Blasting their way onto the scene during the early 90s, these games could definitely stand as two of the most important and iconic additions to the industry.
Welcome to the first Retro Showdown, a weekly feature that pits two games together and compares different aspects of each game - graphics, music/audio, and most importantly gameplay. It's all for fun and not to be taken too seriously.
VS.
Whilst Duke actually made his appearance much before "Doom Guy", the success of the Duke Nukem franchise didn't really take off until the release of Duke Nukem 3D (DN3D), which stands as one of the best first-person shooters ever - releasing three years after Doom, DN3D was an instant success, spawning various expansions and a massive fanbase. FEATURE1
However, lets not forget Doom - arguably the most influential game of the 90s, utilizing ID Software's own Doom Engine, the game gave players an experience they never had before, unless you included the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, which I like to think of as a "practice" version of Doom, with Doom being the product of everything that was great about Wolfenstein 3D, but one hundred times better.
Graphics
Doom always stood out to me and I'm sure many others as this extremely atmospheric game, and the graphics had a lot to do with that - each level was beautifully designed to coincide with the difficulty curve throughout, for example the first few levels of episode 1 were extremely easy to navigate, often taking only a minute or two to complete.
Whilst some of the later levels were quite complex, usually offering a challenging experience, and I believe that is down to the graphics and incredibly detailed level designs, amongst other things.
Also, the first episode's overall look was quite clean - in the sense that you were just running around a UAC installation base with no real illustrative threat.
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| Inside the UAC facility, showing little danger aside the odd corpse here and there. |
However, in episode 3 for example, we are taken to Hell, which is filled with skulls and demonic imagery on the walls, tons of lava pits, splattered blood - the sense that you were getting into bigger danger was definitely aided with graphical enhancements, and its just that which gives Doom a very unique sense of atmosphere, something I believe DN3D lacked at times.
For the time, the graphics were extremely impressive - each monster had its own look and identity, if you saw a big pink blob runnings towards you, you'd know straight away it was the "Demon" because of the distinguished graphics of that particular sprite.
| Inside Hell, blood-red sky, dead trees - an unsettling atmosphere. |
Duke Nukem 3D on the other hand had far better graphics, there's no point in avoiding the obvious, what with it being released 3 years later - technology had moved forward and DN3D took complete advantage of that.
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| Outside the infamous movie theater, displaying lots of graphic detail. |
The atmosphere isn't quite on par with Doom, but the world itself did look very 3D (its a good job it was called Duke Nukem 3D then...), giving players this exciting and vibrant environment that was extremely fun to navigate.
The earlier levels set in the city look incredible - each part of every level is greatly detailed, creating a personality of their own, you'd instantly know you're in a movie theatre or an alien space ship simply by the graphics, and in a sense that can relate back to Doom in terms of atmosphere - whilst its true DN3D's levels were highly detailed, it still lacked the atmosphere players experienced in Doom.
Two Assault Troopers getting right in Duke's face.
All of the enemies looked amazing, I remember first seeing the Pig Cops and instantly recognising the police uniform and the fact it was holding a shotgun - all of this was obvious because of the graphics used.
Although Doom had a very illustrative atmosphere, DN3D had the better graphics in terms of sheer detail and vibrancy, there's no denying it.
DOOM - 0 | Duke Nukem 3D - 1
Music/Audio
This should be very interesting, both games contained some of the most iconic gaming music in history that can still be recognised today,
Doom contained those catchy midi-files, the most memorable probably being "
At Doom's Gate" - the songs were placed perfectly throughout the game to suit a certain levels theme or surroundings, and we have Bobby Prince to thank for that. Take a listen yourself:
DN3D had a much more cleaner and authentic sound, this is probably due to the advancement gaming had gone through since the release of
Doom, in terms of sound quality - you must know "
Grabbag", the song that defines DN3D in some respects; awesome, fun, and badass (yeah, I used that word...). Go down memory lane and listen to the song below.
Bobby Price was also responsible for an array of the soundtrack, so in a sense both games win. That's too easy of a conclusion though - in terms of memorability and quality, DN3D takes this one.
DOOM - 0 | Duke Nukem 3D - 2
Storyline
The narrative behind Doom is essentially the adventures of a lost space marine trying to rid earth and hell of various monsters, zombies, demons - whatever you wanna call them. The original instruction manual describes the story as follows.
"You are your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally, silence. Seems your buddies are dead."
With a game like this, the storyline doesn't matter too much as the gameplay takes center stage, and does so very well.
Duke's storyline doesn't really provoke imagination, the original guide simply says:
"Murderous aliens have landed in futuristic Los Angeles, and humans suddenly find themselves atop the endangered species list. The odds are a million-to-one, just the way Duke likes it!"
As mentioned earlier, the storylines in these 90s FPS games were nothing to shout about but they set the ground for what you were in for, and that's good enough. However, Doom takes the point here.
DOOM - 1 | Duke Nukem 3D - 2
Gameplay
Arguably the most important aspect is the gameplay - without it, a game wouldn't be....a game at all. Duke and Doom are both first-person shooters (I'd be worried if you didn't already know that) - both have extremely similar goals; fight a ton of enemies, fight the right keys for locked doors, and advance onto the next stage.
So what distinguishes each game from the other? It can be a lot of things - the different weapons and enemies, level-designs, difficulty curves, and so forth. Doom offers players four episodes of monster-slaying action with some very unique weaponary, from your fist to the BFG (Big F-----g Gun) which is definitely the most memorable gun in the game, one shot will completely annihilate a room of enemies most of the time proving to be extremely useful.
A Cyberdemon shooting one of its deadly rockets.
The overall pace can be very fast or very slow, depending on how each player decides to go through the game, for example you could be up for a challenge by choosing the Ultra-Violent difficulty, enabling run, and trying to beat each level 100% whilst attaining a respectable time-par at the end. Or you could be the kind of player who wants to casually play - Don't Hurt Me difficulty would be most appropriate here, as there are less enemies and lots more ammo/health.
Each episode periodically increases in difficulty, regardless of difficulty - although the increase will be completely suitable for each chosen skill level, and that definitely lets you explore the gameplay on your own pace.
Earlier levels start off with a few Zombiemen, Imps, and Demons here and there, which are very easy to kill, even with the basic weapons, however further down the line players will encounter much more difficult monsters including the infamous Cacodemon, Spiderdemon, and the baddest and biggest of them all; the Cyberdemon. Every enemy has their own attacks and techniques of hurting you, a simple Zombieman will fire his assault rifle shooting single pellets at a time, not causing any considerable amounts of damage, but the Cyberdemon on the other hand could easily kill you in one hit with the ginormous rockets it fires from its arm (well, its arm is essentially just a rocket launcher). The diverse range of enemies proves for interesting and encourages more strategy that you might think.
A Blast from the BFG-9000 about to wipe out a room of enemies.
DN3D also has 4 episodes containing a ton of aliens complete with an arsenal of lucrative weapons, including the Freezethrower, which when comes into contact with the enemy, will turn them into ice - unable to move, allowing the player to either shoot them to pieces (literally) or kick them using the infamous Mighty Boot. Another notable weapon would be the Shrink Ray, which shrinks enemies into mouse-sized proportions, letting players squish them, resulting in hilarious and entertaining gameplay.
Like Doom, the difficulty will generally increase as the player progresses, providing practically perfect gameplay for both newcomers and veterans, the first batch of levels contain simple enemies such as the Assault Trooper or the Pig Cop - neither causing any major danger (although a room full of either type of enemy can prove deadly), as the game advances you'll face much tougher enemies including the Assault Enforcer, Assault Commander, and the Octobrain. However, they are definitely not the toughest to kill in the game, there are a total of 4 main bosses in the game, each coincide with the respectable episode - the easiest being the Battlelord, whilst the most difficult would be the Alien Queen. Of course, this is all my own opinion, you may very well think differently.
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| One of the earlier bosses; Cycloid Emperer - possibly the most iconic in the series. |
It's safe to say DN3D learnt a lot from Doom, whether it be the core-gameplay of getting through each stage whilst trying to survive, using whatever guns you have the ammo for, finding secret areas, and the occasional boss battle here and there. And because of that, Doom has to take the win here - it had to play a huge influence in the development of DN3D, and that is worth a lot - Doom has influenced so many FPS games from its initial release to this day, giving players an experience they never previously had.
DOOM - 2 | Duke Nukem 3D - 2
IT'S A TIE!
