Doom then and now

Doom was the first FPS game I played back in the 90’s. It was fast, jumpy and like a maze to get through. Each level was made up of finding secrets, hidden weapons, key cards and of course lots of monsters. To this day if I play classic Doom I still feel on edge and pumped up when blasting through a brawl of monsters, especially on the latest modded versions such as “Brutal Doom” and the latest multiplayer mods with Coop gameplay.

 

Next up was Doom 3 and the add-on Resurrection of Evil. A very story orientated game focusing on the reasons for the hell invasion. It kicks off with you and many others on mars and then it all goes tits up when the portal is opened. From that point on your left to kill off everything in your way whilst trying to track down Malcolm Betruger and close the portal to hell. I found this game to have an Unreal, the game, type of feel to it. It was very tense and suspenseful at times and full of jump scares. It had a different feel to the original doom but I liked it due to the story line and spooky theme.

 

When I heard A Doom reboot was being made I was existed but slightly apprehensive as I had heard they had attempted it before with “Doom 4” but it was scrapped for being too much like Call of Duty. My first concerns came upon playing the multiplayer beta for the new Doom as it seemed to be more like Call of Duty meets Doom but I had heard the single player was focused more on the old style of Doom.

Canceled Doom 4

As soon as the game was released I got it and cleared my mind of any doubts and just hoped for a good game. What can I say…  it delivered! It delivered so much that I don’t quite nowhere to begin. It is quite literally old Doom meets new graphics. I was worried it was going to be a brawl of monster after monster after monster but the Balance between exploring and monsters is spot on.

Secrets are a big thing in this game and I went out of my way to find them all. My favorite Secret is the old Doom maps. Playing though these levels with the new graphics was immense. Also to find you way around you now get a map which is a more advanced map
than old Doom but works it very much the same way to help find your way around.

 

Talking of finding your way around Key cards are now back! And at times you may have to double back on yourself to get though doors once you have the key. This is where the map comes to use otherwise you can get lost in the multi-layer levels.

 

Let’s talk monsters. They cannot be more than spot on. The monsters in Doom 3 I felt lacked the style and look of the monsters in the old Doom, however this reboot has taken the old look and given them steroids. Let’s take pinky demon as an example he/she has a clear comparison to its old self but in doom 3 it went with a different style.

 

The Story in the New Doom is kept simple and to the point, there’s no big cut scenes its just you a sort of friendly robot and a crazy chick that your trying to stop and once again close the dam portal, do they ever learn… keeping it simple was another nod to the old style game which only game some idea of a story at the end. The only thing missing from the new Doom is the death of doom guys pet rabbit.

Overall I think each Doom has its own place and theme to it discounting the Doom film, which was a bit crap. The old Doom has the aspect of being classic game play and old memories. Doom 3 in having a lean into being more about horror jump scares and the backstory and the latest having a blast of nostalgia and rebooting the old one in the best way possible. I just look forward to the next installment.