DOOM Review

Blood. Gore. DOOM.

Like a shotgun to the face, DOOM has engulfed our senses with high octane fun. The new DOOM thrusts you right into the fray in its exhilarating campaign mode. Your character wakes up on a ritualistic stone slab surrounded by terrifying medical/space equipment. Corpses litter the room and walkway as you make your way to receive your suit of armor, first weapon, and learn that a demonic outbreak has overrun the Mars colony you just woke up in. Grab yourself a cup of coffee because even though you just woke up, you’re also going to be kicking some demon ass and fixing up this mess.

The DOOM campaign is the shining pinnacle of greatness in this game. It’s a fast paced, run and gun adrenaline rush. One minute you are scaling a building and dropping into a control tower while dodging flaming demon balls and ripping enemies in half with a chainsaw. Then, you’re ripping a new weapon mod off of a drone which will let you discharge stored up energy and release it in a shockwave of deadly potency.

If you are looking for a strategic, stealthy, logical FPS, look somewhere else. DOOM’s campaign success comes from it’s brainless entertainment. There’s something so satisfying and exciting in busting through a room and eviscerating everything in sight. There’s a huge emphasis on atmosphere and gore, which is seamlessly woven into the combat. Getting an enemy down to a certain percentage of their health will give you the opportunity to “glory” kill them – queuing up a gorgeous yet brutal animation of your character ripping apart the enemy in various and creative ways. Jaws ripped apart. Bones broken. Skulls crushed like a grape. Glory kills also reward you with health as well, so it’s a necessity to keep yourself alive in the chaos of battle. The combat in the game is well crafted and smooth as can be.

There are a few other things that make DOOM’s campaign really stand out. First, the graphics are drop-dead gorgeous. Moving the camera around will give you some realistic blurring, details of objects and textures are rich and vivid, and the entire atmosphere is punctuated by gorgeous lighting, beautiful colors, and a badass art style. Secondly, the enemies on higher difficulties are HELLA tough. No matter how fun a game’s combat system is, if the enemies are stupid or terrible, that game is going to suffer over time. Not an issue with DOOM. The game has a multitude of different enemies with pretty well built AI, giving variation to the slaughter. They also tend to come in hordes, which is exhilarating and fun. Lastly, the in game mechanics for gaining rewards/upgrades is great. You can get a sort of combat rating during gameplay, clear mini “quests” (i.e. Kill 5 possessed with a shotgun blast to the back), and find secrets; which sometimes reward you with adorable figurines.

The only real sour note in this game is the multiplayer. Compared to the very fleshed out campaign, it seems like an unnecessary add on. It’s very chaotic and clunky, and apart from being able to turn into a demon, there’s not much it can offer that is new or unexpected. It does play and feel like the older quake multiplayer games, which is fun for a few rounds, but there was nothing about it that made me want to sit down and play for hours. In terms of the current lineup of FPS multiplayers, this would not be one I would put close to the top of the list.

If you’re in the market for a blood pumping, high energy, fun shoot ’em up, DOOM is for you. I’d even say if you’ve been waiting for a good single player for a while, pick this baby up. Waiting for No Man’s Sky? Grab DOOM. Bored with the same old FPS’es? Grab DOOM. Wanting to get your chest hairs moist with the virtual blood of a thousand terrifying demons? DOOM, baby, DOOM.