Doom
For: PS4, XboxOne, PC
From: Bethesda/id Software
Rating: (R18) ★★★★
Most gamers over the age of 20 will fondly remember the original Doom game in the mid-'90s, pioneering the FPS genre of games. With this reboot, id Software has attempted to contemporise the brand, while keeping the key parts of the franchise alive. And, for the most part, has succeeded.
The first thing that will strike you playing Doom is the frame rate. Buttery smooth doesn't even begin to describe it; it is exceptional. The next thing that will strike you will probably be one of the many, many demons that populate the game's environments.
As mentioned before, Doom is a very different FPS experience from other games on the market today. The goal is to never stop moving, constantly sprinting around the environments pursuing demons and blasting them with shotguns, assault rifles and, of course, the infamous BFG 9000. Attempting to play Doom like a conventional FPS will result in your swift demise.
The demon design is very clever, with some enemies big brutes that will chase you around endlessly, mixed with others that will fire at you from afar. What this means is you are forced to rapidly adapt to the surroundings and tactical advantages that the environments allow you.
It's addictive and compelling.
What lets Doom down is the almost complete shunning of a story. There is a very thin story arc that will take you place to place, and some backstory available via collectable data logs, but for the most part it may as well not exist. I guess it fits into the throwback aspect of Doom (the original wasn't exactly a story-driven masterpiece), but some more context to events wouldn't have gone astray.
Multiplayer returns in a big way too, although to mixed reception. People's opinions from the beta were that it wasn't fast enough to be Doom, while being too fast to be a normal FPS. Based on my time in the multiplayer mode, that's pretty spot on. It feels like a jack of all trades, master of none. There's nothing particularly bad about it, but there's also nothing there that makes me want to play it for four hours straight, in the same way Star Wars Battlefront consumed my life a few months ago.
Also included in the package is a feature known as SnapMap, effectively a level editor that enables you to create levels and share them with your friends and random players online.
This feature encapsulates the problem I have with user-created content. First, they attached trophies/achievements to the mode so 95% of the created maps are just basic maps created to earn those, and of those that remain there are very few that are representative of the main game in terms of quality.
It's the same as games such as LittleBigPlanet and GTA V's editor; there are some amazing creations, but the gulf between them and the next tier down is gigantic.
Doom is a breath of fresh air in a gaming world full of cover-based shooters. If you find yourself longing for the days where you could just blast enemies into small chunks or cut them in half with a chainsaw without having to worry about being stealthy, then wrap your mitts about this pronto.
- by Simon Bishop
