Doom 2016

This game had a lot going against it after the poorly received multiplayer beta. I don't know why Bethesda decided that this would be the brunt of their marketing efforts for the game. It's out now, and the single player campaign is fucking great. Easily id's best game since Quake 3. The level design is sprawling, multi-layered, and with tons of secrets. The general pace and feel of the movement is pretty much the same as Quake 1. The glory kills which many were rightly sceptical about don't really get in the way of the action at all since they're over so quick. The direction they went with for the game's plot is also excellent and just tongue-in-cheek enough. Doomguy kind of nonchalantly disregards the plot imposed upon him much in the same way Arnold does in Commando. The best part of the plot:

It's implied that you're the same Doomguy from the first 2 games. The demons magically sealed you away in hell because they were scared of you and your unfair run speed. The game starts off with your sarcogaphus found by the UAC and reopened.

Awesome. I was hoping someone would start-up a thread on this. I wanted so badly to go out today and buy it on day 1, but after reading the reviews, it seemed appropriate to wait until it hits 30 or 40 bucks at Best Buy (then I'd snatch it up for 20% off on top of that ;)). Not that the reviews have deterred me from wanting this title. In fact the only thing that matters to me is the single player campaign; and, from what I'm reading, it's pretty awesome. That, plus the graphics, plus the gameplay = Win!

The thing is, I don't "need" to see that story through like I did with Uncharted 4 three days ago (also a launch day). Doom 2016 will be a brand new experience for me and it can wait. But I'm certainly looking forward to playing it. :)

I went and bought the retail version because it's being sold for $60 on Steam and the physical version (well, physical as in you get a box with a download code) was significantly cheaper. I even got a little Cacodemon squeeze toy along with my purchase. Pretty ridiculous, since that stuff has way higher production costs than just a digital copy. I'll never accept PC games being sold at console prices. It's completely arbiratry, since the console versions have to deal with the license fees imposed by the platform holders which doesn't exist on PC.

There's a promotion on amazon right now for prime members. It's 47.99 shipped for the latest xbox and playstation versions.

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Originally Posted by GeckoYamori

I went and bought the retail version because it's being sold for $60 on Steam and the physical version (well, physical as in you get a box with a download code) was significantly cheaper. I even got a little Cacodemon squeeze toy along with my purchase. Pretty ridiculous, since that stuff has way higher production costs than just a digital copy. I'll never accept PC games being sold at console prices. It's completely arbiratry, since the console versions have to deal with the license fees imposed by the platform holders which doesn't exist on PC.

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That Steam price won't last very long though and Steam users know that a considerable price cut is always coming.

Anyway, thanks a lot for creating this thread.
I'm glad to read positive things about this game; I'm big a fan of John Romero's work.

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Originally Posted by Barone

I'm glad to read positive things about this game; I'm big a fan of John Romero's work.

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Except John Romero had nothing to do with this game. Even John Carmack left halfway through the development of the game. I think the only person still working at id Software who worked on the original Doom games is Tim Willits.

Anyway, I'm still not sure what to think of this game. It looks fun at first impression, but it also looks like it could get monotonous very quickly. It certainly has none of the tense atmosphere that the original Doom games had. I will probably play it at some point, but I'm not too hyped about it right now.

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Originally Posted by Devil N

Anyway, I'm still not sure what to think of this game. It looks fun at first impression, but it also looks like it could get monotonous very quickly. It certainly has none of the tense atmosphere that the original Doom games had. I will probably play it at some point, but I'm not too hyped about it right now.

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Exactly. Doomguy seems to be having way too much fun ripping alien heads off, while in the original it was more an Alien-like survival horror setting where you were happy if you got through alive.

It would be like if Sigourney Weaver punched the alien in the nuts then chainsawed his body in half. It just doesn't fit.

The game only gets monotonous if you thought so about the first two games. Pretty much everyone who played through the campaign has enjoyed every second of it.

The big problem here is that Bethesda's marketing for this game has been some of the most terrible and misrepresentative of any AAA title ever. They screwed up so bad that whoever was in charge of marketing Doom ought to never be hired ever again. It was only in the very last days before release, when the nVidia Vulkan showcase footage showed up, that people really started changing their minds on what they thought the game would be like. And that wasn't even part of the official marketing push. Now the game has to rely solely on word of mouth for success, and word of mouth is unanimously gushing.

And speaking of nVidia, the engine is one of (if not the) best optimized in modern times. The game performs silk smooth on even an average mid-range setup. Other AAA games typically both look and run much worse than this on PC.

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Originally Posted by Blades

Exactly. Doomguy seems to be having way too much fun ripping alien heads off, while in the original it was more an Alien-like survival horror setting where you were happy if you got through alive.

It would be like if Sigourney Weaver punched the alien in the nuts then chainsawed his body in half. It just doesn't fit.

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Sounds like they replaced DOOM Guy with Duke Nukem.

I played it until I exited the first level. It feels more like a campy Quake game to me.

I'm not under the impression that it's as good as Wolfenstein The New Order yet.

Doomguy was always a badass that loved what he was doing. Pick up the chainsaw and watch his face in the HUD crack a toothy grin.

http://www.anaitgames.com/images/avatar/deltamono.jpg

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Originally Posted by The Jackal

Doomguy was always a badass that loved what he was doing. Pick up the chainsaw and watch his face in the HUD crack a toothy grin.

http://www.anaitgames.com/images/avatar/deltamono.jpg

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Agreed. When I read Blades' post, I was like, huh? I think he's confusing Doom with Resident Evil or something. Even when Doom Guy was in rough shape, he still had that look on his face like he was ready to F some S up. Now, while playing the game, I can certainly get that "survival horror" feeling, particularly when an alien pops up when I go around a corner or when I open a door and an alien yells and shoots me with a fireball or something, but Doom Guy revels in it. At least according to his expression in the HUD.

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Originally Posted by Knuckle Duster

I'm not under the impression that it's as good as Wolfenstein The New Order yet.

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Most games aren't.

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Originally Posted by Devil N

Except John Romero had nothing to do with this game. Even John Carmack left halfway through the development of the game. I think the only person still working at id Software who worked on the original Doom games is Tim Willits.

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:(
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by Knuckle Duster

I played it until I exited the first level. It feels more like a campy Quake game to me.

I'm not under the impression that it's as good as Wolfenstein The New Order yet.

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I think the moment to moment gameplay is significantly better than TNO. I wasn't entirely sold on that game and it has a couple of weird issues. For one, it feels kind of scizophrenic in how it kind of tells you to go in all guns blazing, but the game's design rather seemed to force me into playing it more like a standard cover shooter. IIRC I played through the single player on one of the higher difficulty levels, but not the highest. The whole system with progression through challenges also felt kind of ill conceived to me and in the end I just found it too frustrating to have all those prerequisites in the back of my mind while playing, so ultimately I just ignored them. Doom has a similar kind of challenge-based progression, both for specific weapons and for specific levels, but I found those much easier to accept and work with.

TNO was more of a callback to the type of mid 00's, pre-Modern Warfare shooter in the vein of Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Half-Life 2 (hell, plenty of the beats in the game's narrative and level design felt like direct HL2 references to me. Complete with a sewer section with little enemy drones flying around). That may fit the definition of old school for some people, but it's not a type of formula I feel particularly nostalgic about.

Doom on the other hand is the closest thing we've had to a modern interpretation of a 90's FPS yet. It is not just completely arena based like Shadow Warrior or Serious Sam. Pretty much every ranged enemy in the game is also projectile-based, and that in conjunction with the quick and agile movement makes it feel wholly unique and refreshing compared to any other SP shooter on the market today. As long as you keep moving around, you'll be (mostly) fine, just like in the original Doom. The most notable difference in the gameplay (apart from being able to jump) is probably that enemies are a lot more unforgiving in melee range and will kill you really quickly if you stand close even to the lesser enemies.