“Satanism has never been more fun!”
…is the tagline id Software should have used to promote the new reboot of the “Doom” franchise. “Doom” has been one of my personal favorites in video game history and favorite franchise overall. Given the past I’ve had with this game, I’m honestly surprised that I’m still not hiding under the laundry basket like when I was a toddler watching my Mom play “Doom 64.” Today, I’m a 21-year-old college student who will subject himself to the most gory and disturbing horror movies from out of the country.
Long story short, the monster in my closet (Doom) didn’t want to kill me. He just wanted to give me cookies and make sure I have a good time by slaughtering demons from Hell. Here I am, enjoying it with a bottle of ale and Vienna fingers, laughing at the massive graveyard of hellspawn I leave behind.
Doom (2016) is a reboot of the classic first-person shooter from the nineties, bringing back old-school gameplay with new features and a new coat of paint. The story behind Doom is the same as the first Doom; a freak accident occurs on Mars where the forces of Hell invade a corporate laboratory. As…you (or Doom Guy, whichever), you wake up in the middle of the invasion…and that’s pretty much it. Doom drops you into the world with only one instinct to follow; kill.
How many ways can you kill in Doom? Too many to list as the game brings in a concept called “Glory Kills” where you brutally murder a demon in the most gruesome ways imaginable. What other game rewards me with health, ammo, and armor from breaking apart the jaw of a cowardly Imp or tearing the eye out of a Cacodemon? You can also earn a fountain of ammo through the use of your trusty chainsaw, the granddaddy of gory messes. In no time, you’ll be slicing more meat than a Thanksgiving dinner.
Survival in Doom is crucial not only in ammo, but in speed, which is what Doom has been all about. Only the energetic survive. If you remain idle, you will die because the AI is incredibly smart. They will make use of the environment and gang up on you when possible. There were times where Hell Knights or Revenants had me cornered, and that was just on Normal difficulty!
While I’m on the matter of name-dropping, I want to quickly praise the detail in characters, mostly the enemies. It’s rare these days to see beautiful transitions of pixelated characters make their way to modern, texturized gaming. While I recognized every demon thrown in my way, I still had moments where I was yelling some vulgar remarks out of fear. You’ll be reintroduced to the more simple until the game makes you yell, “What the f*** is that thing?"
Before release, id Software advertised Doom as the ultimate Doom package. I like to think of this game as less than a package and more of a huge celebration of one of gaming’s most historic works. While Doom has always had strong single player content (even in this one, you have collectibles and secrets of the game’s lore to discover), the series has also had a focus on multiplayer.
Before I go into great detail, I want to bring up something Doom does right that modern shooters don’t always nail on the head. There are times where I will get mad from being killed because my opponent shoots me from the other side of the map with a spammed or over-powered weapon. It’s happened to me more times in games like Star Wars Battlefront and even Battleborn than it has in Doom. Why? Because Doom points out mistakes. No, it doesn’t use the traditional Kill Cam or show the enemy player that killed you. It’s the fact that you’re able to realize your mistakes and not blame the game.
You can choose from a handful of different game modes, but they're not much different from usual shooters. There's King of the Hill, Team Deathmatch, etc. But, they are each fun in their own ways. Presonally, I enjoy Soul Harvester. It's like Team Deathmatch, but your victim leaves "a soul" to collect for your team. The team with the most souls wins.
What makes the multiplayer more unique than traditional shooters is that Doom offers you access to multiple weapon loadouts to help you and your team to victory. Instead of worrying about having the best weapons and picking off lesser ranked players, I was forced to think about a better weapon loadout judging from the map and my personal play style.
Not only that, but every round, you’re given a select amount of “Hack Modules” to help enhance your abilities for one game. These hack modules can help you in locating enemies or allies, observe respawn times of power-ups and supplies, or even give you a mini task for extra experience points like killing the top player. With access to multiple weapons and a variety of ability enhancements, I never felt like my deaths were the game’s fault. I always felt there was an opportunity to turn the game around by adjusting my play style.
Interested in making levels like the old days of modding in Doom? Doom invites designers and gamers to utitlize the “SnapMap” feature included in the game, allowing all players to use the game’s assets in order to create unique levels. While I may be done with game’s story (which took around 15-16 hours), I’ll still have more to play and keep me entertained thanks to this feature. The game also encourages you to design your own levels and offers a very simplistic tutorial on using the system. It’s easy to learn and you’re challenged to solve numerous design puzzles, ranging from modifying AI logic to win a challenge or adding objects to the map.
Doom is everything it has built its reputation to be, and more. It doesn’t try to be innovative or groundbreaking and it doesn’t need to be. Developers forget these days that simple fun is often the best fun. You don’t need complicated mechanics or genre-fusing gameplay to get results. With amazing visuals, a fun arcade-style campaign, and plenty of content to last the next couple of years, Doom has earned a permanent spot on my shelf and I will forever cherish it.
On one last note, after the ending of the story, I hope this will not be the last time we see Doom for this generation.
Doom for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC, gets five slaughtered demons out of five.
