Doom is a reboot/relaunch of the popular first-person shooter series by Bethesda. It is a game where you are a death-machine, running and gunning your way through hordes of demons, collecting weapons and power-ups in your quest to, well, kill allot of things.
Doom eschews many of the more modern trappings of first-person shooters. Gone are things such as regenerating health and taking cover for reloading, replaced by health pick-ups and highly mobile enemies. It is not a mistake that the player character is faster than most demons, with the speed being intended to be used both for defense and offense.
The Doom story is also there, but it is definitely not at the front. Much like other games (such as Dark Souls) the story is just in the background. There are item descriptions and environmental clues about the backstory, but you can just as easily ignore it and blast your way through hordes of Demons.
All this comes together in a very good package. The single-player experience is a nice rush of circle strafing and shotgun-blasting people. There is also a glory kill system where you can finish off staggered demons for more ammo. The iconic chainsaw is also used to help replenish your stocks and the BFG is great for boss fights or in a tight spot.
The only criticisms are that the level design occasionally calls for some precision platforming. Although not too unforgiving, trying to judge your jumping or position in first-person is never easy. Similarly, although the levels are well designed for the most part, a couple of the levels can get quite confusing. And finally, some of the glory kills are a bit slow (considering they are mini-cutscenes) and stop the pace of a high-paced gunfight.
At the end of the day, these are quite small critiques as the platforming is mostly quite forgiving, the levels are mostly well designed and clear, and the glory kills are an overall positive mechanism. This is definitely a game worth checking out.
5 out of 5 gore-stained waffles.
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