Doom 2016 Review

I was a big fan of FPS games growing up, the original Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Brothers in Arms, Half Life 2 were my bread and butter when it came to gaming. As time went by though, my interest in the genre began to wane especially in these  last few years. Prior playing Doom this month, the last time I played a shooter was Gears of War 3 two years ago, which isn’t even an FPS!  Because of this, I have missed the big revival of single player first person shooters in recent years such as Wolfenstein : New Order and Doom (2016). But, I keep on hearing how great these games are and figure I should give them a try. 

Despite all I said about being a big shooter fan when I was younger, I’ve never actually played any of the Doom games. I was born in 1993, so the first two were before my time and Doom 3 never really appealed to me that much with its horror focus. This being the case I had originally planned to play Wolfenstein: New Order on the PC first, but after my computer broke down, I went with Doom on the PS4 instead. I am absolutely glad I did chose  Doom though, as it has some of the most fast paced, challenging, brutal and just plain fun gameplay I have played in recent years.

Doom is set in the future on a martian research station  which has opened a series of conduits to Hell in order to harvest infernal power as a clean energy source. This does not end well and a rogue researcher opens a full portal to Hell and a demonic horde comes rushing through.  In desperation you, the Doom marine have been awakened from status to fight back  and seal the dimensional gate. 

The setting and plot are not what you play Doom for, but they work well for what they are. The plot is pretty basic, but the whole using satanic energy as a renewable energy source is a novel twist on the old doom formula. More importantly the game nails the atmosphere of the setting with the horroresque vistas of once sterile research facilities now caked with blood and gore, windswept martian exteriors and grotesque demonic hellscapes. I say horroresque because it is not really a horror game , but it definitely has that aesthetic and ends up feeling like something you would see on a Iron Maiden cover.

The atmosphere is supported by the game’s excellent graphics, which well maybe not the most technically proficient (I had a recurring issue with textures loading too slowly) are nonetheless very well designed, with each level looking fairly unique and loaded with interesting little details in various nooks and crannies to explore.In particular the use of colour especially in the outdoor martian areas and in the Hell levels is striking, full with bright reds and yellows. It is nice to have a game which gets away from the muted browns of many other modern shooters. What most impressed me though, is how well the enemies are designed with each being visually distinct and horrific in their own little unique way making them easy to identify in the midst of a hectic gun fight. 

Which brings us to the core of what makes Doom work, the gameplay. Doom is a throwback to an earlier age of first person shooters, with  fast paced gameplay divided into a series of discrete levels each with their own little bonus goals and secrets. What makes this game work is how fast it is, unlike a lot of more lumbering modern shooters. The Doom Marine is nimble and light on his feet, able to dive into a mob of demons and dart back out with ease. This gets even better when you gain access to the double jump about a third of the way through the game and can add a vertical dimension to your manaverouring. Furthermore, Doom has something has called glory kills where an enemy is stunned if you do enough damage and get a chance to to perform a gruesome fatality in order to regain a chunk of your health back. This is the game’s most brilliant mechanic as it encourages you to be very aggressive at all times, even when low on health your best option is not to retreat and hide but to go on the offensive and gain health back through glory kills.  

And you are going to need all that extra health because the enemies are formidable. The game has a wide variety of enemies with vastly different visual and gameplay designs. Small scurrying imps which climb on the wall to throw fireballs, weird bipedal pinkies which charge at you and have to attacked from behind, floating skulls which suicide rush you and giant Hell Knights who will just stomp you into the ground. Even the little guys can be dangerous. For instance, with me personally I always prioritized going after the imps last because they are generally the least dangerous, but I still died more than once to them because I was so focused on killing bigger things that I would end up being nailed in the back with a fire ball. Needless to say the gameplay is pretty challenging! Thankfully, you have a lot of tools at your disposal which can even the score.

By the end of the game you have access to 8 different main weapons, a fairly useless basic pistol (though I suspect that it can be pretty effective if you know how to use it), a basic shotgun, a double shotgun, an assault rifle,a chain gun, a plasma rifle, a railgun and a rocket launcher. Each of these are fairly unique with their own strengths and weaknesses and while you are definitely going to have a few favorites, all will need to be utilized in order to be fully effective. 

These weapons can be further customized by an upgrade system you get for performing well in combat, finding weapons drones and beating level objectives. Essentially most guns have two alternate fire modes which can be further upgraded and these alternate fire modes can drastically increase the guns effectiveness and change how you use them. My favorite is the siege mode for the rail gun which basically plants you in a stationary position and gives the gun a longer charge up time, but when it does fire it will shoot a powerful beam of energy and kill pretty much everything in a straight line. In addition to these basic weapons, you have access to the chainsaw which will kill anythingl in one blow with enough fuel and provide you with a large pile of ammo for your troubles and the BFG which will eviscerate everything in the immediate vicinity.  These weapon upgrades combined with stats upgrades and various runes mean that you can go toe to toe with pretty much everything in the game. Essentially, the demons are scary, but you’re scarier still! 

All of this takes place in some of the best level design I have seen in a first person shooter. The gameplay is split between these vast areas where you explore and fight the occasional bad guy, and smaller confined arena like areas where enemy attacks come from every side you have to maneuver around like hell in order to survive. So the game develops a  good rhythm between less tense exploring sections and intense arena sections where you have to fight for your life. Rhythm is the core of the gameplay, you are constantly having to switch up what you are doing or what gun you are using in order to survive, but these switch ups have a pattern and once you get into that pattern you can begin to master and control these combat situations.

Like I have been saying over and over this is an amazing game and I can say nothing more aside from BUY THIS GAME NOW!