Doom (2016) videogame review

666 out of 10 

 

There comes a point in nearly every fantasy novel when the hero (usually some kind of pseudo-viking or barbarian), outmaneuvered and outnumbered, takes up his sword and flies into a red rage: the world shrinks, time slows down and they become an unbeatable, unstoppable killing machine. Now, never having been in the midst of a full-on sword and sandals skirmish, I'm not sure if this is something real soldiers experience or just a persistent piece of literary invention, but I do know that I felt something similar whilst playing Doom 2016. This is a game unafraid to throw players in at the deep end, burying them in seemingly endless waves of brutal beasties. Each skirmish passes by in a blur of exploding shells, fiery blasts and gouts of blood; you cut down demon after demon and desperately scramble around the arena in search of health pickups and precious ammo. You feel like that fantasy hero; outnumbered and outgunned but utterly impervious. You become a whirling dervish of death.

Yes, Doom 2016 is the kind of no-frills, unashamedly old-school FPS that seems to have been swept under the rug in our post-Call of Duty world. It hearkens back to a time when the genre was more concerned with sprawling, labyrinthine levels that were stuffed with secrets and things that wanted to kill you, than it was with crawling through narrow corridors and  shooting bad guys that pop up like paper targets at a range. There are no lengthy cut-scenes, or bits where you jump into a helicopter from the roof of a collapsing building, or take control of a satellite in order to microwave terrorists from the heavens in Doom; there's just you, thousands of demons in need of killing, and a weapon wheel's worth of big, loud, ugly guns with which to do it.

Luckily, while this new entry in the Doom saga may lean heavily on its pixellated past, it doesn't ignore the many advances made in the FPS genre since hell first came to Mars over two decades ago. Sometimes developers forget that there's a difference between being inspired by your heritage and being beholden to it. Doom, thankfully, doesn't suffer from this problem, and feels fresh enough to avoid feeling like yet another soulless rehash of a once-revered gaming franchise. Naturally, the formula has been streamlined, the fat has been trimmed, and the presentation overhauled, but the core of Doom remains intact: you ramble around, plucking keycards off corpses, and killing anything unlucky enough to wander across your path.

While that may not sound particularly diverting, the gameplay loop that carries Doom through its surprisingly generous 8-10 hour campaign (longer if you like to scour every nook and cranny for geegaws) is supremely satisfying. The game moves at a good clip, and the shooting mechanics fairly sing. This is one of those rare games - like Mario 64 and Halo CE before it - in which the mechanics feel so fine-tuned that simple act of navigating environments and shooting enemies is a joy. And developer  Id really puts those mechanics to the test - particularly in the later portions of the game - regularly throwing enemy combinations at the player that forces them to take full advantage of their arsenal and the environment.

There are moments when Doom feels almost like a character action game, challenging players to adapt to new enemy types and configurations on the fly. Some enemies are simple cannon fodder, but others require a little more skill to take down. There are pinkies whose armored carapaces deflect bullets, summoners that whip from one location to the next drawing more minions into the fight as they go, and lumbering Hell Knights that will chase you all over the map. The odds can be overwhelming, but Doom always gives you the tools to succeed. It may sound odd, but there are stretches (mostly in the second-half ) when Doom feels like an exercise in resource management. Using the right tool for the job, or waiting until just the right moment to snag that quad damage power-up, can be the difference between kicking ass or getting yours handed to you.

It would have nice to have different enemies combinations on the harder difficulties, especially as earlier levels lack the nerve-sapping intensity that comes to characterise the latter parts of the campaign. Thankfully, a mission select option becomes available after beating the game, so you can skip straight to the more savage skirmishes, if you so wish. This also makes hoovering up any collectibles or secrets you might have missed less of a chore.

And Doom is a game that likes it secrets, with each knotty labyrinth littered with easter eggs, stat-boosting microchips and adorable lil Doomguy bobbleheads. It's worth exploring, too, as doing so will net you upgrade points for your weapons, unlocking yet more devastating mods and access to some game-changing secret abilities for your arsenal. It's also an example of how the game's systems interlock in surprising and intelligent ways. Even when you're not in combat, that feeling of always moving forward, always making progress, is there, and is a large part of what makes Doom so satisfying to play.

Big, dumb and most definitely fun, Doom is a stunning revival for a franchise many of us thought  dead in the water. The gameplay is crisp and eye-wateringly responsive, and the generous campaign is stuffed with secrets to uncover. There's also a refreshing lack of flab or pretension, leaving players to concentrate on the important things - things such as eviscerating hellish hordes of rampaging beasties, and ripping and tearing their way through some of the most intense encounters ever seen in a first person shooter.