So one minute you're staring at a sterile bland wall in a plain room with a few cookie cutter chairs, tables, and snack/drink dispensers. Then suddenly a "boom" and the lights go out – replaced by flashing red emergency beacons, pulsing like the beat of a smashed, bloody heart. Heaven forbid any posting be as simple and dull as the architecture of this "research" base. Metal rends in the distance as does human flesh; their deaths are not heard except for the lilting screams reverberating from far off down the twisting halls. I've rapidly come to the conclusions that (A), the Marines were a bad career move, (B), getting posted on the Mars science base an even worse career move, and (C), seeing the pile of weaponry conveniently located in the spacious armory next door, something's going to get hurt and it sure ain't us!

There's a dose of reality that any game company needs to take before trying to render a computer game into a 3D board model. Some have managed to do well with the concept of such conversions, while others did not fare so well. Reasons for both are numerous and varied, certainly too much to get into here. Consider turning a first person shooter into a board game, however. This isn't a new concept – Steve Jackson Games did it in 2001 with Frag, a game that was based purely on the concepts of running around, grabbing guns and ammo, and wasting – or "fragging" – other players. "Frag" was already a byword for killing other players in first-person shooters online by this time, so a game of the same name had a lot of visibility. Frag was and remains inexpensive – it's about $30 today – and is very easy to get into and play immediately. The quality of the gaming experience depends on the types of players you game with – rabble rousers always make better gaming partners. Regardless, the concept of the game was, at its heart, essentially multiplayer DOOM in boardgame clothing, even though it was made by an entirely different company and not branded as such.

There's a lot to live up to in any title that sports the DOOM name. The PC game DOOM III was a disappointment for its dull gameplay (though it had thrilling moments, to be sure), leaving a bad taste in many people's mouths because of the hype and anticipation that went into it. Now, with a DOOM boardgame that was released without nearly the fanfare, the question must be asked whether or not the atmosphere can be captured as well on a dining room table as it can in a darkened computer room, or whether wasting zombies and hell demons from the netherworld is more satisfying when they're made of plastic as opposed to pixels.

OVERVIEW

Didn't take us long to grab the loot. Me, I took a shotgun and chainsaw (I moved first when the other guy hesitated). The other guy got a machinegun, not a bad piece of work to be sure but it only had one extra lousy clip, just like my weapon. The chainsaw'd be a nice thing to have, since the screams of the dying have been quickly replaced by those of the damned. One door slid noiselessly open to the staccato drumbeat of the bleeding lights, and into the dim disco glow staggered a figure in a corporate scientist uniform…but it wasn't quite human…

In DOOM: The Boardgame, one to three Marine players attempt to slug their way through a maze of corridors and rooms to an exit while effecting the forceful removal of the denizens of Hell. Marines have access to weapons and armor to facilitate this eviction while the Invader player has hordes of nasty creatures with which to incorporate the New World Order™ of their choice. As always, it is down to a handful of heroes to deal with the overwhelmingly violent and depressingly evil menace from That Other Dimension. Clichéd? Certainly. Done before? Yes, to death. Fun? Let’s check and see.