>inb4 replying to bait
Sure, but at least one line feels like it might specifically be mocking something I've said in a few other threads
>Doom: inferior to Ultima Underworld in tech and gameplay
Regarding iD's FPSs, and FPSs in general, I don't think they're bad games. Taken by themselves, they're good games that are fun to play, on a 5/10 scale they're all >5.
The problem is there were other games at the time or in the pipe that iD swooped in and bushwacked by chopping the engine's features to fit on cheaper CPUs, and dumbing down the mechanics to ship faster, also widening its appeal. Not just UU/SS, but also Mechwarrior, Terminator, TES, etc.
This caused the visceral 3D graphics and 1st-person combat used by Wolf/Doom/Quake to be associated with a dumbed down action genre, setting back FPSs from their initial genre hybrid experiments for the better part of a decade. Not just competitors' games, but even iD themselves, as Wolf was originally going to be hybridized with stealth like its 2D installments, Doom adventure, Quake RPG. And no >>313139 >>313159 while I agree Apogee/Raven/Splash did better design work than iD themselves, they barely strayed from iD's range in terms of genre ambition.
It wouldn't be until the late 90s that Doom clone hype would fade enough for ?/FPS genre experiments to really sprout back up, like Rainbow 6, SWAT, Operation Flashpoint, Tribes, Battlefield, Battlezone, Wargasm, Savage, Giants, Nightfall, Pathologic, Deus Ex, Thief, Hitman, Riddick, Jedi Knight, etc.. Though sadly this was barely able to reach its zenith just before Halo/CoD/GoW thumbstick consoledumb hijacked the shooter genre to destroy it and countless other genres during 7th-gen.
Admittedly, though iD stunted FPS in the crib, the trajectory I'm bemoaning wasn't unprecedented.
Perhaps the most striking example was that in the early days of gaming, vehicle sims (especially air combat and spaceflight) enjoyed a relative level of prominence that would ultimately end up unsurpassed, in no small part because they were the only genre at the time capable of such good 3D graphics and large worlds, but as 3D shmups and other simpler genres gained similar visuals, mass audiences would abandon sims, consigning the genre and their fancy joysticks alike to the realm of obscure hobbyist genre. Other less stark examples were the text adventure genre having an initial monopoly on rich stories (faded as mass storage limits lifted,) point & click adventure briefly monopolizing substantive games for sound/graphicswhores (faded as realtime rendering caught up with prerendered CD-ROM assets,) and RPGs monopolizing large and densely detailed worlds (faded as RAM limits allowed open world sandbox games in more action-y genres).
>>313134
>>313203
Ultima Underworld was just barely within a high clocked 486's capabilities, whereas Wolf 3D was built to be at least enjoyable on a 286, and Doom was very solid on a bottom end 486, playable on a 386. iD's technological aptitude was in tuning for a target, not state of the art technology.
>>313147
>>313168
3D Realms did a solid job tech wise, as did Lucasarts, Bungie, etc., but all of those games were pretty rote Doom clones game design wise, even if I'd say the Build Engine games were arguably the best designed Doom clones in terms of quality levels/weapons/enemies/balance. Probably Descent was the most creative thing anyone did at the nadir of iD's dominance.
>>313275
>>313294
>arena shooters
>friendslop
Okay, fine, I'll throw iD one bone on game design. Even if, at the time, UT was the better game in terms of artstyle, level atmosphere, game mode variety, weapon variety, and characters, perhaps because of its relative simplicity and blandness Q3A DM ultimately turned out to be a more tightly polished and balanced game in the long haul. It's a perfect timeless work of art, on par with Bomberman, Worms, or Nitronic Rush.