RIP AND TEAR,
RUN AND GUN
The text below was written before the game was out and largely based on a single player campaign demo that happened over at GameSpot. You are welcome to browse over it but at this point I've just converted this entire topic into a sort of Mega-Thread with reviews and such. Doom is out on all your favorite platforms (except for Mac) and it is getting a lot of positive feedback from both fans and press alike. Check out some of the things people have to say about eviscerating hell demons on Mars and heck, join in yourself.
The GameSpot guys had a show yesterday guesting two of the main people from Id that played through quite a bit of the Doom single player content. They showed off a ton of weapons including the famed BFG as well as showcasing a lot of the core mechanics, level design, and general philosophy behind this.. reboot? Re-imagening? Sequel?
The livestream can be watched HERE (there is another stream from Bethesda you can watch HERE thanks to @gundogan )
ATTN: EVEN ON CONSOLES THERE IS AN FOV SLIDER 90-110 (If I recall correctly, maybe 120)
As someone that started their gaming life around 1995 with this cool looking Doom shareware at a supermarket, I can honestly say that the new re-imagined Doom for 2016 looks really, really cool. They played on a PS4 and the game looked great and appeared to run at a super smooth 60 FPS which is a must. Apart from the occasional texture pop-in during "loading doors" I didn't really see anything that made the console version of this game appear to be hot garbage and there appear to be plenty of options to customize your experience. As mentioned above, there is an FOV slider which I know is a make or break type of deal for some people.
A lot of the enemies use projectile weapons that much like in the original version you have to weave in and around. In an era of hit-scan guns this is a nice callback and something that defined Doom combat back in the day. The gore kills look fun and play a strategic role in keeping the action moving forward at a frenetic pace. There are secrets, challenges and special abilities that add a modern touch to what is otherwise an arena shooter slapped into a single player campaign. From the looks of it the level design is basically large arenas that lockdown and start spawning enemies which you need to eviscerate in order to move forward - sort of like how Painkiller did it, another excellent throwback title.
The music! Oh man the music is really great in my opinion. I'm not much for rock or metal or whatever you call the genre these days, but the heavy tunes that start blaring up as you dispatch increasingly more varied waves of the demonic horde are both fitting and downright rockin'. At a later level they had this weird gothic remix of a metal tune - just awesome.
The enemy design appeared appropriately Doom-ish with a bit of that Quake robotic implant quality to it. The Pinky demon looked a little funny but most of the other classic staples of the Doom roster appear to make an appearance and got a nice coat of fresh polygon paint. It's especially fun seeing the different gore-kill animations for each individual enemy type.
Overall it all looked really awesome. It's really weird to say that I am really looking forward to playing a Doom remake in 2016. I really liked the original back in the day but unlike the guys on the Bombcast I'm not holding it as some holy grail of gaming. It was an extremely important game that totally moved the industry forward, but so have a lot of other games along the years in my opinion. There are watershed moments a-plenty in this industry.
What do you guys think? I know a lot of people seem skeptical at best, with others downright not impressed with what they've seen or played of the beta. Does this single player content change your mind at all?
Technical Corner
LOW FPS on AMD cards
Hell-wizard @tobbrobb suggests
Try putting shadows to medium or low. There seems to be a bug with AMD cards and shadows in this game that really kills FPS. I also have a 390 and got an increase between 20 - 40 FPS when I did this. Hopefully a fix comes soon.
CRASHING TO DESKTOP
This tip comes from @shakey1245 and has helped several people eliminate or limit crashes.
Try setting the Virtual Texturing Page Size to Low in the Advanced Settings. I had the same problem (i5-4690k, GTX760, 8GB of RAM) with it closing/crashing out to the desktop.
SKIP INTRO MOVIES ETC
Right-click Doom in your library, go to Properties, and select Set Launch Options. From there, you can type in various commands:
- Skip intro videos: +com_skipIntroVideo 1
- Disable mouse smoothing: +set m_smooth 0
- Shorten load screens: +com_skipKeyPressOnLoadScreens 1
- Unlock Nightmare difficulty: +menu_advanced_AllowAllSettings 1
REVIEWS
IGN - 7.1/10
Polygon - in progress
GameSpot - 8/10 - ..while it's not the model to follow in every case, modern shooters could learn a thing or two from Doom's honed and unadulterated identity
PC Gamer - in progress
Rock Paper Shotgun - Propulsive, thrilling and breathless, DOOM is the triumph I never expected. I just can’t see there being a better shooter this year, I really can’t.
Destructoid - 9/10 - I had hoped this would be surprisingly good, but deep down I had no idea it would be this much fun.
Game Informer - 8.75/10 - Driven largely by its successful single-player campaign, Doom is a welcome return to form for the genre-defining franchise
Player Testimonials:
No truer words were spoken than @tru3_blu3 pontificating:
Yup, this game fucking rocks
@jec03 isn't afraid to attest that:
combat feels good not F.E.A.R. good but hell alot more fun than DOOM 3
Beaming in from hell itself @crysack reports:
I'm finding it rather tedious
Veteran Doom player @cornbredx muses:
it doesn't feel like DOOM for me
@artelinarose made these guttural noises:
PLAY MORE DOOM
Stationed Mars Marine @sinjunb shares:
It's already one of the top 5 best shooters I've ever played.
Shooter fan @tennmuerti says:
It's good.
Videogame expert @baronsamedi had this to say about Doom:
- ... on PC ... the movement speed is good.
- You can turn off the highlights and 100% ignore glory kills...
- ...they don't lock you into small areas when taking on enemies, the zones are multi-layered have a lot of ins and outs allowing for plenty of player freedom.
- ... Mick Gordon was such an inspired choice for composer he's absolutely nailed the OST.
- On complete maximum it never comes even close to dropping below 60FPS (970, 8GB RAM, 4690k)...
- FoV slider going all the way up to 130...
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