Remember the grandpapa of [Insert First Person Shooter here]? Now you can play it on your Xbox 360.
+ Tough, hardcore action. If it moves, do more than just shoot it
+ Still good-looking graphics, thanks to a resized resolution
+ Near-perfect emulation controls.
+ A classic game for a cheap price of 800 MS points
+ Offers online Deathmatch and Co-op
+ Killing zombies with a chainsaw
- Many levels are frustrating, like you remember them
- Online modes are close to being completely dead
- Only two episodes
- Those episodes are also very frustrating.
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Id Software's Doom 2 has gone through alot of ports since its release. People used to talk about how they would want it on the Atari, the Saturn, the Playstation, and the N64. Some have even wished it was on the Wii. Many of the existing ports have been gratiously lame and got harsh reviews consisting of "Well, the graphics look like an old English cheese muffin, the framerate is about as nimble as an sloth, the sound quality is the life of a snake and when sprites get blown up by rockets they appear to deficate their morning ketchup". Fear not, for this is not the case with Doom 2's return on the Xbox 360. Its one of the few good ports of the classic and there's alot in store for you and many crystal-clear emulation aspects to be impressed about. However, prepared to be frustrated to the point of possibly punching somebody, as Doom 2 has a very unforgiving difficulty.
In this emulation of Doom 2, you can play through the original episode that came with the game before: Hell on Earth. This Episode tells the same old story of the nameless space marine going out of his mind killing demons in hell with an rediculous amount of weapons. Plasma guns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and even chainsaws; Appearantly demons in hell are also gunsmiths and leave their weapons for you to collect. As I said, rediculous but cool. The other episode that you can play is called "There ain't no rest for the living!". The levels in this episode appear to be exclusive for the 360 verison, and they are considerably more difficult because they rely more on solving puzzles or finding hidden keys than actually shooting the monsters that infest them. You can try unlocking some of the game's 12 acheivements by playing through the game on different difficulties but you are definetely going to have some frustration while doing that. And if you think you possibly have the skill to earn the acheivement where you have to kill a cyberdemon using your fists, you should consider intoxicating yourself with camel spit and a noctious, expensive ameisia fluid until the unaberitious thought leaves your mind.
The emulation for the game is simply beautiful. The new screen resolution relives some of the old-school 'bit graphics and adds some AA/Anistropic Filtering to the scene, but you can still see the classic badly-textured sprites and textures that fans may remember. The controls feels excellent on the Xbox 360 controller and it makes you wish that this is what the Saturn or N64 version should've felt like. You still can't look up or down, but the left thumbstick to run around and the left trigger to sprint feels very comfortable. No changes have been made to the game's sound, however. Monster sounds, gunshots, crappy MDI music, and the crappy player death scream are all recycled; that's all well and good but the music you may want to turn off.
Doom 2 also offers a multiplayer. Playing an old game on a new generation system at a party in local play can be fun. But online, unfourtunetly, kind of sucks. You can try to join games available for Deathmatch on the singleplayer maps and get the results posted on the Leaderboards but you can hardly find anybody available online. If you do, however, you may get bored within a short time depending on how much you love running around and killing your fellow comrades. The other option is Co-op, where up to 4 players who are left for dead in the Singleplayer fight their way through the nightmare. The problem with this is that you can come across a speedplayer online who will simply rush through the level and beat it for everybody almost immediatly. That's not to say its impossible to have fun with Doom 2's multiplayer; you can still get into a game on occasion and have enjoyment. Its just hard finding a game with good players -- or players at all.
Doom 2 on the Xbox 360 costs 800 MS points on the marketplace, and its a decent buy. You're almost sure to get mad at the game a few times, though. Its good for fans who are used to that, and you feel like you get more that what you paid for at times. Remember clearing rooms of dead corpses with your rocket launcher? Now you can do it on your modern console and get Leaderboard stats for doing it. That is one of those times. And if you decide to play this game, don't forget to pack something with you for severe stress and frustration relief.