Check out our video review:
My favorite sitcom of all time is easily Seinfeld. I started watching it in high school and got hooked. I go through each season every year multiple times and the show still makes me laugh to this day. I think Larry David, the co-creator, is a comedic genius and, yes, I’m also a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm which I guess is like the successor to Seinfeld. Then there’s It’s Always Sunny which I consider to be another successor and the best way to describe it is still the classic line “it’s Seinfeld on crack”. The one thing all of these shows have in common is that they all revolve around terrible people. No hugging, no learning. And I love that.
The nineties were a great time for sitcoms in my opinion. Seinfeld, King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Fresh Prince – I watch them all frequently, with Seinfeld being my favorite. Back then, my mom would watch Friends every week and the only reason ever I wanted stick around and watch was so I could stare at Jennifer Aniston. And, honestly, she’s still why I watch it today. Anyway, the nineties were also a great time for games. The classic Doom games released back then and did you ever think what would happen if you mixed Doom with Seinfeld? I didn’t. Why would I ever think that? Well somebody did and decided to create a mod for Doom II based on Seinfeld and the result is a mod called Jerry’s Apartment. A better name would have been “a wad about nothing” but oh, well.
This is not your typical Doom mod. It really is a wad about nothing. Well, almost. You can shoot the the Seinfeld characters but that’s really it in terms of interactivity. Most of the enjoyment stems from appreciating the detailed recreation of the apartment seen in the show. George, Elaine, Kramer, and even Newman are here and spout a few classic lines which are clearly just audio clips ripped from the show. When you’re about to exit the game you’re sent off with famous lines from the show in text form and when you actually exit, you’ll hear the Soup Nazi yell at you. The mod launches to the typical Doom menu but with the Seinfeld logo and images of George in the background accompanied by a version of George’s answering machine tune from season eight, episode fifteen – “The Susie”. And I have no idea where that tune is really from. The gameplay is accompanied by a version of the typical Seinfeld tune which plays on a loop.
The whole point of this mod is basically to show off Jerry’s apartment. You can freely roam around the apartment, the visible portion of the hallway outside of the apartment, and the entrance to Kramer’s apartment where you’ll find Newman. Unfortunately, you can’t interact with anything and the character’s only spout a few lines. If you don’t like the show, then the only reason you might like this is because you can kill the characters.
The painstaking attention to detail is very obvious from the get-go. With that said, it’s a very accurate representation of Jerry’s apartment. You can check out his kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and the colors are pretty close to what you see in the show. Even the characters look accurate. Their appearances, height differentials, and attire look correct. From George’s plaid shirt to Elaine’s ridiculous hairstyle from seasons one to six, everything is basically spot on. You can see Jerry’s bike hanging on the wall. Jerry and Kramer’s apartment doors look accurate, complete with their apartment numbers. And you know what else is impressive? The apartment building across the street. This mod actually includes the apartment building across the street. Sadly, there’s no naked woman. She might have been left out for obvious reasons but it’s kind of a bummer that there’s not even a reference to her considering she’s from the “The Contest”, one of the best episodes in the series. The layout of the apartment is basically perfect from what I could tell. Other than the mostly unseen areas of the apartment in the show, everything looks like an accurate reflection.
The complaints I have with this mod come from the Seinfeld fan in me. I’m not trying to bash it because it truly is a fantastic piece of work. I wish there was more to do because while I appreciate the one hundred hours the creator claims to have put into this, it offers less than five minutes of content. I think huge fans of the show will get a lot more out of this and appreciate it more. You can tell this was made by a dedicated fan. Regardless, I would have loved to see more characters like Susan, Puddy, Peterman, and/or Frank and Estelle. However, more characters would mean there should be more room to move around because the map or level is pretty small and the five characters that are present get in your way frequently. Killing them makes it much easier to move around. They also don’t do much. They spout a line when you first see them and walk around aimlessly. And they won’t say anything else until you shoot and kill them. It would have been cool if they had more lines and maybe randomized dialogue so you’re not hearing the same things over and over. Also, Jerry’s living room TV appears to be showing a very pixelated image of the main characters. That’s what it looks like, at least. I think an image from the show within the show called “Jerry” from the final episode of season four would have been better.
This mod is more about the audiovisual presentation than anything else. It absolutely nails the look and feel of Jerry’s apartment. The colors, layout, and sprites all look great. The objects in the apartment are well designed and are a good reflection of what’s seen in the show. The phone, the refrigerator, the shower, Jerry’s bed, the couch and chair, and even all the little things that may not be easy to make out because of the pixelated presentation. I downloaded the mod from the Doomworld forums and the post does mention GZDoom so that’s the source port I used to play it. It ran great and even with Brutal Doom, I didn’t have any issues.
Despite the lack of content, this is a great mod. But it’s not one you’re going to enjoy for the gameplay. It’s a mod you check out because you’re a fan of the source material. And it’s a great mod because it’s not a lazy recreation of something from another medium. This is a wonderful piece of work that reflects the source material accurately. You can tell it was made by a fan. Whether you’re a Seinfeld fan or not, the painstaking attention to detail is undeniably incredible. However, fans will get a lot more out of it. And that’s the sad thing. Many people might not give a shit and not check it out. It’s also unfortunate that there’s not much to keep you occupied. Would you believe me if I told you I spent more than two hours playing around with this? For two reasons. One; I like having plenty of footage for a review and two; because I’m a huge fan of the show so I enjoyed running around checking everything out. And it really does capture the charm of the show. That is until you shoot one of the characters and realize it’s still Doom II. I did enjoy messing around with cheats and flying around with noclip enabled just to admire everything more closely. After killing all of the characters, there’s nothing else to really shoot or do from a gameplay standpoint. The environment is not destructible. But spawning the characters all over the place so I could repeatedly blow them away and listen to their lines resulted in a chuckle or two.
I would absolutely recommend this mod to Seinfeld fans. It’s free so there’s really no reason not to check it out. Fans of the show will certainly get a kick out of it and it’s only a shame that all of the work that went into this culminates in less than two minutes worth of content. But I guess it doesn’t matter. Just a fan showing their love for the show with other fans. Like the show or not, if you’ve always wanted to shoot up the characters for whatever crazy reason, that’s something you can do. Jerry’s Apartment is certainly one of the most interesting and unique Doom mods I’ve ever experienced.