LGR - Doom 2016 Review

Here is the rewritten content in a well-structured format suitable for a web page:

The Next Doom Game is Finally Here: A 12-Year Wait Comes to an End

Nearly 12 years out from Doom 3, the next Doom game is finally here. Simply and annoyingly titled, this highly anticipated installment promises to deliver an unforgettable gaming experience.

(Note: I've kept all the original words and phrases, reorganizing them into coherent sentences while maintaining the same level of detail and enthusiasm as the original text.)

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enNearly 12 years out from Doom 3,the next Doom game is finally here,simply and annoyingly titled \"Doom.\"I hate when they do that...So how does this 2016 version of Doom stack upwith a new development team atid Software leading the charge?Well, what I was looking for was a game that made useof each of the components that make Doom \"Doom.\"For me, those components are a combination of controls, level design, pacing, weapons and atmosphere.I'm using the original Doom as my benchmark herebecause while you could treat thisas a sequel to Doom 3, it's also not,seeing as it's a series reboot and theentire gameplay philosophy of that gamehas been thrown out a pressurized Mars window.So, if you're expecting another slower-moving, flashlight-wielding monster closet horror experience ala Doom 3,then this new one will not be cutting any mustardor any other condiments for that matter.And that's fine with me becausewhile I did enjoy Doom 3 for what it was,it did not hold up as a Doom game, personally.It got the horror aspect of Doom down pat,and the tech was downright amazing at the time,but it completely ignored the over-the-top,fast-paced, metal-head aspect, and I missed that.This new one, though...Contrary to its cliched dude-bro cover art,it rightfully earns the moniker of \"Doom.\"At least if we're talking about single-player,and let's go ahead and do that,because right off the bat, the single-playermode tosses you straight into the line of fire,handing you a gun and a suit of armor.And not just any suit.It's the Praetor Suit,which combines the look of the old Doom Guy'soutfit with this new game's sci-fi sensibilities.Like so many things in the game, this suitsignifies what id Software is trying to pull off here.A heavy wink and a nod to the '90swith a firm footing in the modern day to move forward.And I am SO happy to say they succeededbecause the single-player for Doomis probably the best first-personshooter campaign I've played since...well, since Wolfenstein: The New Order,another id Software rebootfrom Machine Games in 2014.But even more so than The New Order,Doom doesn't reinvent itself too much,and instead goes for an approach thatI like to describe as \"Zeitgeist Doom.\"That is, it's Doom as seen through the eyesof the current sphere of popular culture.You know, the culture thatmakes fun of the Doom comic book,has seen Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson wield a BFG,and jizzes over every new incrementalrelease of the Brutal Doom mod.Doom 2016 is a game for the people that havewatched dozens of YouTube videos about Doom,yet maybe never played it for themselves.And yet, it's also good for thoseof us that grew up with the original,kept up with the modding scene for decades,treat our original Doom floppy disks withmore respect than our fellow humans,and are getting bored of manymodern first-person shooter tropes.It balances itself in this cozy spot thatpits the fondest of rose-tinted nostalgiaand the height of contemporarygaming tastes against each other.And instead of fighting it out for dominance,they hold hands and waltz off tokill some of Hell's minions together.Let's dive into the gameplay properand take a look at my key componentsof Doom again, starting with controls.I played through Doom on the PC,so I can't speak for how it plays on consoles, butas far as keyboard and mouseinput goes, Doom is spot on.Doom Guy may not move as quicklyas he did in the original Doom, butit's a hell of a lot faster than I expected it to be.In a landscape of first-person shooters where you control a huge dude that feels like a walking M1 Abrams,the speed and agility you wieldin Doom is shocking at first.And welcome.I've genuinely missed running around at90 miles an hour while jumping over obstacleslike a ring-tailed lemur on a cocktailof performance enhancing drugsthat would make a Major League Baseball player blush.And it isn't so much that you feel likeyou're out of control, it's quite the contrary.Circle strafing, jump dodging and clamoring up anddown ledges becomes second nature in a hurry,which is fortunate because the level designrequires a surprising amount of nimbleness.Not only do they sprawl outand twist around in a mannerthat conjures up the bones of'90s first-person shooters of yore,but most of them featurea remarkable amount of verticality.I'm not always a fan ofplatforming in first-person games,but when it's pulled off this effortlessly,and balanced with the rest of the gameplay so well,then put me down as a fan right now,at least for this game!I loved grappling my way up to thetop of industrial complexes andwinding my way into the bowels of some hellish cavern,especially because there are a swathof secrets and Easter eggs to find.There are also areas where youactivate a demon heart thing andyou'll be locked in a room whilehoards of enemies come for you at once.And seeing as there's usually aBerzerk mode powerup nearby oreven something borrowed from Quake,like Quad Damage or Haste Mode,these areas stayed fresh and continuedto fulfill the old dopamine producer.However, a big change here is that most of the timeyou're not just running into random demonsalong your path to the next key card.Instead, you often enter an empty room,the doors lock behind you,and a ton of enemies will spawn inover the next couple of minutes in waves.This becomes too predictable a few hours in,and is one of my chief complaintsabout the game's pacing and level design.It feels more akin to gameslike Painkiller or Serious Sam,which, I mean, I love those games, and seeing as they're both obviously imitating the original Doom games,it makes sense that this newone would seem a bit similar.I just wish there more levels wherethe demons were already thereand you had more freedom to explore as you pleasedinstead of seeing so manyobvious trap rooms ahead of you.It did not make me enjoy it any less because,like I said, I do like that style of gameplay,it's a bit different than what I expected.But still, you do get that awesome end-of-the-level thingwhere you're provided with that familiar stats screen,telling you what you found, what you killed,and what can improve on next time you play it.Beyond finding more secrets, what you canimprove largely depends on your enemies,which falls right into the overall pacing of Doom.We've established that it moved pretty quickly,but it's also full of incentives that pushyou to do more than just run and shoot.For one thing, there are these glory kills,which are gratuitous finishing moves ripped from the Doom comic and Brutal Doom in equal measure.And while they're fun to pull off at first,it started to get a bit draining before longsimply because it breaks up the flow of the combat.Or so I thought...Once you reach a point of no return a few levels inand the game starts throwinglegions of demons at you at once,these finishing moves become crucial to survival.Ripping and tearing huge guts not only gives you health,which is useful because it does not regenerateand health packs show up only so often,but they also help you work your way towardspoints to upgrade your abilities and weapons.Your suit can also be upgraded by findingchips embedded on your fallen comrades,which add abilities for finding more secrets,staving off certain attacks, and other specific tasks.And finally, your overall stats can beupgraded by finding these Argent Cell... things,which contain, I don't know, hell fuel or something.I'm of two minds with all of this upgrading stuffbecause it kind of feels out of place in a Doom game.Just because Doom 1 and 2 were suchstraightforward simple-to-understand games thatit seems ridiculous to add so muchupgrading and skill point fluff.I mean, isn't Doom Guy enough of abadass that he doesn't need a bunch oflight RPG mechanics to keep him alive?On the other hand, an area where I'm not sodivided on the upgrade system is the weapons.Each weapon has a selection ofalternate fire modes once you unlock them,and these modes can be upgraded even furtherto turn the basic guns into something absurd.Shotguns with explosive launchers,assault rifles with micro missles,plasma rifles with stun bombs,rocket launchers with lock-on burst firing,chain guns with mobile turrets,and so on. It's awesome!But even without the copious bolt-on firing modes,each weapon feels as solid to useas it did in the original Doom.Or even more so in some cases.With the exception of the pistol, though.That thing is just stupid.But the rest of them... augh!Yes! Gimme that super shotgun any day!Any time!And the chainsaw! Augggh!Yeah, it's a canned animation and it uses up fuel now,but this makes it a much morecalculated move to use it,instead of just rubbing your nads all upin a monster and hoping for the best.And finally, there's the atmosphereof the game, which... well...it's pretty Doom-like, but it's missing something for me.It's got all the spaceports and hellscapes andlava cities that I hoped for, that much is true,and graphically, Doom looks incredible,making full use of the sixth id Tech engine.It looks great, runs great on PC and didn't give meany problems with crashing or anything, butthe environments are also not asvibrant or surreal as I'd hoped for.And it never went to a place of pure horror,instilled a sense of dread,or even made me think, \"Hmm... maybe I shouldthink twice about going into that dark hallway.\"Instead, I was like,\"AAHHH! I'M SO AWESOME!LOOK AT THE SIZE OF MY NUTS!\"Doom 2016 is all about adolescent wish fulfillment,a power fantasy as old as time.It revels in tearing through a crapload of ugly demonsand making your guns absolutely overpowered,all while blaring a soundtrack that canmorph into a cacophony of chaotic noise.All right, don't get me wrong.Mick Gordon did an excellent job blendingdjent metal and glitch electronica here, butit also gets so overwhelming sometimes thatit can act as an audible coarse grit sandpaper,dulling the senses down by just ripping into them.The whole game does this, really.It's a non-stop gut punch of metal-driven insanityso much so that I had to put it down occasionallybecause it was just too much all in one sitting.Speaking of which, there's also the story,which ironically is also too muchbecause of how threadbare it is.It's the same basic story we've heardin pretty much all the Doom games.The Union Aerospace Corporationhas opened a portal to Hell,and it's up to you to put an end to it however you can,which is usually with guns, except this time,it's Ultron telling you what to do.COMPUTER: \"But know this:we exploited Hell and its resources becauseit was in mankind's best interest to do so.\"It's so trite that Doom Guy often smashes apartthe computer consoles telling him what's going on.Which, I mean, he's got the right idea, so props to him.Lame storylines in Doom make people angryso just get through the plot points you have toand get to killing more demons for the8 or 9 hours the campaign lasts and call it a day.Well, unless you want to dive into the multiplayer,but prepare to take things down a notch.For all the things that the single-player does right,there's two or three that the multiplayer does wrong,or at least rubs me the wrong way.To give you an idea of what to expect,this is another one of those caseswhere the multiplayer was outsourced,this time being developed inconjunction with Certain Affinity.This is the same development group that most recentlydid the multiplayer for Call of Duty: Ghostsand the Halo: Master Chief Collection,which is a sign of things to come indeed.I played the closed alpha,the open beta and now the full game,and I haven't enjoyed it in any incarnation.A few things bother me right off the bat.There's a two-weapon limit with theobligatory load-out system they put into place,the pacing and overall action feelsslower than it should for Doom,and the progression and customization feelsshallow, predictable and rather pointless.Granted, there's stuff to enjoy too,like the design of several levelsthat I find to be really fun.Freeze Tag mode is a nice twist on team deathmatch,and getting the demon rune is neatthe first couple times you get it, but...I don't know. In a world of a thousand othershooters that do each of these things better,I can't be bothered with this.And compared to Doom's phenomenal single-player,the multiplayer is forgettable and unengaging.And I don't really have anything more to say on that.Well, not exactly, because there's also Snapmap,which is Doom's in-game editor.It allows you to take a bunch of pre-made assets,snap them into a map,and alter their properties to create anything fromnew single-player levels to new multiplayer modes.It's pretty easy to use and seems like it'llopen up some fun possibilities, but as of yet,I haven't seen anything madewith it that really gets me going.I'm sure it's great to have on consoleswhere modding is less common, buton PC it just seems like astopgap for true custom content.Last I heard, though, there will be no officially-supported modding of the game outside of Snapmap,so that's a bummer.Still, this mode shows potential and I do look forwardto seeing what a bit of creativity can do later on.So, final Doom verdict–well, the verdict on this Doom,not Final Doom, that's another game–anyway, is that Snapmap is promising,multiplayer is forgettable,but the single-player is bloody fantastic!And if you're like me and have been cravinga good sci-fi campaign to play through,then this is a solid choice.I wouldn't blame you if you felt the need towait for a discount on the $60 price tag,or more, depending on the version you get,due to its being a lacking thing in a few areas,but you know, discount or not,I would absolutely recommend itfor the campaign experience alone.It's a premium flavor of silly fun,paired with worthwhile gameplay thatonly comes along every so often these days,which makes this new Doom an event worth savoring.And if you enjoyed this video on the new Doom,perhaps you'd like to see my video on the old Doom,or other videos on topics that are existent.Click on these if you'd like to see them,or just subscribe to see more videos in the futureevery Monday and Friday here on LGR.And as always, thank you very much for watchingwhat you just watchedwhich is this.\n"