Doom - PC

Everyone was pretty much expecting the worst from Doom after the extensive time it spent in development hell, including it being completely scrapped at one point and restarted from the ground up. But whatever made they decide to start fresh at that point was the best decision they could've made, because that abrupt design choice assuredly saved this game from being a disappointment.Doom is without question one of the most fun and satisfying games I've played in YEARS. It's fast and frenetic gunplay against hordes of demons and monsters that's honed to a science, harkening back to the idea of relying on speed, skill, and a f***ton of powerful guns and items to get you through combat instead of cover and exploiting rock stupid whack-a-mole enemies. It eschews the idea of waiting for an opportunity to pop off a couple shots and slowly work your way through levels by literally telling you in the first five seconds to rip and tear until it is done, and it's as viscerally satisfying as it should be. It honestly feels like the perfect blend of classic Doom sensibilities given a modern retooling, where it takes what it needs from its roots for most of the core gameplay ideas and then adds onto it with more recent developments in gaming like character progression and customization. And it all works and feeds into itself remarkably well.The PC version runs brilliantly, looks amazing, and has the tight customizable controls you'd expect from any PC shooter. The downside of the physical copy is that it's only 1 DVD of about 8 gigs and the rest has to be downloaded via Steam, but at this point physical PC gaming is pretty much on the way out so I can't really blame them for not wanting to make 5 DVD's for every physical copy when most sales would be digital.While the multiplayer is not nearly as bad as many make it out to be, it certainly isn't close to as good as the singleplayer. But I'm alright with that, it's still friggin' fun and has a fair amount to offer between levels and game modes, and considering the singleplayer is 100% the real draw I'd say having added multi that's okay but fun isn't worth knocking the rating of a game down that much. I mean really, why do multiplayer centric games get a pass for the opposite, where singleplayer is either nonexistent or so weak that it might as well not be there, but still get outrageously great scores?Doom feels like a miracle to have come out now and be as shockingly good as it is, and it feels like a much needed kick in the ass to a lot of shooter conventions that have gone to make the genre feel so numbingly stale and repetitive these days.

This game is fun, no doubt, but I'm very disappointed in the fact that Bethesda ignored what it means to have the physical copy of a game. Upon installation I was required to download 63 of the 66 GB of content, which makes absolutely no sense considering the entire game should be ON THE DISC. Do NOT buy this if you have a slow internet connection like me as you will be stuck waiting days at a time to play this game. Absolutely unacceptable and deplorable thing for Bethesda to do.

Let me first elaborate on the title I gave this review, since I know the majority of you are going to look for the report button before anything else. When Doom originally came out, there were no rating systems for video games; doom was used as the de facto standard (along with Mortal Kombat) as to why the gaming industry needed to develop a rating system in order to keep these types of games out of the hands of children. Obviously it did not work; and and that was not the reasoning behind it. The point of the ESRB was to destroy video games, in the same way there's almost never a good superhero movie that isn't rated R (or the new robocop); By forcing manufactures to use the rating system or not pubish their game, the ESRB hurt the gaming industry a lot more than bad decisions often made by people in it. Anyway, enough with the history lesson. TL DR - If the original game caused the columbine massacre, then this game caused ISIS. Yes, it's that awesome.For those of you who have played though the first two dooms (and the various spin offs, like Final Doom), you will love this game. Everything in the game has been faithfully recreated, from the weapon textures, monster attacks, to the relative difficultly of the game. All the gore, all the vulgarity, all the stupidly over the top violence is there. The only real difference is how they altered the gameplay to be comparable with modern gaming.In the old days, there was no regenerating health. You didn't need to reload your weapons. There was no plot line in games like doom. You were a space marine and you killed everything in sight. All this has been updated with the times - Health does not regenerate; there are health packs, but you get health from killing monsters (and even more by using "glory" kills or by ripping them apart with the chainsaw). Weapons function like they did in the old days, except they are all modable - but you'll actually have to be careful with using ammo, as you'll frequently run out and will have to end up using your chainsaw to get more. The plot line, while not unique, does exist this time around; It has to do with limited amounts of energy on mars...and it's basically the stereotypical bad cooperation that is being destroyed by a single person. However Doom was never meant to have a story, and they did this one well.There are plenty of Easter eggs, difficulty settings (even a hardcore mode), online game modes (with the ability to play custom maps!), and time trials for you to gain extra powerups (the power-up system has seen a modern remake as well).Literally the only thing I can think of wrong with this game is how ID software never really explicitly did explain the link between BJ Blazkowicz (The protagonist from all the Wolfenstien games), Commander Keen (another ID software game which has never seen a modern reboot), and Doom Guy (BJ Blazkowicz III). This is pretty much the one thing that I've been hoping that they come up with a story for since the 1990s. I'd love to see a modern crossover between all three games; and to explain how all of BJ Blazkowicz's ancestors were cursed by the original (cyber)demon.In short, this is the best remake of an older game since Shadow Warrior - No wait, it's way better than that!

This game is solid and timeless and everyone should play it. The 1 issue I have is not related to the game but it is the fact that like most games these days, the disc just serves as a keycode because it initializes a download from Steam. I prefer to play games off my own discs without having to rely on a service to download the game. Otherwise, DOOM is addictive. The best joke about this game is that it has been called "a heavy metal album that comes with a game." So true.