Doom

Blast from the past

I was 21 when the original Doom came out at the end of 1993. At work we downloaded the shareware version over a 14.4Kb modem from a bulletin board I don’t even remember. It seemed to take forever. I recall we had a lot of trouble getting it to play across our network, but eventually it worked and we had a blast.

No game had such an impact so quickly, not only because of the fluid gameplay and state-of-the-art graphics, but the excessive gory violence. It didn’t take long to discover the fun you could have blowing up your friends with a rocket to the face, their pixelated remains flying everywhere. It was disturbingly satisfying.

Yet despite the mayhem of multiplayer deathmatch, I still preferred the single player game. There’s nothing quite like exploring a carefully crafted game alone and unravelling all its secrets.

Now there’s a new Doom out and apparently it returns to its roots. Call me cynical if you like, but I doubt it: gaming has moved on so much. Still, I had a lot of fun with the originals, so when it came on sale I bought it to try it out.

Nothing compares to you

There are two factors that make the original Doom so good: speed and simplicity. Gameplay is straightforward: run and shoot, pick up supplies, then run some more and shoot some more.

The new Doom does sort of return to this idea, but it’s just not pure enough. I played around 6 hours of the game altogether, getting through the first 4 levels. The graphics are detailed as you’d expect, but the modern aesthetic doesn’t really evoke any kind of nostalgia which is a bit of shame.

I played Doom 3 back in 2004 and while this new game is better looking, it still suffers from trying to be a dark game, rather than trying to be a fun game.

And there’s the rub: I just didn’t find this new game fun. Guns and armour use an upgrade system, matching most other modern games, but it removes the purity of the original. Who cares about upgrades in a game like this: finding better weapons is the upgrade system and that’s all you should need.

The re-imagined enemies are all great: beautifully designed with super animations, but I quickly got bored. And where were the swarms? There were only ever a few enemies on screen at once and I never got the feeling of old Doom where you often felt completely overrun. But to be honest, that’s probably a good thing: my gaming reflexes aren’t that great these days and quickly got tired of trying to be an ace shot (something that the original Doom was pretty tolerant about).

It’s not you, it’s me

After a few levels, with the game failing to grab me, I stopped playing and never went back to it.

There’s clearly a decent game in the new Doom, and it might suit many players. But it’s not for me: I now prefer slower games that have greater exploration and better stories, so I should have realized that Doom was no longer meant for me.

Sorry Doom and all your ilk: I can’t see you any more.

It’s not you, it’s me.