Game of the Week: Doom 2 is eternal

Growing up, my family was a staunch Nintendo household. The virtue of having two older brothers meant I was able to devour all the games they inevitably pestered my parents for, though at that kind of age, all that really meant was repeatedly playing the same opening levels over and over again because that was all my tiny, un-coordinated child hands could manage. When our first family PC entered the scene in the mid-90s, I remember I always had to get one of them to load up DOS for me, too, as I could never remember the string of words and backslashes involved to get Magic Carpet running (a game that, to this day, I still have no idea what it's about). Or, indeed, the infinitely gorier Doom 2, a game I definitely shouldn't have been playing as a seven or maybe eight year old, but one I found myself surprisingly proficient at nonetheless.

I never really made much distinction between chopping up spiders in The Legend of Zelda and blasting little pixel men with Super Shotguns in Doom 2. I'm not sure my parents ever did either, to be honest, as they certainly never raised any objection to me playing it, or its close relative Heretic back in those days. As a child, I liked all the little noises Doom 2's enemies made - the crk-crk-crk of nearby Imps and the grunting foghorns of far-off Pinkys filled each level with a sense of life and excitement. Something, somewhere, was still out to get you, and it was always a thrill when a secret wall would open up and you'd hear that collective gasp as they all sprung to life to hunt you down.

Those sounds still haven't lost any of their power even now, 30 years later (cor), and every time I boot up Doom 2 as an adult, they instil that same childlike glee in me. I know every level like the back of my hand these days - which walls will give way to secrets, and where to find its various hidden weapons. But the first screech of a Cacodemon, the roar of a Hell Knight or that electrified wail of an Archvile will never cease to ratchet up the tension when they first bust out of their spawn chambers.