DOOM (2016)

[Clayton]

In case you were on the fence on getting this, here are my thoughts:

1. Campaign is solid and really impressive visually. Very fast paced with a good soundtrack and a good frame rate. The guns upgrade at just the right speed and the glory kills add to a gameplay style that encourages movement. The story is fairly minimal, the visuals of Mars tend to get a little repetitive and the loading between levels can be a bit much. I suggest playing it first on the difficulty one above the default if you want a decent challenge and probably turn off the graphical effect that highlights enemies that can be glory killed as it tends to be a bit silly and redundant. Gun options are interesting enough and there are enough secrets to probably justify 2 playthroughs. The gist I'm hearing is that most people are getting through the campaign in 8-12 hours.

2. Multiplayer is fast paced Halo with health on the ground instead of regeneration. Due to the pace, most people are gravitating towards Chainguns and the 2 Shotguns though the weapon balance is probably alright. Its just that its easier to fly forward with high damaging weapons at the moment before everyone figures the level layouts out. I find the 'grenade' variety to be welcome although I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of the harder weapons to use get some sort of balance patch update somewhere down the line. Level design is decent enough but very forgettable.

3. Snapmap is a great idea as it allows you to make logic chains very easily but actually designing things in Snapmap is butt. Its exceptionally limited visually and you can't make anything as nice as the main game's single player so that limits everything to just being a variety of fun sub modes that you can create that all look very similar. If you pre-ordered on PS4, you got more options in snapmap and I suspect this is something that will be much better further down the line. Snapmap does allow you to customize a variety of settings in a Co-Op atmosphere so I can see it being the 'Co-Op' mode moving forward.

If you are tight on money, wait a few months for the inevitable price drop. I'd recommend it to anyone else, though

 

[SFGRTB]

I just picked this up today.

I was a huge fan of most of id's classic games, the Quake series particularly. Also played Doom 3 a lot and enjoyed it. The recent Wolfenstein reboot was excellent as well, and though that wasn't id software, it was published by Bethesda who published this current Doom as well.

Anyway, I've played 2 levels of campaign so far and a couple hours of multi-player (played maybe 10-12 hours in the BETA too).

Campaign: lots of fun so far. Just like in the original Doom, you have to keep moving around to stay alive. This isn't like Doom 3 though where they're trying to scare your pants off. It's fast-paced, gory ass fun. There's a move called the "glory kill", where when an enemy is at a low enough heath they light up and if you melee them it preforms a gruesome take down. I honestly thought it was kinda gimmicky at first, but the animations are surprisingly fluid and refreshing, as in they don't repeat often, and I'm enjoying it. You can turn the part where they light up off, so it's optional, but I've found I've left it on so far. And just like in every id game, there are tons of secrets to be found. This isn't Assassins Creed style, where it's a burden to find things at the highest point or whatnot, it's actually fun, rewarding, and challenging. It feels like it fits. There's no regenerating health, you pick up and keep all the weapons, no reloading weapons. It's really a throwback FPS, but with all FPS feeling the same these days, it almost feels new.

Multiplayer: If you've played Quake 3: Arena this feels a lot like the 2016 version of that, with added Demons that you can become. You do start out with load-outs, and only carry two guns, and you can't pick up other guns along the way like Q3A, but you can pick up super weapons like the BFG and power-ups like quad-damage, as well as health, armor and ammo. Map variety seems decent. I've only played Team Deathmatch so far, but there are quite a few other game modes that look appealing.

So, I haven't spent much time yet, but so far I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I gotta thank Bethesda for saving id Software and saving the Doom series. Gives me hope that we'll get a legit sequel to Quake and not that crap Quake 4.

 

[Clayton]

Multiplayer: If you've played Quake 3: Arena this feels a lot like the 2016 version of that, with added Demons that you can become. You do start out with load-outs, and only carry two guns, and you can't pick up other guns along the way like Q3A, but you can pick up super weapons like the BFG and power-ups like quad-damage, as well as health, armor and ammo. Map variety seems decent. I've only played Team Deathmatch so far, but there are quite a few other game modes that look appealing.

I like Warpath and Domination though I suspect people who are really good will play Freeze or Clan Arena. I also like the multiplayer weapon and grenade variety. They took a lot of weapons and abilities from various games and incorporated it in the way they do loadouts. The Demons seem a bit overpowered but I guess thats the point and you have to play around that concept.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

Think I may need to get this. I played Wolfenstein a bit when I was in school, but Doom was how I spent most of my computer science and AP physics class. I loved that game, copied it on 3.5's and brought it home and put it on my PC and would call up my buddies PC over the phone line and play online in the mid 90's.

 

[Gatorchip]

I played a ton of Q2 and Q3, but that was on PC. I can't see myself playing a similar game on a console.

 

[Clayton]

I played a ton of Q2 and Q3, but that was on PC. I can't see myself playing a similar game on a console.

Getting it for PC would be my recommendation. That goes for all FPS but doubly so for games like Doom.

 

[Gatorchip]

Getting it for PC would be my recommendation. That goes for all FPS but doubly so for games like Doom.

I no longer have a high end PC that could run such a game. Xbox, phone, ipad only.