Doom Review

Doom is a classic game that actually holds up fairly well even today. It is fast paced, filled with cool weapons and monsters, and is just plain solid in every respect. This version includes the great single player campaign along with co-op and deathmatch so you really can't go wrong here.

The announcement of Doom for Xbox Live Arcade came completely out of left field, but it was a very nice surprise in a day filled with great announcements at Microsoft's X06 event. You can get the original Doom pretty much anywhere nowdays, though, so just what makes the XBLA version of Doom special, and worth 800 Microsoft points? Nostalgia. Value. And the fact that the game is still surprisingly fun even this long after its original release.

Doom on XBLA includes the three episodes that made up the original game along with the fourth episode that was introduced in Ultimate Doom. That is more than thirty levels of hellspawn to blast your way through, and you can play in both single player or 2-4 person co-op in splitscreen or Xbox Live.

You can also play 2-4 player deathmatch on Xbox Live and it is just as fast and furious and fun as ever. It is pretty mindless compared to Halo 2, but when you just want to blast something online Doom does a good job. Lag rears its ugly head occasionally, but hopefully it will work itself out.

Overall, Doom for Xbox Live Arcade is a pretty solid game that offers a ton of gameplay. 800 points ($10) is a bit much to pay for this 13 year old game, but for old school gamers it is worth it.