The Therapist Gamer

My friends and I often ditched school assemblies to play Doom 2 over two LAN connected computers.  It was fun every time.  We'd blast through the levels on the highest difficulty, shooting each other whenever possible but cooperating at the difficult parts.  To this day I think it's one of the best First Person Shooters ever made.  Though it doesn't have sophisticated objectives like modern games, the gameplay itself is just so well designed.  There are dozens of enemy types that are completely unique and eight distinct weapons.  The pace of the game is frantic - strafing around hurled fireballs and unloading as many shots as you can into enemies.  The environments, though basic, have an organic feeling to them since there are no invisible walls - if you fall down into a pit of poison then, well, I guess you'll be more careful next time!  Each level is littered with secrets that you might not find on your tenth playthrough.  The game is basically perfect.

 

I've often wondered why more games haven't copied more from Doom 2.  Well, basically every First Person Shooter owes something to Doom, but specifically I've wondered why more games don't have a wide variety of enemies, a variety of weapons (six different types of pistols don't count), and fast-paced action that's light on story (I've had similar thoughts about the N64 classic "Perfect Dark").  Even Id Software, the creators of Doom and Doom 2, seem to have had trouble replicating the awesomeness of the first two Doom games.  I never played Doom 3 but that's because it didn't look appealing to me at all.  Well, the famine is over and Doom is back in full force!  It's like the developers have awoken from a twenty year slumber.

 

The modern remake of Doom (sometimes casually called "Doom 2016" or "Doom 4" - man it's annoying when games have the exact same name!) actually has a fairly in-depth story but it's conveyed in such a way that it's basically optional.  The essential gameplay loop is the same as in the original Doom games - blow the crap out of everything while trying to get to the end of the level.  There are sometimes some keys you need to find in order to progress, but that's about as complex as things get.  There are optional objectives in each level but I didn't find these obtrusive.  The secret areas in the game are as obscure as in the originals and you can even find areas of each level that have the same graphics as the old games - if you find these areas you unlock the ability to play a "classic" Doom level.  

 

There are a few new enemy types but mostly the enemies are from Doom 2 - which is a good thing.  It was fun to constantly see new versions of old classics, like the Cacodemon and the Mancubus.  Though mostly similar, the enemies have slightly different gameplay behaviors than before.  For example, the Imps are way more nimble and can climb walls, and the Demons have a hard front carapace and can generally only be damaged from behind.  

 

The guns have a similar template to the enemies - that is, they are generally similar to the weapons in Doom 2 but there are slight variations.  The weapons have two secondary functions that have one or two steps of upgradability.  For example, the pistol has a function where you can charge up a shot and the assault rifle (the analogue of the chaingun from Doom 2) has a scope attachment.  One of my favorite features of Doom 2016 is that the weapons don't reload.  It sounds absurd, but it absolutely contributes to the fast-paced nature of the game.  No tactical reloading every three seconds - just shot after shot until the enemies are dead.  I remember playing Goldeneye 64 and marveling that the guns needed to reload, and then later marveling at games with actual reload animations.  It seems so backward to take away the now ubiquitous gameplay mechanic of reloading your weapon, but the developers thankfully understand that Doom wasn't good because of it's realism, but for it's fun.

 

The game doesn't take itself too seriously.  It's not weirdly goofy, but it also realizes it's a video game - it's hard to explain, but the developers simply nailed the level of irreverence.  The game knows what it is and embraces it.  It's refreshing to play a game that doesn't feel like it was designed in a board room.

 

Whether you played the originals or have never even heard of Doom, I think there's a good chance that you'll enjoy yourself while playing.  The game is full of high points and there's virtually nothing wrong with it.  True to form, the game also has one of the coolest credit sequences of any game ever!