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Better Late Than Never Review: DOOM


These days video games are not just one thing. We live in an era when video games are not a single thing but a genre.
 Video games can tell horror stories  and love stories. Sci-fi epics and rough westerns. In an era of unsurpassed storytelling what could be more fitting than the simplicity of the 90's shooter?  Wait what?

That's right last year there was a new DOOM game and when it was announced I had flashbacks to Duke Nukem Forever. Was this yet another old franchise here one try next gen consoles to be milked for profit with no resemblance to the original?  Well, no apparently.

Full disclosure here I never played any of the other DOOM games but I know the series by reputation and like I've said hundreds of hours playing Duke 3-D so I know my 90's shooters and feel I can make a bit of a comparison.

The plot is a corporation on Mars in the future has been using Hell itself as an energy source and something went wrong and now demons are everywhere oh my god. You are the Doom Marine, possibly the same one from the other games, and are awoken to sort this mess out.

There's an interesting bit of character displayed by the Doom Marine. Though he doesn't speak the bumpers between missions seem to be his thoughts and his actions, specifically when reacting to other characters, speak loudly.

Gameplay really is in the style is a 90's FPS. You move unnaturally fast through the world, can carry a large number of of guns, and health is scattered throughout the levels as well.  More health and ammo can be acquired by brutally killing your opponents in glory kills either satisfyingly by hand in a number of ways, or with a chainsaw. All this encourages play that is fast paced and the successful game plan is to run through each area, shooting, ripping, and tearing through the spawn of hell.

Fans of more modern shooters will have a jarring experience. There's no reloading for the most part, health doesn't regenerate, and cover isn't really a concern. Ammo and health management is but even this is easily mitigated sometimes to the point of making things too easy. Also, and this may be an Xbox 1 issue only, but the game took half a day to install.

The good:
-Classic 90's FPS action on modern systems.
-Good, gory fun!

The bad:
-No reloading feels strange.
-The game throws ammo and health at you.

So the plot, character, and gameplay are all simple so what's the appeal?  Well it's fun. Dedication to this style of gameplay means that the game does what the original DOOM and other games of that era set out to do. Be fun. There's no deep story here or cutting edge game mechanics but that's fine.  Here the focus is pure visceral fun.

Perhaps DOOM isn't for everyone, but for anyone who likes to rip and tear, this game is perfect.

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