Game Review: DOOM (2016)

The game I'm reviewing today is a reboot from a very popular and widely known game series which I'm sure some of you have played, Doom. This game was released in early 2016, coming out on the PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. Doom is a first person shooter/horror based game which was developed by ID Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the 4th game in the series,not counting the rereleases or modded games. The version I'm talking about here today is the one for PC. 

Now, whenever I hear someone mention Doom I can't help but feel some childhood memories pop into my head. Lots of memories of explosions, yelling at my old desktop, mashing keys on the keyboard, and all kinds of demons and secret locations and items. Having that thought out, I would have to assume I'm not the only one who gets some heavy feelings of nostalgia going on when talking about Doom. So, when I heard they were releasing this game I thought it had some big shoes to fill with that thought in mind. I will say, however, that they managed to fill those shoes quite well! 

Now, let me start off my saying this. If you're into shooter games that you let you strategize at your own pace and make a plan of attack, then this game is probably not going to be for you. This game is definitely one of the more fast paced games to come out in recent years. It doesn't even give you a chance to breath before you're thrown into the chaos of the game. You awake on a metal slab with nothing but death and destruction in your surroundings along with of course plenty of demons. From that moment on you will be running and gunning non stop while you play. There's no health recovery over time, there is no cover system put in the game, all you can do is keep moving and blasting demons to your hearts content. 

For anyone like myself who has played the doom games of yesteryear, you'll find quite a few elements of this game which feel quite familiar. Those feelings come from things like the revamped modern take on enemies that you'll remember from the old games, the moments when you find iconic weapons like the BFG 9000, the chainsaw, the chaingun, and of course the insane momentum you have as you run through the game. That is something that some of you may have to get used to again though since not many games on the market have been able to keep such a frantic pace. 

One thing that I should say outright about this game before you buy it, is that if you get frustrated a lot from dying, this game might get on your bad side. If you play this, expect that you're going to die. Like, a lot. The hordes of super powered demons are not forgiving nor are they going to be kind to you. There are plenty of ways to mess up while trying to clear a room, and messing up on a lot of them will lead to your, ahem, doom (Never thought I'd use a dad pun in a review before). A nice bonus to dying all the time is that some of the deaths are pretty comical to watch, or just straight up fascinating. 

Something new mixed in with the old mechanics of the game is the upgrade system. As you progress throughout the game you'll start finding weapon upgrade parts which you can then use as the name implies to upgrade your firearms. The options that you can add will vary, as an example you can use an upgrade part to add a burst fire to certain weapons. There's also an upgrade system for your suit which allows you to maximize it in a few different ways, like adding damage resistance or quicker recharge times. The last piece of the upgrade system are the Argent energy capsules which will add more to your maximum health, armor, and ammo. I think personally the upgrade system is balanced extremely well and that it was designed wisely so you never feel like a super soldier, but it still helps out quite a bit. 

One more new mechanic to the game that I'd like to mention is the glory kill system. This system is something which is definitely needed as you play the game, at least in my opinion. As your enemies get closer to dying, there will be an option when you get close and can use a melee attack. This allows what is called a glory kill, and is a guaranteed way to get some health points back so you can stay alive a bit longer. They also drop more health and ammo most of the time, which is a further incentive to continue doing it. Plus, the animations are also pretty cool and entertaining to watch most of the time. 

So, what else is there to the game besides brutalistic kills and tons of fast paced action? Well, there's a fairly simple storyline. The UAC has been breaking into the Hell dimension's power so that they could harvest energy, and of course things totally went crazy and out of control. The goal of our protagonist is to wipe out the demon infestation and try to close the portal that leads to hell. This also doesn't quite go as planned, and you have to make trips back and forth from our dimension to their dimension. That's pretty much all there is to the story besides killing demons. 

I personally think this works just fine, as I don't think most people expected a deep and emotional story with the DOOM series. The lore and mythos of the game helps to put the icing on a demonic cake, but you could have done basically anything with the story and still had a very entertaining and fun game alone based off the gameplay. Beyond the story, the missions themselves make an awesome backdrop to the fighting. Each level feels quite massive, that has some beautiful things hidden within it's dark environments. 

The last thing I should touch on I suppose is the multiplayer aspect of the game. Once you finish the 11-12 hour campaign, you can head online and play through 6 different modes with friends and other players if you so wish. It includes classic game modes like team deathmatch to a capture the flag/domination playlist as well as some other more interesting ones. I never played much of the multiplayer, as it's more akin to the COD games and feels somewhat weird with the Doom setting, but it's by no means a terrible multiplayer and could still bring some fun for you. 

In my opinion, doom has done something which I think is very hard to pull off. Which is making a FPS that has a single player campaign mode which is more entertaining that your typical multiplayer FPS games. It's done a wonderful facelift to the doom games of old, and combined the old mechanics with some new ones to make one fun as hell game. If you're a fan of very fast paced games or gorgeous FPS games in general, then I would say you'll probably like this. It's definitely also for any fans of the past DOOM games, and shouldn't let you down. 

Thanks for checking out my review! Hope you've enjoyed it or that it's at least sparked some interest for you!