Final Doom

Final Doom was released in 1996 as the official successor to Doom II, assembled from two renowned fan-made megawads – TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment. Id Software requested both map collections and released them as a full-fledged commercial title full of extremely difficult, labyrinthine levels aimed at players for whom Doom II alone was no longer enough. The original was released on PC and quickly became synonymous with an uncompromising challenge that only battle-hardened series veterans dared to take on – maze-like corridors, endless hordes of enemies, and mines lurking around every corner.

The PlayStation version, prepared that same year by studio Rage Software, isn't just a straight transcription of the PC original, though. Due to the console's limited memory, it had to make significant cuts – out of the dozens of maps in both megawads, only a narrower selection of levels fit onto the disc, arranged to make sense as a standalone campaign, and hardware limitations also forced simplified textures and geometry compared to the PC. Even more noticeable, though, is the audio: the original MIDI tracks are gone, replaced by dark, ambient music composed specifically for the console, which colors the game with oppressive, almost horror-like silence instead of energetic rock. The engine also adds colored dynamic lighting and fog that the PC version never had – the fog also masks the weaker hardware's shorter draw distance, and thanks to it the corridors feel much more claustrophobic and eerie. The controls were, of course, reworked for a gamepad instead of keyboard and mouse, and the game saves to a memory card instead of the PC version's password codes.

Why play it: This version pays off for those who know Doom as brisk desktop action and want to experience its darker, slower, more atmospheric offshoot – the ambient music and colored lighting turn it into almost a different genre, closer to survival horror than an arcade shooter. Those who instead want the complete, unaltered content of both megawads at the full speed of the original engine should reach for the original PC version – the console's level cuts clearly work against completeness.