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Can I just say how unbelievably good the new Doom is. That game has single-handedly restored my faith in the first person shooter genre.

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I love the fast movement and large enemy hordes in open-but-not-too-open-spaces mechanics of the new Doom.

I absolutely hate the platformer aspect. Seriously, guys, just because you have taught Doomguy to jump, doesn't mean that I want to have a series of random platforms that have to be jumped on in precise sequence to get anywhere.

At first I thought it's just a gimmick that they were showcasing in one map, and it'd even out... instead, I found that I'm spending more and more time doing this, and it's getting harder and harder, with the addition of moving platforms etc. The first Hell map was the last straw.

If I wanted to play Super Mario, I'd buy that, not something called "Doom".

Oh man, I feel so the opposite (of course, to each his own.) To me the platforming is fantastic, especially in mid-fight. It adds to the thrill because you can do a lot of jumping from platform to platform to evade shots, double-jumping and staying above a lot of the fray. Plus they have those jump-lift force fields you can use to launch through the air.

Watching some of the better play-throughs shows it pretty well: https://youtu.be/P6J352J_RG8?t=10202

Those were some of my favorite parts of Quake 3 too. The maps where you could spring off a jump lift from one end of the map to the other, shooting at people as you soared through the air...

I don't object to platformers per se, it's just that it's really not what I expect from Doom.

Also, I actually liked the (much more limited / less frustrating) platforming mechanics during fights, that just gives you more freedom of movement. Freedom of movement is good and Doom'ish.

It's the part outside of them, where you have to hop around in silence just to get somewhere, or get to a juicy item, that's objectionable - because that part is less about freedom, and more about railroading ("No, you HAVE to jump onto that moving train to proceed... and sorry, the last checkpoint is before that fight that you just have - hope you like replaying it if you fail the jump.").

Enthusiastically agreed. Doom has owned my free time since I bought it.

The art, the gameplay, and the music, sweet jesus the music...

Big time agreement!

I was reluctant to buy it, I came across this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua-f0ypVbPA

after watching it, I instantly purchased.

Agreed.

But the multiplayer, on the other hand, is the polar opposite. It has a "more of the same" kind of feeling and is easily forgettable. It tries a few things, but not effectively enough.

What's scary, is that something that was basically an afterthought, became the poster boy for the game before it even released. Couple that without sending prerelease copies to reviewers made everyone extremely nervous.

Though all fears were absolved when that first level loaded up, and holy shit!

What is the afterthought you're talking about?

Multiplayer is the afterthought. Not developed by ID, poorly implemented, and yet somehow became the first thing any of us saw.

What is so good about it? I haven't played it, but from what I've seen it looked like a fairly generic monster shooter, except without a cover system.

I got it based on glowing reviews, started it up....and wasn't too impressed initially.

But I kept playing, and started getting used to the movement and the shooting and started dancing through the enemies and dodging fireball after fireball while charging headfirst into a room, picking off enemies easily even though I'm using a controller (I know it has some auto-aim assistance but it's one of the best I've seen) and it felt different from every other fps I've played lately. Last game in a long time to make me feel that way was Splatoon.

The monster AI is better than in most games too. They chase you, leap onto ledges, climb up ledges and hang from walls, run around to get behind you (sometimes), constantly moving to dodge you and get a better shot at you, not hiding behind cover and then appearing briefly for you to shoot where you've been training your gun for 30 seconds like most games. Not the best I've seen, but better than most fps games.

Then there's the secrets. It's hilarious how Doom will show you the secret, either through a window or behind a vent, or a hidden level section will show up on the map, and then it pretty much dares you to figure out how to get there. You go where it looks like you can get there and there's nothing there. It can take a long time to figure out how to get to some of these secrets. That's pretty fun also.

The need to shoot people enough that they can be glory killed, and then needing to rush in to get that melee kill because it drops the health you desperately need, or hit them with a chainsaw to drop ammo you need is great too.

It's super smooth, and the levels are giant, and puzzly, it's pretty, and just a lot of fun. What Doom should be.

You made me buy it.

Word for word, your review is exactly how I felt (Though I was also excited from the beginning because I'm a sucker for Doomguy and wished Doom 3 was anything remotely like Doom 4)

I think the beauty of the single-player of new Doom doesn't translate well in videos. A lot of the features I thought were not that interesting or downright dumb (e.g. melee executions) actually tie the gameplay in such a way that it just clicks. It doesn't just lack cover, it forces the player to be anti-cover. There's a lot of weapon variation, and the customization (via a RPG-ish leveling up aspect) allows you to play the game the way you want. The level layout (including map system, secrets, challenges, etc) make you really want to go back and play more, explore more, do more.

For me, it's a similar feeling to the original Doom, albeit in a very different (one could say "more mature") packaging. It's not trying to be a modern FPS as we know it, it's almost like a parallel universe version of a modern FPS. It's really masterly done, any way you put it, but you only realize it as you play through it. When watching a video, it's too easy to get distracted by the superficial qualities of it and miss the meta-game.

Another thing is how pretty the game is. It's hard to get that out of a video, but when you're actually playing the game you realize just how beautiful it is. Part of the reason is they use a lot of colors. It's not just another dark color palette shooter.

Plus the frame rate is amazing.

Digital Foundry did a great technical analysis of Doom.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=la0O0SyM3gg

Watching it now. Thanks for the link. I love a good tech analysis

Shameless plug: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/

Note: that is for Doom 4, not Doom 1

Good point. In a world of 30-fps-locked games, a game that is engineered to run with your framerate just feels right, even if you're "only" playing at 60Hz.

But that means the voices get out of sync during cinematics if your fps is too low

No, the game uses frame delta times rather than a set tick rate per second.

(In general it's how most games already work; it's just that it's normally convenient to set it at a fixed rate to make some things like physics more deterministic, and it gives a nice target performance/budget).

Not if the cinematics are synced to a global timer instead of the frame rate. Then when the frame rate is too low the game skips some frames to keep up.

What's your computer's spec?

I've actually been playing on Xbone lately.

whatever_dude summed it up pretty well. It's not without its faults(terrible checkpoint system), but the single player is nearly a perfect game. Perfect pacing, smooth and engaging gameplay, the executions don't interrupt the shooting, the weapons feel amazing, tons of customizations and upgrades, the secrets are so well done they make you want to find them, and top it off with a KILLER soundtrack. It's all about action, no nonsense story, or cutscenes. Back to raw gaming. It's just overall the best FPS game I've played in at least a decade. It's THAT good.

The remix of E1M1 on the soundtrack is magnificent!

That's whats so special about it. It's fast paced, highly tuned, simple monster shooter that relies on speed and dodging.

There aren't that many games like that any more. They focus on other things.

Plus you can create a fun Doom map in like an hour? Awesome!

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