Doom
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
Although I’ve never been a huge fan of the first person shooter genre, I absolutely loved the old Doom games when I was a kid. When I heard that Doom was getting rebooted with a fresh and shiny new coat of paint, I became very excited. I had this game sitting at the top of my GameFly queue for MONTHS on end, but for whatever reason they never sent it out to me, despite its status always being listed as “High Availability.” Whatever.
I don’t know what was going on with GameFly, but it became a moot point when I saw the game on sale for dirt cheap on the PlayStation Network. I bought the game as soon as I saw it. Before I knew it, it was downloaded and I was ready to jump in and start playing. Would this game be able to recapture the magic of the older games in the series?
In a word: nah. But let’s explore further, shall we?
Story:
Doom’s storyline has never really mattered much to me, and that pattern continues here. There’s something about a space colony on Mars, something about a gate to Hell opening up, something about demons coming through and killing everyone in sight, something about you going through the hole and taking the battle directly to Hell. All cliched Doom stuff that should come as no surprise to anyone.
I feel as if the game really does try to get you involved in its story, but it didn’t work with me. There’s just simply too much chaotic stuff happening while people are trying to talk to you, and that makes it really hard for me to focus on what is going on. I have always been a poor multi-tasker. I have similar complaints with games like BioShock and Dead Space that try to shove the story down your throat WHILE you are walking around and playing. I just can’t do it. For all I know this game could have the most awesome storyline in the universe (doubt it), but I would never know because I can only focus on one thing at a time.
Gameplay:
This version of Doom is less about horror and more about killing demons. Heavy metal music plays while you run around dodging enemies and frantically gunning down everything in sight. That’s this game in a nutshell. Run, shoot, collect items, and try not to get killed.
I like that they moved away from Doom 3’s slower pace and returned the series to its mindless run-and-gun roots. There’s something that’s just very, very fulfilling about the battles in this game. Whenever one big battle would end, I’d already be itching to join another one.
Fighting in this game is fun, but I do have a bone to pick with the game’s pacing. In the old Doom games, you’d wander around the levels, fighting enemies as they popped up. Every once in a while a big scripted battle would take place, but for the most part you were kept on your toes all stage long. In this game, everything seems so predictable. You can tell that almost all the battles are extremely scripted.
Here is an example of what I mean. Let’s say you start a new level. After five minutes of walking through corridors and listening to chatter on your comm radio, you’ll enter a big, expansive room. You’ll see items scattered around the perimeter of the room. There’s a bunch of ledges and things to climb on all around you. It is extremely obvious: there is going to be a big battle here.
Sure enough, you walk into the room and all the doors in this room slam shut. A bunch of enemies materialize in front of you. You kill them. A bunch of flying demons spawn in the air. In the corner of the room a bunch of those armored charging demons appear. Every time you kill one group of enemies, another appears somewhere else, until everything is dead. Then all the doors magically reopen and you can move on.
It seems like 90% of your fights take place in this manner. While I don’t mind the big battles, and like I said I found a lot of them to be quite fun, I would have preferred more even pacing. Outside of these big battles, I rarely if ever felt challenged by Doom.
Weapons in this game are one of its high points. They are all easy to use. It’s easy to flip back and forth between them. You’ll quickly learn which guns work best on which enemies. One of the biggest thrills in battle, to me anyway, was going through my weapons and picking out the right ones under pressure. It added a certain (and unexpected) layer of strategy to the game’s combat. Another thing I liked about the combat is the fact that if you weaken enemies enough, you can perform a finishing move on them that gives you added health items. This twist made me more bold than I would normally be. Normally I’d play hide and seek with my enemies, picking them off and quickly running behind cover before they could retaliate. Now I found myself running right up to enemies in the heat of battle so I could perform a finisher on them and get some much needed health items. Plus the finishing animations themsevles are just really cool to look at. I definitely approved of this twist.
Moving on to the game’s length, Doom is quite short. I remember the older Doom games being much longer. Maybe it is just the fact that I have a crummy memory, but didn’t those titles have like 30 stages in each game? This one has 13. At least the levels are longer, though. When I was still early on in the game and didn’t really understand its mechanics, some of the earlier levels took me hours to beat. Once I got the gyst of how this game worked, I started to breeze through the remaining stages. Before I knew it, the game was over. Wait, was that it? How could it be over already??
I’m not a DLC guy (unless it is bundled with a game for free) and I also don’t really do multiplayer. I’m sure that these features add a lot more longevity to this game. But we are talking about MY experience with Doom. While I had a decent time with this game, I have to say that it left me feeling a bit empty when all was said and done. I expected more!
Graphics:
There is no denying that this game looks quite good. Enemies are well-detailed, lighting effects are realistic, the environments look fantastic. Animations are top notch too, especially with the aforementioned finishing moves you can perform.
In addition to its beautiful graphics, the game is also very atmospheric. I wouldn’t say that I was ever scared playing this game, but I did walk around while very much on-edge. The makers of this game definitely had a vision, and I would say that they were successful in executing this vision.
Sound:
The game’s sound is very good too. Play this in the dark with headphones on. The world of Doom will suck you right in. During its quiet moments, you will walk around noticing all kinds of little sound effects that help to build atmosphere. In the heat of battle, this really loud heavy metal music blares at full volume. Normally this would irritate me, but it fit into what I think this game was trying to accomplish. Loud, in your face action that doesn’t let up. I approve.
Voice acting is fine, I guess. Like I said I didn’t really pay much attention to this game’s storyline. I play Doom to slaughter demons, explore its stages, and collect numerous items and weapons. I couldn’t bring myself to care about its story. As a result, I just kind of pushed all the voice acting and story stuff to the back of my mind as I played. I’m sure the game’s voice acting is fine, I just can’t say I really noticed it at all.
Overall:
As hard as this game tries, I don’t think it quite recaptures the spirit of the original Doom games. Too much focus is put on action and fighting and death. Sure, some of the levels are atmospheric, but what is missing to me is that sense of terror and dread that I would experience when playing the older titles. I wanted this game to scare me, darn it, and it flat out did not. How disappointing. I also feel as if this game didn’t challenge my brain enough. The older Doom games often would trip me up with its puzzles and hidden rooms and switches. This game is very straightforward with where you are supposed to go and what you’re supposed to do. The in-game map and navigation systems hold your hand the whole way through.
If you don’t care about that kind of thing, you will find Doom to be a perfectly serviceable first-person shooter. You’ll come, you’ll shoot stuff, you’ll finish the game, then you’ll move on to something else. That’s my experience with Doom anyway. This game didn’t really give me much of a reason to come back and play it again. I thought it was… fine. And that’s about it.
I’ve come to the realization lately while playing games like this one, Gears of War, and The Order: 1886. That realization is that maybe shooters just aren’t my thing. Shooters can be my thing, but they have to be exceptional for me to enjoy them. Good story, good gameplay, lots of secrets, lots of reasons to come back and play the game again. Most shooters only give me some of those things, but not all of them. Doom is one of those games.
Not to say that this is a bad game. When things were clicking and I was getting caught up in the heat of battle, I really got into Doom and I enjoyed my time with it. I like how so many of the battles can be very challenging. I enjoyed trying new tactics and adapting my approach when I’d run into trouble. Games don’t challenge me enough, and I feel like Doom did an excellent job walking the fine line between being challenging and frustrating.
I also have to give this game props for its production values, as the graphics are amazing, the sound is great, and I had no issues with the game’s camera or controls the entire time I played. Technically, this game is top of the line. This doesn’t completely excuse the rest of Doom’s shortcomings, but it helps.
This is a good, decent first person shooter. I just can't bring myself to get too excited over it. In the future if I ever get the urge to play Doom, I'll play the Doom I or II, or maybe even Doom 64. Although this game tries really hard to recreate the magic from some of those old games, I think it missed its mark. Only a slight miss, but a miss nonetheless.
Final Score:
C+
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