Doom II Review





Developer: Machineworks Publisher: Tapwave
Release Date: May 11, 2004 Also On: PC

Doom II, originally a PC title, is now on the Tapwave Zodiac. The price is a bit steep for a PC port, but the relatively long game should slightly make up for the shortfall in the package. Doom II really isn’t a technological marvel for the Zodiac. It’s a basic 3D FPS, just as Duke Nukem, but with less detail.

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The gameplay is the same as the PC version. The horrible control problem that plagued Doom II a few months ago has been corrected in a patch. The problem happened when you would run forward, and then turn, your character would spin. No longer is this a problem, I’m glad to say. The only remaining problem is the difficulty and lack of a clear victory path.

Like Duke Nukem Mobile, there is a satisfying amount of weapons. Unlike Duke Nukem the controls are still overly sensitive. You strafe with the right shoulder button and left shoulder button, fire with red, change weapon with yellow, move your character with the analog stick, open doors with blue, etc.

Unfortunately, where Doom II falls off the cliff is computer AI. The intelligence of our adversaries is about that of a box of rocks. They run into walls, ignore gunfire, and fail to avoid explosive barrels. This is to be expected, I guess, as this is a port of a ten year old PC game, but still, it’s not forgivable when so few games these days have such poor AI as this.

Overall, Doom II on the Zodiac is an improved version of the PC version, in the sense that you don’t have to use the keyboard anymore. Other than that, nothing’s changed. It would have been nice to have Zodiac-exclusive enhancements, be it more levels or multi-player, but alas, we didn’t get that. If you dig the PC title, you’ll like this just as much.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7
Creativity: 2
Replay Value/Game Length: 8
Final: 6.2
Written by Kyle Review Guide

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