Slaying Demons and Heavy Metal Music - Playing DOOM (2016)
Thursday, August 18th 2022
Back in my college days, which is to say about six years ago, my roommate and I started a let's play channel on YouTube. If you aren't familiar with the format, we bascially just played games and had random conversations over it. I'd edit them into individual episodes, uplodaing them to YouTube as part of a larger series. The first game we played for the channel was the original DOOM. Andrew, my roommate, had discovered I had never played it and told me we needed to do this first. As much as the game frustrated me (and boy was that a lot) I also quite enjoyed the gameplay, soundtrack, and level design. After that we went in a much different direction, hardly touching any first-person shooters for a while. We played a Zorc game, we played Castle Crashers a bit, Portal 2...honestly just go to Lettuce Cat Entertainment on YouTube and you'll find it all.
I guess the point of all this is that eventually, the new DOOM came out in 2016. Since I had quite enjoyed playing the original, I figured, why not give the new one a spin? Andrew had recently upgraded his computer specifically to play the game, so I was pretty excited to try it out. At first, I only watched Andrew playing it, since he had bought the damn game and everything. Even sitting there next to him was so much fun. Watching demons explode from the blast of a shotgun, the thick, bassy guitar riffs chugging underneath...it was incredible. After a while he asked if I wanted to give it a try, to which I emphatically said yes. I can't tell you how good of a time I had with my first few minutes playing the game. Everything about it just felt right. The controls were snappy, the movement was quick, and I'll just reiterate how much I loved the music. Unfortunately, this would be my last experience with the game for a while. School got in the way and, as the semester came to a close, Andrew and I were getting ready to go our separate ways. Lettuce Cat Entertainment became a thing of the past, forgotten in the wake of beginning our new lives.
Within the next year we did get together and record some DOOM for the channel but it never was released. The episodes sat on my computer for over a year before I even thought about uploading them. By that point, almost all of the topics were irrelevant, and I didn't actually agree with my past self anymore. Instead of uplodaing some videos with outdated references and ideals I no longer aligned with, I kept the videos for myself. That was the last time I played DOOM. I bought a copy of the game for myself, but still haven't been able to upgrade my PC to be able to properly play it. Until the last two weeks that is. When I was trading in some games that I no longer needed, I decided to use some of the store credit to get DOOM for the PS4, since I knew it would run. So, I'm not playing it the way I would like to ideally, but I'm still getting an exeperience.
I already gushed a little bit about the game before, but I'm going to get into what I've been enjoying having played for more than just a few hours. To begin I'll restate how fluid and snappy the controls/movement are. It is easy to manipulate your character to get where you want and shoot what you want. It feels good zooming around and blasting demons apart with ease. The combat never feels dull or slow because of this, and is always keeping you on your toes. You'll be spinning around looking for what just hit you, only to have something else come at you from another direction. Being able to turn quickly and pinpoint the enemies attacking you is essential to this being fun, instead of frustrating (most of the time). The weapons in the game also play into this, giving you access to multiple ways of erradicating the opposition. From the trusty combat shotgun, to the more powerful rocket launcher, this game equips you with quite the arsenal. I've been impressed at how they've slowly introduced weapons throughout the game that still feel fun and new. I've been more keen to switching weapons up in this game than in others where I might stick with just one gun for the majority of things. The combat is also spiced up with the addition of Glory Kills, ultra violent melee kills that you can preform on staggered enemies. These can be initiated from different directions, resulting in a different gory animation.
While the fast-paced combat in the game is a large part of what makes it so fun, DOOM doesn't shy away from collectibles and secrets. There are plenty of incentives for exploration, including DOOM Marine figures, Praetor suit tokens, weapon mods (some of these are off the beaten path), and a classic DOOM map in each level. There are also optional Rune Trials you can find that give you access to runes that grant certain perks in game, such as gaining more ammo from enemies or gathering resources from a greater distance. Tied in with some of those collectibles are the upgrades you can make to both your weapon mods and Praetor Suit. As you gain tokens to spend, you'll be able to upgrade your weapon mods with faster reload times or a larger area-of-effect. Your suit includes four different categories to upgrade, each helping you in their own unique way. Some assist with exploration, while others can reduce the effects of environmental damage.
Alright, I've finally made it to one of my favorite parts of the game: the music. Honestly, I don't even know what to say about it now that I'm here. It's just...fucking good. The low tuning (on what I imagine are 7 or 8 string guitars) is just fantastic with the crunchy metal tone. Mick Gordon just knows how to make some fucking chunky ass riffs that feel good to slay demons to. Every track just rips and gives you the feeling that you are actually in hell or a hell-like environment. The more ambeint, electronic sections of songs work to break the tension a little bit before just smacking you in the face with that thick metal again. I just fucking love this soundtrack. Listening to it as I type this up actually.
The last thing I'll say before wrapping this up is they definitely didn't hold back on the difficulty. Just like in the original DOOM, there are times where I have been dying over and over again on the second hardest difficulty. I've only been really frustrated with one Gore Nest in particular that took me like twelve tries or something. That one got to me. Also, some of the secrets are just so hard to find. I mean, I get they are supposed to be difficult, but I feel like I just got lucky a few times (along with straight up looking it up sometimes). Overall, I'm really enjoying playing through this game. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm looking forward to what the last few levels have in store for me. Until next time...goodbyyeee!