Doom

As I played through the intro sequence to Doom’s campaign, I initially found myself fixated less on the narrative at hand and more on the wild circumstances surrounding this game’s existence. It went through a long, tumultuous development cycle, during which first-person shooters had evolved into something completely disparate from the core tenants of the Doom series. 90s-inspired Arena shooters started to make a comeback in recent years, and Brutal Doom breathed new life into the franchise, but whether Doom had a place in the modern gaming landscape seemed to be in serious doubt. The lukewarm reception to the multiplayer beta and Id’s unwillingness to send out review copies before launch didn’t help matters. And somehow, despite all this pessimism and uncertainty, Doom released to rave reviews and claims of it being the best shooter in a long time. Given such a sudden shift in attitude, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect.

But when the title card faded away, when Mick Gordon’s thumping modern rendition of the E1M1 riff came to an end, when the Doom marine cocked his shotgun with authority, I felt a sudden chill and the goosebumps on my arms were palpable.

I knew I was in for something special.

It’s been said many times already, but it is incredible, in the truest sense of the word, that Doom turned out as good as it did. While I don’t think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I find some parts of this package (campaign included) to be a little disappointing, I could not be happier that I spent $60 to experience Id Software’s return to form.

If you just want the short version of my opinion on Doom, it’s not too different from the consensus: Singleplayer = good, Multiplayer = meh, Snapmap = potentially good, but real mod support would’ve been better. If you’ll be so kind as to read the rest of this lengthy review, I’ll go into more depth specifically about the campaign and hopefully address a few aspects that are less often covered in other critiques.

The gameplay hook of Doom is pretty much the same it’s always been: reach the end of the maze-like levels and use a varied arsenal of weapons to kill anything that stands in your way. Of course that’s an oversimplification, and to state that Doom 2016 cranks this concept up to 11, while an accurate assessment, would perhaps discount the smart, challenging, and graceful design at work in Id’s latest offering. The reboot improves upon and appropriately modernizes many gameplay facets of the original, the most evident of these being the combat.

In addition to the fluid dance of firing and dodging projectiles that Doom fans are familiar with, there is now an added emphasis on melee attacks. Once you’ve stunned an enemy, you can get up close and perform a “glory kill”; literally rip and tear your demonic foes into a mess of gibs and gain some extra health and ammo for your efforts. These glory kills are awesome from a design perspective because they reject the modern shooter philosophy of “hide behind cover and regenerate your health” by encouraging players to stay in the battlefield and forcibly take their health back. I was initially worried that the glory kills would interfere with Doom’s established gunplay, but I found them to be a welcome addition to the already dynamic combat. Most importantly, tearing demons apart makes you feel like a badass.

The combat also very deliberately takes advantage of your ability to jump and look up and down. The ways in which Doom incorporates verticality into its fights feels essential, even more so than in Quake or Doom 3. You play as a fast, agile marine with an almost parkour-esque fluidity to the ways in which you jump up and grab onto high ledges. Most of your enemies share that speed and agility, which means your aiming and platforming abilities (yes, platforming in a Doom game; More on that later) will need to be on point if you want to survive every encounter.

Indeed, eliminating swarms of hellspawn is appropriately challenging, especially on higher difficulties, meaning Doom’s robust upgrade systems will be crucial to your survival. Along the way, you can find “field drones” that, similar to Bioshock’s weapon upgrade stations, let you add mods to your guns. For instance, strap a grenade launcher to your shotgun, or add a lock-on mechanism to your rocket launcher. These mods can then be improved with weapon upgrade points, earned by dispatching as many enemies as possible and completing optional challenges in each level (“kill 3 enemies with one explosive barrel,” “perform 5 different glory kills,” etc.). You can also find collectible items and compete in “rune trials” (similar to Far Cry 3’s Rakyat trials) to upgrade your passive abilities: take less damage from environmental hazards, switch weapons faster, or simply increase your health/armor/ammo capacity. Unlike many arbitrary upgrade trees you might find in modern open world games, Doom makes you work for your upgrades through meticulous exploration as well as precise and varied combat performance, and I absolutely love that.

These new combat abilities and upgrades will later culminate in the form of boss battles, another (somewhat) new addition to Doom’s gameplay. Doom has always had “boss” enemies, like the Cyberdemon and the Spider Mastermind, but they mostly behaved like larger, tougher versions of the other baddies. In this reboot, the bosses are specifically designed to play less like other encounters and more like traditional boss battles: massive health bars, telegraphed attack patterns, weak spots, etc. There are only a few boss battles in the campaign, and the areas in which they take place are rather boring, but the bosses themselves are all well-realized and a pleasant reminder of such epic confrontations that have been absent from the shooter genre for too long.

Despite all my praise, I have to admit that it took awhile for the fun of Doom’s combat to really kick in. I feared that having played so much Brutal Doom before this had spoiled the novelty of the fast, frantic fighting. However, as I progressed through the levels and picked up more weapons, I was surprised to find that, on many occasions, Id had outdone the popular gore mod that it seems to take some inspiration from. I bashed a Revenant’s head in with its own shoulder-mounted cannon. I deformed a Mancubus’ torso with a charged Gauss cannon shot. I used a chainsaw to cut off a Baron’s leg and then slice its face in half horizontally. I picked up a berserk powerup and punched a Cacodemon into pieces with a single blow. Those were the most visceral and rewarding moments I’ve experienced in a triple-A action game in a long time.

Another significant revision to the Doom formula is the level design. The key change here is that there is a clearer distinction between exploration sections and combat sections. In the case of combat sections, most of the demon slaying takes place in large open “arenas” so to speak, in which waves of enemies spawn around you for a few minutes and you must eliminate them all before moving on to the next area. I must admit that I miss the tactical art of predicting and taking advantage of predetermined enemy placements all across the map in the original Doom. While there is some degree of strategy and variety to these wave-based encounters, especially with managing different enemy behaviors, some players may find these battles to become tired and predictable by the end of the game However, the campaign is still well designed around having the combat relegated to these arenas; Every encounter feels intense as you struggle to keep your health and ammo supply plentiful, and successfully dispatching literal hordes of demons in the span of a few minutes feels awesome.

The exploration sections in between these arenas are where Doom’s level design really shines. The labyrinthine level design of classic Doom has been infused with some intricately-crafted verticality and platforming that forces players to spend plenty of time in the air. Don’t worry, Doom does first-person platforming much better than you might think: your ability to grab onto ledges, and the double jump ability you gain later on, makes platforming feel surprisingly natural. The Argent Tower climb is a great example of how well it all works. Climbing on all the huge machinery and moving parts is strangely reminiscent of ascending Tick Tock Clock in Super Mario 64; It’s a tricky, perilous climb that requires some carefully timed and cleverly placed jumps onto uncertain paths. It’s also worth noting that collectibles and secrets throughout the game are very well hidden thanks in part to this verticality. I consider myself a thorough explorer in games like this, but even I missed tons of secrets on my first playthrough.

The campaign isn’t all jumping and shooting. This romp through Mars and Hell actually has a dynamic pace, sometimes slowing down for exposition and a little extra lore. Though you may think story in a Doom game is like story in porn, you’ll be surprised to find that the storytelling in Doom is humorous, deep, and in some cases compelling. On the surface, the plot is an elaborate reinterpretation of the old Doom story: The Union Aerospace Corporation’s research into Hell has gone awry, and UAC scientist Olivia Pierce has made a pact with the demons to open a portal to Hell. The Doom marine must work with Samuel Hayden, the android director of the UAC mars base, to close the portal and save the world from further demonic invasion.

The deeper lore underneath this superficial plot is where the real intrigue lies, and while most of that stuff is relegated to optional codex entries, it’s definitely worth reading. In the interest of avoiding too much detail here, just know that the Aperture Science-esque practices of the UAC, the origins of specific enemies, your mindless homicidal rampage, all these things have detailed canonical explanations. Honestly, the idea that any effort was put into Doom’s narrative was enough to get me to pay attention to it.

It’s too bad the general aesthetic doesn’t always do the story justice. This may be a nitpicky matter of personal taste, but the environment and enemy designs don’t really strike me as intimidating or evocative. The UAC facility areas simply look too much like any other space station in any other game to stand out. Hell certainly looks a fair bit more unique, but parts of it also seem a little derivative of the planes of Oblivion from The Elder Scrolls IV. Likewise, the enemies have some grotesque codex entries, and their shrieks and cries sound pretty disgusting, but their designs look less like hellish apparitions and more like reject alien monsters from any other sci-fi shooter. The Mancubus, Baron of Hell, and Cyberdemon in particular all look a little too goofy to be threatening at first sight.

I suspect this may be a case of the primitive graphics of classic Doom being beneficial, as it forced the developers to get creative and it encouraged players to rely on their imagination. The world and it’s hostile inhabitants of the original Doom were weird, haunting, and simply unlike anything I had ever seen before. At least in my experience, that surreality doesn’t quite carry over to this reboot. I don’t mean to blame Id for making the game look too good; indeed, Doom is otherwise a visually stunning game. I only wish Id’s technical prowess better captured the bizarre aesthetic of the original.

What the game may lack in a unique visual identity it makes up for in superb sound design. Mick Gordon’s dynamic soundtrack serves as a defining element of Doom’s brutal, frantic, and sometimes spooky personality. The punchy djent metal/dubstep riffs during combat sections perfectly accentuate your almost rhythmic gunfire percussion. Seriously, the low tuned guitars and rapid fire double kicks on this part of “Rip and Tear” make for the best demon slaying music. There are also more spacey, atmospheric tunes that set the tone of Doom’s slower paced moments. This rendition of the E1M5 theme and these eerie humming sounds of “Kadingir Sanctum” are excellent examples of this. The whole soundtrack is a giant cherry on top of an already awesome campaign.

Such an awesome campaign, in fact, that it’s worth playing through multiple times. Completionists will be kept busy after the initial 10-12 hour run, as old missions can be replayed with current equipment and upgrades to make finding any remaining secrets just a bit easier. However, you’ll definitely want to start over fresh and try some of the higher difficulties on offer. After my first playthrough on Hurt Me Plenty, I immediately started a new game on Ultraviolence, and I may do future runs on Nightmare and, God forbid, Ultra-Nightmare. Once you find the right difficulty for you, you’ll find that the combat strikes such an excellent balance between challenging and rewarding that you’ll feel like you can take on whatever the game throws at you. That’s a power fantasy done right.

This reboot takes many of the core elements of classic Doom and modernizes them in ways I didn’t even know I wanted, and the end result manages to avoid feeling antiquated or egregiously mainstream. The guys at Id must’ve seen those “If Doom was done today” videos and specifically designed this reboot to avoid all those genre cliches and put everyone’s fears to rest. It really is one of the best mixes of old and new design philosophies I have ever experienced in a game.

And then there’s the multiplayer. This is where I start to hesitate giving this game 5 stars.

Look, it’s not an unmitigated disaster. The addition of Doom’s old-school speed and agility to what is ostensibly a Call of Duty clone can occasionally make for a fun experience. The Quake III-inspired Freeze Tag mode is a particularly fun and hectic game type that really demands effective teamwork (too bad everyone is playing Team Deathmatch instead). If nothing else, it can serve as a nice distraction while listening to podcasts. Beyond that, though, I don’t think it’s noteworthy.

It’s just so disappointing that Certain Affinity decided to take this safe, familiar route, especially when paired with a campaign that is almost anything but safe. Whereas the campaign’s blend of old and new feels elegant and lovingly crafted, such a blend in the multiplayer feels like an identity crisis. The two-weapon loadout system and universal ammo pickups didn’t work in Quake Live, so I’m not sure why the developers thought it would work any better here. Again, it just saddens me that the multiplayer didn’t move further in the classic arena shooter end of the spectrum, because the mechanics of Doom’s campaign should be a shared experience.

Snapmap, despite sharing some of the multiplayer’s flaws, is at least more interesting. Going through the tutorials of this user-friendly map editor reveals a comprehensive toolset full of room modules, interactive entities, miscellaneous objects, logic chains, AI pathing tools, singleplayer and multiplayer options, and tons of minute editable properties for all of the above. There’s even a series of Snapmap puzzles which challenge players to reach a win condition by editing the map within specific constraints. Snapmap is obviously robust and fun to play around with, so surely the creations that come out of this editing suite are only limited by one’s imagination, right?

Sadly, claims of this being “Little Big Planet for Doom” are exaggerated. Even the best maps are hampered by repeated assets and frustrating gameplay limitations. You can expect to run through the same dingy corridors, starting with the same combat shotgun, being greeted with the same Vega voiceover lines, and so on. The creators of these maps are not at fault; Even with this seemingly extensive toolset, there are just certain constraints that cannot be broken. Playing through Snapmaps also comes with some frustrating gameplay quirks, such as the two-weapon limit, the inability to pause in singleplayer, the lack of a map screen, and the fact that dying or losing usually boots you back to the main menu. Again, more limitations that creators can’t really work around.

Still, some of the more clever creators out there have built some really fascinating maps. There’s a Zombies-style survival map, a Stanley Parable-inspired puzzle that’ll screw with your head, a Pac-Man clone where the power pellets are replaced with Quad Damage powerups, a version of Pong where you bounce a Hell Knight back and forth, a deviously addictive tycoon-style clicker, and some crazy bastard even made a MOBA. I suppose you can’t think outside the box if there is no box.

So the latter 2 parts of this 3-part package leave a little to be desired, but it doesn’t diminish from the fact that Doom is a great feature-filled package, especially with such a phenomenal campaign at the helm. It’s a visceral and amusing celebration of what makes the shooter genre so much fun, bringing classic and modern design together in a truly beautiful way. If you are a fan of first-person shooters, especially those of the old-school variety, Doom is absolutely worth the price of admission. If you want to wait for a price drop, however, you should be fine, as you won’t be missing much from the release window zeitgeist. I have a feeling this campaign will still hold up for many years to come.