At its best, Doom is everything it should be: a single-player campaign that’s just you, your super shotgun, and barely the amount of ammunition required to kill every single demon on Mars. It feels like a Doom game as you desperately try to find health pickups to keep you going, an ever-growing menagerie of demons snapping at your heels. It's exhausting and exciting and a little bit dumb, and when you're into it you're all the way in. At its worst, Doom is a repetitive series of enclosed rooms filled with demons, all of which you must kill to advance, complemented by a derivative and poorly thought-out multiplayer mode.
First impressions wise, Doom strikes all the right notes. The Union Aerospace Corporation's research facility on Mars runs red with the blood of employees who’ve learned a new meaning for the phrase 'wrongful termination,' but that barely matters to the inexplicably mute Doomguy, who shoots anything and everything which moves. Starting with only the pistol encourages you to focus on the diabolically delightful Glory Kill system — shoot your nearest Demon enough that they become staggered and highlighted in blue or orange, and if you press F (or R3 on a PS4 controller) while standing next to them you will rend them asunder. That is to say, you'll tear off their limbs and, in more than a few cases, joyfully beat them with their own appendages.

The biggest obstacle you can face when writing a review of a game like Doom 2016 is saying something fresh and new about a title like this. Game is at this point iconic and so recognizable that there is no real point of saying anything more, because many people before me already said everything about it. Nevertheless, maybe I still can smuggle a little thought, don’t you think?

I'm gonna be real with you, folks. I slept on Doom 2016. When it was announced, I didn't have a strong response to this information. 8 years ago the fps market was dominated by A) Call of Duty knock offs — a brown, grey military shooters based on real world conflicts, scripted and streamlined to the point that playing them feels more like sitting in cart on a some kind creepy theme park ride; or B) Story focused pieces resembling games like Bioshock, with disgustingly weak shooting, slow and clunky, because players apparently lost all dexterity and reaction time in a span of a few years. On top of that, ID reputation was severely damaged before by Doom3 and RAGE — ok games with fun gameplay, but in the case of ID doing ok, mediocre games were unacceptable. On top of that Carmac left the company and went doing VR shenanigans. So when Doom 2016 was announced, I felt nothing. I expected an average game tailored for modern gamers.

And then I went to my friend and played a game. And my eyes were opened.

It is funny how ID can do things like this over and over again. Back in 1993 they single handedly created an entire new genre of computer games, and now in 2016 saved said genre from collapsing. That's a feat, I'm gonna admit. Because in 2016 they were not only creating a one game, they also gave the world an opportunity to show other developers that there is a market for old-school fps games, games focused on being fast, hitting hard, precise aiming and fluid gameplay. Thanks to Doom 2016 today we can also play games like Dusk, Amid Evil, Project Warlock, Ion Fury or Ultrakill. And we were saved from scourge of COD or Fornite clones, pumped on a daily basis by uninspired, spineless cowards who only want to extract from gamers more money while doing absolutely minimum work. Yeah, I'm talking about you, AAA developers, you worthless, lazy, disgusting piece of sh…

Ekhm. Anyway.

So, what changed in the game? Surprisingly much enough and not. Once again, we are single-man army facing hordes of deamons from hell, but this time we are not some regular dude with fast feets and bunch of guns, we are the legendary, mythical doom slayer, who somehow survived Doom 1, 2 and Doom 64, gains superpower of being constantly super pissed and come back in alternate reality, where UAC… you know, what the best part of story in Doom 2016? Game actively mocks all those story-focused tropes from other games, giving a middle finger to all of this crap and encourages players to ignore it. Oh, some NPC talking? Doom slayer response? Punching. Kicking. Destroying. And you know, I like good story oriented games — hell, my favorite game of all time is Planescape Torment, a game focusing only on story, with tons of reading — but I know when storytelling is needed, and when not. Games like Doom DO NOT need deep characters, immersive plot or themes, morals… They need blood, gore, guns and action. And Doom 2016 delivers all those. Someone can say that it always delivered and always has been without story, but between 1993 and 2016 so many things changed it is worth pointing this out.

Core gameplay is still here, albeit with a few changes. Instead of carefully placing monsters to create interesting combat scenarios throughout the entire level, the game now focuses on an arena-shooter look-alike experience. There is an empty corridor, then a big room with combat, then another empty corridor, then another combat room… But it's not boring and repetitive, like in Serious Sam or Painkiller, where you can sum up the entire combat with holding the S key and pressing the left mouse, because hordes of enemies are dumb and going after the player in a straight line. In Doom 2016 it works better due to how different types of enemies work together when trying to destroy your ass. Soldiers trying to keep distance and shoot from a far, imps leaping around and tossing fireballs, distracting mostly, Hellknights and Pinkys putting pressure on you by constantly being close with melee attacks… Everything works flawlessly.

And yet you never feel overwhelmed. You feel like a badass — another thing that modern shooters like to forget. You are always in control of the battlefield, always on top, due to sheer brutality Doom Slayer can enact on enemies. The finisher system works amazingly well and has a nice feeling to all animations. But it's not only for show, it gives you HP back, so it's crucial to survival on the battlefield. It will help you many, many times. But melee is not the only fun way to play. Because for the most part of the game you will be using guns. All iconic arsenal is here, albeit with little changes. We have a pistol, now with infinite ammo, standard shotgun, beloved super shotgun, Heavy Machine Gun (with rockets!), too much — in my opinion — nerfed Plasma Rifle, Chaingun with extra barrels, rocket launcher, BFG… Devs also added Gauss Rifle — high precision, high damage gun that rewards mechanical skills and good aiming.

But hey, there is more! Because now weapons have mods, they can change the functioning of the entire arsenal. Shotgun now can also have a grenade launcher or 3 shot burst mode. Rocket launcher have manual detonation or guided missiles, HMG have mini rockets or scope. Every weapon has two mods and you can swap between them on the fly, AND they can be upgraded with weapon points, which you collect by killing enemies, doing challenges and finding secrets, so you are constantly motivated to play above regular engagement if you want a fully developed arsenal. On top of that, weapons have mastery, specific conditions you need to achieve (like killing a certain type of enemy in a certain way) to unlock the final upgrade.

I have only one criticism about weapon upgrades and challenges: they can be cheesed. You can kill enemies required for upgrade, reload the game, kill them again, and progress will be saved. Thanks to that you can quickly upgrade weapons to max level and have an easier time later. So devs, next time maybe instead cranking numbers you will disable progression and just make smaller requirements. Game is already long — 12 hours in the main campaign, no one will refund it, instead going for quota, maybe making a more memorable experience?

Cherry on the top are runes — passive abilities that can heavily enrich your gameplay (aerial control, longer glory kills opportunity window etc), and standard character upgrades like more health and more ammo capacity. All of them must be found through an exploring map, many of them are hidden, so you are always motivated to pay attention during playing level.

I will end this review by talking little about difficulty. When I first played Doom 2016 back in the days I played on Nightmare. It was a funny experience, I felt like exactly on point with all those challenges and combat scenarios. But then I played Doom Eternal on Nightmare. It was… something. Now, when I was going back to this game for all those sweet, sweet achievements, I hopped in only on Ultra-violence, the gentleman's way to play. And it was too easy for me. I counted all my deaths, and it was only 9, four legit, 5 because I was more focused on challenges for weapon upgrades than regular gameplay. So my advice for people who want to play this game after Doom Eternal — play on Nightmare.

Now. It's over. Go home or something.

what my father had to go through a day of school