weapons are all spot-on classic Doom – as are the noises the enemies make and the sounds of doors opening and closing.
Even with the messy graphics, you should play this in the dark with your headphones on. I don’t know if this game will necessarily scare you, but it will put you on edge.
Overall:
It seems like I’ve been harping on this game, but the truth of the matter is that even a mediocre Doom game is still a really good video game. Even though I didn’t enjoy this as much as Dooms I or II, I still had a good time with it. This became my go-to game when I would come home from work, beating a level or two before heading off to bed. Playing it like that really helped prolong the experience for me and keep it fresh over time. I think if I had sat down for several long playing sessions trying to make my way through this game, I would have tired of it quickly.
I don’t really know what else to say about this game. If you like Doom, chances are you’ll get some enjoyment out of Final Doom. If you aren’t a fan of the series, this game will do absolutely nothing to change your mind otherwise.
I’d say out of all the early Doom titles (I, II, 64, even the Quake games which I find pretty similar to Doom), this one is probably the worst. But it still gets a B-. That should tell you a lot about the quality of these games.
Final Score:
B-
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