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Boundless hellish gaming heaven for a very low price

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: January 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

DOOM Collector's Bundle(2002). A compilation containing Doom 1, its expansion "Thy Flesh Consumed", Doom 2, and two of the three Final Doom scenarios: "TNT" and "Plutonia".

This is it. THE granddaddy of all FPS games. THE second (don't forget about Wolfenstein!!). The game which started an online multiplayer revolution. The game which introduced us to 3-dimensional virtual environments. The game that has spawned countless clones. The game that supposedly influences people to violently attack each other in real life (riiiight...). The game that manages to successfully combine Mars, Hell, and chainsaws in a way that makes sense to the objective of the game. Onto the review...

I've been playing DOOM for 10 years like a lot of us here have, though I was introduced to it in a bit of a different context than most. Back in 1994, I started off with the crappy Sega 32X version (yeah, go ahead and laugh. It only had 17 levels, and NO CYBERDEMON!!). I also tried several other console versions (keep in mind back then I had NO access to a PC at all!). I fell in love with DOOM, but felt that the versions I had were waaay too short, so you can understand my sheer disappointment upon purchasing the official strategy guide (designed for the PC version), just to figure out that the version I had was poorly put together and missing a lot of levels/monsters. Then in '96 upon the launch of the Playstation, I bought DOOM and Final DOOM, which proved to be the best console versions out there, featuring a lot more of the PC levels and a creepy soundtrack. I was set for a while.

But over the years I kept hearing people say that the PC versions were the best ones, so out on a whim a few months ago I found this collection for 10 bucks and figured, "Why not?". And now I know what everyone was talking about. Wow. This is perhaps one of the best game purchases I've ever made. Simply put, these games were meant to be played on a PC (seeing as it was where they started from in the first place). The fast pace, the surprisingly excellent keyboard interface, and all the other stuff that I was missing out on... all here.

But enough about that. Onto the games themselves. So what's Doom about? Well, you're a marine stationed on a martian moon base who managed to get caught up in the middle of a hellish invasion of demons spawning out of "gateways". These demons killed everyone already and are still up to no good, so it's up to you to destroy every last one of them just to be on the safe side. That's the premise. No lengthy cut-scenes, hour-long tutorials, plot twists, shops, experience building, friendly characters or anything else that's useless when it comes down to simply taking everything out.

Most new-generation gamers might glance at Doom and slag off the game for its "archaic graphics" or "mindless key collecting simplicity". Sure, the game may not seem like much on paper, but DOOM's true bright spot often escapes them. It's something that not even the new DOOM 3 successfully touched upon. What I'm talking about is the ingenius design of it all fit into one incredible package of solid gaming. EVERYTHING is designed to be memorable! The monster variety, the different weapon strategy interplays, the mind-bending scope of the labyrinthine level designs which vary enough to always keep things interesting... hell, even the sound effect of a door opening is easily distinguishable and you can tell it came from DOOM.

Besides that, the best things about the games are the dark hallways with scares lurking around every corner, large open environments that let you strafe around and take out legions of monsters, the berserk pack, folding 10 zombies with the double barrel shotgun, and the Barons of Hell. Those guys are tough. Same with the Arch Viles. I was going to take off a star for the exclusion of the "Master Levels" Final Doom scenario, but it more than makes up for the fact that YOU CAN DOWNLOAD COUNTLESS #s OF EXTRA LEVELS ONLINE! All this even after finishing the 120+ levels between the 3 games for just 10 bucks... sign me up!

So what has DOOM taught us? Let's quickly run through the games:

DOOM 1
-The martian moons apparently have vast mountain ranges and breathable atmospheres, despite their size.
-War-hardened undead zombie soldiers always make cuddly teddy bear sounds when you kill them.
-Cacodemons are really just hugely inflated horned crunchberries. (My chaingun says, "GET BACK IN THE CEREAL BOWL!!")
-The Cyberdemon's presence is ALWAYS overwhelming.
-The master guardian of Hell (a.k.a. Spider Mastermind) is apparently Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, only he's sitting on top of a mechanized quadra-ped machine gun mounted vehicle, and he's really ticked off at you.
-Hell's ultimate plans for Earth are to dismember a poor field rabbit. (just watch the ending)

DOOM II
-Nasty room full of imps = Hell. Double barrel shotgun blast to the face = Heaven.
-Fire hurts. A lot. Especially if it's coming from an Arch Vile.
-The Manacubus needs to cover up. Seriously.
-The Revanent's rocket launcher is the best gun in the game that you'll never have.
-If the Cacodemons are crunchberry look-a-likes, then Pain Elementals are the equivelent of Reece's puffs cereal.

FINAL DOOM
-...Is really not "final" at all. Good, because I've been playing this nonstop for 4 months now, and I don't want it to end!

So there you have it. One of the best gaming deals that money can buy. There's 5 difficulty settings, so it'll certainly keep you hooked, though the only true way to play DOOM is on Ultra-violence or Nightmare. This will be enjoyed for generations to come. Recommended to all who have even the slightest curiosity about DOOM.

From someone who is not a skilled gamer.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After watching all the hype for the new Doom movie I wanted to see what the game was like. I purchased this at Wal Mart for 9.99. From someone who never plays a lot of pc games it's a good simple first person shooter. You don't have to devote hours to this for it to be a fun game. I only hope that the newest version is just as good. It can be easily saved so you don't have to play all the levels over again. That was a big sticking point with me on many games. I refused to buy a lot of them unless I read the reviews first.

I'd have to rate this 5 out of 5 because it is like an action comic book novel.

The greatest game of all time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Doom is the only PC game that perfects the balance between Technology and Design. The game is very close to flawless overall. The Art is incredibly well done. The technology was a significantly ahead of it's time in 1993. The Gameplay... PERFECT!Level design can't get any better then this, lots of tricks and traps especially in Doom 2. It's all put together to make an immersive experience. The weapons are all great. Even the fist can be fun to use. The super shotgun in Doom 2 is quite possibly the greatest weapon in any video game ever. You can actually kill like 7 or 8 zombies grouped together with the thing. The monsters are amazing. Everyone has a favorite, some say its the Mancubus in Doom 2. Some say its the cacodemon. I say it's the Cyber-demon. I remember the first time I heard the chyber-demon. I literally almost pissed my pants in terror. It was the PC fight of my life and to this day he still offers a pretty cool fight. The sound is perhaps perfect, this game took many songs from such bands like Alice in Chains, Metallica, Slayer and Pantera. And it fits the levels perfectly. The weapons all sound satisfying and powerful, not weak like some in Doom 3. The monsters sound cool, all memorable. Even the noise you hear when the door opens and closes is memorable. This was the best multiplayer action game back in the day also. I remember playing through serial ports and the internet with Doom and Doom 2. It was extremely fun, addicting, and something people have never seen before. Co-op was great too.

As for the collection itself, it comes with Ultimate Doom which is essentially doom with an extra chapter "Thy Flesh Consumed". Doom 2 and Final Doom. It also comes with a preview of Doom 3 which is pretty much useless now that the game is already released.

The thing is, they should have included so much to this to become a decent collectors edition. There should have been a Doom poster, a Doom soundtrack and which songs the game took from. The development of Doom such as interviews of what it took to make Doom, a closer look at the guys who made Doom, pictures of the development like John Romero sculpturing the Baron of Hell demon. There should have been a cd for each Doom that looked like the cd of Doom back in it's day. There should be a strategy guide of Doom 2, yes there is one. There should be the regular Doom manuals. Even a Doom t shirt would have been sweet. They also should have added some of the best WADS ever released from Doom/Doom 2. WADS are modifications made for Doom by fans, it could be levels, new monsters, new sounds etc An example is the Simpsons mod. If it had all these in the collectors edition then it would have been perfect.

This is without a doubt the best game ever made.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I first played Doom when I was about thirteen or so on my Dad's 386 computer. We didn't have a sound card so we had to use PC sound and to get the game to run at playable speeds the screen size approached that of a postage stamp. It totally blew my mind anyway, and has continued to do so to this day.

What can I even say? The original. The very best. Yes, it's flagrantly simplistic at the core (shoot the bad guys, grab the keycards, exit level, repeat), yes the graphics are dated, and yes indeed the whole Demonic Invasion thing is a little cheesy. None of that matters. What matters is that the overloaded-with-enemies gameplay here is rock solid and it's one Hell of a lot of fun.

The Demonic lineup is extraordinarily balanced. Chaingunners, shotgunners, and plain ol' zombies are easy kills but have hitscan weapons you can't really dodge, Demons do lots of damage and are too tough to be taken down quickly with just your pump shotgun, but once you find the chainsaw (and in Doom II and Final Doom, the double-barrelled shotgun) you're golden. Barons of Hell are big, tough, and pretty damaging if they hit you. Et Cetera. There's really no massive gaps in bad guy prowess levels - unlike Halo, where on Legendary grunts were a joke but elites made me piss myself with fear.

Ah, the weapons. The perfect lineup. The fist is super weak until you grab the Berserk Pack, at which point it becomes an ammo-free way to splatter bad guys. The chainsaw is a fantastic addition. The pistol is perfectly balanced for the early levels, it's enough to get the job done against zombies but not much else, keeping you on edge until you get more shotgun shells. The shotgun itself is a workhorse, and in Doom II the mighty double-barrelled shotgun is perhaps the best weapon ever devised in a video game. It'll drop several weaker enemies in one blast if they're crowded together, drop demons in one shot, and drop midline to upper tier enemies in three to six shots, but that takes time. The chaingun makes pistol bullets useful against crowds of weaker enemies, saving you precious shells and cells, the rocket launcher provides the big bangs, the plasma gun liquefies everything in it's path, and the BFG 9000 is just the mother of all gaming firearms. This is the perfect weapon scheme. Every gun is simple, to the point, and of the maximum-damage-minimum-time school of thought.

Now, the games themselves. Ultimate Doom is old-school, but sort of simplistic compared to later Dooms. Thy Flesh Consumed is hard as Hell. Doom II is amazing. The level design gets better, more unique, and more sinister - traps get sprung on the player when you least expect them, enemies teleport in on you with alarming frequency, and the last boss is absurdly creative. The new enemies fit right in (and indeed became instant Doom standards) and the combat shotgun is, as I said, simply wonderful. Final Doom is insanely difficult but sooo satisfying to complete on Ultra Violence difficulty.

Everyone is complaining about the difficult controls or difficulty with Doom95, and they've got legitimate gripes. However, the fix for both problems is actually very simple. User-created programs like ZDoom, Doom Legacy, and BOOM! enable mouselook, limited 3D acceleration, and fully remappable controls. These programs also work flawlessly in Windows XP and are available on the internet for free download. Google the program names, they're easy to find on various websites. All you need are the original .wad files for the programs to run the game, which are what you've got on this compilation CD.

Another note, I don't know what people are talking about when they say the program CD doesn't come with a jewel case. Mine did, and it's pretty nifty looking. I did buy this compilation when it first came out three years ago though, and the guys at Electronic Boutique told me it was a limited run when I picked it up (I have no idea whether that's true or not, it's just what they told me). Maybe Activision dropped the jewel case from re-issues?

In short, you can't go wrong with Doom. It's the original and best for a reason. Give it a shot. This is one of those games that will always be around because it's just that good. I've been playing Doom for ten years now, and it's a fair bet that people will be playing it ten years from now. That will be partly because Doom was so revolutionary when it came out, and partly because the game is just that much fun.

Vigorously recommended.

DOOM!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Doom was and still is a great game. You get all the orginal Dooms on the CD. A warning to you windows XP/2000 users, the mouse wil not work. (...) I highly recomend getting it. (You will need the Wad's on the CD).

I only have one bad thing to say about the bundle: You don't get any of the CD tracks that came with the orginal Doom!

On the good side: I'm having more fun playing it than I did Doom3. I know it sounds crazy but it is true. Doom1 just had better level designers behind it.

All in all if you played the orginal Doom I would recommend getting this just for kicks.

Not bad...not bad......

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Doom was THE most famous game of the early ninties. Games such as Heretic and Duke Nukem could not beat it then, and still not now.

Doom Collector's Edition is perfect for getting the games that made legend, and is only 10.00 dollars at most stores. However, if you never liked Doom, this collection won't do a thing to change your mind. Includes The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and the fan-made Final Doom. Recommended.

Doom Collector's Bundle

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the ultimate Doom collection for PC, containing all three Doom classics. The gaming addiction that took computers by storm back in the early to mid 1990's has returned once again in this awesome Collector's Bundle, which contains Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom. Sure, these games are old, but hey, when it comes to Doom, I have NO problem being nostalgic! Doom rocks!

And for all the religious fanatics who protest against Doom because it contains violence, gore, and satanic imagery, let me say this: ID Software could have just as easily created a first-person shooter game where you go to heaven (instead of hell) and kill angels and God (instead of demons and zombies), but they didn't. So be grateful, you zealots, and shut the heck up!

By the way, if you're a true Doom fan, please stay away from Doom 3. You'll probably end up being disappointed like I did. Doom 3 is just a clone of Resident Evil and every level is totally dark and boring. Please, do the right thing, and stick to the original classics in this bundle!

Enough said.

It's Doom, it's awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

With other new and much funner games out today like Splinter Cell and XIII, Doom may now be a wee bit toothless, but its still tons of fun to play. This package, despite not having a manual and instructions for a beginner (but the game is so simple that unless you're a complete newcomer to PC games it should be effortless to learn) it is a GREAT deal. Buy it at Wal-Mart; they have it for $9.99; it includes all three full version original Doom games, an outstanding collection

Any PC owner needs this.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't know why so many people on this site are complaining. This compilation is flawless. You've got everything you need here! You don't need some fancy jewel case or some detailed manual to play this. Anyway, let's split up what's in this package and get on with the review.......

Ultimate Doom: The one that started it all. The Ultimate Doom is basically the first Doom, but with 9 levels to add to the other 27, totaling 36. My favorite installment in this package.

Doom II: The direct sequel to Doom, adding the Super Shotgun, twice the number of enemies, 32 new levels, and plenty of other extras. This entry feels a bit different than its predessor, but still, it's a fine entry in the Doom universe.

Final Doom: Other than 64 new levels, this entry adds nothing new to the franchise. It's still very enjoyable, but it does lose some of its charm for adding nothing we've seen before. It's still a very fun and enjoyable game, though.

Bottom Line: Just grab this. It'll run on any computer manufactured after 1995, and all of the games here are still fun and addictive (even after 10+ years!). Add to all that the low price, and this excellent compilation will completely change your opinion on a vacation in Hell.

The best FPS games of all time now in one collectors edition

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Doom games have and always will be some of my favorite FPS games ever. They are all still fun to play after all these years and if you enjoyed them back then, you will most likely enjoy them now. Now the reason I bought this is because I had misplaced my old Doom 2 floppys and since my original Doom is on floppys I decided to just get this to have them on one cd. The collection is pretty cheap by todays standards at around $15. However, the contents of the collection basically use the old saying, "You get what you pay for." In this case the games themselves are great and you get Doom 1 through Final Doom so you will be kept busy for a while. It is a bit disappointing that no physical manuals are provided and that the games come in a simple jewel case and use the old Windows 95 launcher but its still worth it. Along with the games you also get some preview material for Doom 3. Since I already own Doom 3 I have never looked at the preview material so I don't know how good it is. Anyways despite the skimpy case and not getting any manuals, the games themselves are what make this worth buying.

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