Doom
I found a copy of Xbox Doom 3 in a bargain bin at Whitcoulls in late 2005, I decided I had to buy it because it was in a limited edition tin, and I had never really played Doom. It also helped that it was a Friday and I would have a decent amount of time to play with it being the weekend. I did however have to wait till all the kids were in bad and my wife had retired for the evening. Then, I decided to up the ante a little, I turned off all the lights and grabbed my headphones. My first experience of Doom was going to be as immersive as possible.
Maybe a little too immersive. After about 30 minutes of gameplay, my nerves were shattered and I had to stop playing. Doom 3 was my first foray into Survival Horror, and it turned out to be a bit much for me.
Now it’s 2016, a lot of time has passed, I’m older and wiser (maybe) and I’ve played a tonne of games and watched so many films that I should be desensitized by now. So in theory, I should be able to manage a little bit of Doom, right?
Of course, this new Doom was coming to me on the Xbox One, so would look graphically a hell of a lot more realistic. Fortunately for me, this Doom is a balls to the wall all out shooter, rather than the freaky atmospheric approach of Doom 3. It’s more of a fun gorefest than a scary adventure, and that suits me just fine.
Never before has stomping on a zombies head and watching it exploded, or ripping it’s arm off and beating it to death, been so much fun. Coupled with an adrenaline inducing, thumbing heard rock sound track, Doom has you running down corridors to meet the hounds of hell head on, utilizing a combination of gun play and mele attacks to end your foes life with a spray of crimson gunk.
Doom not only looks stunning, but it’s level design is amazing too, with plenty of places to look for collectibles, or to get almost lost exploring. But it’s the all out fun approach to kicking arse in a major 80’s action film way that wins big points. It’s just big, ballsy fun.
The single player campaign, whilst fun at the easier levels also has some serious settings, that ramp up the difficulty and presumably make it into a more knife edge of a game, with the higher setting not allowing saves or re-spawning. But that’s for the hardcore gamer. Not me.
Doom also has the essential online multiplayer aspect that any decent First Person Shooter has. It’s pretty standard fare, with the usual modes and upgrades. It’s a fun addition that will give the game great replay-ability, but for me personally, it felt too much like Halo’s multiplayer to hold my attention for long. I’d rather concentrate on painting the walls red in the single player campaign.
Rating: R1316 Contains violence and horror.
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