An endless wave of demons are no match for your arsenal of bad*ssery. And your shotgun.
It’s been roughly 13 years since we last had a DOOM title, and while some things have changed, some of the classic experiences have stayed to pay homage to the original entries in the series from the 90s when Doom first made its way to Windows platforms in 1993.
What’s great about this new reboot (kind of a sequel), is that it not only looks awesome at a high frame-rate in consoles (although some PCs are allegedly said to run at 200 frames), killing enemies is overwhelmingly satisfying for the first hour or so.
PLOT
The plot in DOOM is exactly what you expect; Doom Guy finds himself in a facility on Mars where a portal has opened up turning all research scientists and personnel into demonic monsters, and you have to obliterate them all to move forward and get some perspective on just what in the heck is going on. Naturally, it just so happens that while the UAC on Mars attempts to harvest resources from Hell to solve the Earth’s energy crisis, one researcher happens to be an occultist who unleashes the minions of Hell on purpose. Facing new enemies, Doom Guy needs to kill anything and everything that moves and close the portal for good before it’s too late.
CAMPAIGN
Okay, considering the above, there is nothing really new here to explore in terms of story. The gameplay of the campaign is superb for a while, even on the second hardest difficulty (screw Ultra Nightmare), but the real issue is the repetitiveness.
For the most part, the consistency of going to one room, wiping out a large group of enemies, and moving on to the next room is fine; but when an automated system repeats itself advising the player that you can’t move on until the demons plaguing the room/chamber needs to be purged, it gets a little tiresome. Even still, melee kills and animations, although over-the-top and extremely absurd, never get old. They are fun to watch, and satisfying to see when you rip an enemy in half and witness ammo and health packs fly out of the corpse like a pinata exploded.
This guy is about to have a really bad day.
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Despite a consistent experience throughout, and not a lot of bosses to fight (but they are fun when you do face them), the game delivers exactly what you would expect in a DOOM game. Blood, bad*ss weapons at your disposal, and visuals that are worthy of 2016. To top it all off, the music really makes you feel like you are ready to smash things into pieces as soon as an enemy appears before you.
Various guns make killing things in different ways even more satisfying, but it’s odd when the player doesn’t have to reload. Simply picking up enemy refills your magazine, or adds to your reserves, but this small detail wasn’t enough to make us complain. From machine guns, to the BFG, the shotgun is likely what you will use most, as the majority of enemies crumble in a single shot or two. Power-Ups on the field also turn Doom Guy into a total beast, giving a near-invulnerability and the ability to bash every enemy in your way with your bare hands.
MULTIPLAYER
There really isn’t much to speak of here in terms of any new, innovative way to introduce the multiplayer experience, let alone for a game that hasn’t had a new title since 2004 (though there was a remake of Doom 3 in 2012). In any case, we expected more here, but most will compare the experience to Halo or Call of Duty, but without all the bells and whistles.
The real stand-out is the option to snag a Rune during a match, that transforms you into a giant demon that is nearly impossible to kill, but has all sorts of demonic powers like super strength and creating ground spikes that one-shot enemy players. Most will run for Runes immediately, as you stand a good chance of being on the wining team if you manage to get them in time. But beyond that, the map building for multiplayer is probably the most unique aspect the game offers.
Creating maps with ‘SnapMap’ has given players the option to recreate classic maps from earlier entries of the game, or come up with something brand new, with adding enemies and obstacles in unique and surprising ways to your enemies. The DOOM community also has the option to upvote and downvote maps to share with players across the globe.
DLC/SEASON PASS
These days, a Season Pass to a game can cost just as much or more than the game itself, often times justifying the price with massive additions to the game in forms of new DLC missions, quests, and playable areas along with vast multiplayer maps and game modes. Unfortunately, no DLC is known at this point with DOOM, as the Season Pass (which costs $40 USD) only consists of 3 multiplayer map packs, which to us is a waste considering you can build your own with SnapMap. But you get more than 3 new maps of course. Each DLC will give one new weapon, one new demon, and some character customization options. Still not enough to justify the price in our opinion, but some may find great value in these new additions.
TL;DR
Overall, DOOM delivers in a few ways that were surprising, such as melee kills and beautiful graphics in the campaign, and playing as a demon or building your own maps in multiplayer. As great as this sounds, DOOM is still a must-have for a single campaign playthrough, though you may want to challenge yourself on harder difficulties as the enemy A.I. is predictable and easy to take down within a few tries once you know their spawn and attack patterns. Regardless, DOOM is worth every penny, but unless Bethesda announces expansion packs to the campaign, you may want to consider ignoring the Season Pass for now, at least until it goes on sale.
FINAL SCORE: 3.5/5
