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First person shooters have come a long way over the years. From Doom and Quake to Halo and Goldeneye to Battlefield and Call of Duty, things have certainly grown more complex and moved in a much more realistic direction… which has been great. The number of hours I spent shooting my friends in Facility on Goldeneye or leveling up online in Modern Warfare 2 is far too many to even begin to count. Yet in the past five or so years, as evolution became iteration for shooters, I’ve found myself losing interest in the genre. I’d quite simply grown tired of the same thing over and over.
Which makes a game like Doom such a breath of fresh air. Gone are the typical regenerating health, overly long and complicated story-telling, realistic environments and stealthy play. Instead you basically play as a dude (marine to be exact) battling demons of hell in a constant stream of balls-to-the-wall, hectic, fast paced firefights where the pace rarely falls below that of a manic sprint. In summary I absolutely love this game and even better still it was never even on my radar.
The game does very very little to set the scene. You simply wake from your sarcophagus amidst an invasion of hellish creatures, handed a gun and told to kill. This literally takes mere seconds! Who says you need to take your time setting the scene. From then on you’ll explore a facility on Mars, venture through a portal to Hell itself and generally destroy anything that gets in your way. The moments where the game does throw you a little more story are few and far between taking a backseat to what matters – the gory, over-the-top shooting.
Combat offers something few shooters do nowadays - unpredictable excitement that not only encourages offensive behavior but requires it. Unlike your Call of Dutys, Halos and so on you can’t merely hide till your health comes back when things get tough – quite simply you’ll be massacred. Enemies swarm the unprepared and while this sounds awfully unfair on the player, the game does offer you a fun couple ways to gain the advantage through additional health and ammo. The much famed chainsaw when used rains down ammo galore, perfect when you’ve exhausted your arsenal while damaging an enemy till they glow allows you to perform a “glory kill” (or melee attack) that will spew a small handful of health to top up your constantly dwindling level.
Doom isn’t about savouring your ammo nor keeping health high, in fact both of them will always be a concern and need topping at every chance you get. And this feverish attitude towards battling is so much fun – the action mirrored by a truly brilliant soundtrack complete with an insanely heavy amount of electric guitar. You can’t help but raise a smile at the pure ridiculousness of it all.
Level design is exceptional, plain and simple. Sure you’re merely venturing through a labyrinth of corridors and large rooms, but the way the game leads you around to locate a key and then back to previously locked doors without even realizing you’ve backtracked is truly impressive. The flow of the game is also perfectly balanced, bigger rooms suddenly becoming battlegrounds for waves of increasingly tougher enemies that must be defeated in order to move onto the next. And while we’re talking about the enemies, you’ll see plenty of familiar faces along with a few fresh ones and what starts as a few measly zombie looking walkers soon escalates to some truly brutal competition as the game progresses. Weapons too all feel weighty and offer plenty of punch. Every time you discover a new metallic toy you’ll be excited to try out its destructive capabilities.
Levels themselves are packed tight with collectables galore whether they’re very well hidden dolls, data-logs, even more-well hidden secret rooms, new attachments for your weapons or upgrades for your suit. There’s always a reason to venture off the beaten path.
The game is also constantly rewarding those willing to experiment with their arsenal. While yes you could very easily make your way through the game with a strong pair or trio of weapons, mini-challenges such as nailing headshots with the rifle’s scope attachment or hitting an enemy dead on with an explosive shotgun shell give you reason to try out everything and unlock especially useful additional perks. Furthermore hunting down as many enemies as you can also offers additional points to sink into further bonuses for your guns.
In similar fashion, runes also offer upgradable abilities for your marine such as better air movement and more ammo drops again by equipping and reaching certain milestones.
As you can see, Doom is very much a game based around quick thinking and even quicker reflexes however the unlockables also offer players enough to explore their surroundings and take their time when given a rare breather.
So its pretty safe to say that the campaign is fantastic, but what of the multiplayer? It’s certainly playable and there’s some enjoyment to be had of shooting strangers online with shotguns, rockets and demon summonings however the whole experience can feel a little lacking especially when compared with the stellar single player offering. Maps lack character, weapons and loadouts are missing the additions seen in the campaign and overall the feel just isn’t quite there. On the bright side the customization of your nameless marine is deep with every limb.
Video games can often be predictable. While I know I’m always going to pre-order the next big Mario adventure or have no doubt in the quality of a new Naughty Dog title, it’s the games that seemingly come out of nowhere and defy all expectations that really stand out.
Doom injects some much-needed life into a very tired genre and delivers quite honestly one of the strongest first person shooter campaigns I’ve ever played. Multiplayer is a forgettable affair but who cares when the quality of the lone experience is this damn good.
9/10
Which makes a game like Doom such a breath of fresh air. Gone are the typical regenerating health, overly long and complicated story-telling, realistic environments and stealthy play. Instead you basically play as a dude (marine to be exact) battling demons of hell in a constant stream of balls-to-the-wall, hectic, fast paced firefights where the pace rarely falls below that of a manic sprint. In summary I absolutely love this game and even better still it was never even on my radar.
The game does very very little to set the scene. You simply wake from your sarcophagus amidst an invasion of hellish creatures, handed a gun and told to kill. This literally takes mere seconds! Who says you need to take your time setting the scene. From then on you’ll explore a facility on Mars, venture through a portal to Hell itself and generally destroy anything that gets in your way. The moments where the game does throw you a little more story are few and far between taking a backseat to what matters – the gory, over-the-top shooting.
Combat offers something few shooters do nowadays - unpredictable excitement that not only encourages offensive behavior but requires it. Unlike your Call of Dutys, Halos and so on you can’t merely hide till your health comes back when things get tough – quite simply you’ll be massacred. Enemies swarm the unprepared and while this sounds awfully unfair on the player, the game does offer you a fun couple ways to gain the advantage through additional health and ammo. The much famed chainsaw when used rains down ammo galore, perfect when you’ve exhausted your arsenal while damaging an enemy till they glow allows you to perform a “glory kill” (or melee attack) that will spew a small handful of health to top up your constantly dwindling level.
Doom isn’t about savouring your ammo nor keeping health high, in fact both of them will always be a concern and need topping at every chance you get. And this feverish attitude towards battling is so much fun – the action mirrored by a truly brilliant soundtrack complete with an insanely heavy amount of electric guitar. You can’t help but raise a smile at the pure ridiculousness of it all.
Level design is exceptional, plain and simple. Sure you’re merely venturing through a labyrinth of corridors and large rooms, but the way the game leads you around to locate a key and then back to previously locked doors without even realizing you’ve backtracked is truly impressive. The flow of the game is also perfectly balanced, bigger rooms suddenly becoming battlegrounds for waves of increasingly tougher enemies that must be defeated in order to move onto the next. And while we’re talking about the enemies, you’ll see plenty of familiar faces along with a few fresh ones and what starts as a few measly zombie looking walkers soon escalates to some truly brutal competition as the game progresses. Weapons too all feel weighty and offer plenty of punch. Every time you discover a new metallic toy you’ll be excited to try out its destructive capabilities.
Levels themselves are packed tight with collectables galore whether they’re very well hidden dolls, data-logs, even more-well hidden secret rooms, new attachments for your weapons or upgrades for your suit. There’s always a reason to venture off the beaten path.
The game is also constantly rewarding those willing to experiment with their arsenal. While yes you could very easily make your way through the game with a strong pair or trio of weapons, mini-challenges such as nailing headshots with the rifle’s scope attachment or hitting an enemy dead on with an explosive shotgun shell give you reason to try out everything and unlock especially useful additional perks. Furthermore hunting down as many enemies as you can also offers additional points to sink into further bonuses for your guns.
In similar fashion, runes also offer upgradable abilities for your marine such as better air movement and more ammo drops again by equipping and reaching certain milestones.
As you can see, Doom is very much a game based around quick thinking and even quicker reflexes however the unlockables also offer players enough to explore their surroundings and take their time when given a rare breather.
So its pretty safe to say that the campaign is fantastic, but what of the multiplayer? It’s certainly playable and there’s some enjoyment to be had of shooting strangers online with shotguns, rockets and demon summonings however the whole experience can feel a little lacking especially when compared with the stellar single player offering. Maps lack character, weapons and loadouts are missing the additions seen in the campaign and overall the feel just isn’t quite there. On the bright side the customization of your nameless marine is deep with every limb.
Video games can often be predictable. While I know I’m always going to pre-order the next big Mario adventure or have no doubt in the quality of a new Naughty Dog title, it’s the games that seemingly come out of nowhere and defy all expectations that really stand out.
Doom injects some much-needed life into a very tired genre and delivers quite honestly one of the strongest first person shooter campaigns I’ve ever played. Multiplayer is a forgettable affair but who cares when the quality of the lone experience is this damn good.
9/10
DL wrote:
Love the review and totally agree...the SP is awesome, so much so I think that I have played it to exhaustion! That's not to say that I won't download it again and kill demons ;¬)
Thanks DL :)
Yeah it's certainly the kind of game I could see myself playing again later on in the year. It's so quick and addictive, I love it!
Love the review and totally agree...the SP is awesome, so much so I think that I have played it to exhaustion! That's not to say that I won't download it again and kill demons ;¬)
Thanks DL :)
Yeah it's certainly the kind of game I could see myself playing again later on in the year. It's so quick and addictive, I love it!
Love the review and totally agree...the SP is awesome, so much so I think that I have played it to exhaustion! That's not to say that I won't download it again and kill demons ;¬)
First person shooters have come a long way over the years. From Doom and Quake to Halo and Goldeneye to Battlefield and Call of Duty, things have certainly grown more complex and moved in a much more realistic direction… which has been great. The number of hours I spent shooting my friends in Facility on Goldeneye or leveling up online in Modern Warfare 2 is far too many to even begin to count. Yet in the past five or so years, as evolution became iteration for shooters, I’ve found myself losing interest in the genre. I’d quite simply grown tired of the same thing over and over.
Which makes a game like Doom such a breath of fresh air. Gone are the typical regenerating health, overly long and complicated story-telling, realistic environments and stealthy play. Instead you basically play as a dude (marine to be exact) battling demons of hell in a constant stream of balls-to-the-wall, hectic, fast paced firefights where the pace rarely falls below that of a manic sprint. In summary I absolutely love this game and even better still it was never even on my radar.
The game does very very little to set the scene. You simply wake from your sarcophagus amidst an invasion of hellish creatures, handed a gun and told to kill. This literally takes mere seconds! Who says you need to take your time setting the scene. From then on you’ll explore a facility on Mars, venture through a portal to Hell itself and generally destroy anything that gets in your way. The moments where the game does throw you a little more story are few and far between taking a backseat to what matters – the gory, over-the-top shooting.
Combat offers something few shooters do nowadays - unpredictable excitement that not only encourages offensive behavior but requires it. Unlike your Call of Dutys, Halos and so on you can’t merely hide till your health comes back when things get tough – quite simply you’ll be massacred. Enemies swarm the unprepared and while this sounds awfully unfair on the player, the game does offer you a fun couple ways to gain the advantage through additional health and ammo. The much famed chainsaw when used rains down ammo galore, perfect when you’ve exhausted your arsenal while damaging an enemy till they glow allows you to perform a “glory kill” (or melee attack) that will spew a small handful of health to top up your constantly dwindling level.
Doom isn’t about savouring your ammo nor keeping health high, in fact both of them will always be a concern and need topping at every chance you get. And this feverish attitude towards battling is so much fun – the action mirrored by a truly brilliant soundtrack complete with an insanely heavy amount of electric guitar. You can’t help but raise a smile at the pure ridiculousness of it all.
Level design is exceptional, plain and simple. Sure you’re merely venturing through a labyrinth of corridors and large rooms, but the way the game leads you around to locate a key and then back to previously locked doors without even realizing you’ve backtracked is truly impressive. The flow of the game is also perfectly balanced, bigger rooms suddenly becoming battlegrounds for waves of increasingly tougher enemies that must be defeated in order to move onto the next. And while we’re talking about the enemies, you’ll see plenty of familiar faces along with a few fresh ones and what starts as a few measly zombie looking walkers soon escalates to some truly brutal competition as the game progresses. Weapons too all feel weighty and offer plenty of punch. Every time you discover a new metallic toy you’ll be excited to try out its destructive capabilities.
Levels themselves are packed tight with collectables galore whether they’re very well hidden dolls, data-logs, even more-well hidden secret rooms, new attachments for your weapons or upgrades for your suit. There’s always a reason to venture off the beaten path.
The game is also constantly rewarding those willing to experiment with their arsenal. While yes you could very easily make your way through the game with a strong pair or trio of weapons, mini-challenges such as nailing headshots with the rifle’s scope attachment or hitting an enemy dead on with an explosive shotgun shell give you reason to try out everything and unlock especially useful additional perks. Furthermore hunting down as many enemies as you can also offers additional points to sink into further bonuses for your guns.
In similar fashion, runes also offer upgradable abilities for your marine such as better air movement and more ammo drops again by equipping and reaching certain milestones.
As you can see, Doom is very much a game based around quick thinking and even quicker reflexes however the unlockables also offer players enough to explore their surroundings and take their time when given a rare breather.
So its pretty safe to say that the campaign is fantastic, but what of the multiplayer? It’s certainly playable and there’s some enjoyment to be had of shooting strangers online with shotguns, rockets and demon summonings however the whole experience can feel a little lacking especially when compared with the stellar single player offering. Maps lack character, weapons and loadouts are missing the additions seen in the campaign and overall the feel just isn’t quite there. On the bright side the customization of your nameless marine is deep with every limb.
Video games can often be predictable. While I know I’m always going to pre-order the next big Mario adventure or have no doubt in the quality of a new Naughty Dog title, it’s the games that seemingly come out of nowhere and defy all expectations that really stand out.
Doom injects some much-needed life into a very tired genre and delivers quite honestly one of the strongest first person shooter campaigns I’ve ever played. Multiplayer is a forgettable affair but who cares when the quality of the lone experience is this damn good.
9/10
Which makes a game like Doom such a breath of fresh air. Gone are the typical regenerating health, overly long and complicated story-telling, realistic environments and stealthy play. Instead you basically play as a dude (marine to be exact) battling demons of hell in a constant stream of balls-to-the-wall, hectic, fast paced firefights where the pace rarely falls below that of a manic sprint. In summary I absolutely love this game and even better still it was never even on my radar.
The game does very very little to set the scene. You simply wake from your sarcophagus amidst an invasion of hellish creatures, handed a gun and told to kill. This literally takes mere seconds! Who says you need to take your time setting the scene. From then on you’ll explore a facility on Mars, venture through a portal to Hell itself and generally destroy anything that gets in your way. The moments where the game does throw you a little more story are few and far between taking a backseat to what matters – the gory, over-the-top shooting.
Combat offers something few shooters do nowadays - unpredictable excitement that not only encourages offensive behavior but requires it. Unlike your Call of Dutys, Halos and so on you can’t merely hide till your health comes back when things get tough – quite simply you’ll be massacred. Enemies swarm the unprepared and while this sounds awfully unfair on the player, the game does offer you a fun couple ways to gain the advantage through additional health and ammo. The much famed chainsaw when used rains down ammo galore, perfect when you’ve exhausted your arsenal while damaging an enemy till they glow allows you to perform a “glory kill” (or melee attack) that will spew a small handful of health to top up your constantly dwindling level.
Doom isn’t about savouring your ammo nor keeping health high, in fact both of them will always be a concern and need topping at every chance you get. And this feverish attitude towards battling is so much fun – the action mirrored by a truly brilliant soundtrack complete with an insanely heavy amount of electric guitar. You can’t help but raise a smile at the pure ridiculousness of it all.
Level design is exceptional, plain and simple. Sure you’re merely venturing through a labyrinth of corridors and large rooms, but the way the game leads you around to locate a key and then back to previously locked doors without even realizing you’ve backtracked is truly impressive. The flow of the game is also perfectly balanced, bigger rooms suddenly becoming battlegrounds for waves of increasingly tougher enemies that must be defeated in order to move onto the next. And while we’re talking about the enemies, you’ll see plenty of familiar faces along with a few fresh ones and what starts as a few measly zombie looking walkers soon escalates to some truly brutal competition as the game progresses. Weapons too all feel weighty and offer plenty of punch. Every time you discover a new metallic toy you’ll be excited to try out its destructive capabilities.
Levels themselves are packed tight with collectables galore whether they’re very well hidden dolls, data-logs, even more-well hidden secret rooms, new attachments for your weapons or upgrades for your suit. There’s always a reason to venture off the beaten path.
The game is also constantly rewarding those willing to experiment with their arsenal. While yes you could very easily make your way through the game with a strong pair or trio of weapons, mini-challenges such as nailing headshots with the rifle’s scope attachment or hitting an enemy dead on with an explosive shotgun shell give you reason to try out everything and unlock especially useful additional perks. Furthermore hunting down as many enemies as you can also offers additional points to sink into further bonuses for your guns.
In similar fashion, runes also offer upgradable abilities for your marine such as better air movement and more ammo drops again by equipping and reaching certain milestones.
As you can see, Doom is very much a game based around quick thinking and even quicker reflexes however the unlockables also offer players enough to explore their surroundings and take their time when given a rare breather.
So its pretty safe to say that the campaign is fantastic, but what of the multiplayer? It’s certainly playable and there’s some enjoyment to be had of shooting strangers online with shotguns, rockets and demon summonings however the whole experience can feel a little lacking especially when compared with the stellar single player offering. Maps lack character, weapons and loadouts are missing the additions seen in the campaign and overall the feel just isn’t quite there. On the bright side the customization of your nameless marine is deep with every limb.
Video games can often be predictable. While I know I’m always going to pre-order the next big Mario adventure or have no doubt in the quality of a new Naughty Dog title, it’s the games that seemingly come out of nowhere and defy all expectations that really stand out.
Doom injects some much-needed life into a very tired genre and delivers quite honestly one of the strongest first person shooter campaigns I’ve ever played. Multiplayer is a forgettable affair but who cares when the quality of the lone experience is this damn good.
9/10