Within thirty-seconds of DOOM starting you know exactly the kind of gaming experience you are going to have. DOOM picks up without any sort of forced storytelling segments of any kind. No commander explaining to you (i.e. the audience) what the hell is going on, no cinematic into with a dragged out text scroll, and no bog standard tutorial in sight. Nope, DOOM simply throws you into the fray and treats you like an adult, which makes sense as those excited about this game probably grew up with the originals. Doom was the big daddy of the modern FPS genre, and this DOOM reboot/sequel looks to go back to basics opting for a visceral experience full of blood, guts and speed, over a linear experience. Where Doom 3 went with the jump-scare route and could be considered the inspiration for all the scare based games we see on Steam, this new DOOM chooses blasting baddies in gruesome ways over cheap scares.
But all this classic blasting isn’t to say that DOOM doesn’t have a story underneath everything, it simply chooses to let the player, the DOOM Marine, simply be a part of it instead of at its core. This is clear when while still in the first room of the game as a UAC station survivor tries to explain to you what is going on and recruit you to fight. It’s something that has been done a thousand times before, even in Doom 3, but here the DOOM Marine simply smashes the view-screen and goes about his business. You are here to kill demons, and boy howdy do you ever do just that. What ends up being a style more closely tied to the original Doom, it’s a wonder just how fresh it feels in 2016.
Instead of running down corridor after corridor, or being forced down a linear path full of invisible walls, DOOM opts for large open areas that you can traverse at will and in fun ways. This open nature isn’t quite as free as the original game, but it offers up a lot of unique opportunities in terms of modern gameplay. Your goal may be marked on your map, but how you get there and by what means falls to you. Maybe you’ll take the high ground and use the ledge grab ability, maybe you’ll find a secret path, or maybe you’ll jump all over the place like you’re playing Quake 3 Team Arena. Whatever you choose you are going to have a lot of fun getting to where you need to go at your own pace.
While the meat of DOOM is shooting the minions of hell in the face, the game offers up so fun ways of doing it. New is the “Glory Kill” mechanic that makes an enemy glow blue after you have done enough damage to it. If you are near an enemy when they are glowing you can tap a key and automatically perform said “Glory Kill”. These are extremely brutal and satisfying and vary in shape and form. The kills will differ depending on the enemy and whether you initiate it from the font, back, side, and even when landing on them from above. It’s a mechanic that many feared would get tiring, but this never happens. It’s always a lot of fun to perform and see these “Glory Kills” and they also come with benefits.
Performing a “Glory Kill” will reward you with life and ammo, so performing these is a vital part of the game. I think because of this reason is why the mechanic never gets old. Instead of being something cool that you can do, it’s something cool that also serves an important purpose. But before these kills you are going to be shooting all the baddies that you have come to known and love from the Doom series. The new designs of the enemies all work well and are fun to blast with DOOM’s array of weapons. If you are like me you are going to be using the Super Shotgun as your primary like the classic games, but each weapon serves defined role. There is a laser that can serve as a sniper rife, the classic chain-gun, limited use chainsaw for brutal kills, a plasma rife, and the legendary BGF 9000.
Each weapon feels good and the sound design helps add some much-needed weight to the weapons. New here is the ability to earn weapon tokens that allow you to modify each weapon with a number of attachments. Each weapon has two brackets that change things quite a bit and each bracket can be upgraded several times making the alt-fire of every gun more and more powerful until you can unlock a super ability once maxed out. These modifications give the player the ability to tweak their arsenal how they see fit, lending for a unique style of play from player to player. While playing you can swap mods on the fly so you won’t have to worry about some station or menu to worry about. This also makes exploring a lot of fun as you’ll be wanting to upgrade often.
Graphically the game looks fantastic running on the PC with the idTech6 engine. Dark and gritty is the name of the game, and while you won’t be peeing your pants in fear like we did with Doom 3, the world you travel through is truly gruesome. Canonically DOOM seems to take place in a timeline many generations removed from the first game as the bits of the story you find mention the events of that game. It seems that Doom 3 was some sort of alternative universe version as it doesn’t seem to fit here, but there are still a number of Easter Eggs to that entry. Some hell weapons can be seen on display as well as the rune system the game uses for its in-game challenges. DOOM is full of references to past iterations and you can even unlock the levels of the original Doom that are hidden within each map.
The gameplay is fast and furious and I can’t tell you how fun, and weird, it is to have actual boss fights again in an FPS. These fights are a lot of fun and will put your skills to the test. In an age of set pieces in first-person shooters, it’s fun to face off against monsters that soar above you in height and power simply to kill them. Add in a rocking metal inspired soundtrack and you have a game that really pumps you up as you play. The fifteen or so hours it’ll take you to complete the campaign feel expertly paced. There is nary a moment of downtime, and the few slow bits of story integration actually help keep you involved in what;s going on. You see, DOOM isn’t about you, as I stated before, but is really the story of Samuel Hayden (a scientist cyborg) and his protegé that went mad with power once the demons of hell took control of her. The dozens of data pads that you collect and the recorded holograms helps to keep you pushing forward, unearthing the next bit of the puzzle.
But things aren’t done as DOOM is essentially two games. The multiplayer portion of the game is an entirely different animal. It feels more Halo than anything, but it works well enough for most. There are far better options out there in the shooter space, but DOOM places single-player first and then offers up a fun multiplayer experience, something that is happening a lot less in other AAA titles. On top of the you have access to a full set of tools to create levels for other to download and play online. This feature is really fun to play with and is a first (at least as far as I know) on a console shooter. DOOM offers up an immense amount of content and should make you question the offerings we’ve been getting from a lot of other big studios.
While I love DOOM and am calling it my first “Must Have Game” of 2016, there are still some nagging issues with the game. None of these hurt it, but they did annoy me and I have to mention them. You have a melee button that serves as your “Glory Kill” button, but I had a lot of issues with the games mindless drone minions that are littered around as health pickups. If you run and them and melee attack them chances are you are going to fly right past them. DOOM has a sort of lock-on system and for whatever reason when in motion it doesn’t quite line up. Thankfully this only happens with the cannon fodder enemies, but is was aggravating to say the least. The rune system used for challenges is also weirdly implemented. Instead of being a seprate mode, these runes on in each level and when you find one you can then activate a challenge. I’d much rather them be on the menu someplace as they take you out of the experience. Another issue is that the game tends to feel a little slow. Being Doom, you’d expect the game to move quickly, but you often feel like a tank with some jump jets than an actual persons running around.
DOOM is a fantastic shooter that shows you can teach an old dog new tricks. While it doesn’t revolutionize the shooter genre, and let’s face it, nothing else ever will like the original did, DOOM is a bloody good time. Pick this one up and get to blasting demons with extreme prejudice.
About Author
