Demons, Hell and Big F***ing Guns. That was what DOOM was about back in 1993, and that is precisely what DOOM is about in 2016. At its best, it’s everything that you can want it to be: you, a lone soldier on a mission to eradicate demons, making his way from Mars to hell and back, and kicking ass all along. It delivers the same cathartic experience you had when you played it for the first time in pixelated graphics, using your imagination to see a floating monster head blow up with blood on your face in those tiny squares.
While id software’s previous attempt to modernize DOOM with the third game may not have been that amazing an experience, they seem to have hit all the right notes with the fourth one. The game doesn’t pretend to be any more than what it is, and that’s probably the best thing about it. Not to mention, the accompanying heavy metal soundtrack goes perfectly with the game, doesn’t feel intrusive at all, and makes you wanna keep blowing demons up all night long. Not that the sight of monster bile splattering won’t fill you with excitement.
The game is violent, loud and very, very graphic. You wake up from a long sleep, and seconds later, you’re beating things to hell. You have only one aim, to rid Mars of demons, and you’ll stop at nothing. The game is not shy of gore and blood and exploding skulls, and that’s all very good. When compared to the old games, DOOM is seemingly more demanding. With overwhelming waves of demons around every corner, this installment is faster, more action packed and requires you to keep moving all the time. Even the game says,”Hell devours the indolent.” In other words, stay still and you’re dead.
While DOOM does have a story and a narrative, you can choose to ignore it completely and focus on the killing. That may not seem like such a bad idea, because the story doesn’t have a lot of depth, and somewhere along the line it just begins to sound stupid. It acts like a distraction from all the shooting and tearing of jaws, of which there is no shortage in the game. The codex entries, however, provide a good insight to the world and bestiary.
The game is pretty simple, really. You get an arsenal of weapons with their own characteristics. As you fight your way through the demon hordes, you gain combat points using which you can upgrade the weapons, while Praetor Suit tokens let you upgrade your suit. Oh, another wonderful thing about the mechanics – “Glory Kills”. Glory Kills is a name for the melee executions, and are the pure embodiment of gore. From snapping a demon’s leg and using it to break his neck to straight up brushing their faces, it gives you all the freedom.
Multiplayer and SnapMap
Multiplayer is a little disappointing, as the fights are often about who got to collect a better weapon or more armour after spawning, or who saw who first and took a shot. There are weapons, armor, ammo and power ups scattered around the map. including a demon rune that converts the player into a rocket barraging demon. The balance is a little upset by the progression system, as some boosters and hack modules are level locked and bring down the whole experience.
SnapMap is DOOM’s inbuilt tool for players to create their own maps. There are a lot of great ideas that come up, and it’s pretty easy to put them to reality as SnapMap is really easy to use. There are some limitations, however. Only 12 demons can spawn in a map at one time, the logic system may turn out to be a little buggy, and while simple to use, environment design is limited to pre-designed modules. But it gives the player the freedom to create classic DOOM experiences or even experiment with non-DOOM experiences. While it’s something, it doesn’t really make up for the lack of mod support.
DOOM is a game, that takes the classic experience up a notch, and delivers on it. It’s loud, violent and demands you to constantly be on the move, and while it may feel repetitive, you won’t have time to dwell on that with an army of demons running after you.
You can buy the game at G2A.com
For more news and reviews, keep checking back at Gaming Central.
