
Boom [C64]
15th October 2014 / Soosh	

Boom Doom-like game on the Commodore 64? Really? I mean seriously? Yup, and turns out, its actually pretty cool, considering the system you play it on. Oh, and its called Boom!

 

Boom by 576 KByte and released in 1996 is a bit of an oddity. Ive never heard of it before, couldnt find any information whatsoever (apart from a handful of comments at lemon64.com) and have absolutely no clue what this game is about. Ok, that last point is not entirely true. Even though the whole in-game text is in Hungarian (a language I dont speak), watching the intro (which you cant skip, by the way) reveals that it might have something to do with an active volcano that destroys a city and turns everyone into mutants. Well, thats at least what it looks like, but I could be wrong. ah, whatever. Its a shooter, for Petes sake, and as long as you can shoot stuff, everythings gonna be fine.

 

You move around using WASD, with Q and E reserved for moving sideways, while IJKL controls your cross hair (you can use a mouse, but I wasnt able to get it to work), F fire. Gameplay itself is rather simple. Walk through the levels, collect keys to be able to open doors and find the exit, while shooting at everything that moves. And thats about it. No puzzles, no jumping and, thankfully, no mazes (something I always hate to see in First Person Shooters). The game does have a mini map, which shows the surrounding area, and youll be glad for it, because its quite easy to lose your orientation in this game.

 

Technically, its quite impressive and Im wondering how cool it would have been if someone wouldve used the same engine to create a first person RPG (think of an Ultima Underworld lite of some sorts). And there seem to be plenty of levels. How many, I dont know, due to the lack of a level counter.

Doom it is not. But it doesnt really have to be, and is pretty good for what it is, an 8-Bit Doom-like that is fun to play.