Joy of joys! After a whole decade from the somewhat disappointing Doom 3, over 20 years from the classic original that started it all, and also after the developer went back to the drawing board in fear of crafting what would look and feel like a Call of Duty wannabe, id Software’s legendary series has returned, with a reboot that takes its cue from the past, and yet, isn’t afraid of infusing some modern “ingredients” to the old-school recipe, with the result being nothing less than a modern classic. Get ready to get Knee-Deep in the Dead, because Doom is back with a vengeance…
With what seems like a 180 degree turn from Doom 3, id Software tries a wholly different approach when it comes to the intro of Doom. The very first minutes have the silent protagonist crushing the skull of a possessed human with his bare hands, wearing his brand-new, hi-tech Praetor suit, grabbing a shotgun with an obvious disregard for its dead owner, and smashing a nearby voice communications panel when a certain somebody tries to communicate with him through it to explain the situation. This nameless space marine is a true, uncooperative badass who, like Vasquez from Aliens, only needs to know one thing: Where. They. Are.
Despite this being once again all about demons and shotguns, there’s a satisfyingly well-crafted backstory included, which borrows elements from the past, to create a whole new mythos revolving around the multi-planetary conglomerate UAC, its questionable experiments, and the only thing standing in its way, the force of nature known as the Doom Marine in his best version yet. The storytelling is handled through data logs, or holographic ‘Echo Point’ videos, which give a Dark Souls air to it all by being more mysterious and experiential than expositive and intrusive, and while giving enough information for the fans to ponder over.
Forgive the rumblings of a Doom junkie, however. While the presentation here is commendable, fast-paced action is the name of the game, and it blows the first-person shooter scene out of the water by bringing the series back to its fast-paced, arcade-y roots. There’s no reloading or need for a sprint button, and now there’s also the ability to double jump and grab onto ledges, a great variety of boomsticks and power-ups, and a adrenaline-pumping pace on top of it all, something that is greatly aided by the fact that replenishing health and getting more ammunition relies more in pulling the trigger and killing demonic nasties than simply grabbing items.
Possibly influenced by Sergeant_Mark_IV’s highly popular Brutal Doom mod, the main method for better drops is the use of Glory Kills; melee execution moves that can be performed after injuring and stunning a foe. Many viewed in this a marketing tool for the trailers; an all style, no substance, gimmicky mechanic that would feel repetitive and slow, yet it turns out that Glory Kills are actually insanely quick, and – visuals-wise – quite varied, keeping them from ever getting redundant. Likewise, the new and improved chainsaw is no longer a weapon, but an “ability” that gives a crazy amount of ammo when chopping these evil baddies in half as long as there’s enough fuel to do so.
While far from perfect, innovative (or complete), the classic bestiary is back and are a joy to fight against, with every single demon, from the cannon-fodder, highly mobile Imps and nightmarish Revenants, to the tanks that are the ‘Pinkies’ and the imposing Barons of Hell being very, very. Everything in this reboot looks fantastic, and although locked at 60fps, it runs surprisingly well even in older rigs – as long as they were good systems to begin with, that is. Basically taking Doom 3, and adding more colour to it, yet retaining it’s dark, sci-fi horror core, Doom’s atmosphere is simply top notch, oozing style from every pore.
Generally, the team behind it all approached this with great respect, expanding upon the looks, sounds, and feel of the classics. Fans (this lowly reviewer included) will surely nit-pick on every small detail, but for everything that “isn’t 100% as it’s supposed to be,” there are at least three more that are. As for the absence of the good ‘ol heavy metal soundtrack, two words: Mick. Gordon. This marvel of a composer has created a great, distinct, semi-ambient soundtrack that sounds like a hybrid between the Quake series, and progressive metal-meets-dubstep, with some tunes actually being influenced from the original. It’s impossible to imagine Doom’s resurrection without this.
There’s a light “RPG” progression system, with combat slowly providing resources that can be spend to upgrade the arsenal. There are a bunch of new toys to play with, like the mini-challenges called Rune Trials which provide minor perks, Praetor tokens that improve the suit in various ways, and Argent cells which can be used to increase max health/armour/ammo. The best feature, though, are weapon mods, which enable alternative firing methods, like homing missiles, explosive shots, heat waves, concentrated turret blasts, and many more. Why the best? Because these provide different ways to approach combat, while never slowing down the action one bit, as they can be swapped on the fly.
Now, while certainly rewarding for those who like snooping around for secrets, or completing various challenges, the emphasis on doing so to get upgrades might annoy those who just wanted a pure, old-school FPS, because, while optional, trying to gather upgrades is almost a must in later difficulties, especially in the new, and awesomely brutal, Ultra-Violence. Having said (and this comes for someone who hates these “modernisms”), Doom is simply so darn fun, that it doesn’t really matter. What kind of does, and which is probably the only big dent in this fantastic 10+ hour single player campaign is none other than the level design – the biggest strength of the 1993 original.
Apart from a few exceptions (with the third map, ‘Foundry,’ basically being an awesome blast from the past), instead of labyrinthine and chock-full of surprises, stages are a bit linear, mainly providing a place to kill demons – a process which feels a bit too much like playing an arena shooter ala Quake III. The hero enters a “room,” the doors lock behind him, enemies appear, he kills them, and he then moves on to the next fight. In many ways, this is what marred the experience of [i]DOOM 3[/i], but luckily battles never ever get boring here, probably because they are much faster, challenging… and brutal. Again, this is more like a “this Doom isn’t Doom enough” kind of problem than a serious flaw.
Note that this is all about the campaign. You are meant to play this again and again, up until you can beat the final, no extra-lives difficulty setting blindfolded. What’s left is exactly that: leftovers. Multiplayer, for example, is undoubtedly this title’s most disappointing aspect. It’s good, fine-tuned and all, and offers some neat, original modes, but as a whole it won’t make you leave your favourite arena FPS. Finally, there’s Snapmap, a beginner-friendly editor that enables the creation of custom maps or even gameplay modes with relative ease, and allows sharing them via a cross-platform system. A very console-oriented feature, which, despite its high potential, feels pretty barebones, especially when compared with what true modding could achieve – but that’s just nagging from a Doom fanatic who expected perfection, and instead got a slightly dirty bar of 24 karat gold.
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