Being an Achievement Whore is not something you would instantly associate with gaming on a tight budget. It’s two things i have to constantly juggle when spending/wasting my money.

A lot of games for the aspiring achievement whore can not only be cheap to pick up, but reasonably good too, or at least playable. Games like NBA 2k6, NHL 2k6 and King Kong fall under this catagory. Ok, so they aren’t Devil May Cry 4 or Bioshock, but they are at least playable and, some might even say fun.

But some of the things achievement whores have to go through, I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy. For example, recently I have been gifted with an Australian copy of Cabela’s Alaskan Adventures. Thankfully, the game was never released in Europe, just NA and AUS. And I can see why, it’s a menace to society.

Just how far will you go for 1000 points? Kill over half a million zombies? No problem. Play Bullet Witch for 15 hours? Easy. Spend actual money on Avatar? Ok, getting a little rediculous now. But playing through Cabela’s Alaskan Adventure? I would rather pay full price for Vampire Rain and then be forced to sit through it’s 1000 points. At least Vampire Rain has Vampires, and so i’ve heard, Rain.

While Alaskan Adventure is not the worst game you can play, neither technicly nor in its gameplay, but it is so rediculously mind numbingly boring that you really will not only find it a chore to play, but be actively thinking of ways your Xbox 360 could spontaneously fault so that you can find an excuse to stop playing. You’ll find yourself creeping clumsily through the bushes as the aweful controls completely negate any stealthy approach to your prey, while in the back of your mind you are secretly wishing the 360 will spread wings and simply fly out the precariously open window of it’s own accord.

You can’t even occupy yourself by staring at the pretty graphics to sate your boredom like you would in Oblivion, because they are hideous. They look worse than the early 2k sports games, worse still than Vampire Rain or Dynasty Warriors 5. Heck, even Hitman: Blood Money is leaps ahead of Alaskan Adventures graphically.

This is a warning to all you other achievement whores out there, save yourself and go spend £39.99 on Avatar or Vampire Rain before you bother with any of the Cabela games. If you STILL think you want to sit through them for the points, watch The Deer Hunter, and imagine yourself in De Niro’s shoes, this game will ruin your life.

As you may have already discovered, Doom has been added to Xbox Live Arcades arcade HITS programme. Reducing it’s price from 800msp to 400msp.

This makes a big impact on the games value for money, and while 800 points I considered to be a little high at £6.80, for £3.40 Doom offers you a lot more for your money, and might even be the best deal on Xbox LIVE right now.

Doom on XBLA is a faithfull conversion of all 4 chapters of the original Doom, with slightly enhanced graphical resolution. On bigger TV’s this can make the games creatures appear very blocky or blurry however. The game is still a joy to play, very atmospheric, and includes all of your favorite levels and original soundtrack, as well as online multiplayer, 200 achievement points and 2 secret gamerpics to unlock.

The controls are smooth and fluid, moving around with the control sticks is a breeze, however weapon selection can be a little fiddly and unresponsive, it’s on the Y and B buttons instead of the D-Pad like most modern games.

In Doom, you play as a marine of the UAC corperation working on Mars while an experiment with teleportation wrenches open the very gates of hell itself. After the ensuing carnage, you are teleported to the companies Phobos lab and it is clear you are the only person left alive, and you must fight your way, literally, through hell and back to get home to earth alive.

Doom’s gameplay is relatively simple, your task during each level is to seek out new weaponry to defend yourself with, and make your way to the exit, which is contained in a seperate room with the word EXIT written invitingly above the door. All the while, blasting the hell out of everything that moves, and finding keycards and switches to help you progress through the levels.

Doom’s plot is a simple one, and never aims to be anything more than an excuse to blast hundreds of demons back to hell. That said, it never needs to be anything more. The levels vary from simple, to incredibly long and complex designs which adds a decent amount of variety to the game.

For it’s XBLA iteration, the game is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, and the rest of the screen is surrounded by a black border, which I think is a bit of a shame, there is ample space for some nice artwork there. But at the same time, I could admit that might detract from the games atmosphere.

Consisting of 4 chapters, each containing 9 levels, 36 in total. Most of the initial levels are relatively short, and the first chapter can be finished in about 20 minutes. However a lot of the later levels can be quite complicated and can often take up to 15 minutes each to get through. So there is a good 2 to 3 hours of gameplay to be had especially if you ramp up the difficulty to obtain the achievements. So while the game
is short, and beyond achievements, offers little replay value, for 400 points 2 to 3 hours of play offers incredible value for money.

Overall Doom is a neat little package of retro hyperviolence that no self respecting over 18 would want to miss out on at it’s newly reduced price. It offers a good amount of high quality gameplay in addition to it’s multiplayer modes.

Verdict:
Value: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5