Doom (XBLA) - Review

Doom.  Honestly, there’s little that can be said in a review of this game; I mean, it’s freaking Doom!  Everyone knows that Doom is the game that took the First Person Shooter and the idea of deathmatching to the masses; id Software’s magnum opus, if you will.

Nonetheless, for the three people reading this review after it has been painstakingly inscribed into the stone tablets that make up the only reading material in your obviously caveman-like community (deep breath…), here’s Doom in a nutshell.

A faux-3D first person shooter which takes place on the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, as well as in hell itself, the player is a nameless Marine who has somehow managed to avoid being turned into a zombie by the legions of hell, which have poured out onto the moon through a ‘gateway’.  Now you have to shoot the crap out of all the demons coming at you, as well as collecting keys, finding secret passages, and of course finishing the levels as quickly as possible.

It sounds quite boring these days compared to the Half Life 2s of the world, but in its day Doom was a revolution in game design, with huge, complex levels and a huge array of monsters and weapons.  While the graphics and sound have aged quite noticeably, the gameplay is still quite a bit of fun, and it’s amazing how good the pure four-player deathmatch or co-op play still is after all these years.

Of course it’s all rather simplistic by today’s standards, and this simplicity means that it’s unlikely you’re going to get a great deal of usage out of the game beyond finishing it and having the occasional multiplayer bash.  There are a tonne of levels spanning four episodes at least, and the game can be quite hard on the higher difficulties; the last episode is pure evil in terms of challenge, and it alone will probably have you going for a while if you’re interested enough in playing it.

I also need to reference my personal experiences with the game on the 360.  From the moment I first downloaded it the game has been buggy, with frequent lockups and crashes, especially in multiplayer.  Deleting and re-downloading hasn’t fixed these problems, and they have steadily gotten worse over the months since I purchased it; I’ve heard similar stories, so buyer beware in that regard; it’s not crippling, but it can be very frustrating.

If you’re too young to have played Doom when it originally came out, I would wholeheartedly suggest getting this as a piece of interactive gaming history if nothing else, even with the occasional bug; if you’ve done it all before, it can still be worth buying for nostalgias sake, as well as the ease with which you can play multiplayer these days, as opposed to the archaic old PC methods.  The recent price drop to 400 points is definitely a plus; but unless you really want some Doom action, think carefully before you buy.

            

Rating: 6.5/10

      

-Tim Sweeney

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (XBLA) - Review

(My first Xbox Live Arcade Game Review; expect more of these, I have quite a few XBLA games, and I’ve been meaning to do some shortish reviews of them, as well as of some downloadable content for other games) 

       

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is pretty much a straight port of the original Playstation version of the game to the Xbox Live Arcade; a couple of improvements have been made to the graphics, and the FMVs were removed to make the download friendlier, but otherwise this is still an 11 year old game.

Thank the dark priest Shaft (he’s a bad mother…shut your mouth!) then that the original game still stands up as not just the best of the Castlevania series (no small claim), but also as pretty much the pinnacle of the 2D platformer and action genres; this classic has not aged badly at all, and in fact the art style looks better and has more character than many current 3D releases.

Dracula’s magic castle has reappeared in Romania after many years, and his dhampir (wiki it) son Alucard has come back to find out why the castle is back, and kick daddy’s arse if necessary.  Honestly the story is pretty irrelevant, although occasionally interesting and always amusing in an Engrish kind of way (”Have at you!”), although SotN receives bonus marks for having full voiceovers (as well as good music and monster sounds).  Still, the story takes a back seat in this one; the focus of this game is very much on the exploration and the action.

Dracula’s castle is a monstrously (ha!) huge building, populated by numerous monsters and tough bosses; even better, many of these look awesome and/or have hilarious names.  As you explore and level up (the game has a fairly comprehensive RPG mechanic, with level grinding and equipment drops) more of the castle becomes available as your powers grow, including the ability to transform into various other forms, cast spells, super jump, and generally be all scary and vampiric.

Combat is a little bit deeper than your typical old school side-scroller, with the ability to wield different one or two handed weapons, as well as choosing whether to dual-wield or use a shield.  Spells require Street Fighter-like button combinations, and must be discovered by the player through experimentation.  You also have special weapons which are discovered throughout the game, one shot super weapons, and the various forms and familiars you acquire; there’s plenty of room to tailor the game to a certain fighting style which you enjoy, and things are made even more interesting by different weapons causing different types of damage, making them more useful in certain situations.

A love of exploration and freedom is the key to enjoying the SotN experience; there are no real indicators of what you are meant to do next, and some of the power ups you need to locate to progress through certain areas are fiendishly hidden or protected by very tough bosses. Those who like a linear experience replete with deep story will be tearing their hair out trying to just finish the game; in fact, it’s possible to miss out on a full half of the game by not finding an obscure item before you fight a specific boss!  Now THAT’s hardcore.

Another hardcore aspect of the game is the difficulty level; while the first half isn’t too bad, the difficulty level rapidly escalates, and if you’ve had bad luck with finding decent equipment, or haven’t fully explored to grind up to a higher level, you will be dominated by some of the basic enemies later in the game, never mind the bosses.  However this difficulty level is all a part of what makes this such a great experience; it’s an old school 2D game the way they are meant to be: long, challenging, occasionally frustrating, but hugely entertaining.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a bit of a rare beast on XBLA; an incredibly strong singleplayer game which still looks and plays beautifully despite its age and status as a port from an inferior system.  Unlike a lot of the throwaway games from the 360’s store, this really does deliver a brilliant experience provided you are willing to invest the time and the elevated stress levels.  Plus Alucard is one of the coolest characters you will ever play as in a game, even if his name is kind of lame.          

     

Rating: 9/10

      

-Tim Sweeney