Doom (2016)

This is the last game I'm beating this year, and it was a lot of fun. I started this game a couple of years ago and got about halfway through. Not sure why I stopped, so this month I've been going through and ripping and tearing.

Great music, good gunplay, ok platforming, good exploration, and collectables.

The gameplay can be repetitive, but it's not a detriment; we came here to destroy demons in a bloody, glorious fashion.

A masterpiece. Eons ahead of Doom 1 and 2 technologically but somehow retains that essence of frantic fast-paced brain-numbing goodness. I feel as if there was no 5th, 6th or 7th generation Doom (not counting Doom 3 because it doesn't feel like Doom, even tho I still love that game), so this game feels like a monumental leap from the older ones. The music is instantly iconic, the world is immersive and the gunplay is addictive and polished (although the pistol is useless, only used it for the first level). I guess my only complaint is that it's a little on the short side but if viewed as an appetizer to Doom Eternal it is exquisite.

Plugging my playthrough below 👇

Incredible gun play, actually insane music, really cool worldbuilding and lore without overstepping and getting in the way of the game itself.

Doom 2016 was both a great return to form for the series while at the same time being very innovative. The pace and power fantasy makes you feel so powerful but the demons are still intimidating and you can see why they are such a massive threat.

4.5 / 5 Stars

This game succeeds admirably at what it clearly sets out for. It is a clear expression of the concerns of a 90s FPS, but it was also the game that showed me how little fondness I had for that formula beyond nostalgia that could not sustain my interest over the full course of the game.

I clearly prefer third-person action games. The absence of engaging animations of the player character, floating movement, difficult to read platforming, turgid and poorly spatialized sound, overbearing and poorly queued music, and unrelenting ugliness of the arenas could all be easily overlooked if I had loved the gameplay loop, but sadly in the 8 or so hours I spent playing it I never connected with it. Encounters would end badly, I would restart them after some jarring reloads, and truly idiotic warnings about losing save state, and then on a later replay I would breeze through them without every felling that I had gained a mastery.

I played for about 8 hours on Hurt Me Plenty.

Let me start off by saying this;

Personally i do not think first and third person shooters are good on consoles. I get that it works for those who has gotten used to it, but that isn't me, and compared to playing with a mouse and keyboard it's just clunkier.

That being said. Despite being like a bird with a broken wing, trying to murder my way through DOOM on Switch, which still looks good despite a graphical downgrade and the sorta long loadtimes that i see now and then despite playing on the easiest mode.

Even when i had those things against me when playing DOOM on the Switch, the game is just fantastic. I keep finding myself thinking "man this game is so well made" while i glory kill enemies left and right, switching between powerful weapons to deal with bigger enemies in a as messy way as possible.

One day ill probably upgrade my PC and play DOOM on it again so that i can bother doing the challanges to get even more powerups.

But for now, DOOM on the Switch is still a great alternative, even more so if you actually like FPS on consoles.

After playing Doom Eternal 7 times, 4 of those playthroughs are on Nightmare Difficulty, I have to say that I really don’t like Doom 2016 as much as I used to. And I loved the game before I played Eternal.

The biggest issue I have with the game is the balancing. I started with Nightmare since I already beat Eternal on Nightmare a couple of times. The first levels where you don’t have all of your weapons are brutal, without mercy, but the thing is you’re not worse. Nightmare is unfair. You get a lot less health pickups compared to Ultra-Violence so you’ll easily die. The game on Nightmare requires you to be perfect. The amount of health you get from glory kills depends on how much health you have.

I hated Nightmare so I switched to Ultra-Violence and now it’s too easy. Powerups appear very frequently with stuff like quad damage and berserk. Super Shotgun alone makes this game a cakewalk. Mods like the burst shotgun and the siege gauss cannon are overpowered. Upgrading the ammo capacity kills the game for me. Even when I’m quickswitching, I still have a crap ton of ammo. And apparently BFG ammo can be dropped when you kill an enemy? That’s a yikes from me. And speaking of the BFG, during the boss fights, if you shoot the BFG and pull up the weapon wheel, the orb will slow down and drain the boss’s health. It’s as if the game wants me to turn my brain off.

Presentation wise, it’s a mixed bag. On one hand I can really respect how well optimized iD Tech 4 is. There is a ton of detail that I’m floored. On the other hand, the levels can be too red. It’s worse on Mars and levels that take place in Hell where you can’t see enemies because they blend too well with the environments. I can’t believe I have to criticize this game for being red since red is my favorite color. The environments are extremely samey.

The exploration was not good. It really wasn’t. The map is terrible. The icons are too small. The platforming is utter trash since you die for falling. There are some nice Easter eggs like original Doom areas and the Turkey puncher game. I bet it would’ve been embarrassing to fall in Ultra-Nightmare. Some platforming segments are as slow as a snail(I’m looking at you, Argent Tower). And speaking of slow, this game can come to a halt a lot. Having unskippable cutscenes in 2016 is just baffling. Remember the segment where you meet Sam Hayden in person before he rambles on and on and you have nothing to do? I do and don’t at the same time.

I’ve been really harsh towards this game, but there is definitely a lot to like about it. Mick Gordon’s soundtrack is fucking awesome. According to this creative bastard, most of the music is composed of synths and kick drums with a little bit of 9 string guitar. The music gives off positive reinforcement whenever you glory kill an enemy. I mentioned before about how the enemy design easily make you adapt to the fast paced action along with the runes. There are more death animations than Eternal. The games has a consistent tone of aggression throughout the whole game. I have never used Snapmap, but the fans have made a ton of impressive things like remaking the start of Mars Core from Doom Eternal and a farming simulator. It’s refreshing to have a shooter that is not cover-based after a very long time.

Doom 2016 is a fine game, but I don’t think I can ever return to this game. Doom Eternal just raised my standards for what an FPS should be that I can’t play anymore of 2016. When I played a little bit of 2016, I just switched to Doom Eternal and played it for around 5 hours. It spoiled me that much. If you like it more than Doom Eternal, good for you, but I just can’t. If you feel the same way as I do, then play Doom Eternal. Come into it with a different mindset and enjoy the ride.

FINAL RATING: 5.5/10

This is one of the best first person shooters i've ever played.

It's fast-paced, brutal, beautiful, challenging and filled with character. It's a kick in the face of almost every other modern fps. I can't recommend it enough. Weapon variety is great, enemies are menacing as ever, levels are easy to traverse through and the feeling of finding a well-hidden secret or puling a nice kill, is just unmatched.

Sure, the level design ain't THAT great. There's a lot of repetition going on and the story, well... What story? But its mistakes are minimal.

If you do play it, play it on hard, but becareful! It's tough as hell and its checkpoints are, at times, pretty unforgiven.

Good luck.

9/10

I finally got around to actually playing this (thanks family sharing in Steam), and it's about what everybody else is saying. It's back to basics, you run, you shoot, you glory kill, you wonder why they even put a crouch button (I know, you can duck sometimes when you're exploring)... and that's that. But that's enough, really. Add on the fact that the maps are huge, the music is awesome and there's a lot of variety and excitement to be had, and you've got the best single-player FPS experience of the year as of writing this.

The multiplayer can be ignored though. Just forget it exists. It would knock the score down, and I don't want it to do that. Technically, it should, but to me it's about the solo go and nothing else.

And I'm not even a Doom guy.

Playtime 18:18 on "Hurt me Plenty".

Reboot of the classic shooter series after Doom 3 stank up the franchise for 15 years. You are Doomguy the legendary Demonslayer.

Pro

* Looks and sounds gorgeous. Martian vistas and Hell levels all have appropriate sights to behold. Appropriate rocking tunes keep you pumped and motivated.
* Moves like grease lightning. Your mobility as you circle strafe and leap around the levels is superb. Unlike most modern shooters this kept you moving constantly to stay alive, constantly on the edge of death.
* Level design is great. Reminicent of some of the best levels in the original games they flow neatly around and now have a lot of verticality missing from the old games. The design gives open spaces and tight areans allowing you to dodge and avoid the enemies, find hidden secrets and find new ways to get the drop on the demons and avoid getting cornered.
* Nice variety of new designs for the old enemy types. All the old favs are back. All the classic power up are still there as well. Quad Damage being the most fun.
* Dry sense of humour right from the start. I wish I could hit cancel on that demonic invasion in progress bar. :) The data logs are really funny so make sure you read them.
* They have done a nice job of integrating modern items into the mix. Challenges, collections, upgrades to weapons and Armour etc are all there. While it keeps the health and ammo packs and general feel of the shooting from Doom 1 and 2.
* The new Glory Kills are varied enough and built into the strategy of the shooting seemlessly. Shooting the enemies until near death activating the melee kill or Glory Kill will replenish your health so can come in really handy in tight spots. There are multiple animations so they never felt that repeditive to me.
* So many nods to the old games in the way it plays and the sound design that constantly reminds me of the good old days playing ID games of old.

Con

* Multiplayer is a bit MEH.

Overall this is a fantastic single player game which is so much fun to play.

Best shooter in years.

Maybe it is time to consider playing some new Doom. From Kotaku's review:

While Doom comes with multiplayer, the campaign is where it shines, in a pleasing inversion of the usual dynamic of modern shooters. It wastes no time. Within seconds, there is a gun in your hand and a lab of possessed scientists bearing down upon you...

Doom feels like a ‘90s shooter. There’s no hiding behind cover, no scripted sequences, no friendly NPCs to follow into firefights. In their place are lots of first-person jumping sequences, for good or ill. The level design, too, is a departure from the bulk of big modern shooters. Rather than a linear route through corridors and tightly controlled open air rooms, you’re often let loose in an open, multi-layered space webbed with walkways, platforms, and corridors, stuffed with secrets. Often, if I saw an area beneath me I could just jump over a walkway barrier, land on it, and start exploring.