Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

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DOOM
Platform: PC
Playtime: 38 hours

When DOOM (aka DOOM 2016) first released in 2016, it must have been seen as something almost miraculous by long-time fans. After all, the series had effectively been on hiatus since the release of DOOM 3 in 2004, and that game, ambitious though it may have been, burned a lot of longtime fans and wasn't the 3D DOOM game they had been dreaming of. Previews and footage of this game were promising, though, promising a proper return to form for the legendary, long-dormant series, combining the 3D aiming and movement of DOOM 3 with the speed, ferocity, and difficult of the classic games of yore. And that, to put it lightly, is what the game delivered.

DOOM 2016's most notable change is the way it layers complexity to the experience that enhances and expands the focus of previous games. Previous DOOMs were somewhat minimalistic in terms of their gameplay (which, admittedly, works well for this series). Kill demons, find your way to the end of the level. Wash, rinse, repeat. DOOM 64 counteracted this mindless simplicity a bit by adding more intelligent, puzzle box level design that forced the player to think about how to progress, but it still amounted to the same basic thing: kill demons, and get to the level goal. DOOM 3 shook things up a bit more dramatically by making it where the player often couldn't examine their environments AND have a gun out at the same time, which slowed down gameplay significantly and added a more distinct survival horror feel to proceedings. It also forced the player to stop for long periods of time to listen to droning audio logs from scientists located around the UAC base. The changes were interesting, but also controversial, because they didn't really fit with the ethos of DOOM.

DOOM is about movement! Action! Spontaneity! Running at breakneck speeds around hell and blasting demons in their ugly faces with missles. So it's easy to see why the changes (partially counteracted in the BFG remaster) didn't sit well with the established fanbase.

DOOM 2016 leans into the gameplay focus of older DOOMs, but establishes its own unique identity by turning the game into something of a collect-a-thon. Secret collectibles fill nooks and crannies in every level in this game: some are purely aesthetic (you can find these adorable Doom Slayer action figures throughout the game that unlock 3D models in the main menu), but most are part of an elaborate nest of upgrades that touch on almost every aspect of the game. There are multiple collectibles that I'll be discussing, but I do want to mention two immediately. You'll find the corpses of Elite Guard marines throughout the game, and collecting tokens from their lifeless bodies will allow you to upgrade your 'praetor suit' so that, for example, your in-game map displays collectibles within a certain radius, or power-ups stay active for longer, or you become more resistant to certain types of damage, and so on; Argent Cells, which contain weaponized hell energy, will, when found, permanently upgrade either the Doom Slayer's armor capacity, HP limit, or total ammo capacity, acting a lot like missile and health upgrades in Metroid games.

I said before that DOOM 2016 embraces the 3D movement of DOOM 3, but that really is an understatement. DOOM revels in three-dimensional freedom in a way few games do. This is perhaps what informs the level design of the game: while there are corridors and keycards/colored skulls used to access new areas, as in previous games, they are a minor element in this game. The confusing labyrinths of hallways and doors are largely a thing of the past here, and DOOM opts for levels that feel incredibly open. There are, of course, the obvious arena-like environments where gigantic enemy skirmishes take place, but the levels in general feel very spacious, organic, and vertical. This is made clear in the game's very first level, which takes place on the surface of Mars, as you trek between buildings and explore ridges, hills, and blasted structures while fighting off waves of demons. Later levels feature significant platforming elements, multi-layered structures where battles take place, and so on. Jumping is now a huge part of the equation, and that becomes even more the case when the player unlocks equipment that allows the Doom Slayer to double jump. There are times when I'm reminded of a Metroid Prime game... although that impression fades a bit as the thrash metal soundtrack kicks off, and I'm flying between platforms and structures, sniping demons as I pass over them before landing and snapping enemy necks.

I know I've mentioned this in relation to other DOOM games, but I genuinely cannot imagine playing this game with anything other than a mouse and keyboard. DOOM 2016 is heavily reliant on split-second decision-making and speed, and I found I often had a small window of time to actually line up a shot, given the demons in this game are often as adept at parkour as I am. Even moreso than with previous games in the series, the only way for the player to avoid dying almost immediately, especially on higher difficulties like Ultra-Violence or Nightmare, is to continually be moving. Stopping means death. Slowing down means death. DOOM is perhaps the most aggressive action game I've ever played, and the only way the player stays alive is by becoming a sort of monster themselves, hurtling themselves at grotesque foes with almost reckless abandon.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the game is also horrifically violent. Not that older DOOM games were shy of blood, but this entry dials the brutality up several notches, and you're rarely going for more than a minute or two without inflicting all manner of grievous injuries on the denizens of hell with your powerful weapons. Even being somewhat desensitized to depictions of violence, I was rather flabbergasted the first time I chainsawed an enemy in half for ammunition (chainsaw executions are used to both instantly kill enemies and recover ammunition in this game, although limited gasoline keeps the player from abusing the mechanic). It was so raw and... juicy.

The level of on-screen violence is elevated even further with this game's glory kill system. Every demon in this game has a damage threshold where they're staggered and will begin flashing. If the player presses the punch key while close to them during this period, they'll perform a glory kill, which is a brief animation that leads instantly to the death of the forementioned enemy. I initially worried that this would break up the marvelous pacing of the combat, but I actually found it enhanced it: combat is so vicious and overwhelming in DOOM that the brief animations allowed my brain a second of respite in order to process what was happening, which allowed me to keep up with the game's high-wire ballet of gore and death. If that wasn't enough incentive on its own, I should probably also point out that glory killing enemies causes them to drop more health when they die. The best defense in this game is ALWAYS a hyper-violent offense.

The glory kill system also enhances a status effect that I found didn't work very well in previous DOOM games. In past iterations, the "Berserk" status effect allowed the player to run up to demons and kill them in a single punch. But punching in first person shooters has always been sort of awkward, and I found this status effect never worked well for me. Berserk status is AWESOME in DOOM 2016, though, because the punches are replaced with automatic glory kills. And they're even more spectacularly gruesome than the normal ones. Where you might smash an enemy's face in with your boot during a normal glory kill, you'll suddenly be ripping them in half, tearing their skulls apart, and otherwise totally obliterating them in a glorious manner that recalls the fatalities in Mortal Kombat games.

I've harped on about the violence, but, in truth, it's so constant and outlandish that the visceral impact of it quickly fades. Once you've torn off a demon's leg and beat the creature to death with it hundreds of times, the shock wears off, and you're able to appreciate the unique grace your ultra-violent dances of death possess.

In terms of the glory kills, it's worth mentioning that they're actually context sensitive. You'll perform different glory kills on a given enemy depending on where you're aiming and how you're positioned when you trigger the animations. Which leads, I think, into a brief discussion about another one of the features of this game: level challenges.

Starting with the second level of DOOM, you'll have access to three challenges in every level. Progress toward goal completion is reset if the players exits the level, so they have to be undertaken in one go. Challenges can range from having to find certain collectibles to finding optional easter eggs within the levels (one particularly tricky challenge required me to find a random computer on which to play a DOOM-themed Bejeweled clone). One challenge type that seemed to continually crop up would ask me to kill certain demons with certain targeted glory kills a specific number of times. This sounds simple enough, but a number of the glory kills in this game are obnoxiously hard to trigger, with the worst being one that required me to target the lower half of the right leg of an enemy demon that didn't show up significantly often within the level itself. It's interesting how contextual the glory kills are, but I found the targeted glory kill challenges to be little more than a nuisance.

In terms of weapons availability, DOOM 2016 doesn't rock the boat by introducing much in the way of new weaponry (I believe the Gauss Cannon is new, but that's about the only one that doesn't have some level of precedent in previous DOOM games), but instead opts to reintroduce almost every major weapon from previous games in the series and make them feel better than ever. This includes the double-barreled ("super") shotgun, and it's as amazing and stupidly overpowered as it ever was. That's not to say, of course, that the weapons have been left untouched. One of the many joys of exploration in this game is finding these adorable field drones that give selectable weapon modifications to the Doom Slayer. These modifications can be swapped on the fly, and their unique effects can be strengthened via weapon upgrade points, which are earned by completing level challenges and discovering secrets, typically. A weapon mod, once fully upgraded, will finally unveil a "mastery challenge." Mastery challenges typically involve challenges that require skillful use of the upgraded weapon mod. Mastering these challenges grants one final upgrade to the weapon's effectiveness that makes it significantly more useful. For example, with the fore-mentioned super shotgun, completing the weapon mastery challenge allows you to fire the weapon twice in quick succession before reloading, which can make quick work of even the most powerful enemies at short range.

I'd also be loathe not to mention runes and rune trials as well. The player will find hidden portals throughout the game that will transport them to rune trials. In these trials, the player has to accomplish some sort of goal in a short amount of time, often with severe handicaps imposed. For example, a trial goal might be "kill 20 demons in 30 seconds using only [insert weapon]," and you'll additionally be limited to a small amount of ammo, most of which you'll have to scavenge from the environment. Some trials also task the player with reaching a location within a specific amount of time. Completing these trials will unlock runes that will additionally have their own challenges the player must complete before the rune can be equipped. Runes are powerful, though, and can do anything from dramatically increase the period of time in which demons are staggered to give the player full control of their mid-air mobility when jumping or falling, which helps tremendously when one is trying to access hard-to-reach secrets stuck out on distant ledges.

Everything in this game feels designed to work together to make the player stronger, faster, and more effective as a demon-killing machine. The primary reason this nest of collectibles, systems, upgrades, and challenges works out as well as it does is due to how the game goes out of its way to minimize tedium and unfairness when the player is engaging with it. Progress in level challenges, for example, doesn't reset until the player leaves the level, so dying and having to go back to a previous checkpoint doesn't erase the player's hard work, and can even be used as a technique to cheese some of the more annoying challenges in this game. When the player completes a level challenge, or collects something, they can also immediately leave the level without having to finish it, which shortens the playtime dramatically for someone going for 100% completion. If there is one thing that DOOM 2016 doesn't like to do, it's to waste the player's time.

Thankfully, this respect for the player's time applies to the storytelling in DOOM 2016 as well.

DOOM actually has what is probably the best narrative in the series. Granted, the plot is essentially identical to other DOOM games: greedy megacorp discovers Hell, thinks: "oh, it'd be a splendid idea to try and exploit Hell's resources for our own ends," and then, as it always does, Hell finds a way to invade our dimension, necessitating the gory antics of our silent hero. The game begins rather memorably, with the Doom Slayer awakening to find himself strapped down to a table next to a sarcophagus, demons bearing down on him. After donning a suit of power armor, our intrepid hero is contacted by the gravel-voiced Dr. Samuel Hayden, the UAC scientist primarily responsible for the plan to use argent energy from Hell to solve Earth's energy crisis. The dynamic between your character and Hayden is interesting and tense: Hayden, for his part, fully plans on continuing his research into exploiting Hell's resources, but woke the Doom Slayer out of desperation after one of his lead subordinates struck a deal with Hell and built a devil-worshipping cult under his nose that led to the invasion; the Doom Slayer, on the other hand, has only one goal: smash anything even tangentially related to Hell or demons. There's also a third party that factors in: a sentient artificial intelligence named VEGA, whose role in the game grows over time, and who, I thought, had a great character arc as time went on.

Where DOOM 2016 really shines is in the worldbuilding. The DOOM Slayer, for example, has made something of a name for himself in Hell, and you'll discover "testaments" in Hell that narrate the exploits of the character in Hell since he decided to stay there at the end of DOOM 64.

Hell itself is... organized, we learn. Imperialistic. There are conquered worlds and an entire mythology the player can learn about. Even game-y mechanics like power-ups are given naturalistic in-game explanations. You could probably spend a decent chunk of time reading all of the supplemental material that appears in the informational lore collectibles you find around both the UAC and Hell.

This is all delivered mostly non-intrusively. Lore pick-ups, as detailed as they are, are purely optional and don't slow down the game one bit. Story bits with VEGA and Samuel Hayden tend to be communicated either via intercom, which is loud, brief, and rarely slows down the action. There are one or two exceptions to this in the game: one in-game moment where Hayden invites you to his office and talks to you about how you're going to help him seal the portal to hell was so long that I spent a good two minutes bouncing around the room like a maniac. I can only imagine what it looked like to Samuel as my impatient Doom Slayer jumped on his desk, spun in the air around him, ran into walls, and so on as he tried to have a serious conversation with me about the apocalyptic predicament at hand.

But, for the most part, the game is able to tell a story while also keeping the pacing lightning fast.

In terms of enemy variety, DOOM 2016 seems to be the best in the series. Almost all of the classic demons return, and a few new ones are introduced. Returning demons are often similar to their old iterations, but much scarier and more dynamic: Imps crawl all over the walls; Hell Knights will come bounding up to you and attempt to crush you with mighty strikes to the Earth; Revenants flit around in an unstable manner, firing rockets off left and right (thankfully, they no longer home in on the player); "Pinky" demons have the animalistic instincts of their DOOM 3 iterations, but, stylistically, recall the classic demons from the older DOOMs, and have to be baited into charging past you, because their thick hides protect from most damage in the front; the "possessed," zombie-like enemies that are humans in the first stages of transformation after being exposed to Hell, return from DOOM 3 as well.

Arch-Viles are gone, but replaced by a similar and far more annoying enemy, called "the summoner." Summoners are more feminine in design and spawn demons/spam damaging waves of energy like arch-viles of old. What makes fighting them anxiety-inducing is the way they zip around the battlefield at insane speeds, making them exceedingly difficult to shoot. As is DOOM tradition, the first one you fight is a sort of mini-boss, and they begin appearing as regular enemies later on. They're always the first enemy I target in an ambush, because focusing on lesser demons first is an easy way to get quickly overwhelmed by their quick attacks.

The only fully new enemy in this game is the Hell Razer, which is just a demon that can shoot lasers out of its arms. The lasers are easy enough to dodge, thankfully, and Hell Razers are easier to dispatch than imps thanks to their slower, much more humanoid body types.

The real upgrade on the enemy front in DOOM 2016 is the bosses. A DOOM game FINALLY has decent bosses, with attack patterns that can be dodged without hiding behind buildings and taking potshots, multiple forms, unique mechanics that have to be exploited to defeat them, etc. If I had any criticism of this element of the game, it'd be that the final boss is arguably less imposing than some of the fights leading up to it. I'd also have liked if the bosses were more evenly distributed throughout the game than bunched up in the last few levels like they are. With that said, I'm just satisfied to see a DOOM game finally get bosses right, as they were cheap and annoying in the older games and just underwhelming in DOOM 3.

There is a ton of in-game content to engage with after you play through the levels 2 - 3 times each, grab all the collectibles, complete all of the challenges, upgrade all of the runes, and so on. The developer patched in a fun arcade mode that essentially removes all of the forementioned variety and complexity from the game. Data logs, cutscenes, collectibles, exploration, even bosses are put by the wayside, and you focus on doing one thing and one thing only: killing demons. Killing them quickly, glory killing them, chaining multiple kills together in quick success, etc. seem to contribute to achieving a higher score multiplier, and the end of the level, you're awarded with a metal depending on how high your score got. I didn't spend much time with this, since I've played through the main game 3+ times in full by this point, but I do think it'll be a lot of fun to go back to when I just want to engage in some mindless demon slaying.

Much has been made about SnapMap, a sort of in-game level editor that allows you to create your own levels, share them with friends, play SnapMaps uploaded by others, etc. It sounds like it probably adds an insane amount of replay value to the game on top of the ultra-meaty single-player campaign and arcade mode, but I haven't messed with it at all. Probably another feature to engage with in the future (long in the future, because if I keep messing with this game's treasure trove of bonus modes and whatnot, I'm never going to get to DOOM Eternal!). There's also apparently multiple multiplayer modes, a leveling system associated with those, unlockables, a multiplayer-exclusive demon, etc. Honestly, it sounds like an entire game on its own, but I don't really care to play my games with other people, generally, and I imagine the multiplayer servers are probably fairly dead at this point, so I won't be able to say anything intelligent about that aspect of the game, either.

Oh, and I couldn't find a good place to mention this, but I HAVE to mention the levers and secret levels. Every level in this game contains a lever, usually hidden in plain sight somewhere (they blend into the background, unfortunately), that, when pulled, will unlock a secret door somewhere in the level that's styled after the classic DOOM games. Entering these rooms will unlock tough retro levels from the first two DOOM games in the main menu. They're really cool unlockables, and you'll also have to find all of the levels if you want to 100% the campaign, as they're counted as one of the secrets in every level. I'd recommend just looking up the lever locations if you're struggling to find them, however, as they can be exceedingly hard to find in this game's frequently complex and very lengthy levels.

DOOM is visually gorgeous and surprisingly well-optimized for lower-end hardware, and much of that is thanks to the powerful id Tech 6 engine, which was first used in this game. Of course, the art design is a winner as well. DOOM 2016 seems to find a balance between the darkness and grime of DOOM 3 and the neon colors and aggressive satanism of earlier games, and it works really well: I'd be terrified if going to war against the forces of hell weren't so darn fun. A lot of the environments also have a sense of scale to them that was missing in older DOOM games; especially spectacular setpieces like the long climb up the Argent Tower, where you'll spend an entire level jumping onto enormous pieces of machinery and surviving demonic ambushes as you ascend an enormous mechanical structure.

Perhaps DOOM's greatest presentational feat is in its soundtrack, though. The relatively fresh-faced Australian composer Mick Gordon's throbbing industrial metal soundtrack radiates pure aggression and infuses every battle with a practically demonic energy. Just listen to these pieces and imagine ripping and tearing your way through demonic hordes in the process. Additionally, and I don't know how the game does this, but I noticed the flow of the music often seemed to synchronize with my movements in battle. Was this just me getting really in groove with the music, or is there a responsive feedback loop between player input and what plays in the background? Either way, it's an iconic soundtrack that does an amazing job of lending a unique sense of aural identity to this game. I also liked how creepy and atmospheric the music often is outside of battle.

I guess if I had to lodge a criticism at the game's music, it'd be that it lacks diversity. There's not a lot of variety on display: the music is always either creepy-ambient or ultra-aggressive and murdery. As a result, it's not a soundtrack I'd ever listen to outside of the context of the game, and I will admit I miss the more thrash metal-inspired tunes from the original DOOM, but the composer's work here is superlative.

While I'm nitpicking, I'd also make a couple of other criticisms of the game. Firstly, I think, like most DOOM games, it's a little too easy to just fall back on the super shotgun and rely on it to carry me through the game. Since using the chainsaw on enemies restores ammunition, and ammo seems to be fairly plentiful on all difficulties through Ultra-Violence, the second highest difficulty setting in the game, and the one I played on the most, there's not a ton of incentive to branch out to other weapons when you're not chasing weapon challenges. It's easy to stick with a handful of weapons that fit your playstyle and totally ignore the rest most of the time. The BFG is also a little unbalanced. Granted, its ammo is fairly limited, but it has been turned from an instadeath shot to a weapon that'll clear an entire room of baddies in one shot.

While the game is full of cool optional and post-game content to engage with that's structured in a user-friendly manner, I can't deny that it succumbs to checklist-itis a bit. Whereas in previous DOOM games I was only concerned with having a blast murdering demons, I spent way too much time going back to my menu to check my map and challenge lists to see if I missed anything (oh, and I didn't mention this, but the complex environments in DOOM are rendered perfectly navigable thanks to this game's amazing 3D map). Attempting to complete weapon, level, and rune challenges also drastically impacted the way I fought in battles, often leading to me battling in a sub-optimal manner to try and tick off another item on a checklist. All of the various challenges, upgrades, etc. also serve to complicate what used to be a blissfully uncomplicated experience.

Finally, the game is structured around a checkpoint system that disallowed normal game saving procedures, which I found rather uncomfortable to adjust to after previous DOOMs all let me save my game wherever, but it didn't end up being too much of an issue for me.

The Wrap-Up

If my complaints about the game sounded feeble or half-hearted, it's because they were, and I listed them only in an attempt at objectivity. The truth is that DOOM 2016 is one of the best video games I've ever played. Even moreso than DOOM 64, it addresses almost every problem with previous DOOM games while simultaneously taking the scale of the experience and the moment-to-moment awesomeness of it to new heights. DOOM has fully regained its status as supreme overlord of the first-person shooter genre (in terms of its single-player campaign, at least), and every similar game developed in its wake is going to have to try harder to step out from under its titanic shadow. I'm giving this a rare, but well-earned, 10/10.

@RogerRoger
Finally got this piece in a state I'm semi-satisfied with.