Weaponizing Demons for a Brighter Tomorrow! (Doom 2016 Review)
It finally happened… well, sort of. I haven’t yet obtained a PS4, but the next best thing happened — my boyfriend bought one! Being the busy guy he is, sometimes he prefers to let me take the wheel on certain videogames that he can’t make the time for, but would like to see; or, he’s already gone through them himself and now it’s my turn (Which works for me, since I don’t get much game time either these days).
At the moment I’m on Uncharted: A Thief’s End — FINALLY (I’ve waited forever for this game)!! But more on that later…for now, I’d like to talk about a game I just completed that was even more awesome than anticipated… DOOM!! (for PS4)
For those who haven’t heard, Doom is a first person shooter based on Mars and set in the future. We play a marine that has to battle his way through demons from hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation, which in this game results in some actual trips to Hell itself.
So having a little bit of experience with retro doom, it’s obvious what should be expected: lots and lots of shooting your way through, monsters jumping out at you and even more shooting your way through. This remake not only delivers on that expectation, but it also comes with killer background music, a slight “Dead Space”/”Resistance” feel (which you may recall I’m also a fan of) and the added bonus of being totally fucked up and satanic.
If you want the short version of why you should get on this game, I’d suggest this:
(5 Reasons Doom is the Best Game of 2016: https://goo.gl/sQsjgo)
Or, if you’d like a little more elaboration on why it rules, here it is:
MONSTERS:
Amazingly grotesque, aggressive, hellish space demons each with their own weaknesses, abilities and creative appearance (what more could you ask for?). These beasts come in large supply round almost every corner and every hoard is a challenge in its own way, whether its because you don’t have all the big guns yet, you haven’t spotted its weakness already or there’s just SO MANY!!
Either way, challenge=fun, and the higher the difficulty, the bigger the achievement (she says after playing on Normal…) but to be fair, I’m new to the crazy-sensitive, smooth motion of PS4 games, and I don’t have the most Doom experience — and at least I didn’t opt for easy or change difficulty mid-game!
Anyway, other than the fact that certain enemies make cute distress sounds and make me feel guilty while ripping their eyeballs out or stomping through their ribcages — the game definitely gets more exciting with the increasing monster discoveries; Satan himself couldn’t have thought up so many beauties.
WEAPONS:
Immense. The BFG (Big Fucking Gun) needs no more explanation, just for you to know that it lives up to its name, and I owed my alien-ass-kicking life to that thing during a few tricky spots… other weapons like the rocket launcher, gauss cannon and chain gun definitely got me out of some deadly situations too.
All in all, amazing armoury. You will literally find a use for every gun. Sure, the pistol’s a little weak but a back up for when all else fails is always welcome into my inventory. Saying that (at least for Normal mode), I never found myself left with no choice but to “pew pew” with my pistol — there’s usually fair ammo around, just not always for the guns you hoped for, but that would be cheating! You can always perform “Glory Kills” on some mofos to stock yourself up on a few extra goodies too. And lets face it, we’ll work our fair share of glory kills into the game, since we came for the gore!
SECRETS AND SIDE MISSIONS:
You’ll discover throughout the game different “Rune Trials” which allow you to test yourself and win upgrades/power ups, but I can’t say I accomplished all of the trials I came across. Some seemed too stressful for the prize at hand, however, a lot of them lead to some sense of achievement and amusement.
You can also (eventually) gain the ability to seek out secret areas and bonus items with a pulsing radar, but if you’re like me you may pretty much scan every area until your eyes go funny anyway and sniff out all the secrets.
SOUNDTRACK:
Sick. Pretty much goes back and forth from Dubstep to Progressive Metal to full-on Satanic Chorus. VERY fitting with the atmosphere and very fuelling when caught in combat, it’s both a relief and disappointment when each big battle comes to an end.
From what I’ve experienced, my advice to new players would be:
1. Fuel up your chainsaw any chance you get, but SAVE IT for the big(ish) guys, don’t waste it on the Possessed Workers or the Unwilling. Enemies that are too large won’t allow for any sawing, but for those pains who charge at you such as Hell Knights — best thing you can do is slice through them with this badboy, giving out lots of goodies.
Just remember it will need a tune up pretty soon afterwards, you won’t have enough power for more than two maximum.
2. Don’t waste your BFG unless you’re running out of options, you’ll be surprised what you can achieve without it and ammo isn’t always easy to find.
3. Don’t let a Cyber-Mancubus roam free (or regular Mancubus, really) those guys can drain your life in seconds with their annoying, lingering, green plasma blasts — shoot them continuously in the stomach area with rockets until their bodies cave in, whatever it takes…
4. Bosses aren’t always as difficult as they look, like many games, you just have to find the pattern. I think the final boss is probably the hardest, just because there’s a lot going on, but once you get the hang of the routine you’ll realise its just about persistence and timing.
5. The Gauss Cannon cuts right through the shields held up by Possessed Security, destroying them in one blast.
6. Save your power ups until the 3rd wave or so. Take down those Imps, Soldiers, Revenants and Hell Razers with your Super Shotgun, Chainsaw, Heavy Assault Rifle and what have you — then when you start spotting a Summoner, Mancubus, Cyberdemon or Cacodemons, leg it over to that floating orb of awesome and go to TOWN on those demons.
Quad Damage and Berserk are my favourites. No one has a chance with those babies, and running round splitting jaws, punching heads off of shoulders and crushing whatever’s in sight is disturbingly satisfying. But you’ve also got Haste and Invulnerability which have their obvious appeal.
Overall… LOVED playing this game. There’s plenty to do besides shooting up whatever jumps out, but finding your way through and finding ways to survive is a lot of fun. With perfectly accompanying background music, amazing graphics and plenty of blood, I DARE you not to like it. Though I can’t say the same for the 2013 Doom movie I saw a while back….
(Doom Movie Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljkKoPs1Gg)
There’s probably tons more I could say about the game but I don’t want to give away too much, and I’m sure you get the jist by now…
Happy gaming, all!
Originally published at angryswan.co.uk.
