adrian dominguez

The 90’s are back. So grab your bagel bites, dunkaroos and wash them down with an All-Sport. Nostalgia can be the most powerful rose tinted glasses we ever wear. Is Doom a novelty that plays to our immature 12 year old selves? Or is it a modernly refreshing title whose style proves to be timeless.

 

I came to Doom feeling as if I needed a palate cleanser after playing a few story heavy games. Doom did give me a new taste, but it also taught me that I have a more refined palate than what Doom is offering. The stories presentation is told through audio logs that will only go so deep to tell you a portal to hell has been developed by the Union Aerospace Corporation in order to harness Hell’s energy. The portal has allowed Demons to invade Mars and you are the reluctant agent assigned to fix the problem. Doom essentially has used its story to only branch you from one battle to the next. I’ve found story has become the driving force to my enjoyment of video games and Doom is more a training in gaming reflexes.

 

Doom never wavers from its laurels of being fast and in your face. Every encounter is pulse pounding and will have you gripping your controller tightly, though they all play out the same. Fall into an arena setting and run in circles collecting pickups and shotgunning everything in your way. There is no ducking for cover because you’ll die if you stop moving and the only way to regenerate health is by performing gruesome melee Glory Kills. The encounters are so fast that your mind may just freeze and forget about your plethora of weapons. To Doom’s detriment I became very comfortable relying on the shotgun and rocket launcher for the whole game. Though there is enemy variety I would've like to see more strategy in what weapon I should use per a particular demon. I would've like to have had more encouragement to use different weapons other than the times I ran out of ammo from my usuals. When I did recall that a weapon switch would be optimal in a situation, bringing up the weapon wheel luckily slowed down time a generous amount.

 

When you are not in the heat of battle, the pace is broken up between sections of platforming

and corridor areas where you can take a more intimate approach. The platforming sections give you a rest from the chaos. First person platforming in games can often feel janky and like you are taking a leap of faith. Not so in Doom. Once the double jump is introduced, the platforming becomes one of Doom’s quietest unsung heroes. When viewing levels through the map I found myself being intimidated by the scope and layers, but once I decided to not hassle with the map and just follow my waypoint, navigation became much less tedious. As I progressed I never felt as if I went out of my way to find secrets or platform towards an upgrade key. Doom respects my time in this way. By the end I didn’t feel cheated with the amount of upgrade opportunities I was given. My weaponry was satisfyingly modded and it happened by taking a straightforward approach.

 

Enemies are diverse but not the tactics it takes to kill them. However you're encouraged to defeat certain enemies using a particular weapon in order to max out your weapon mod. This was my main motive for switching away from the shotgun. The upgrade system may seem to trickle points for your suit and weapon mods slowly but just be smart and wait to learn what your play style is before spending valuable points. Get the explosive round for your shotgun and lock on for your rocket launcher these are the life saving mods. Every weapon except one was fun to use and had well implemented mods. I haven’t seen this done well since the Resistance series. Except for the chain gun which I found to be illogical to use with it's wind up and weak hit rate. The standard pistol with unlimited ammo is useful for the corridors that have melee fodder and exploding demons, but is only useful to conserve ammo. Feel free to upgrade any weapons that suit your play style but leave these two as is.

 

You'll come across three major bosses in Doom. All of which took me two tries to defeat on the normal difficulty, once I was able to recognize their patterns and determine the perfect timing

to use my BFG. Boss fights are thrilling. This is where tradition has never gone stale. All bosses have three phases and help Doom shine over other titles less inventive in this regard. They caused me to use every gun out of sheer necessity of running out of ammo and I felt smart for conserving my precious chainsaw and BFG ammo just so I could give bosses the heavy and satisfying blast to the face.

 

This is the first Doom game I've played to completion. The repetitive pattern of getting locked down in a zone until you clear out all the demons is a cliche from the 90’s. The nostalgia could work if it was done sparingly but the fact is it’s Doom’s go to encounter scenario. And 12 hours of any nostalgia runs thin. Over time my reflexes will decrease and these types of games will lose favor with me. I will always prefer to be in an interactive story instead of a shooting gallery. That is not to say that Doom isn't fun, it is, but fun no longer is my prerequisite for a great game. It is story and the breath of emotions I go through.