Doom: The Roguelike Review by DakaSha Type: Roguelike RPG Story From the manual: "DoomRL is based on the world from Id Software's(tm) game Doom(tm). Youre a lone marine the only survivor from your squad, which was sent to explore some anomalies on the moonbase of Phobos. It turned out that the hell got loose there... Your quest in DoomRL is to descend into the moonbase complex, until you find and destroy the source of this inferno..." Once again not the most original thrilling story but first off this is a Roguelike. Second and more importantly it's Doom the Roguelike. Gameplay Well the idea itself is already pretty neat. An ASCII RPG version of Doom. But not only is the idea neat... the game is actually quite good! Gameplay is simple. You descend deeper and deeper and kill lots and lots of bad guys (demons and the like... I mean it's Doom! You should know what your getting into.). You can collect a couple different weapons, the original seven and some new ones, and a couple items like body armor, med packs and so on. It's a very simple RPG but still pretty cool for a game now and then. It's definetly to simple for an old ADoM player like me but I imagine it being cool for players new to Roguelikes and I'm sure alot of people will like the simplicity of it. You gain levels and each level gain you can select from a list of traits that make your character stronger. The enemies can use items and you have to reload your weapons. Damage is dealt in dice, you have an inventory and you can change tactics which is pretty much it but like I said the simplicity is alright and mabye even good for a change. As simple as it is you will have to learn how to stay alive though. Charging into a room full of demons isn't as wise as it was in the original Doom. The dungeons are random and the game is a true Roguelike... it has permadeath and a highscore list. Every now and then you'll end up in a non-random special level like hells arena. If you defeat all the monsters in the arena you'll get a couple bonuses... rockets and such, heh. If you don't defeat them well... then your dead. Oh and of course it has those nice barrels. Shoot one and it blows... if it's next to another one you get a chain effect that can be quite powerful. Graphics & Sound Graphics: Pretty good for a Roguelike. The random dungeon generator is ok and the blood splattering "effects" are really nice. What's neat is when you look at an enemies description. You'll get some really good ASCII art of said monster. It really looks like the monster in ASCII. Sound: OH BOY! This is the coolest thing ever. First off it actually has sounds and music, and guess what? It's the original soundset!. You'll hear the great music from the start which changes from level to level and all the cool sound effects that really made Doom what it was/is. From the breathing of the zombie soldiers to the quick electronic sound of the opening doors. You wouldn't believe how atmospheric a Roguelike with cool sounds can be. The only bad thing about it all is that the music is way to loud and it's kinda hard to hear the sound effects. Overall the atmosphere is great and you really get the feeling your playing Doom. Every time you shoot an enemy your like: "Yeah! Got you punk!" Summary This is my shortest and quickest Roguelike review so far and it's not without reason. Doom: The Roguelike is a very simple game (for a Roguelike). Because of this simplicity it's not going to recieve the best rating but (as always) give it a try. You might be surprised and I'm almost sure the first time you start it up and hear that music you'll be thinking: "Woah... cool!". If you like RPG's but don't want to deal with to many numbers and such then this is probably perfect for you. And if you do like lots of numbers then give it a try anyways dang it! PROS: It's Doom! Music & Sounds The simplicity CONS: The simplicity Rating: 3.1 END OF REVIEW Creator: KORNEL KISIELEWICZ (email: raskolnikov@o2.pl) Official Download Page: http://chaos.magma-net.pl/doom/ System Requirments: Windows 95+ Ages: All ages