Although it could be argued that Wolfenstein 3D was the title that really
brought the first-person maze game into popularity, it is without a doubt
Doom that has kept it there.  offering one labyrinth after another, each
brimming with all manner of demons and gunmen, Doom was an instant hit,
seemingly immune to the classic problem of shareware (no one paying for
it).  personally, i never saw what the big deal was--crappy sound effects
and horrendous control, all on my computer?  sign me up!  still, i always
had to admit that at its core, Doom really was a great idea.  and now, at
long last, the execution lives up to the concept.

in numbers:

ORIGINALITY - 9 - Wolfenstein 3D was first, but hey, the same company made
that game--and Doom took every good idea in Wolfenstein several steps
further.  Doom single-handedly redefined the first-person genre, and at the
same time set standards so high that few other games have been able to even
match them.  not only are the mazes generally very large, they can be, with
keys and secret doors, overwhelmingly complex.

RESPONSE - 9 - after weeks (and weeks) of constant play, i've only
encountered a few areas of this expansive game that i couldn't get past
very easily as a direct result of the controls.  while there's certainly
something to be said for challenge, failing to successfully run over the
same set of falling platforms for five days in a row loses its thrill after
awhile.  eventually, i made my way past these few areas, but i did so
feeling more lucky than skillful.  it must be noted, however, that Doom on
the playstation offers a major, MAJOR improvement in playability over
previous versions.  right from the start, i found the controls in Doom to
operate in a way that was perfectly natural--a breeze to learn and use.
circling a room and blasting baddies in the center became second nature
within the first ten minutes of play.

GRAPHICS - 5 - some wonderfully rendered distant mountaintops and skys
ultimately weren't enough to take my mind off the massive pixellation that
Doom, and its many spin offs, have classically suffered from.  your enemies
look pretty good from a distance, but when they get close to you, and rest
assured that they WILL get close to you, you'll find their blocky bitmaps
far more frightening than their fangs and fireballs.  even so, the grainy
graphics really don't affect gameplay at all, and, all sarcasm aside, you
can generally make out very clearly what it is you're pumping lead into,
regardless of how distant it is.

ANIMATION - 3 - one thing that actually does affect how frightening this
game really is is its animation--or rather, its lack of animation.  most
enemies appear to have a total of about 30 frames of animation; that's half
the number of frames you'll see every second in Tekken.  the animation
doesn't detract heavily from gameplay, but it does cut down the realism a
bit, and it could have been done a lot better.  there are so many times in
this game where you'll jump and start spinning in a circle, shooting wildly
in fear--and if the enemies were more lifelike, these moments would occur
with significantly greater frequency.

SOUND FX - 8 - the sound effects and music have both been totally redone
from scratch for the playstation version of Doom--and if you didn't know
that already, you'd certainly suspect it after a few minutes of play.
roars, growls, shotgun blasts, and more, they all sound great... but the
most impressive aspect of the sound in this game is the amazing stereo
imaging.  when an enemy growls to your right, you hear it coming clearly
from your right, with remarkably accurate distancing.  you'll think "he's
on my right, about 20 feet away," and then turn to see exactly that.  my
one complaint is the lack of surround sound support--everything else about
the game is so immersive that it virtually demands support of a surround
sound speaker arrangement.

MUSIC - 8 - although the introduction music that runs while you set your
preferences seems almost like a spoof of classical, the ambient music that
runs ominously in the background while you play is some of the best video
game mood music i've heard.  it really does affect how jumpy you get, and i
can only say i'm elated that they did away with the rather non-threatening
PC version music.

in practice:

on the M.A.R.C.H. scale (of IGNORE IT, RENT IT, or BUY IT)...

DOOM
WILLIAMS

BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT

if you hadn't gathered this already, i absolutely DESPISED earlier versions
of Doom.  the fact that everyone else in the world besides me seemed to
think that it was the single greatest game they had ever played made me
only hate it more.  that whole "green day" effect, i guess.  remarkably,
Doom for the playstation is now one of my favorite all-time games.  the
problems i had with earlier incarnations--bad control and weak sound
effects and music--haven't been simply "patched up," they've been
programmed to perfection.  as for the graphics and animation... well,
suffice it to say that Doom lives on as proof that great graphics and
animation don't necessarily make a great game.  this is one hell of a blast
(no pun intended) from start to finish, and with nearly 60 levels full of
secret rooms and traps, not to mention a link-up option, it is one of the
few titles that is actually worth every penny it costs--and one of the even
fewer that will make you think so months after you've bought it.