Doom 2016 or Mad Max: Punch Hell in the Face

In between playing Dark Souls 3 and waiting for Overwatch, Doom came up on steam. I hadn’t paid much attention because a) what 30 year old gamer doesn’t have a giant back log already and b) the last time I played Doom it was a slow wannabe survival horror game where using the flashlight made me want to uninstall the game.

The game comes with the tag “push forward combat” that caught my interest. After reading a bit more I bought it on a whim. After all, Bethesda already owns half my hard drive.

Since the play button became active I haven’t touched another game. The new Doom is everything advertised and then some. The combat is blistering. As you fight and lose health and ammo, the game encourages you (and later demands) you Glory Kill an enemy when their health is low. To do this, you run into melee range after using any of your myriad of weapons choices to weaken the enemy. Once in melee range you execute the enemy in glorious fashion.

Rip their arm off and beat them in the head.

Tear their heart out and shove it down their throat.

Twist their head around and remove it from their body.

After 10 hours of gameplay, these Glory Kills do NOT get old. They are visceral and rewarding in both visual and the necessity to regain health.

Need ammo? Run into melee range and chainsaw an enemy in as many different gruesome ways as the Glory Kills.

This ebb and flow of ranged gunplay and melee combat when you are low on health or ammo keeps the gameplay fast and furious. Your heart will be racing when you destroy an enemy nest and they start pouring out in every direction.

The upgrade system is standard fare but well executed. Every weapon has multiple firing modes that can be further upgraded. Your suit can be upgraded defensively or for item tracking. You can even upgrade your jumping and climbing abilities.

This leads to my only complaint. There have been a few platforming sections that I found irritating, but this was only because I was so eager to get to exploding things.

As with any Bethesda game, the production values are top notch. The visuals and audio are fantastic. The music sounds like 90s Trent Reznor during combat and 2010 Trent Reznor during more creepy or exploratory phases.

If you’re looking for a no nonsense, face kicking, you’re player character literally punches the friendly robots to get the upgrades kind of game, get this stuff downloaded to your skull immediately.