The new Doom isn't "bad", but it is a repetitive slog.

[Ambient_Malice]

So I'm several hours into the new Doom game. And so far, almost the entire game has consisted of killing everything in a closed off arena, walking down some corridors, and killing everything in another closed off arena. Combat consists of circle strafing while jumping and spamming the glory kill button every time something flashes orange or blue.

The gunplay is pretty good, but the game is meh overall. It's like they took the worst parts of the Shadow Warrior reboot and Serious Sam 3 and decided to make a game out of them. You do the exact same thing over and over and over again with very little variation or change of tone. The pacing is awful. There's no sense of progression like earlier Doom games. You're just moving from one arena to the next. You push a button. Wave of enemies. There's the elevator. Of course there'll be another wave of enemies that wants to stop you. Not really sure why, but they're just here to fight you so you perform the same repetitive combat moves to kill them all and proceed down a short corridor to the next arena where you do it all over again. And the music is droning. They really needed more tracks.

The game has some things going for it. It is pretty. The storytelling is decently done. The gunplay is good. And exploring and finding secrets is fun. But... it's just such a slog. I can't really see much replay value here.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Careful now, you're gonna attract the attention of the warrior for manly men games and he's not gonna be happy to hear this!
I never tried the new DOOM, probably never will, but it looks ok. It at least looks a hell of a lot more lively than most FPS games I see these days

 

[SweetShark]

Tips for Begginers:
You update the ammo capacity of your weapon VERY early.
Update the shotgun with the explosion rounds.
Update the rifle with rockets.
Max the Maps Update for finding secrets more easily
Try to complete all the challenges the maps provide to you.
Find the secret which you take Super Shotgun early. And update it.
Take the challenge maps which give you the rune which offer more ammo with nay kill you make.
Also, change the Weapon Wheel with the SHIFT Key. A lot better in my opinion while running from Demons and you want to change to a weapon fast.

Shadow Warrior Remake for me is a 10/10 game and I know it have a lor of problems. So I guess I am the target audience for this game. Lot of killing with style.
The only series problem I have with the Doom is the platforming. At some point I get killed 4 times trying to climb a Tower. F*ck me, this killed my mood a lot.
But after that the game let me rip the heart of a Mancubus and make him eat it, then explode.
I feel good.

 

[Hawki]

So...like the first two Doom games then?

Haven't played Doom 2016, so I can't comment, but I felt the same sense of monotony in Doom I & II as well.

 

[Nazulu]

It looks like what you just described. I've watched many video's on it but it doesn't grab me at all like it did with my favourite reviewers. The level design looks very repetitive, and I already found the head stomping and limb tearing old. In fact, I've become really sick of seeing those same animations.

I hate to say it, but this looks like one of the bland detailed games. I'm hesitant to call it bad though.

 

[FalloutJack]

I'm sorry, but I can't hear you over all this lovely killing. Rip and tear, my friends. Rip and tear...

 

[Wrex Brogan]

*looks at Doom 1, 2 and 3*

...were you expecting something other than endless slaughter?

 

[Ambient_Malice]

So...like the first two Doom games then?

Haven't played Doom 2016, so I can't comment, but I felt the same sense of monotony in Doom I & II as well.

*looks at Doom 1, 2 and 3*

...were you expecting something other than endless slaughter?

Doom 1, 2, and Doom 64 (the true Doom 3) are all structured very differently. Doom 3 (the not-so-true Doom 3) was a survival horror game. Doom 4's basic combat structure is nothing like any other Doom game. The early Doom games are essentially a maze with monsters in it that you kill en-route to going from point A to point B to point C.

Doom 4 is something else entirely.

Most of the game has been reduced to locked-room combat encounters where you must kill everything to proceed. You kill everything. More shit spawns. You kill that stuff. Even more stuff spawns. These sections are basically identical to the ones from the Shadow Warrior reboot, and were the worst part of the Shadow Warrior reboot. It completely screws Doom 4's pacing. The game lurches from one locked room to the next. You enter a room. You *know* without a doubt that you'll be locked in here within a few minutes and forced to kill everything. Doom 4 offers nothing unexpected or genuinely amazing. The game's generic "let's just spawn shit in a locked room and call it a day" design leaves no room for genuinely good combat encounters. It's cookie cutter game design that reflects the worst aspects of the games it is blatantly ripping off.

It doesn't even have the benefit of being scary.

And the glory kill system is like the sword combat from Shadow Warrior without any of the nuance or fun to it. You just hammer the button to make things dead. Maybe the game appeals to a certain demographic who find watching the same execution animation over and over and over again to be really fun.

It's not a BAD game. It's just a deeply flawed one. Shadow Warrior was also deeply flawed, but it had the key advantage of being FUNNY. Doom's saving grace is its gunplay and visuals and some decent atmosphere in places.

 

[Cowabungaa]

To be fair, that's all I really want in a Doom game so I don't see the problem.

Well that and maze-like, slightly puzzle-y levels. I don't expect Doom 2016 to deliver on that part as well as the first Doom did but oh well, you can't have everything.

 

[sXeth]

As someone who quite enjoys the game...


Yeah, its kind of spammy with the arena room concept. There's also a definite slog in the middle where you've found all the guns and seen all the enemies, so you're not really being met with new challenges (until the bosses start showing up in the final act).

The maze like structure of prior Dooms sort of pops up early on (notably in the Foundry, and Argent Facility levels), but starts to give way to platforming sections in the mid-late game, which suits the game far less I find.

In particular, Hell was kind of disappointing, where it was a great opportunity for more open or even labyrinthine design, with roaming enemy hordes to be fought through, rather then exterminated. Instead its where the game starts breaking down into more linear sections of platforming > Arena > corridor > platforming > arena > etc.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

I've finished the game this evening, and the game basically ends on a whimper.

The final Hell section is not unlike the final Corvus showdown in Black Ops 3. You break the beams to stop the thing, and I was actually hoping that something interesting would happen, but then you predictably fight the character you've been chasing, now transformed into a monster (shades of PREY). It's all just so... middling. It's not a one trick pony. It's a two tricky pony. It does repetitive, samey shiny corridors and repetitive, sandy underworld. I feel no urge to replay this game. Maybe I will sometime down the track.

IMO, it's one of the worst big-budget FPS games of the past few years, and easily the worst Doom game. Poorly paced, with a thin story that is somehow inferior to the paper thin storylines of Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64. The game is lifeless. It lacks that spark that makes an engaging FPS game. I keep coming back to Operation Racoon City. That's what this game reminds me of. The essential elements are there, but they're so devoid of vibrancy or even, taken as a whole, fun. It's a ride that is fun while it lasts, but I'm left feeling empty inside after the credits roll. Kinda like Saints Row 4. I'm left wondering what the cancelled Doom games were like that THIS is what we got instead.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

IMO, it's one of the worst big-budget FPS games of the past few years,

SO what are better big budget FPS games in few years that does

Shooting and combat better than Doom
Level design better than Doom
Movement of speed better than Doom

Its easily best FPS game in a long long time.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

IMO, it's one of the worst big-budget FPS games of the past few years,

SO what are better big budget FPS games in few years that does

Shooting and combat better than Doom

The gunplay is where Doom 4 excels. I have no complaints there. Although I do think the pistol is crappily designed.

Level design better than Doom

Take your pick. Doom 4's level designs are basically the worst FPS levels I've seen since Black Ops 3. The arena/corridor/arena/corridor design is wrongheaded and completely destroys any sense of pacing the game has. Doom 3 has better level designs. Shadow Warrior was basically the same game, but it much, much better level designs with proper pacing and a coherent sense of progression. Doom 4's problem is that its level designs are Quake III-esque, and this simply doesn't work for a singleplayer game.

Movement of speed better than Doom

Serious Sam 3, maybe. I don't have any strong feelings about Doom 4's movement speed, although the glory kills basically destroy all momentum which seems counterproductive to me.

Its easily best FPS game in a long long time.

Opinions, I suppose.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

.Serious Sam 3, maybe.

Serious sam 3 move like a Console shooter. sprinting while you cant shoot and aim down the sights. the movement Speed of Doom reboot have not even seen since Half life 2. even PC exclusive shooters does not have this type of movement since then where you run while shoot.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

.Serious Sam 3, maybe.

Serious sam 3 move like a Console shooter. sprinting while you cant shoot and aim down the sights. the movement Speed of Doom reboot have not even seen since Half life 2. even PC exclusive shooters does not have this type of movement since then where you run while shoot.

Faster is not necessarily better. Doom 64 is IMO the best game in the series, and it isn't particularly fast. And to be honest, Serious Sam 3's gory execution moves were faster paced than Doom 4's. Doom 4's glory kills bog the game down. The game is a bit paradoxical. I did actually find myself wishing Doom 4 was FASTER at points.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Hey, opinions are like ass holes, everyone's got one.

I like the game for the exact reasons you don't. I want to be circle strafing and running around arenas, ripping and tearing my way through demons.

Disagree that there's no sense of progression and maze-like structure. You're rewarded with upgrade points for your weapons to give them alternate fire modes and I found some of the levels very circuitous and maze-like, especially when trying to find all of the Doomguy figures and praetor tokens.

At the end of the day DOOM's gameplay loop is going to grip you or it isn't. Sounds like you prefer more open ended, story-driven shooters.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

At the end of the day DOOM's gameplay loop is going to grip you or it isn't. Sounds like you prefer more open ended, story-driven shooters.

I prefer Doom 64, which has barely any story and has level designs that are looping corridors with open areas. Doom 64 remains, for me, the best game in the series. Scary, vicious, and nightmarish. There's a constant sense of not knowing what is coming next - much stronger than Doom I and II, even.

Doom 4 is an extremely predictable game because the entire thing is built around a single formula that is repeated over and over again. The doors seal, you kill everything. Doom 64 has open areas where you have to kill everything, but they didn't build the entire game around it. A good FPS game has variety. It has pacing that goes fast and slow and everything in between. Doom 4 is a game where you finish one repetitive combat arena, walk down a short corridor, and the game presents you with ANOTHER repetitive combat arena followed by ANOTHER. The game seems to have no idea how to be interesting beyond "spawn in some more enemies." The game doesn't even really manage to convey a sense of exploring an alien world the way other Doom games did because you're constantly being interrupted by respawning waves of enemies. And exploration is often kneecapped by the game deciding to lock doors to force you to fight yet another respawning wave of enemies.

edit:
And Doom 3 was paradoxically a flawed game because it was also ridiculously predictable. Yep, a demon will spawn behind me. Just like every other demon that spawned behind me. Vents? Spider monsters will come out those. And so on.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Well, atleast i'm not alone when it comes to thinkign that Doom 4 could be so much better. Hell it made me instal Ultimate Doom instead of finishing the new title. Fallout 4 did a similar thing, it made me instal New Vegas instead.

Anyway, my list of pet peeve's with this game:

-Levels are not truelly open, while linearity isn't a problem per say, having the Foundry to be more open than any other levels just makes it obvious.

-Demons aren't pre-spawned, instead it takes a que from Doom 3 and it spawns right in front of your nose. Which is kind off ironic since I dont recall RoE doing that. And while classic Doom does it, it does so very rarely.

-Limited health, armor and ammo unless you upgrade your suit.

-Glory kills, complete turn off, and yet you have to rely on them at times. Chainsaw does a similar thing, but atleast it is limited in fuel, so I can let that bit slide (atleast somewhat).

-Aesthetically, Hell could've been alot more vibrant, instead we get something that's rather generic looking.

-Which also kinda brings me back to my first point: the game boils down to walking in corridors > arena section (thanks to the gore nests) > more corridors, etc. Unless, again, it's the Foundry.

Last one:
-Soundtrack, this really is a case of YMMV, but I do think it is Mick Gordon's worst effort, with only 2 memorable songs.

Edit:
-"Rip and tear" it couldn't be more cringeworthy....

All in all, I think the game is a 6/6.5 at best.

To throw more salt into the wound for a certain person: TNO/TOB did a much better job keeping an older IP alive. Both became some of my favorite shooters.

 

[Poetic Nova]

At the end of the day DOOM's gameplay loop is going to grip you or it isn't. Sounds like you prefer more open ended, story-driven shooters.

I prefer Doom 64, which has barely any story and has level designs that are looping corridors with open areas. Doom 64 remains, for me, the best game in the series. Scary, vicious, and nightmarish. There's a constant sense of not knowing what is coming next - much stronger than Doom I and II, even.

Mhm. If I may recommend you something regarding Doom I and II.
Use custom wads that change the sound effects and music to those that are used in the PS1/N64 game. It helps alot in creating a similar vibe (and imo, nails it much better than Doom 3 ever hoped it could do).