Doom was a pinnacle of gaming since the early 90’s and I have played and enjoyed every entry. When Doom came back in 2016 for some reason I just never played it. Not for lack of buying it, I now own it on three platforms and finally, I played it.

nn

Reviewed on Google Stadia

n

Doom was a rollercoaster for me. I made a mistake and for some reason decided to play Doom Eternal before playing 2016’s doom. It was available on Xbox Game Pass and I played the first level and did not have a good time. I have not played an arcade shooter that requires you to continuously move in many years, so it may have just been rust. I love to take my time and move slow, so this playstyle didn’t click for me and I decided to just write off Doom.

nn

I had just finished a game for review and was wondering what game I would move to next and decided to give Doom another try, this time starting with the one I should have. Playing the first level, something got me and I was hooked. The action, the gunplay the glory kills, it was all just clicking for me and I was having fun.

n

As usual, I won’t spoil the story but I also will say, I have no idea what the story was. There was a lot of dialogue happening in the background but I had a hard time focusing on it. The cutscenes were beautifully animated but the story in those scenes was still difficult for me to follow. I don’t think you come to a game like Doom for the story though, you come for the gameplay, and the gameplay was great, at least for most of the game.

nn

For a first person shooter, there was a surprisingly high amount of platforming. The platforming itself was not terrible but platforming and shooting were extremely difficult. This was one of the most frustrating elements of the game for me.

n

I played through the first 75% of the game quickly and enjoyed every moment of it. Once I got all the weapons and saw all the enemy types the game started to just get a little repetitive and stale. It felt like I just went from area to area and got hit with the same swarm of enemies over and over and the game lost its charm.

n

The game is not too long, I rolled credits after about 11 hours, but the game at least for me overstayed its welcome. By the end not only did all the enemies just feel the same and act the same, all the environments felt the same which has me feeling like I was just replaying what I have already done.

n

In every great game, there is an even better shorter game and I believe that is the case when it comes to Doom. The maze like levels often added some extra game time of trying to find a key or the right path to take and personally I didn’t think any of that was needed. It was not present in every mission so it’s hard to argue that it’s the style of the game anymore, it was a choice, A choice I could do without.

nn

Verdict

nn

2016’s Doom brought the series back into the mainstream and with good reason. The game plays great and the hook of killing demons is a lot of fun. Sadly for me, it just overstayed its welcome. Frustrating platforming, occasional maze like levels, and repetitive enemy encounters took this fun game down a little for me. I did still enjoy my time with Doom and recommend it to any action fan.

nn

Final Score -6.5/10