Doom Multiplayer Open Beta - Some Random Thoughts From Someone Who Just Doesn't Care Anymore

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Without Romero ID really lost their shine honestly.

And from what I've seen and heared the latest Doom is no exception.

Do you actually mean John Romero, or do you mean John Carmack?

Because Romero left after Quake and has done very little of note since then beside an advertisement for Daikatana promising us we'd be his *****.

Romero. He was the guy for ideas really. After he left he took that creativity with him.
And Daikatana, well, that was a victim of his creativity not being put on a leash by others, but the ad was not his idea.

That's true, I suppose. Almost none of the creatives that once made iD Software great remain. No John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack, Sandy Petersen and so on.

As far as I know, it's just Tim Willits and Kevin Cloud now.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I downloaded it to test out my new PC, I was actually quite excited if worried about its status on Steam.

After 10 minutes I severely regretted waisting about 15GBs of my monthly data cap on this piece of rubbish. Even considering the fact that this is a beta with a lot of content missing it felt so bland. In a way, the blandness made me feel even worse if it was truly, actually awful.

But what I got was an extremely basic, bland run&gun shooter. The guns felt flat and weak, the movement floaty and slow, the art direction greasy and boring. The whole felt so incredibly uninspired, and those Demon Runes can go suck major dicks.

On a technical level it works okay enough I suppose which makes it servicable. But considering this is freakin' Doom, servicable and uninspired is perhaps the worst thing it could be.

It feels like playing Halo with most of the gameplay missing.

Pretty much. Even Combat Evolved felt more fleshed out and advanced than this.

The Unreal Tournament Alpha even though its far less complete, was still much more fun. It felt like old UT.

Good to hear, I'll be trying that next.

Edit:
Sweet Jesus that was some satisfying old-school UT fragging. The moment I heard that classic FacingWorlds music I got buzzed with excitement and oh my God everything from the weapons to the teleporting to the art direction fills me with so much arena FPS glee that I can barely contain myself. I'm gonna play the fuck out of this game.

Edit 2:
Oh my God this shit is in alpha and there's already an instagib mod I'm giggling with joy right now.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

To me it feels more like Quake than DOOM. But if this is the state they're releasing multiplayer, then they're sadly in the doghouse. It felt like the netcode was shit and holy fuck did I experience lag. I NEVER experience lag in multiplayer. Well rarely. But god damn that lag was awful.
Otherwise I had fun with the beta, it wasn't revolutionary but I've played many worse games. I think the weapons could be tweaked a bit and perhaps the movement speed could use a little adjustment. Otherwise minus the lag issues, I'd say its a 7/10.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I've been playing since the closed Alpha and I will say that I definitely didn't take advantage of every minute I had of the three-day Alpha's and Beta's.
I think it was was alright, I'm not a huge multiplayer fan so I didn't enjoy it very much but it's not like I got a ton to compare it to.
I played it with a friend the other day and that was super fun but on my own, mm, I hate to admit it but I'm not gonna fire it up too often.
Still, I'm with the people saying "As long as the Single-Player's good."

 

[Mcgeezaks]

I liked it, I've played it for 4 hours and I'd probably play it more if I there wasn't a limit to the progression but it's a beta. Could be faster sure but it's still good.

 

[Post Tenebrae Morte]

You guys complaining of a lack of content or fleshing out, do know that they've intentionally only let a few things out in the open, right?
When the game is released in full, all of the maps will be shown as will other components such as more weapons and power ups.
Eh, regardless, I liked the beta. I'm more of a single player guy, but I did like the little I played here.

 

[Dolly]

I guess Doom always used to be more about single player ....Have no idea why they show us such a bad(no, really BAD, so much bad that I am ready to start crying) multiplayer. I just hope that other parts will be ok, or they do it all better before the release.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

On a technical level it works okay enough I suppose which makes it servicable. But considering this is freakin' Doom, servicable and uninspired is perhaps the worst thing it could be.

Otherwise I had fun with the beta, it wasn't revolutionary but I've played many worse games. I think the weapons could be tweaked a bit and perhaps the movement speed could use a little adjustment. Otherwise minus the lag issues, I'd say its a 7/10.

You see, that's why Doom 2016 is so disappointing to me. Because it is not just any fps, but an iD Software fps.

iD Software, the developer that arguably set new benchmarks (whether gameplay-wise or technically, or both) for the genre with every new release, from Wolfenstein 3D up to and including Doom 3 (didn't include Rage, because its position is much more debatable in this respect). When you've spent over a decade creating a fps-portfolio where the worst entry was still a good game, making something that is just decent is almost tantamount to failure.

Mind you, these are the personal feelings on the matter of someone who has grown up with iD Sotfware's offerings.

EDIT: yes, I am aware the MP was not entirely developed by iD, but in conjunction with Certain Affinity. This however does not get the game off the hook IMO.

 

[MythicMatt]

Sounds like another victim to the modernization of FPSes. C'mon iD, I hoped DooM wouldn't fall to the only thing plaguing all these other games.

That said, it sounds a lot like my reaction to the Halo 5 Beta. Which is to say, one round - "wow, this is shit. I'll uninstall it now, so I have enough space for other things".