Doom Troopers

Unlike most of the games I have talked about so far, I have played quite a bit of this week’s entry.

I was never the most social gamer, often eschewing multiplayer staples for individual gaming experiences.  When friends came over, my collection of two player co-op games offered slim pickings, so we played a lot of Doom Troopers.  Of course, that was a long time ago and once we moved on to other systems, this game sort of fell by the wayside.  I figure now is a good time to revisit it.

I remember being excited about this game when I got it, as the “Doom” in the title led me to believe this would have something to do with, well, “Doom.”  It could have less to do with the FPS juggernaut, but it does take place in the Mutant Chronicles Universe.  Ever heard of it?  Yeah, neither had I.  It’s a post-apocalyptic pen and paper RPG from the 90’s, which actually has a pretty cool storyline.  My guess is the game was part of a larger merchandising play, as it came out around the same time as a related trading card game and miniature battle game (ya know, like Warhammer). 

You don’t need to be one of the four people that have a deep knowledge of the MC universe to play “Doom Troopers” though.  You take control of one of two commandos, the machine gun wielding Mitch Hunter or the twin pistol swinging Max Steiner, sent by the powers that be to take down Algeroth, the Dark Apostle of War, who leads an invasion to wipe out the human race.  You trapse across the solar system, blasting your way through dark legion zombies on Venus, Mercury, Pluto and the legion home world of Nero.  The graphics are pretty good and each level looks really unique.  The character models are a little fuzzy, but they move smoothly.  There are also some really strong graphical effects on the enemies.

Speaking of graphical effects, now is probably a good time to mention that this game is EXTREMELY gory for its time.  The ESRB really dropped the ball here, as there is no way in hell this should have been rated “T,” especially in 199-whatever.  You can blow enemies heads off, blast them into red mist and burn them alive.  Hit one of the sword zombies at the right time and they will gush blood everywhere as they seize and die.  Lure an enemy into one of the fans on Pluto and watch them get chopped up.  Think you’ve killed one of the big guys?  Think again.  Their torsos pop right back up and start returning fire.  Gore doesn’t make a game, but I think this is one of the few times where I think these effects add a lot to the experience.

That said, it’s the only thing about the game that really stands out.  The gameplay is okay-ish.  You run, you shoot, you die.  A lot.  I mostly played this game co-op as a kid and now that I have run through it solo, it seems like they very much intended it to be played by two people. There isn’t any scaling, so there are the same amount of enemies for one player as there are for two.  I often found myself overwhelmed, as the enemies are all bullet sponges.  That would be fine, but your ammo is pretty limited, especially if you pick the character with the machine gun.  At least it starts to regenerate when you get below 10, but by then you are pretty much screwed.

The biggest game design sin here is the difficulty curve.  The first level, Venus, is by far the hardest.  The first stage is fine, but the second is absolutely brutal and if you don’t bring any fireballs/missiles into the boss fight, you are done.  That fight really drives home the whole “this is designed to be played by two people” thing.  Demoginis (he’s the Dark Apostle of Sickness for you non-Mutant Chronicles Fans out there) has two attacks.  He throws bones and he pukes.  You can only hit him when he throws bones and its impossible to land more than a few hits on him without standing directly in his line of fire.  This would be okay, but eventually his arena starts to fill with puke.  If it gets above your character’s head, you drown.  In addition to being absolutely disgusting, it makes the damage race impossible to win without a buddy or  without the power weapons.

And the game just gets easier from there.  I found Nero to be the easiest level, which should not be the case.  I would rather breeze through the first level, learning about different aspects of the game in preparation for a challenging final level.  That leads us to the next problem, the game really doesn’t explain anything to you.  The waterfall on Venus is a nasty beginners trap and it wasn’t until I did online research on the game that I learned you could grab enemies and shoot them with the L button.  That would have been nice to know.  

Overall, the game is too short, too generic and too unbalanced to be worth going out of your way to play.   It’s a good fun diversion with a buddy, but thats all it is.  It at least has some good control and what is there looks good, but there isn’t enough substance.

5/10

Version Differences: When you talk about games from this generation, you have to talk about version differences.  I played the game on SNES, but it is also available on Genesis.  Based on my research, it looks like the Genesis version has more content, as some of the SNES levels where shortened.  The SNES has better graphics and sound, although the Genesis sound fits the game better.  I can’t comment on controls, but I can’t imagine playing this on the 3 button Genesis controller.  That said, I am sure it plays fine with the six button and in a tossup, Content is going to beat graphics every time, so the edge goes to Sega.

Play this game if:

You don’t have a better 2 player co-op option

You are a huge, die hard fan of the Mutant Chronicles series

You like your games gory

Avoid if:

You are put off by gore

You own one of the many better options.