Games - LAN Game Review

Doom (1993)

Platforms:

MS-DOS Linux

Connection Types:

IPX

Play Modes:

Cooperative Deathmatch

Developer:

id Software

Publisher:

id Software

Genre:

First-Person Shooter

Theme:

Combat - Occult

Perspective:

First-Person

Max Players:

4

Doom is on of the founding fathers of the LAN party. Not only was the game itself monumentally successful due to its, at the time, state of the art graphics engine, it also featured multiplayer mode over modem or LAN long before it became a standard in FPSs. Due to its age, many modern gamers may have trouble looking past the antiquated 320x200x256 graphics. However, for those who don't mind the old look, Doom proves to be a very solid multiplayer game with cooperative and deathmatch modes available.

For such an early game, great care was taken to ensure that the weapons are balanced. Although many players have their favorite weapons, each has it goods and bads. The multiplayer features all the usual stuff, chatting, text macros, etc. It also has a feature that allows you to view the game through your friend's perspective, if you're playing cooperative. There are a few shortcomings however like the indigo marine being easier to see than the others. Also, because Doom came out prior to TCP/IP being popular it only supports IPX connection. Due to the speed of old networks Doom only allows for four players at once.

Doom's multiplayer would later be updated with Doom 95.

See Also: Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, Doom 95, Doom 3.