So, I finally played and beat DOOM (2016) (Gaming)

by CyberKN , Oh no, Destiny 2 is bad, Wednesday, January 04, 2017, 02:22 (2881 days ago)
edited by CyberKN, Wednesday, January 04, 2017, 02:27

Disclaimers: I played on the easiest difficulty, and don't regret it. I also had to restart after getting 2/3 the way through the campaign due to a corrupt save file, which coloured my experience a bit. I have never played a Doom campaign before.

Mechanics:
In almost every way mechanically, this is the best FPS I've played since Halo 3/ODST. It takes all the crappy modern-day staples that have been leaking out of CoD into other franchises, and tosses them out the window.

I do have a few quibbles- the vertical jump sucks, and the upgrade you get half-way through the campaign doesn't improve it much. Mantling is spotty. The starting guns become completely obsolete very quickly.

...But dang near everything else is so good that it makes up for it. Again, I haven't seen Enemy AI this fun to fight since the elites in Halo 2, or the hammer brutes in Halo 3. The run speed is the perfect balance of fast and controllable. The Guns- oh man, the guns! I never realized how much of a detriment reloading is to the flow of combat, and now that I've seen the other side I don't know how I'm going to go back. ADS is only used for guns that have scopes, but never required, much like Halos 1-4.

Level Design:
Some good, Some not so much. I think I just don't like wandering around a maze-like level after having killed everything, trying to figure out where to go to progress. Classic DOOM fans will probably enjoy that more- I had more fun when the path was obvious, and I wasn't spinning a 3D map around. Arena encounters were fun. Boss fights were a bit "meh".

Story/Mood:
Very compelling. This is about the amount of levity I wanted and got out of the first three Halo games. Codex entries are great, much better then the Grimiore in Destiny (and I don't even have to open a web browser!) Narrative is a bit simple/predictable, but simple is better than confusing or cliche. I'm not big into heavy metal or gore or the occult, but again I know that the intended audience is looking for that out of a DOOM game. Sci-fi stuff was fun, and I like the way that part of the game looks.

Final thoughts:
I hope other FPS games take as many cues as they can from this game (mechanically), including Des2ny. They set up quite a few loose ends/narrative hooks throughout, so hopefully those pay off in the sequel.