Review #789: DOOM(2016)

 It's like we're back in the 90's.

 After a brief fling with Survival Horror elements in DOOM 3, DOOM(2016) is a throwback to when things were simpler and strafing was the name of the game. That's right, this is a FPS like the 90's used to birth, no reloading your guns, and a whole lotta strafing around waves of monsters coming your way. It's not quite as great as Painkiller I think, but dang it if it isn't close.

 A lot of praise has been given to how little story is in the player's way, from the moment an NPC tries to talk to DOOMGUY and he breaks the monitor away... but that's only during the first moments in the game, don't worry, you get those mandatory exposition monologues during which you can only jump around the room waiting for them to end. Sometimes you can't even move. So... yeah, besides the optional bits of lore you can collect and read at your leisure, you'll get a few story tidbits whether you like them or not. As for the story itself... it's similar to the one in DOOM 3, some human in a space station decided that opening the portals to hell was a good idea, it wasn't, because everything has now gone to hell, and the DOOMGUY isn't too happy about it. Sadly, space stations have a lot of laser-proof, explosion-proof and chainsaw-proof glass forcing you to keep one step behind this person as you try to undo their plans.

 The game runs at 60 fps, most of the time, and it's a very fast-paced, arcadey shooter. There's no thing such as iron sights or regenerating health. Trying to hide behind cover will get you killed quite quickly, as demons will assault you from every direction possible. The world is designed in such a way as to encourage you to move around as you fire all the time. The DOOMGUY's got mobility on his side, besides him being quick fast, you can also climb on platforms by grabbing onto ledges, and later in the game, you get a second jump. Both mobility abilities really add a marked sense of nimbleness to your movement.

 That said, they saw fit to add a few platforming segments every now and then. Look, if you're not Jumping Flash, then first person platforming doesn't work. To be fair, in this game the platforming is as good as it can get in first person, but you'll still overshoot or overestimate your jumps a couple of times, and it kinda sucks, because those deaths don't feel deserved. As a matter of fact, a few times it looked like I should've clung to the edge of the platform instead of falling to my doom, and yet.... I also found a few particular platforms that could only be grabbed onto from a certain angle, which was weird. In other words, I appreciate the new mobility options, but I think they should've added less bottomless pits surrounding them.

 The game is 13 stages long, and trust me, every stage in the game is fairly large. Not only do you get tons of multi-leveled arenas to fight monsters in, but you're also rewarded for exploring with Weapon Mods, Weapon Upgrades, Halcyon Cells, Rune Challenges and Praetor Upgrades. Praetor Upgrades are found from hidden and not-so-hidden fallen Elite soldiers, these keys are used to upgrade your suit with utilities, making your map show collectibles, increasing the ammo you get from pick ups, etc. Weapon mods are more interesting and harder to miss, and they allow you to change how the Alternate Fire of your weapons work. Most weapons have two mods. Weapon Upgrades are easier to get: You get two per level as bonuses for finding every secret, you get about five of them for murdering every monster that comes your way and you can also get three of them from stage-specific challenges, these are used to enhance weapon mods. Rune Challenges are hidden challenge rooms that reward you with a Rune. Lastly, Halcyon Cells are permanent upgrades to your Health, Ammo and/or Armor limits. So... while it is a mindless shooter most of the time, exploration is rewarded with a plethora of different bonuses: The more thorough you are, the stronger you'll be. And it's actually fun figuring out how to get to these bonuses!

 Strafe and shoot, that's the name of the game. You get a fair amount of weapons, no 2-weapon limit unlike most modern shooters, so you are free to rip and tear your enemies a new one. Something I didn't like was how weapons came in pairs as far as ammo consumption goes. This means that the Shotgun and the Super Shotgun share the same ammo, the Heavy Assault Rifle and the Chaingun share ammo, the Pulse Rifle and the Gauss Cannon share ammo and the Rocket Launcher, well, that baby shares ammo with no one. It kinda sucks, because that kinda reduces your weapon options. The Chaingun is SO good that I rarely, if ever, returned to the Assault Rifle. The Pulse Rifle was so good that I saw no reason to use the Gauss Cannon. The Super Shotgun is leagues above the Shotgun. I know that this is how the old games were, but I don't like it. Rounding up your arsenal are a few grenades, the BFG that destroys anything in its path and the Chainsaw. The chainsaw is really useful because it kills anything that isn't a boss instantly, provided you have enough fuel(enemies cost up to five units of fuel depending on its size) and rewards you with a shower of ammo for all your weapons. It counts as a glory kill, so you get limited invulnerability while the animation plays out.

 Glory Kills are something I thought would grow old no time flat, I remember watching gameplay years ago and think how boring it looked. Well, when you play the game they don't slow down the pace of the game one bit. As you hurt enemies, if you don't completely shred them to bits with your onslaught, you might stun them, and they'll start flashing blue or orange(Depends on your range). If they are flashing blue it means you need close, and if you close the distance so that the flash turns orange, you can press R3 to perform a gory finisher, a Gory Kill, which will reward you with health pick ups. Gory Kills are invaluable for staying alive and they feel GOOD. That said, the game is quite generous and you'll notice that when your health is flashing red the game will be more generous with health pick ups, but in a pinch, Gory Kills are the safe way to go.

 Remember the Runes I mentioned before? There are about 10 Runes total, and this are really neat since they let you customize how you'll play. You can equip up to three of them, and they can be used to enhance your play style or maybe cover your weaknesses. Runes are as simple as giving you a second win when you die, letting you initiate Gory Kills from further away, making Gory Kills drop armor pick ups alongside health pick ups, allowing you to pick up items from further away, etc. Plus, each Rune comes with a mini-challenge that once completed will boost the rune's effectiveness. This holds true for Mod Upgrades as well. Once you get every upgrade for a Weapon Mod, you'll unlock the Mastery Challenge, which, once completed, will give said Mod an even better upgrade. These challenges can be completed throughout the course of the game, so there's no rush, and they are quite simple, for example, the Zoom Mod on the Assault Rifle requires you to kill 50 enemies with a headshot, the triple-shot for the Rocket Launcher requires you defeat 5 enemy Summoners using the Mod, etc.

 For as good as the game feels to play, it does have a few technical issues. It was not weird coming across a few graphical bus, a few flickering shadows on ceilings, for example, or a cranny on one level that would make most of the environment disappear into a yellow nothingness. Textures take a while to load, and they load-unload every time you get close and far to an object, so you might run up to a thing, wait a few seconds in real time for the texture to load, back away, and return to the object only to have the textures load again. And those are just the cosmetic issues. In one level, one you have to climb a tower of sorts, I was jumping around and... I got stuck on the environment with no way to get out of it. Another time I performed a gory kill on an enemy and... fell to my death because I clipped through the floor because why not. I also came across a few audio bugs, accessing the map menu while a sound played made the sound get stuck echoing for a while, and I think it happened more than once.

 I quite liked DOOM(2016). I don't think it was AS good as the hype led me to believe, but it was a great game with a few shortcomings here and there. For my part, I think Painkiller does this whole 90's Shooter thing a lot better, but DOOM is quite close.
 8.5 out of 10