The reboot of DOOM in 2016 was overwhelmingly well received by journalists and fans alike and most of the conversation that I came across focused on the single player campaign. Everyone ranted and rave about how the game felt and controlled. Game of the year discussions and even entire documentaries primarily championed their subverted expectations with its story and gameplay progression. The game's single player campaign definitely lives up to the hype, it feels like Doom, looks like Doom and is packed with secret areas, challenges, and tons of upgrades and collectibles to find. The freakin' game has enough platforming that I felt like I was playing Metroid Prime after a while. It's good stuff. While MachineGames' reboot of Wolfenstein is more powerful and bold as a story, iD's Doom is a streamlined and comfortable FPS experience that doesn't have time for cinematic storytelling. It concerns itself with feeling good, slowly ramping up challenge, and the result is a very focused game the plays brilliantly. It baffles me that for all the ranting and raving that people do about the speed, feel, and shooting in Doom very few players invest any real time into the fantastic online multi-player modes and SnapMap features of the game. I'd like to encourage more folks who own the game to give the other 66% of Doom a real chance, not only because I'd like folks to play it with but because it is worth taking a second look at. Even if PvP or creation tools aren't your thing, you could possibly get tons of hours of entertainment out of a game that is already worth buying for it's single player campaign.

Doom's SNAPMAP feature is unexpectedly robust and fairly easy to use/control. I ignored this feature as much as I could until I decided to get the easy couple of SnapMap specific trophies in the PS4 version of the game. After completing both tutorials not only was I reassured that I am not a video game programmer or level designer, but I was impressed how deep the bells and whistles can go if you're willing to put up with the awkward PS4 controller controls for map-building and editing. It goes a few steps beyond what we'd gotten last generation with Little Big Planet iterations, Infamous 2's incredibly restrictive level/mission editor and the gloriousness that is Super Mario Maker. The depth of customization that people have to work with in SnapMap has lead to some very impressive projects that folks continue to impress with. Users have recreated the entirety of the original Doom and Doom II levels in sequence along with original music, sound effects and similar AI and movement patterns. The incredible amount of work that people have put into these levels is insane, the first small level I made took me over three hours to build out and make presentable and even that was severely less customized than what other folks have done. Recreating other FPS games in the map editor is only a small part of what people are creating, though it can be difficult to sort out the good levels from the highest rated ones. So, even if you'll never take a level editor seriously like me it is still worth the time to play with the maps available. A lot of it is better than some portions of the single player campaign, which involves a series of monster spawning arenas one after the other.

Doom's Online Multi-Player is classic iD Software style FPS and the source of most of my enjoyment when playing the game. I've only played this game on the PS4 Pro and I'm sure the PC is the absolute best way to play this game as far as graphics and performance are concerned. Long loading times and glitched trophies made my single-player experience a little rough at times but jumping into the multi-player between single-player missions not only improved my skills on Rune Challenges but gave me a fast and fun online experience with friends. I'll preface what I have to say with the admission that I have somewhat limited experience with online multiplayer shooters compared to a lot of FPS fans. Most of my online FPS play involves Counter Strike or Unreal Tournament related games. I spent about eight and a half years playing nothing but Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament on a daily basis, so keep in mind that I'm a freak for that style of Online FPS. Those games moved incredibly fast and like most shooters rely on your ability to predict the movements of others and mastery of weapon timing, they are all gameplay all the time and there wasn't a lot of player progression. The repetition of early 00's style twitchy FPS games kept a lot of less competitive players out of the game, it was a different type of competition before games started including standard progression and class-based loadouts. Killzone 2 was one of my favorite online multiplayer FPS simply for its class based progression and incredible maps, it felt tactical and skillful and every mode was popular on the servers for years until it died. Doom is somewhere in between the fast and furious Quake III/Unreal style deathmatch and the more CoD style MP progression systems. Loadouts are customizable from the start but you have to unlock additional slots for separate loadouts while weapons gear cosmetics roll out with every match. For the first 5-10 levels you gain Doom tosses at least three things at you as a reward. You're initially given pairs of primary and secondary weapons to use as templates for loadouts and when you've unlocked more you can swap and switch things up as you see fit. This isn't far from what Killzone did in later games where class progression would unlock different types of class specific gear or abilities. Most of the progression and all that isn't new or mind-bending stuff, I think multi-player Doom is comparable to PvP modes in games like Halo 4 or whatever else.

Where I had the most fun was with team-based objective modes that feature the "be the demon" option that comes with Demonic Rune pickups. Turning into a giant demon and going on a killing spree is fun enough, but when you have a team behind you strategically helping you get kills it ends up being way more fun than the overly structured bore of a game like Evolve. Soul Harvest is a solid take on the deathmatch formula. Killing other players gains you soul points and if you get killed you drop as many soul points as your streak, its kind of like being a space marine version of Sonic the Hedgehog. If a key player in the match gets killed before banking his soul points, the score can change drastically. It creates great tension in the match and eventually good players will more or less start to squad up and support each other, not only covering each others asses but picking up their shit when they die. I haven't even mentioned Hack Modules yet, a set of several types of conditional limited use burns that give advantages like: "Get revenge on the last person that killed you by placing a timed marker showing their location in the match." and "Increase movement speed when near a player transformed into a demon." and these add a lot of lucky boosts to matches that are occasionally tactical helpful. For all of the time I spent trying to get into the multi-player of games like Destiny and Titanfall I ended up spending way, way more time with Doom because it felt fair, simple and always fast-paced. There isn't a better feeling multi-player shooter, for me, on the PS4. After six updates including three DLC map/demon packs with new mode variations this is the best time to spend part of your summer warming up to Doom's multiplayer.

The three DLC packs or the season pass will cost minimum $40 and the game itself is about $30 unless you go find it cheaper outside of PSN. If you already got your fill of Doom and didn't bother with the DLC pass that is one damn expensive set of maps/modes. I had just as much fun without the DLC because you can still play the content without buying it as long as you're not playing DLC only matches. If someone on your team has the DLC, you can play in those matches. I'd recommend the DLC if you're bought in already and want to play with more dedicated or skilled players. The difficulty curve hasn't been insane for me picking the online multiplayer back up after several months. I'd like to find more people who enjoy this stuff before the servers depopulate too severely on consoles as they naturally will. I'll be playing it on PS4 off and on while I search out collectibles that I miss in the single player.

PSN: terraasymmetry