Tell me why you think DOOM is a fantastic game

I'm liking moving forward in DOOM and shooting the fire-throwing goblins with a shotgun, but I find myself taking long breaks from the game, it's not exciting me, and being attacked from all around at once in tight rooms is very irritating, a "rape fest" as some people call it.

(P.S. I recently got the machine gun)

The feel, speed and aesthetic of the game is reminiscent of the original games, I love that, but the biggest problem is that it takes place in closed rooms and corridors, where are the open battle arenas? And I'm sick of using a pistol and a shotgun, where are the weapons? The chainsaw runs out of fuel after three kills so it's barely usable.

So maybe I'm missing something, a certain perspective. Or the game's about to get much better and I don't know it yet. So give me your reasons for loving it!

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Edit: My first two shooters as a kid in the mid-90's were Doom 1 and 2, hence the line "The feel, speed and aesthetic of the game is reminiscent of the original games, I love that"

Here is what I wrote on another forum after it'd been a couple weeks and nobody had started a thread about it:

• 1080p, 60fps. Plays and looks like the DOOM you imagined in your head while playing DOOM

• To that end, there's no reloading, no aim down sights (except for one of the Gausse Cannon's upgrades)

• Most importantly, no regenerating health. You perform "glory kills" (MK9-like melee fatalities you can only do after an enemy has taken enough damage) that cause enemies to drop health, and there are the usual health/armor packs strewn across the arenas. Once you acquire the chainsaw, it also functions as a limited use, one-stop shop for ammo and health drops from an enemy of any size (presuming you have enough fuel to cut through the enemy you're trying to attack). This feeds into a pretty intoxicating loop of long range and close range combat that reconciles the classic elements of DOOM with modern gameplay design without a hitch.

• The soundtrack is incredible. I've never heard of the artist but it's clearly hearkening back to Trent Reznor's mid-90s period (and work with id on their masterworks) while nodding to the debt today's dubstep scene owes the rough edges of that industrial era.

• In attempting to tell a story, it pivots entirely from DOOM 3 and appears to pick up several years after DOOM 2. What little story there is essentially boils down to how DOOM 1 and 2 were a pair of the most influential games of all time and it's fucking rad that they came out. This is a game with a security system that repeatedly announces "demonic invasion is at unsafe levels" and you will chuckle to yourself every time.

• The enemies compliment each other in some very smart ways and once things really get rolling it's clear that, much like DOOM, you'll want to play certain levels again and again on higher and higher difficulties just to master what's being asked of you.

• In fact, much like the OG DOOMs/Wolfenstein 3D, the medium difficulty is primarily a training ground, implying the true game that lies beyond. With all the hell swirling around, it's an enjoyable meta commentary on the game they've made.

I'm only halfway through the game and just collected a certain fucking gun (it is genius the reverence paid to this gun in universe, by the way) but I'm confident it's only going to keep getting better. I just wish I had more time in large chunks to devote to it. Like I said, I have my gripes. The map kind of sucks and the emphasis on collectibles will have you pulling it up just as often as you would in The Witcher or Shadow of Mordor which is a bummer. I haven't spent much time in Hell yet but compared to Mars it's one of the least engrossing environments to look at perhaps this generation of consoles will ever see (I'm playing on PS4 but I don't see this game being one that is leaps and bounds prettier on a PC).

But the GAME ITSELF is SO DAMN GOOD that anyone with even the most remote fondness for DOOM and what DOOM meant for the future of video games really needs to give this game a shot. This is inarguably the best a game that took 8 years to make could have possibly turned out. Easy Game of the Year contender so far.

Having now finished it, I can only add to those sentiments that I kept feeling that way throughout the experience, and while I personally likely won't play the game on a harder difficulty than normal, as I said above, I really appreciate that DOOM came off as a game that was so sound in its logic that a higher difficulty wouldn't make me feel like I was being cheated, I was simply being asked to think harder and play smarter.

Like you I took long breaks from the game. It took me about two months to complete. I got the trophy for completing E1M1 on June 1st and my trophy for defeating the final boss on July 16th. But I didn't look on that as a negative. Partially it was due to my girlfriend's strong dislike for its loud aesthetic, partially it was due to the intensity requiring I be in a pretty specific mindset to play for more than a few minutes at a time.

Every time I hear someone talk about the game, or see a screenshot from it, my first thought is how much of an adrenaline rush it was, and I consider playing it again. I really struggle to replay games in my adult life besides persistent games like sports franchise modes or Destiny where you're not really "replaying" the game so much as constantly playing it, so if a game can even give me the thought of replaying it that's a real accomplishment.

DOOM is just a very self-confident game, it never once seems confused about the game it's trying to be, and the trickle of new gear, gear upgrades, new enemies, and new environment types is so exquisitely fine-tuned I never got the feeling the game was stagnating or getting repetitive.

Plus, having finished the story, I will just reiterate what I thought halfway through it: the way they made a story that has cool lore that is also goofy and hilarious, and at the same time made a story that could essentially boil down to a mythology about how influential the original pair of DOOM games were on the games industry, is genius. And Samuel Hayden sounds real, real cool.

Pretty much this, if you're waiting for open areas and more cerebral combat you'll be getting it eventually, also you only have picked up the shotgun, you have a lot of game remaining, if you were a fan of the original games you'll find a lot of details in the game design (enemy design/level design/encounter design, etc) that will make you remember those old fuzzy feelings you had when you played the original DOOM and DOOM II.

Personally I loved DOOM for the respect it showed for the original formula and aesthetics and bringing them to 2016 in a manner I never thought possible, it also feels oddly new when comparing it to your average AAA FPS of the last couple of years.

@howardian: You can get the heavy assault rifle, chainsaw and plasma rifle on the second mission, so if all you have is the chainsaw, pistol and shotgun you've either missed them or you've barely played past the second level.

The chainsaw is only meant to be used to kill things when you're low on ammo, because it causes an explosion of ammo to drop from that enemy. Eventually you'll get more fuel bars for it and more use out of it.

I see where the 'it's coming from all directions' feeling comes from. If you are not that into (old school) shooters, it might feel overwhelming and sometimes a bit bullshit (don't even try Devil Daggers if you have this feeling). But I think the game is more than fair. All enemies except the shield dudes (which are pretty much melee enemies) have projectile based and/or melee attacks so everything is avoidable and predictable and everything has it strong and weak points to encourage different weapons and strategies. So getting through a fight while dodging, using the terrain and switching up weapons gives me a great feeling of accomplishment (I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me!) most other recent singleplayer shooters completely lack. And because it isn't 110% faithful to old mechanics, but streamlined well enough, the combat is better and more fluent than the good '90s shooters which gave me that same feeling. And outside the combat you get nice bits of exploration that seem to be more logical than the older maze shooters where it came to pixel hunting at times.

Combine that with a fantastic audiovisual style, rock solid technical performance and ridiculously awesome lore. And on top of that you get a good multiplayer (so underrated) and an easy to use, but sometimes hard to find good user content, level/mod creator.

Doom 1 and 2 were my first shooters as a kid in the mid 90's, just to be clear.

Perhaps I've gotten so used to COD-like shooters that the "rape fest" action overwhelms me now (sorry I have no better expression to illustrate my point).

But I really don't remember the 90's shooters putting me in very tight rooms with incredibly aggressive enemies like this. The game really feels like being punched by 3 big dudes inside a tiny closet. That's my main issue.

Hear hear :)

You need to corral (reverse I guess) the enemy hoards by making them chase you, try not to pick fights with big groups head on. You can generally escape a group fight and go hunt down stragglers or lonely demons around the place. If you are getting surrounded and shot from all sides, then that means you let them surround you and shoot you from all sides. Gotta use that speed to get around.

No idea why you think the arenas are cramped, they are usually quite large. Jump up on stuff and climb, the demons are nimble too you won't leave them in the dust for long.

I love this game because it has vindicated my feelings on what I felt was a stagnating genre. The way shooters had been "modernised" and devloped over the years was so dull and uninteresting to me. Going back to the hayday of not giving a fuck about realism or catering to military fetishists is something I've wanted for a long time. You just run at 90mph, you never reload, all your guns are crazy and have fun interactions, it's just 80s campy murder with a FANTASTIC soundtrack. And on top of that I find that the combat encounters and maps are extremely well designed. I've only played it on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare, but the nailbiting fast paced just pure excitement this game gave me has been unmatched in a single player game for years.

I really like Doom but it's not the FPS savior most people claim. The level design isn't great. It basically funnels you from one combat arena to the next like every other fps. The only change of pace is to find "secrets" marked on your map that eventually gets tedious. Also, fuck all the platforming in that game. I'm not a fan of the monster designs either, they just look kinda bland. Same goes for most of the environments. It's a good game with some fantastic gameplay but people kind of went overboard with the hype because it was such a surprise that it didn't suck.

Doom is a great game, but I don't think it's this massive revelation for the fps genre. If it were any other year I'd say doom is a fine GOTY pick, but 2016 is filled to the brim with amazing games that I believe are more deserving. Doesn't matter either way, just my feeling on it.

Side note: I think devil daggers is a notch or 2 better than Doom and does the whole "90's shooter in a modern context" thing better.

I agreed with every word as I went down your post and I wish I didn't, I really wanted to like this spiritual successor to my childhood shooters.

Now I'm stuck watching "secrets" videos and trying to find the places in the video in my own game because it's the only way to get a certain gun. This already feels like a chore. I think I'm done.

It's pretty unique because it's a big title coming from a western developer with actual good gameplay. Seems like that was the main focus of this title, instead of creating features just so the marketing team can print them on the back of the case ("fully open world", "100+ hours of gameplay", "20 possible endings", etc.)

Doom somehow feels 'honest', they made that game for me to enjoy after having bought it. I never crave for extra content, but I can't wait for single player DLC or even an expansion for this one.
And it looks amazing too, while rendering at 60 fps (seriously; there's no excuse anymore after this title to not aim for 60 fps in action oriented games!)

I'm only about halfway done with the single player so take it for what it's worth, but I think what makes it a great game is the risk/reward flow of the gameplay. I'm playing on ultra-violence and there's just a great intensity to the decision-making you have to make in the game. Do I risk getting close to those enemies to grab a glory kill and refill my health? Do I use all my plasma ammo on this baron of hell and hope I can kill whatever's next with bullets? You have so many tactical options at any one moment that it really feels empowering and freeing. Encounters that seemed nearly impossible the first time I went into them become manageable with a change of tactics and use of the environment and the various weapons and tools at your disposal. This also means that there's a feeling of accomplishment when you finish off a really tough encounter. It's not about luck or about figuring out how the designers intended you to behave. You used the tools you were given and you won against ridiculous odds.

Also, speaking as someone who put the game down for a long break after the first few levels, I do think it gets MUCH better as it goes. The arenas are more open, there's more enemy variety, and more importantly there's more WEAPON variety, which increases your capabilities and choices. I was only sort of enjoying the game when I was where you are (having just gotten the heavy machine gun.) I would very much suggest pushing on a little longer and seeing if you feel like the game opens up. It went from like a 7/10 for me to like a 9/10. I would also suggest that you don't NEED to find all the secrets. If you're getting frustrated by them just push on through the game. It's not worth the frustration.

All that being said, I haven't finished the game yet and frankly I'm only playing 1-2 levels each weekend. It's a ton of fun and I really like it but it can also be frustrating and the atmosphere can feel oppressive (intentionally so) at times. You don't need to rush through it all at once. Because its story is sort of in the background and because it doesn't have super complicated mechanics it's a very good pick up and play for an hour or two and then put back down game, which helps cut back on the frustration.

I like DOOM because of the music and the satisfying gunplay.

And the character you play doesn't give any Fuc*s :)

I like DOOM so much because it runs at such a high frame rate on PS4. It's that simple for me...there's lots of other stuff I like that people here have mentioned, but the biggest plus is that frame rate. So rare for me to play a good-looking yet smooth and responsive modern FPS on console.

This should suffice.

@howardian: There are no guns in the game that you can't get by just playing. Some you get earlier by finding secrets but if not you'll just naturally come across them in other levels, usually the one after it's first available through a secret.

In the same boat, i liked the game but didn't love it. And right now there is a 12gb download on steam that is sitting there so i can't really even just jump back in and see as i don't feel like wasting my time downloading it lol.

I think the game may fall apart in the collectible design, it becomes a big part of the game (for me atleast) but it's just look at map and follow. At the point i've gotten the world design looks like it was mad around a gameplay map, so everything looks the same to me and without the map i'd have that old school 'getting lost' feel from it. Also none of the collectible were worthwhile besides upgrades which i feel like i shouldn't have to search for anyway.

@nodima: This is such a comprehensive answer I need to study it twice. Thanks!

Well that explains my situation very well, it does require a specific aggressive mindset doesn't it?

@nodima: They should just read that post during GOTY time if anyone wants to badmouth Doom.

DOOM is amazing simply for the fact that I had this stupid grin on my face the entire time I played it.

Dude, stop saying "rape fest." Shit like that is why as an adult I still feel a little embarrassed admitting to most people that I'm into games. Call it a "hectic battle" or almost anything else; there are plenty of apt descriptions you can give.

Doom lost me very early, end of level 4 start of level 5, and I just uninstalled haven't gone back to it. I don't find the aesthetic as refreshing as others seem to. I think that I'm a victim of the hype train. If I came to this game cold I would've liked it more, but in my attempt to relate to what people loved about Doom I failed.

Doom was the right game at the right time, but still overrated.

This. I was wondering just what the OP meant by it, actually. "Rape fest" is just an embarrassing descriptor and it doesn't even accurately describe anything going on in any shooter.

Anyway, the game really opens up on the third level (by which point you should have a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, and a chainsaw at least, and maybe a plasma gun if you were hunting for secrets). Remember that the first two Doom games also started off pretty cramped and switched back and forth between "super cramped" and "wide open" pretty often.

I love it because it just plays so incredibly well. Gameplay is first and foremost throughout the whole thing - there's just enough story to keep it moving but it's not why you should be there. I also love pretty much everything else about it - I can name a handful of minor flaws, but those aren't even important enough to mention. Music, aesthetics, pacing, I even think the story's pretty good (or, rather, it's a generic story presented very well, and that's all it needs to be).

It's not necessarily "genre-redefining" - I don't think it's going to take the gaming world by storm and turn every shooter into a wanna-be Doom, like Call of Duty 4 did in 2007 and Halo did in 2001, Half-Life in 1998, and... well, like Doom itself did in 1993. Actually, I don't even want that to happen, I'd rather see a good balance between more modern shooters (I've been playing Bioshock Infinite and, hey, that game's awesome too!) and shooters of Doom's ilk. But I would definitely like to see some developers take what Doom has done (this is how you make a "classic" shooter in 2016*) and apply their own spins to it. One of the things I'd like to see is a Metroidvania that plays like this. We already know the game lends itself well to collectibles and exploration (shut up, it does, that's one of the major reasons I like it), why not make one huge Metroid Prime-esque world to explore?

(*Yeah, I know, Shadow Warrior and Hard Reset and fucking Painkiller came out. Shadow Warrior is fine, though I'm not so hot on the level design sometimes. Hard Reset and Painkiller and Serious Sam? I have tried many times to get into all three and they're extremely boring. I'm not going to write about why right now, but I just can't make myself play them).

As a final note, I am so glad that good shooter campaigns seem to be making a comeback. There are a handful of times where I've brought up shooters with people and they automatically assume I'm talking about the multiplayer and that always sucks.

For me it's just a nice change of pace. In most modern shooters the main strategy is to hide behind cover, creep around corners, and try your best to be on the outer edges of the battle as you work your way forward.

With Doom you are basically a sledgehammer driving your way through every encounter of that game. Getting in the face of every enemy and ripping them apart as you dance around their fire. Mix that with the speed and swiftness of the controls as well as the different combinations of enemies they throw at you, it became a very enjoyable experience for me. I almost wish there was a mode that you could just turn on the speed boost indefinitely because I just wanted to go faster. That might of been too much, though.

@ninjahunter: What's a speed boost?

Many a victim have fallen under the train of hype, it knows no mercy.

Maybe it's just 'cause I'm used to how tight and specific CSGO feels but I just couldn't get into Doom. Guns were kinda crap, enemies weren't that interesting, level layout was fine, but yeah as someone said above it did feel kinda cramped in the 'arenas' despite them not being small. Honestly I'd rather just play Serious Sam, at least that game had shit death metal instead of shit djent.

Alright, I disagree with all of this. There's no variety in DOOM's enemies, and they all feel like Skyrim enemies: charging at you and fucking you up.

Aside from the dude who stands away from you and shoots one singular laser ray at you from a distance, they're all the same, approaching you and assaulting you.

@howardian: What difficulty are you on? Those enemies do way more than rush you. Mancubi are too slow for that, Imps outright run from you, Revenants fly around you - the only enemies that outright charge you as far as I remember are Pinkies and Hell Knights/Barons of Hell.

Saying there's no enemy variety in DOOM is literally just incorrect. They all do different things and attack in different ways.

Also I recommend never using the phrase "rape fest" to describe anything ever, ever again if you want to be taken seriously in front of adults and not 13 year olds. There are other words in the dictionary.

Doom is really really good. Surprising and engaging. I certainly wouldn't call it my favorite game of the year - I took breaks from playing and almost lost interest entirely. I didn't try the multiplayer, but it seemed serviceable?

That soundtrack, dude.

It recaptures and modernizes what shooters lost after everyone went chasing the Call of Duty model over the past 10 years. The game is fast fluid and the loop is incredibly satisfying.

Yep... I have no idea what he's getting at here. The behaviour for each enemy type is entirely different.

My main problem with DOOM is the enviroments all felt pretty bland save for hell which was the highlight of the game for me. The weapons feel good and the alternate fire modes give them versatility but I could have done with some more original weapons. For a game with so many they all felt very boilerplate.

If you want to know why it's fantastic it's because it's a sequel to Doom 2 called DOOM in 2016 and it isnt terrible. If you have low expectations for something you end up enjoying it a lot more if it turns out to be better than average. And the opposite is true which is why you (OP) probably arent enjoying it due to the inflated hype of the GB crew.

appears some have a penchant for bandying the term "overrated" around lately if they find they can't completely eviscerate a game like they want to because it's actually good. you're one of the few percent that didn't think it was so hot and thats ok, but don't say it didn't deserve the praise and attention it got by being generally pretty fucking awesome. either that or people are just afraid to actually praise shit without reservation in this overly critical internet driven world. go ahead and like stuff, it's okay!!

I finished DOOM with the biggest grin on my face, it looks Incredible, it feels incredible, the music is top notch, the Bosses are creative and exciting to fight, the story is bonkers, the map is fantastic, the level design is fantastic, DOOM Guy doesn't give one iota of a fuck, its literally everything I could have ever asked for in a DOOM game. I have zero complaints. If you weren't sold the moment DOOM Guy shoved that monitor away in disgust I don't know what to tell you, the game literally paints him as an all consuming force that the demons could only contain, its so good.

Also its Fucking Metal as hell.

5/5 10/10 Two Thumbs up. 100% for that campaign.

@mambogator: Just out of plain curiosity, do you like most modern titles or are you more of a retro gamer that tends to favor the classics? I ask simply because I'm the complete opposite in that I find it very hard to go back to older titles, even ones I greatly enjoyed as a kid in the early 90's. Furthermore I thought this Doom was excellent so hearing that someone would rather play Doom 1 rather than DooM 2016 is really hard for me to wrap my head around. I of course mean no disrespect and completely understand that tastes vary from person to person, so thats why I'm curious if your preference overall leans towards retro gaming or is this an exception? For instance I would not go back to any shooter from the 90's for any reason, but I'd absolutely rather play Fallout 1(1997) or 2(1998) over any of it's modern iterations - but that for me is more of an exception rather than the rule.

1. The soundtrack. I am a metal fan so blasting dudes to that type of music will always be awesome.

2. Doom Guy. Cool looking character that is angry that they have to fix everything AGAIN.

3. Shooting feels good. Blasting dudes is fun.

4. Art. The game looks really good.

They did. Skip to 5:02 if the URL didn't keep the timestamp.

@baconhound: Omg the laser is a waveform...that is the coolest thing ever!

@jasonmasters: Ha! I didn't even notice. That's cool!