Doom 4 (2016) X/10As some of you might know, I'm a massive fan of the original Doom, as well as Doom 2. As one of the most important and influential games of all time (generally credited with popularising the FPS genre) and certainly the most pivotal PC game of all time, this game, being a hardcore PC gamer who grew up in the 90s and who mostly plays shooters nowadays, this game is quite dear to me. I've played those two games so much, and absolutely love them to bits. I have a Doom t-shirt, and now a massive Doom poster as well. Doom 3 was an interesting horror experience at the time, but ultimately a poor successor to the series. And now, years later, Doom 4 comes out, made by different people in a different era, 23 years after the original which was responsible for countless gameplay innovations, the birth of a genre, and even PC gaming in general. To make matters worse, Brutal Doom has been a hugely popular phenomenon for several years now. Made by a Doom fan much more hardcore even than me, a true visionary who managed to elevate the game to an entirely new level while retaining everything that made Doom, Doom, with an abundance of extremely impressive metal remakes of the entire Doom soundtrack available, this mod is hugely entertaining to play even for a 2017 game. In the face of classic Doom's immeasurable legacy, and Brutal Doom's outstanding remaster, how could Doom 4 possibly stack up?
To my amazement, initial reviews called it spectacular. Tales of spectacular gameplay and a very Doom-like feeling circulated around. I dismissed this as blah-blah; after all, even just looking at it, it doesn't look anything like Doom (the first boxart they came up with was especially terrible). And then players reviewed it, and they still liked it. Loved it, even. Even now the reviews are highly positive. Could there possibly a speck of truth to this? Could the new game really be Doom? Recently, Steam gave a massive discount, and I decided to take the plunge.
I was prepared to hate this game. I more or less knew I would. So, I decided to just try to enjoy it as a game, rather trying to enjoy it as Doom. Note that I'm three paragraphs in and I still haven't torn this game to shreds, which is saying something.
The truth is, I like it. It's fun. It's the type of visceral thrill that you'd associate with Doom. Ultra-macho gameplay and atmosphere, and many core gameplay from the original are still in place. The player still runs at 80 km per hour. The entire Doom arsenal is back, plus a few originals. Most of the monsters do, too. Gore and gibs abound. Metal soundtrack overlaying it all. There are even still armour shards and health vials lying around everywhere, and the inexplicable ammo cashes dotted around Hell. There are tons of easter eggs and references throughout the game. It really WANTS to be Doom. But still, it's not.
The game was developed by id software, just like the original, and Bethesda has also chimed in. But John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall and Bobby Prince are gone, and id is not now what it used to be. These people love Doom, but they don't love it in the same way. Moreover, Bethesda's influence has left a strong imprint that's almost orthogonal to the game. Weapon mods, upgrade points in several currencies, upgrade trees, activated abilities, cooldowns, collectibles, customisation, a huge bunch of challenges, mission objectives, and even a whole storyline arcing through everything, with flashbacks and the whole nine yards.
These elements varyingly add some variety to the gameplay, but many also really detract from it. An enormous amount of time is spent just platform jumping and climbing onto ledges. The challenges really distract from the gamefeel, and in some cases you're actually pulled away to a separate arena; the worst decision they could've made for this as it kills the flow of the game completely. The story doesn't just make no sense, but actually strongly detracts from the character of the protagonist in my opinion. The weapons feel weak and impotent, and the game clearly revolves now more on finishing off enemies with melee moves than blasting them apart with your kickass arsenal. The levels, while extremely gorgeous, make combat feel boring and repetitive, and are badly designed in places. The gameplay is a weird amalgam between a classic shooter that simultaneously tries to be an arena shooter which doesn't work all that well in my opinion. The game features Haste and Quad Damage powerups - what, is this Quake now? And even the soundtrack, although it contains some very subtle references to the original soundtrack, feels boring and bland; a particularly cardinal sin considering how amazing the original soundtracks by Bobby Prince were. There's a lot to hate in this game.
But I don't. I don't hate it. I think it's fun. I probably won't play it much more than just this one playthrough (~8 h with full exploration), but I enjoyed playing it while I did, despite all the problems. The truth is, gaming has moved on. Gaming demands checkpoints and a narrative and customisation and skill points and all that jazz. I guess Doom 4 is basically what Doom would've been like if it had been released in 2016. No longer an innovator, or a giant leap for mankind. Just a fun little game. And that's not a bad position to be in
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