Doom

Thoughts

What a wonderful surprise this game is. After the dour, humourless, clunky Thief reboot and the temporary death of Deus Ex I couldn't be blamed for worrying about another old school first person series that was close to my heart. Doom strips back the modern FPS template to deliver an old fashioned shooter with modern convieniences. There's a thin (but fairly interesting, mind you) story and some light character/equipment upgrading but it's really just all about shooting. No iron sights, no popping in and out of cover at a snail's pace. You're rewarded for speed and rewarded for seeking out gunfights. The gunplay is excellent, tight and responsive with a rock steady frame rate and a perfect array of weapons — they all have their use and maintain that usefulness until the end. The way the BFG and chainsaw are used is a fantastic idea as well. The multiplayer is bog standard and fairly dull but the campaign is well worth the price of entry. 

Plus/Minus

+ No fluff

+ Good sense of humour

+ Tight, frantic gunplay

+ Very interesting interpretation of the Doom world (which you can freely ignore)

+ Excellent array of weapons 

+ Campaign is just the right length

- Multiplayer is very average

- Some of the sound design could be a little better, mixing is occasionally weird and sounds lack oomph at times 

Overall

Pats on the back to all involved. This is better than a modern Doom game has any right to be and completely maintains the tone of the originals. In an endless swamp of open world games it's so refreshing to play a game that is only interested in doing one thing very well.

8.5/10

Technical Stuff

Played on a PS4. Copy was a bday present (cheers guys). One full playthrough + multiplayer + arcade mode - approximately 25 hours spent.