Doom (2016)

This Doom entry successfully reboots the legendary series while keeping the spirit of the original alive. It throws away the slow, cover-based style of many modern shooters and instead forces you into aggressive, high-speed combat. Enemies never let up, and the game rewards you for staying on the move with health and ammo pickups gained through brutal “Glory Kills.” The gunplay feels fantastic, with each weapon having a distinct weight and impact, and upgrades give you plenty of ways to tweak your playstyle.

The campaign offers large, arena-like levels that encourage exploration for secrets and weapon mods, echoing the design of classic Doom but with modern polish. The visuals are sharp and detailed, and Mick Gordon’s heavy, industrial metal soundtrack perfectly complements the frantic action, often elevating fights into pure adrenaline rushes. The story is light, framing you as the unstoppable Doom Slayer rather than bogging you down with exposition.

One of my favorite aspects of this entry is the attempt to bring some depth and complexity to the progression, adding weapon upgrades, attachments, mods and etc. It doesn't make the game standout in any way compared to other games that has similar mechanics, but this is a first in the Doom franchise, which makes this special. At the same time, there is little to no progression when it comes to the main character itself, which is a bummer, making the weapons the protagonists, like they always were.

Some arenas can feel a bit repetitive toward the end, but this is a trait of almost all single-player FPS games due to it's lack of depth and complexity in most of it's elements besides the combat. This reboot sets new standards for modern shooters, even creating a whole new genre which is heavily inspired by this entry, similar to what the original Doom did back in the day. This is a must-play if you like FPS titles to any extent, one of the best shooters, reboots and games of all time.

Picked up this game in late 2020 after completing Doom Eternal, it definitely isn't as good as the latter game. As good as it is, it is really just a stepping stone for Eternal's success. Don't get me wrong Doom 2016 is really good in its own right, but just doesn't hit the mark like Doom Eternal does. I finally completed this game this year though earlier this month, and as of 13 minutes ago, 100% the story. Sadly I can't get all the multiplayer achievements, however the Arcade mode achievements are doable at some point but I can't be bothered. I have completed all the story achievements with the exception of "A Toe Into Madness" which I also cbf doing at this time.
Overall experience was great, adrenaline pumping action! Also! I have to mention Mick Gordon's music again! What a blast!

4/5

Time spent with Doom over the weekend just reaffirms my feelings towards it - it is a fantastic first person shooter with great visuals. One of the best I've played in fact. It's amazing in its simplicity - it doesn't try to be something else, it doesn't even pretend to be something else. Yes, id Software tried to tell the story here (which is very evident in optional codex entries - which I love) & some of it works, some of it doesn't, but apart from that it is still good, old Doom - with violence cranked up to 11 (on a 1-10 scale).

Pacing works well, new weapons & new enemies are introduced in perfect moments, therefore gameplay never feels stale and boring; surprisingly there is a lot of platforming outside of battles, jumping around, ledge-grabbing - not something I expected at all, but it seems to work so far and is done and implemented very well - it essentially acts as an exploration platformer in a way - especially when you're hunting for the collectibles, and it's fun.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Doom reinvigorated the genre back in 2016, however I am quite surprised that up to this day there aren't many titles that can successfully replicate the gameplay of series' 2016 iteration, apart from its sequel I guess. This game scratches an old itch that I didn't realise I had & does it perfectly. Feels like renaissance of my old shooter-filled PS1 gaming days.

SnapMap custom maps are a great way to lengthen your playthrough - there's plethora of different types of maps, ranging from puzzle to simple survival and most are very well done.

What an amazing, violent & fun trip to Hell and back... and to Hell again. Easily the best FPS that I played in recent times and one of the best I played... ever. That's how a reboot to a classic should be done. Fantastic - well recommended to all FPS fans out there.

I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy this game. I really enjoyed the first 2 titles and DOOM 3, my favourite one in the franchise, was markedly different in atmosphere, pacing and tone. I looked at 2016’s DOOM differently from anything the franchise had done before. I’m neither a proficient first-person shooter nor one to revel in the relentlessly fast-paced adrenaline that this and Eternal are known for. After finishing it, however, I can say that even though the third entry is still my favourite of the bunch, I had a blast throughout the entire experience. This game holds no prisoners almost from the get go, and I could tell my rigid gaming self was already fighting against the relentless rhythm of the game, simply because it’s not something I’m accustomed to. But at a certain point something clicked, and what I had initially perceived as pace became more like a dance which completely changed my relationship with the dynamic. From that moment I started really enjoying my time, to the point of even becoming kind of engaged in the over-the-top storytelling. There’s actually more here in this respect than I had initially thought, and the more obvious transition from DOOM 3’s Marine to the Slayer persona turns this game into a bigger power fantasy. Not to say the game isn’t challenging, however. In fact I had my ass handed to me more times than I care to admit, even on easier difficulties. Still, I guess that’s part of the ride for me.

There is absolutely nothing to criticise DOOM on in the visual and gameplay departments, by far its greatest strengths: it looks and plays phenomenally, and aside the occasional frustration of falling off to my death way too easily or getting stuck in narrow spaces, everything felt great. And even though I still think DOOM 3 has the best iteration of hell in the franchise, this one was quite impressive as well. On top of everything else, it’s just hard not to have fun dispatching horses upon hordes of angry demons and see their guts get spilled all over the place. And fun was exactly what I got. Unless you are absolutely against first-person shooters or blatantly refuse to play something that can be perceived as too speedy, this is a game I can easily recommend to everyone. 8/10.

On DOOM Eternal: I spent over 4 hours on it and soon realised it simply wasn’t for me. In my personal opinion - and I know this will be unpopular - the game is too convoluted and it steers way too far from the simplicity and straightforwardness that make the DOOM games feel so great to play. Some frustrating platforming, poor atmosphere, unremarkable level design, unnecessary bloat, less satisfying shooting, worse balancing, overly colourful palette. It felt too much like a disjointed experience, and I’m left wondering why it seems to have been better received than the 2016 reboot, since I personally don’t think it improved upon anything when compared to it aside from having slightly better graphics. I’m obviously not saying it’s a bad game, because it isn’t. All of this is just how I perceived my own experience. Honestly, I’m kind of baffled that I feel this way about the game, because not only did I really enjoy its predecessor, but most people seem to have the complete opposite opinion. I rarely quit games, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to carry on. Perhaps I’ll revisit it at some point to see if my views on it have changed, but I suppose you can’t win them all.

Beat on Ultra Violence. I found most of the secrets and most of the ones I missed were in levels with points of no return. I did not care about challenges. My favorite weapon was the assault rifle with scope; I found it very satisfying to pull off head shots while on the move, but there was not enough ammo to use it too much. I never tried micro missiles. The gauss cannon was even better at sniping; I used precision mod and never tried siege mode. I almost never used it in direct combat though, preferring to use it to snipe before entering the next arena. The chaingun was another weapon I rarely used because I wanted to conserve ammo for the assault rifle. But I broke the late game with the infinite ammo rune using the gatling mod to shoot constantly. Plasma rifle with stun was my go to weapon for the most dangerous enemies; sometimes finish them off with plasma, sometimes throw a frag and move on, and other times switch to shotgun or rockets. Never tried the heat blast. I use remote detonator for rockets but never really needed to detonate them; the lock on burst was useful early on for tough enemies. I used the shotgun quite a bit with explosive shot; great for imps and shield guys but not great for tougher enemies. Never tried burst shot. I used the super shotgun shockingly sparingly but by the time I beat the campaign and started in snapmap I had gotten proficient at switching to it for a point blank shot before creating distance and switching to another weapon. I left most of the key bindings intact, setting "5" for the super shotgun, "Z" for rockets, "X" for chain gun and "C" for gauss.

I put suit upgrades into environmental protection and then power ups. I especially liked the ability that caused power ups to fully heal, and thus avoided them unless I needed healing (which often meant I never used them at all). My preferred rune set up was infinite ammo when armor is high, glory kills drop armor and enemies stay stunned longer. I used that to pretty much break much of the late game. I often micromanaged my runes for the most benefit, taking out armor drops when full on armor and infinite ammo when my armor was not high enough to use it. Death save, air mobility and equipment power were my secondary runes. For the argent upgrades I maxed health first, then armor and then ammo. I found the game to be quite challenging, with some fights taking multiple tries, but I rarely used the chain saw did not use the BFG as much as I could have. In other words, the challenge level was good but I did not find that I needed to use every resource; in particular there were only a couple of times that I actually used the chainsaw because I was out of ammo. I saved the BFG for summoners, mini bosses (like multiple barons at once) and bosses. I had no trouble killing the cyberdemon and spider mastermind but the new hell guardian things kicked my ass. It almost felt more like a World of Warcraft raid boss with all the gimmicky attacks to avoid, and I hated the stupid shield. I failed several times until I figured out to wait for the shield to drop, BFG the fucker and then unload with the chain gun. The tag team after only took 2 tries and I was able to keep my armor high enough for infinite ammo for the almost the entire thing. After beating the campaign I went back to unlock the classic maps and play those. That was some of the most difficult Doom I have ever played; the old maps are really not designed for the new Pinkies! They are the most dangerous thing and best target for chainsaw. Then I went into snapmap and expect to be playing that off and on for a very long time. At some point I will do a new campaign on Nightmare but I am not going to touch Ultra Nightmare.

Loved the game overall and feel it combines the best of old school Doom and Doom 3 to make something entirely different. I enjoyed the many tactical options and the ballet of the battle they encourage; weapons that use the same ammo, the mods, the drops from glory skills and the way the chainsaw and BFG are more like limited power ups. I most disliked the checkpoint saves; quite a few times I died from platforming while trying to find secrets and had to repeat several minutes of backtracking and looting. I could also do without the insta death for failure at platforming and was not fussy about the new lore, with the Doom Slayer being some kind of angel or ancient human or something?

Doom (2016) is perhaps the finest version of a series committed to intense gunplay and fast movement and it shows in all of its gorgeous Martian colors.

The plot starts out playing very tongue in cheek as an aerospace corporation that is Obviously Bad is researching into energy from Hell in order to accelerate mankind into the future. An unnamed space marine found in a tomb is reanimated once again to destroy every single demon that has escaped from Hell to Mars and perhaps within Hell itself.

The game is split into thirteen large levels - there is a linear focus on objectives but most of it is spaced between large arena areas with small little secrets abound. Most arenas are chock full of demons that force the player into very fast and compromising positions to be as aggressive as possible. The player starts out with an itty bitty pistol but soon makes their way through rifles, shotguns, BIGGER shotguns, rail cannons, chainguns, and the delightful BFG. There's also a very large focus on melee, with finishing style moves called Glory Kills that produce a lot of health that chains enemy kill to enemy kill to frantically keep the player alive, as well as a chainsaw to really finish the job on tougher enemies.

Gameplay has plenty of fun upgrades amidst the basics, with weapon mods and suit mods to improve damage resistance, navigation, speed, powerups, and an array of weapon modes that can stun or otherwise totally obliterate enemies. There's also a few hidden challenges to give passive effects via runes if the player takes their time to look, making exploration amidst the battles the most important part of improving the player's arsenal.

Demons that the player fight are the real meat of the game, with an array of gorgeous (read: disgustingly gorgeous) looking enemies to turn into mincemeat. The weaker Imps are still very speedy and pose a significant challenge, with Hell Knights and Barons for up close battles, Revenants for missile barrages, Mancubi for tanky brutes, and some old favorites like the Cacodemon to ensure that the player will always be fiercely challenged at every turn. Especially at higher difficulties there can be some spikes (read: whenever the player goes to Hell) but given that they get a little more used to the weapons they can manage it far better than the older Doom games.

Music and visuals really sell this game like no other. Starting off on the intense reds of Mars and going into the bowels of Hell, Doom has a color palette and a unique style and sticks with it. The music is intense, with harsh electronic and metal that accompanies the intense action of the game. Sound design is menacing and even scary at times with every door and machine sounding like an enemy ready to strike, keeping the player always on edge. It's a treat to play then and it's still a treat to play now.

Doom (2016) proves that there's always more to improve on even the most celebrated FPS series and crafts a swift and challenging game that is absolutely worth playing.

Excellent movement, feedback, and enemy design. Partially due to the use of waypoint markers and partially due to the less abstract level design, it's much harder to get lost here than it is to get lost in the classic Doom games. This sped the pace up quite a bit, so that key card hunting was no longer a chore. I was even invested in the story up to a point. The contrast between the main character's utter disregard for anything besides demon killing juxtaposed against Samuel Hayden's attempts to grapple with legitimately complex issues was both deliberate and a consistent source of comedy.

If I had one criticism, it's that I think the later levels lacked variety. The earlier levels have varied combat arenas that consistently integrate new enemies, play with their shape, and change up how much space is available to you, but by the final level it boils down to every single enemy in the game being spawned somewhere in a wide open, multi-level arena. I suspect this is deliberate in order to invoke a sense of being utterly unstoppable (since it's much easier for you to outmaneuver enemies and dodge projectiles when you have all the space in the world to keep moving), but I wish they'd kept trying new things instead.

I can understand why the glory kill mechanic might have been controversial before the game was released, but it isn't intrusive and gives the combat a uniquely aggressive feel. There's no first-person shooter I can think of off the top of my head that so totally encourages the player to approach enemies so frequently. Rip and tear indeed.

Doom is a great first person shooter with a unique feel and I highly recommend it.

Doom 2016 - First Impressions

I really didn't want to return to this, there are several reasons why and they're all ones that are still present as I replay. I should say that I never did finish it, I got like two hours in I think? Up until the level you get the plasma gun, the Foundry. That's the level I just finished before writing this.

Everything's too slow, you move too slow, enemies are too slow to chase you, strafing wins the game. A little bit of an oversimplification, but there's more. The modifications are all overtuned, weapons do so much damage you practically don't need to care about ammo that much unless you're really really bad, and I've only had to use the chainsaw once. The powerups make things even worse, so overpowered that all the enemies around you might as well keel over. And this is before you get upgrades that make the powerups even more disgusting, like one that gives you full health regen on pickup. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?

I do enjoy the aesthetic of it, a little. It's a weird mix, a cartoonish idea of gritty sci-fi, that mocks Doom 3 as much as it kinda blends it in. The story is whatever, I like that Doomguy throws away the first monitor that looks like a story. What I don't like is that after this, Doomguy gives you no out to skip any of the unskippable cutscenes. A bit of dissonance in our internal character who acts like he doesn't give a shit about the plot rails huh?

I'm still enjoying myself, there were a couple encounters that threw a curveball or two, although minimal. The gameplay loop has kinda clicked for me despite how monotonous it can feel at times, and I'm going to finish this game within a week so I can take a crack at Eternal. But man, it's crazy that I'm actually preferring some design in Black Mesa of all things and I wasn't big on that game either!

Doom 2016 is doom-as-a-symbol getting away from Doom as a game, but for once the self-aggrandizing mythos of a series overtaking the actual core of it creates something actually great.

The game plays nothing like Doom (1993), instead resembling a wave shooter fending off hordes of enemies in an arena like Serious Sam but good. The game sounds little like Doom (1993), the MIDI sounds being replaced with a dynamic djent soundtrack. The game moves little like Doom (1993), replacing ludicrous diagonal speed with double-jumps and paced-out glory kills.

And yet it's so damn fun, so damn fast, and so damn brutal that it feels like Doom. Not Doom (1993), but just plain Doom. It's the game that the media describes Doom as, it's the game that people who played it back in the day remember it as, it's the game that people think Doom is. The icon separates from the source and becomes its own form given flesh, and unlike other so-called retro FPS throwbacks that have nothing to do with the genre outside of surface-level similarities (I promise I don't actually dislike Serious Sam as much as it sounds like I do it's just not a retro shooter it just isn't), Doom (2016) uses its new formula to absolutely incredible effect.

Doom is one of the best remakes, if not one of the best games ever. I don't remember the last time playing a videogame gave me such a rush of adrenaline. I haven't even finished the game yet and I can already tell that it's going to be one of my favourite games for many years to come.

Doom is one of the most complex and most simple games I have ever played. It's little more than running around shooting demons but there's so much strategy that you have to put into it. You need to figure out which enemies to prioritise, which weapons to use against who, where to go, there are so many layers to the combat in Doom but it's still beautifully simple and that makes it enjoyable. The enemy design is simple but distinctive - you know who you're fighting and where they are - unlike most other shooters where enemies have two or three universal appearances and you just shoot them willy-nilly. The movement and gunplay is very smooth and dynamic and it flows excellently. Combine all that with one of the best soundtracks in videogame history (Mick Gordon, you are a god) and you have one hell - no pun intended - of an experience.

In terms of story, Doom is pretty lacklustre but the Doomfranchise was never really about story; it was about charging through hell and shooting the shit out of demons with a double-barrelled shotgun. The multiplayer is a bit if a letdown too. It's fun to play but the inclusion of modernised crap like emotes really doesn't fit with this game's style.

Overall, Doom is one of the greatest videogame experiences of the last 10 years and I'm highly anticipating Doom: Eternal.

This got me by surprise. Did not expect to like this game so much as I did.

First thing to note about this game is that is essentially an arena based fps that emphasises mobility, fast paced action and constant strafing. There is no slow approach, no cover based shooting - no reloading even. Just pure adrenaline shootout with waves of enemies spawning in an enclosed arena.

The story is minimal - and I felt that it's only reason for being there is to somehow explain the demon enemies you need to face. And those are very familiar doom enemies, just in a modern high-res edition. They look great, they've got distinct attack patterns and fighting them is just pure fun.

The graphics are really well done. Especially the enemy design. But environments are nothing to be ashamed of ass well. Both hell and Mars base are really great looking and well designed.

The soundtrack is amazing. I heard people prising it before but actually experiencing in in-game is an experience of it's own. High paced heavy metal makes your blood pumping. The other sound effects are top notch as well - especially guns sound really satisfying.

Hands down a really really cool game with lots of fun to have.