Scream At The PC

Action Games – Doom and Wolfenstein

Where you are fighting just to stay alive long enough to say that you can play the game at such a high difficulty level. I find if you want the best testerone from an action game, you need to play it on the hardest difficulty that you can muster – sure you will possibly die before you reach the end of level one the first time. However once you get the hang of dealing with things at such a high level then you can play the rest of the game at one just below the hardest.

I remember the very first action game that made me want to scream at the PC, it was Wolfenstein 3D – I started on a level of “I am death incarnate” – heart pumping, waiting for everything to jump out at me at any moment, it was at first and I died before I finished the first level several times. Eventually I got it, but unlike the level of “Can I play daddy?” – nobody dies very easily especially the big bosses and the PC speaker reverberates with 8 bit sound through your ears as the bullets are pumped into you. Actually the only way I defeated him was by hitting him with the machine gun round corners and then running to the next hiding place. I never actually finished the entire game at this level, but it was good fun…hehe

And then along came Doom… Even the name of the game sent shivers up my spine, this was definitely a game worthy of The Scream At The PC title. Perhaps even the title of “jump out of your skin”. I started playing in nightmare mode, but the whole coming back to life 25 seconds after I shot you – really wasn’t fair (they do warn you before you play…) It was exciting though, I managed to get to the third level and then kept on dying when the monsters were just too numerous and their was just not enough ammo for this level – the cheats don’t work on this level either so there really is no way to get anywhere far without screaming for mercy. And then Doom 2 – thank you ID software, John Carmack you are a seriously talented individual in a sick twisted kind of way… “Shores of hell” was one level that I will have nightmares about for the rest of my life… and that 100ft monster that shoots missiles is so cool when it is not shooting at me. It took me 100 rockets to kill it, never mind that it kept on dodging them and flinging two or three back at me…
There was something better that came with Doom —> Network Gaming over TCP/IP and IPX/SPX, that was pure genius. Now not only were you concerned about the monsters, but also you also now need to start worrying about your buddies pumping you full of lead or even better bringing all the monsters to you… aaaah