Score: 3.5/5
Pros: Great graphics, excellent gameplay
Cons: Not enough levels
Cost: $5.99USD
Buy from: Apple App Store

Id Software's Doom probably sold more PCs than any reseller. In it's time, the early 1990s, it needed some pretty grunty hardware to keep up with the fast-moving bad guys and what ever they were throwing or firing at you. Doom spawned its own ecosystem of add-on levels and eventually was superseded by Quake and a host of other first-person shooters. Doom Resurrection is a re-birth of Doom, specifically made of the iPhone and iPod touch. It's not a straight porting of the original game - these are entirely new levels although the premise of the story is the same.

I won't rehash the storyline of Doom as it's adequately covered over at Wikipedia and lots of fan sites as well as Id Software's own site.

Storyline

You're the last surviving marine on a remote research facility on Mars. You start the game unarmed (although that's not the case for too long) and have to negotiate your way through the facility, killing all manner of demons, zombies and other nasties along the way.

In other words, shoot anything that moves, don't get killed and save the world!

Gameplay

Given that the iPhone lacks a keyboard, Doom Resurrection puts you on rails. This means that you don't have any control over your own movement during the game. This takes a little getting used to. One of the features of Id Software's First Person Shooters, or FPS, is that you can freely walk around the game space and explore. The goal in the original game was to find secret passages and other secrets hidden behind walls. There are secrets in Doom Resurrection but they're not well hidden. The trick is to seem them and shoot them to open them before you go past them. You can't stop your onward movement to the destination at each level.

Accompanying you on much of the journey is a small flying droid called Sam. Sam gathers data from the few remaining data terminals so that you can send the data to base an avert the seemingly inevitable teleportation of demons from hell to earth. Same only appears when she's integral to the story. Otherwise she's not floating about, cluttering up the limited screen space.

As there's no way to control your own movement, the left corner of the screen is set as a dodge control. When one of the demons throws a fire ball at you, the dodge control will let you duck out of the way, letting the fireball harmlessly sail by. The trick is to time your dodge correctly so that you don't go too early and get hit. When possessed soldiers are firing their guns at you the dodge control lets you hide behind conveniently placed crates or pillars so you can stay out of harms way until there's a break in the shooting and you can retaliate.

Weapons

One of the great things about the original Doom was the array of different weapons you could discover. The most basic weapon is a machine-gun. This weapon's magazine holds 60 rounds but you somehow have an infinite supply of refills. While that sounds silly it has the advantage of not leaving ammo lying around the screen all the time.

There's also a pair of shotguns you find as your walk through the research facility. The single barrel unit packs enough punch to kill most humanoid bad guys with a single shot to the head. You can hold eight shots at a time with that weapon.

The double-barrel shotgun can kill many of the larger mutants that come your way with a single blast providing you wait for the mutant to get nice and close. But beware - reloads take a second or so and that's enough time to get badly hurt if you don't make the kill on your first shot.

There's a plasma rifle as well. Its magazine holds 40 rounds and can kill most things with about half as many shots as the machine-gun. However, the plasma ammo is best saved for when you get your hands on the BFG.

The BFG, or Big XXX Gun, fires forty rounds of plasma in one fell swoop and will kill several bad guys at a time. However, it takes a while to fully prime so you'll need to time its use carefully.

Controls

The on-screen controls are easy to use. Each corner of the screen is designated for a specific function. The top-left corner lets you toggle between weapons, the top-right reloads your weapon. The bottom-left is for dodging incoming enemy fire and the bottom-right is for shooting. There's also a small pause button on the top of the screen should you need a break while playing.

Each weapon has a different set of crosshairs for aiming. You direct the crosshairs by tilting the iPhone as the aiming mechanism uses the device's accelerometers. My only complaint was that it's tricky to aim correctly unless you're sitting still - something that's difficult if you're playing on a train.

Criticisms

I really enjoy playing Doom Resurrection. That's why I was really disappointed as there just weren't enough levels. I managed to play all the way through from start to end in a couple of days. Sure, that cut into stuff like eating and work, but I got a lot more gameplay out of the port of Wolfenstein.

Also, the "on rails" approach to movement is a great way to eliminate the use for complex controls that take away from the available screen space but it did take some getting used to.

Should you buy it?

If you enjoy playing FPS and have a few spare bucks then I'd recommend Doom Resurrection. Although I've finished the game, I'm still playing it, using the "Free Play" option to go back to various points in the game.