I will say that from the very first level I felt like someone had taken Doom and put it in a blender with Quake 3 to get the end result. I loved both of those games, and I loved what they came up with in the end, but I understand how some people could be put off by it if they came in expecting the mid-90s id titles with a new coat of paint.
The gameplay is strikingly fast-paced for a single player FPS, and I felt they could have sprinkled on some lulls in the action to flesh out the story and give players a chance to take everything in. Also, as amazing as the engine and level design is, for whatever reason I just did not feel that the atmosphere was on the same level as Doom, Quake, and Quake 2. I think the pacing, sound design, and music probably had something to do with that.
All right, I’m going to be that guy then. The movie isn’t really bad, but it’s also not Doom. There’s no demons, it’s all just genetic mutants and some such. And it’s so clearly low budget, and then the little FPS part is kind of silly.
Rebooted this just to pick up where I had left off about, um, a year or more ago. It’s very pretty and slick, but I just couldn’t get into the bullet-sponge enemies. None of the weapons, at least with the piddly upgrades I had unlocked by then, really did much without using up all the ammo I was carrying, for like each bad guy.
Play on a lower difficulty setting? I mean, I’ve really enjoyed playing Doom, but I have zero interest in playing at a high(er) difficulty setting. As far as I can tell, the experience is the same regardless of which difficulty you play it at.
That is I think the best idea. I was playing on “Hurt me plenty,” whatever that was. But I uninstalled it again (Steam makes it so easy to go back and forth).
Are you using your chainsaw to get ammo? That’s a critical part of the resource loop.
As for the difficulty, I loved feeling like my dance of death could end at any moment so I really had to focus on positioning and using everything at my disposal. It was incredibly thrilling and gratifying to pull through those tough battles so I think going too easy will diminish those feelings.
Also a good idea. I guess I’ve move on from the Doom style gameplay, maybe. I like combat to be less “fill them with tons of lead” and instead be more about fewer, more powerful hits I guess? But the chainsaw bit is a good reminder. If I reinstall it I’ll start from the beginning, because I think trying to dive in where I left off didn’t really get me in the groove.
Hahah, since playing all these immersive sims and non-lethal games I relish being able to just let rip and empty entire armouries into enemies! It was one of the reasons I didn’t mind the Human Revolution bosses, even if I knew that they were terrible; they were good excuses to use all those toys that were otherwise off limits! :-)
I think Doom’s difficulty curve (at least on the higher difficulties) also assumes you’re bagging your runes and unlocking mastery upgrades so if you’re not doing those then you’re probably hobbling yourself a bit there too. God, I want to play this again now. Loved it.
Edit: I played on Hurt Me Plenty which was tough on a first (and only) playthrough. How far’d you get @krayzkrok?
Difficulty balance in the new Doom felt a bit iffy for me, because while the game is more intense in the harder difficulties, the difficulty jump makes obligatory to use very constantly the ‘gore the demon to recover health’ mechanic, making it even more gimmicky than it was.
Whilst one of my criticisms of Doom 2016 is that it didn’t have enough/any popcorn enemies, you’re forgetting that most of Doom’s enemies are pure bullet soaks, and a big part of the original’s gameplay (at least, to me) is counting how many shotgun blasts each big enemy had received.
I think the problem with Doom 2016 is that almost all of its enemies are bullet soaks. It’s a shame AAA gaming prefers higher polygon counts to enemy spam :)
Yeah but it was in dribs and drabs. There were a max of 3 imps on screen at once, and they all slowly spawned in one after the other. If they could all stand in a big group I’d only have to use a single rocket on them, but as is, I’m wasting like 10 or 15 rockets at a time!
I wouldn’t change anything about DOOM 2016. It’s just so great in every (single-player) way. But with that being said…
The game I’m waiting for that might deliver what you seek is Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass. Excepting the fact that the series is more of a AA series than a AAA series, you don’t really notice these things when neck-deep in swarms of enemies.
There has to be a middle point between the “6 enemies on screen” of Doom’16 and the “200 enemies on screen” of Serious Sam series, which imo is so bland and boring.
