Love/Hate: Doom (2016)

Welcome back to the Doom Love/Hate series! We’re now moving on to what is perhaps the most popular entry in the entire series at this point: Doom (2016)! I distinctly remember there being serious concerns when it was announced that Bethesda would not be giving out pre-release review codes for this game (which is usually a sign that the publisher does not have confidence in it). But then launch day came and, over the next few days, the Internet collectively realized that, hey, this game’s pretty fuckin’ good! We’re now a decade out from its release, and Doom (2016) has pretty much cemented itself as a bona-fide classic of the FPS genre, up there with its earliest forebearers. So… am I gonna be an outlier on this one, or am I yet another Doom (2016) simp? Read on to find out…

Before we get into this further… fuck me, I’m not saying Doom (2016) every time I want to talk about this game. I’m just going to call it Doom for the rest of the article. If I want to talk about the original game, I’ll call it Doom (1993).

Love

• Storytelling – For perhaps the only time in Doom‘s history, I kind of love this game’s approach to storytelling. Don’t get me wrong: the actual narrative is as dull as ever, but the way its is told is brilliant. There’s a whole story going on around you, but you don’t really care. You’re Doom Guy. You’re pissed off. You don’t give a shit about what’s happening, because you’re going to send every demon back to hell, personally. It has a sort of John Wick vibe to it, with everyone (including the demons, who are terrified of you) knowing who you are and treating you like a force of nature. Doomguy gives off so much personality, despite having zero dialog and being portrayed entirely in first-person view. It’s fucking genius.
• Old-School Gameplay, Modernized – Since the landmark success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, the first-person shooter formula has been pretty-well standardized: regenerating health, frequent reloading, taking cover to avoid damage, you’re incentivized to use aim-down-sights as much as possible, sprinting, only holding two weapons at a time, linear corridor level designs, etc. Doom takes a novel approach and strips all of these mechanics that we’ve taken for granted out. You might think that this would make Doom seem simplistic, but it really doesn’t. Doom feels no shame to be as “video-gamey” as possible. It shows that the innovations of the past two decades and the obsession for realism just made FPSes dilute the core mechanic: shooting things.
  • However, Doom isn’t exactly a full-on remake of Doom (1993) either. The game feels old-school, but id Software have made some very well-considered choices of where to change the formula. Perhaps most-obviously, Doom‘s level designs are more reminiscent of 90s/early-00s arena shooters like Quake, Unreal, and Halo. The game also has a seamless level progression, as opposed to classic Doom‘s self-contained levels, and weapons are permanently added to your inventory the first time you pick them up. Again, these are great examples of id Software knowing what to copy from old-school shooters, and what to keep from modern-day shooters in order to keep things as fun as possible. It just makes you wonder what other games could have stood out if they had been willing to push back against conventional wisdom.
• Soundtrack – Look, this is a game whose soundtrack is arguably more popular than the game itself. It absolutely rocks and I’ve found myself listening to tracks like “BFG Division” in my free time to get hyped up. I don’t know what more I can say than that, this game’s soundtrack is fucking incredible.
• Glory Kills – Doom takes a cue from the infamous and classic “Brutal Doom” mod, allowing you to finish off an enemy by getting close and performing a spectacular melee kill. These things never get old, which is an amazing feat for a game where you’re glory killing the vast majority of enemies you come across. They’re so comedically-brutal and do a great job of showing off Doomguy’s personality and how terrified the forces of hell are of you. Plus you get rewarded with supplies for every enemy you glory kill, so it’s just a great little mechanic that helps tie the whole experience together!
• Graphics – Doom is a gorgeous-looking game thanks to its fantastic, moody lighting. The game may be a decade old now, but it’s still incredibly impressive to see in action!
• Weapon Mods – By far the best of the “modern” game mechanics in Doom, weapon mods allow you to meaningfully alter the performance of your arsenal. With two weapon mods available for most weapons, this effectively triples the weapons at your disposal if you have every upgrade unlocked. I particularly loved the shotgun’s grenade launcher mode, which keep the weapon useful even after you unlock the more powerful super shotgun. That’s just one example of how game-changing each alt-fire can be, but rest assured that all of them are at that level of impact.

Mixed

• Level Design – Somehow, even in 2016, I’m still managing to get lost frequently in a Doom game. For what it’s worth, the in-game map really helps to make this a brief point of frustration… but still, is this just a hallmark of the franchise at this point? If there’s a hell, am I going to be constantly getting lost in it? Who knows, but it’s really annoying that the one consistent throughout this entire franchise has been getting fucking lost in its levels.

Hate

• Obligatory Progression Systems – Despite a very wise and considered decision to strip out most of the “modern” bullshit from two decades of game design, it feels so exhausting that Doom features two worthless, obligatory progression systems. Why are they here? Because it’s a video game and video games need progression systems, apparently:
  • First of all are the Praetor Suit upgrades, which require you to find Praetor tokens hidden around the levels. These are supposed to feel like a big reward you should be excited about. I just found them annoying. All of the upgrades are inconsequential: decreased damage from explosive barrels? Reveal more items hidden around you on the map? Slightly faster weapon swapping? YAWN. They don’t unlock any sort of new playstyle or abilities, so I’d often just sit there trying to decide what to unlock and end up going “these all suck”. It just feels like a progression system thrown in for the sake of a progression system, all to keep Gamers™ entertained.
  • There’s also Argent Energy upgrades, which you can use to increase your max HP, shields, or ammo. While getting a bunch of these will eventually make a big difference, the developers still have to develop the game to be manageable even at the base 100HP. While Argent Energy upgrades aren’t nearly as egregious as Praetor tokens since they will eventually make a difference after you accumulate several of them, it’s still just a progression system for the sake of a progression system, which just annoys me coming from a game attempting to be “old-school”. I miss the days when I didn’t have to see that crap in every single game, and Doom feels like the exact game that should have scratched that itch.

I had a great time with Doom. While I don’t think it’s quite the industry-defining classic that its forebearers were, it provided a fresh spin on the FPS genre which had grown incredibly tired after a decade of trend-chasing and pushing for realism. If nothing else, it’s a lesson that the fun games of yester-year still have lessons that can be learned and that decades of innovations aren’t necessarily for the better: just because a mechanic has become “standardized”, doesn’t mean that it cannot be questioned!

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Barloq

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Writer, blogger, father. Blogging since 2012, writing my whole life. Was blessed by the chupacabra and the guardian shepherd.

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