overdrive's Doom II: Hell on Earth review

I played through Doom 2 recently (because that's just what I do every couple of years) and I noticed how badly I suck at it now. I was having a hard time figuring out why, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I may be far too used to the conventions of modern shooters, such as cover, headshots, etc. I feel like I've lost all of the frantic dodge-and-shoot muscle memory that is so vital for succeeding at this game, especially on its higher difficulty settings.

I mean, we're all winners if we abuse save scumming, but regardless, I was still surprised at how much challenge this game provides even today.

It doesn't help that our reflexes and such get poorer as we age, so if we lose muscle memory for a great game, that sets us back what feels like a really, really long way. Also, being surprised that old games are still challenging feels weird to me. Old games were harder in general, for a variety of reasons. It's quite remarkable nowadays when a game is genuinely challenging, unless the developers just screwed up and made the game harder than was intended. A difficult game that was meant to be difficult is rather uncommon.

I dunno. That sentiment seems to be coming back though, with all the permadeath stuff coming out nowadays. Games like Dark Souls, Darkest Dungeon, Hurtworld, Planetbase, etc. I guess people were sick of games being too easy.

That aside, I was simply shocked because I remember how good I was at Doom 2 when I was younger; even the later-game levels weren't much of a challenge. You might be right, it could be age; my fingers aren't quite as nimble as they used to be. Years of keyboard use will do that.

That was something it was hard for me to gauge, just because of how it's been so long since I've played this game (as in actual Doom II, as opposed to Final Doom and the fan-made wads using either Doom or DII's engine) and because I was playing it on the 360's controller instead of keyboard.

Observations:

1. It took a while to get used to the controls. Some things worked out great (setting DoomGuy to auto-run was nice and, for me, strifing felt more natural on the controller), others messed with my mind (I'd regularly shoot a gun while looking at the map, despite it being the same button to call it up and put it away; and I botched up what control pad button handled what weapons regularly).

2. Things involving really good reflexes (such as the final sprint of Tricks 'n Traps, where you have to make it over a bunch of descending pillars to the exit door before falling into NO ESCAPE death liquid) were still tough.

3. Well, "auto-run" wasn't perfect. One late game level has you going over pillars that are close enough together that sprinting can take you too far. That part was save-scummy for me.

Overall, I think some levels wound up more difficult for me and others were easier than I remember. And my memory failed at other times -- had to go online to figure out just how to get to the secret exit of Factory to get to Wolfenstein...and then how to get to Grosse from there.