Doom Resurrection [App Store]
John Carmack, legendary pioneer in gaming circles and co-founder of id Software spells Doom. When Doom Resurrection’s release on the iPhone was given his tick of approval, you know its going to be something special. Now that the price has come down a little bit, I felt it was my duty to carry on this 16 year obsession with the BFG.
Now the iPhone keeps on surprising me with what it can produce graphically. Big dollars and long development times have produced one the best looking 1st person shooters to date.
It looks simply gorgeous. From the textures on the walls of the space carrier, right down to the fading effect of downed enemies looks brilliant. The story is moved along nicely with plenty of cutscenes, pre-scripted events and a bucket full of dialogue. For that engaging atmosphere, play this one with the lights off and with a decent set of headphones.
Doom shoots out 4 difficulty levels including Nightmare and varied challenge single level mode as well, which is a nice touch to the single player experience. The 8 levels, depending on how seasoned you are at the genre don’t take long to finish. The gameplay itself does get repetitive in later levels. Just aim at the head! The challenge mode though, rates you on levels from A to F based on timing, headshot kills and secrets found throughout.
Don’t expect too much in terms of controls as this is more of a rail shooter. Your view is restricted and your character follows a set path rather than having the ability to move about freely. I was a bit disappointed on this front, but the dev team did the game justice with brilliant accelerometer controls and well laid out icons for weapon changes and firing. Touch gestures enable you to pick up ammo, etc.
Overall it was a satisfying experience. The sense of desperation in the game was classic Doom and kudos to id Software for bringing that. I would like to have been able to roam freely about or have some sort of randomly generated demon mode to add value and longevity. As it stands, this iPhone shooter is extremely polished, and is still a worthy purchase, despite its movement constraints.
Bwabdubwaa. 3.5 stars.
