Some impressions of DOOM so far

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Okay, now, I have no idea if anyone here is interested in this particular game, but being a bit bored tonight (cant go overboard on the gaming after a rather painful therapy session today) and also to distract from my damn headache, I may as well post some impressions of the game here.

For those that don't know, the game has a multiplayer beta up and running for a few days for whatever reason. I'm guessing they're stress testing the servers or whatever. Now, I'm not buying the game for the multiplayer, but the multiplayer does allow me to get a good feel for how the game functions and such. I'll sorta do a numbered list here of general ideas.

1. This does NOT play like a modern military FPS. If you try to spend your time hiding behind things, you will be on fire and/or in pieces. You spawn, you start moving, you never stop moving. Far as I'm concerned, this is how this genre should be. This also allows me to not totally suck, as my berserk style actually works here. There IS a sniper-ish gun, the Vortex Rifle, but... yeah good luck hitting with that.

2. There's no reloading. None. You never have to reload your gun. This is well in line with the original Doom, and keeps things fast (no need to dive behind a rock while you reload). However, switching weapons does take about a second to do, which in a fast-ish game like this is quite awhile, so you have to be careful about that.

3. Bunny hopping: Not really a valid tactic here. This, to me, is just fine. Oh yes, you can jump, and you can double jump, but this is best used for actually traversing the maps. Leaping around like a moron during combat will only make it harder for you to maneuver (zero air control; once you've jumped, you're locked into that arc).

4. Items: There are THINGS to grab, all over the place. As this isn't a boring military FPS, you have a health bar. A REAL health bar, where you don't die because a bullet grazed your foot twice. You can take quite a number of hits, even from heavy attacks (it takes more than just a single rocket to kill, for instance). Naturally, this translates well to the items, where you want to be running around and grabbing health and ammo pickups (ammo seems always universal, though I doubt that'll be the case in single-player). As someone that haaaaaaaaates regenerating health mechanics, I'm quite glad for this. There's special items too, such as heavy armor boosts, or a funky rune powerup that turns you into a demon. Currently, you can only turn into a Revenant. For those that don't remember Revenants, they are basically animated skeletons with dual rocket launchers attached to their shoulders, because why WOULDNT you have a skeleton with shoulder launchers? In the older games, their rockets had heat-seeking capabilities yet didn't hit particularly hard. In this, the rockets are more normal, but hit like a freight train, and demons have a TON of HP in multiplayer. The game warns you when a player on either team has found the rune, and keeps their health bar at the top of the screen.

5. Weapons and builds: One way or another, this is NOT the old Doom. At least for Multiplayer, there are builds/loadouts. Right now, there are not many weapons to pick from, of course. There are: rocket launcher, assault rifle, vortex rifle (basically the lightning gun from the older Unreal games, AKA, sniper gun), plasma cannon, and super shotgun. There are of course things like grenades, and also teleporters right now (you can fling them and teleport to them). I keep forgetting that both of those are there and so haven't actually used them, haha. There are also "hacks", which are basically like perks, you select a few of these and they do things, of course. It looks like there's going to be quite a variety of these but for right now only 6 are available. As for loadouts overall, there are some pre-made ones, and you can make your own as well. In multiplayer, you can only carry two weapons at once (bah). I have no idea if this translates to single-player. Weapons are brought in with loadouts, you do not find them lying around. I am told there are "super weapons" that can be found on maps (which I assume are rare item spawns like the runes) but haven't been able to confirm this.

6. Levelling: Yes, you level up in multiplayer in this. You know, typical sort of thing. Some players wont like this. I personally don't really mind, as I understand the design decisions that lead to the inclusion of such a thing. This means of course that things need to be unlocked, from Hacks to cosmetics and whatever else.

7. Maps: There's only a couple of these available during the beta, but I have to say, I like them. Again, this is Doom, not a modern military FPS. These areas aren't even remotely realistic. All sorts of cliffs and hard to reach spots, precarious platforms to leap on (which are, needless to say, surrounded by the bottomless abyss) and all sorts of things. This encourages good use of your jumping in order to get around efficiently. There are also green teleporter pads that can take you places.

8. This isn't Quake: Some people are really polarized on this game, which, frankly, I expected. Some love it. Some hate it. Some went in there expecting Quake, which is faster and tends to have a ton of annoying bunny-hopping. Among other things. This is NOT quake. It's not quite as fast, and has it's own unique quirks, and you' re going to have to use some different tactics here. And yes, the game is more approachable. This obviously just IRRITATES the so-called "hardcore" crowd, but... honestly, as someone that's played WAY too many extremely difficult and "hardcore" games, I absolutely have no problems with the game being a bit more accessible. It's still chaotic as hell.

9. Graphics: Pretty darn nice looking. Or at least I think so. As someone that doesn't care all that much about graphics, I can only say so much here, but I think for most, they'll definitely do the job nicely.


So that's some of my thoughts on the game for now, with the limited amount that can be played at the moment.

Again, multiplayer isn't what I'm wanting this game for, though I am pleased to see that the multiplayer is genuinely fun and NOT terrible. But I'm after the singleplayer more than that, and also the map editor. However, as those things cannot be touched right now, I cant post anything about them.


The game is currently playable for free during this brief period.


There, I have been a useful source of information maybe, for those that might care a bit about this one. You're welcome.

Someone likes the new Doom?
I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.

Yeah, info on it has been fairly sparse up till now. You know the sort of ad campaign... where alot of it is just cinematic trailers and not much else. Even as interested as I am in it, this seriously is the first major barrage of info I've been able to get my hands on and I had to play it myself to do so. I kinda hate when details are sparse before a game comes out, but... what can ya do. Though after having taken part in some game development myself, I now understand some extremely valid reasons for NOT giving out info until very, very close to release. So it doesnt bug me so much anymore.

And yeah, I do like it so far. It's not PERFECT, but then... one way or another, the genre has aged and advanced. And honestly, some of the changes that people dont like, I actually DO think they're for the best. Like, the bit where you START with your weapons instead of picking them up. I think that's a *good* change. It stops people from CONSTANTLY having to gravitate towards the nearest real weapon every freaking time they spawn, and keeps player movements far, far less predictable as a result. You dont know where people are going to go. Purists dont like this, but honestly, some gamers dont very well accept the fact that things change over time. There's some differences that I dont like myself, but.... honestly, not many. I seriously dont have many complaints here.

Besides, it's not like there arent interesting OTHER things to run around and grab.


Oh, and I didnt mention it, but this is the PC version I'm speaking of, for those that read this. I have no idea how the quality of the console versions will be, but if they're as good as this version, it'll be pretty great for everyone.