People were really looking for this game! After all, this game was delayed way too much times, during production. I really didn't know, if this game would ever come out, seeing how the developer, id Software was having problems, during development. The number of restarts, employees leaving, poor management and direction was really hurting the project. Add to the fact, that development resources were being channeled into 2011's video game, 'Rage' made 2016's 'Doom' a development hell. It wasn't until, Zenimax bought out id Software, that the game was honestly made, and finally shown to a tightly controlled private audience at Quakecon 2014, then officially shown to the public at E3 2015, and finally released on May 13th, 2016. At its best, 2016's 'Doom' has everything, an old school run & gun shooter game should have. Hectic nonstop action, during the single-player campaign mode. The "push-forward combat" kinda works, as it discourages players, from taking cover behind obstacles or resting to regain health, like slower pace, modern games. It's really intense. The game is ever so moving, as you're always in a steady run of fighting enemies, however, it can a bit repetitive. While, the big fights are somewhat prediction, due to the cool heavy metal music blaring in the background. The movement of the creatures are not. Even in the smaller battles, there is still, a challenge. Honestly, if you take too much damage, or if you're running low on ammunition, it's easy to recover by killing staggering enemies and performing an melee execution "Glory Kills", which gets some health back and removes a threat without using as much ammo. However, you can still easily die, due to the large numbers of opponents or challenging pitfalls. Your best strategy is to move backwards through the limited platform area, away from the enemies, and to do damage as you go, picking it off, one by one. Doom's biggest concession to the new school of shooter design is progression by way of a weapon, increase health and armor upgrade system. It encourages players to seek out the levels' many secrets for rewards, while also learning to conserve weapons and have pinpoint marksmanship. However, I didn't find myself, updating many of my weapons. After all, the quality of the weapons on their own, is pretty standard. The quality of the shooting itself varies depending on which of the eight weapons you use. The Super Shotgun is always a classic, good enough to last you, until the end, unless you run out, which the plasma cannon and gauss rifle work wonders as secondary weapons. However, the Rocket Launcher and Chain gun feels under-powered and redundant. I also didn't like, the Chainsaw, was turned into a limited use, weapon and how the brass knuckles weren't even, added to the gameplay. Of course, The BFG 9000 makes an appearance and occupies an interesting place in the weapon lineup. Great to use, when face with large numbers of enemies or boss battles, with the limited berserk orbs and soul spheres. Every enemy in the game is a re-interpretation of an enemy from the classic Doom games. The sole exception are the Hell Guards, which are an entirely new type of enemy. The AI in Doom is not particularly smart, but it works for the mindless animalistic horror genre. In truth, it remind you, so much of the 'Doom' games of the past. Somewhat nostalgia. While, the FPS plays like a classic Doom game, its story does not. It's a hard reboot, as none of the prior games story-line are really that connected. Directed by Tim Willits, and released by Bethesda, the game find the player, as a silent, unnamed warrior from a different time and space, whom wakes up in a creepy stone coffin surrounded by zombies. After fighting your way through them and acquiring a suit of Powered Armor, you discover you're inside a Union Aerospace Corporation facility on Mars in the middle of a demonic invasion, because the Satanism cult-like scientists thought that the heat from hell, would be a great energy source. Without spoiling the game story, too much, I have to say, the plot is very weak and somewhat irrelevant. The main villain of the piece, Olivia Pierce (Voiced by Abby Craden) was really generic and forgettable. However, the limited voice acting was alright, even if Dr. Samuel Hayden (Voiced by Darin De Paul) sounds like a Transformers. In the end, the story is certainly not the best thing about this game. It felt a re-thread of 2008's game 'Dead Space'. However, it's nice to see a modern game play without many movie-like cut scenes or quick-time events. That's a highlight. In the multiplayer portion of Doom, it is not. Where the single-player portion of Doom is primarily old school with a few new tricks, multiplayer borrows heavily from modern shooters like the 'Halo' and 'Call of Duty' series, forgetting its roots and in turn becoming unmemorable. It was very poorly thought of, except for the Demon Rune or Soul Harvest mode, which spawns at random around the map and allows you to transform into one of four demons collecting souls, which is kinda fun. Still, the best thing about the variety of game modes, is the Level Editor called SnapMap, which allows players to create their own map or use old game maps with custom game logic. Overall: I have to say, the 4th major installment in the Doom franchise and the first one in 12 years was surprising, very good. Not the best game of the year, but good enough to play, time after time, again.
Review of Doom
Doom
(2016 Video Game)
Hell Yeah! 2016's Doom was pretty awesome fun game!
8 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers