Dilemma of Doom (and why you should still be excited)

Running, or shooting?

Oh this is very relevant on the heels off my last article (though I meant to get this out sooner). Way more than I'd like it to be. So Doom is out, and is looking great in my opinion. I don't think the internet has treated it fair, giving it tons of heat based on very trivial things, and just plain stupidity. Heck I've even recently found out the beta complaints (which are relatively legit, though I disagree with them as I loved the beta) are even fixable via mode tweaks and snapmap editor. Like the fact that you can make traditional weapon pick-ups for an old-school deathmatch. I'm not sure how well custom modes will be implemented, be it the Killzone ShadowFall route, private matches, or like a decent server broswer (Hint: the server broswer is the best, the freakin' 90's were doing online better than most modern games), but its there and I've even heard someone say there's a form of bots in the game. That's just fantastic, and I'm running out of things I can ask for from this game. So the plan was to just ignore the internet for a while, and as the game hits launch, maybe check metacritic to make sure its not falling behind the 70 area, and then its probably all good. Oh, but metacritic may not show much to us until like sunday, because critics will see the retail game for the first time as we do.

Of course, their excuse is that multiplayer should be tested out the right way. However when your multiplayer reception bombed (not my opinion, but it did), the game doesn't depend on its multiplayer in the slightest, and you're holding the game away from critics, this all looks pretty bad. Lets also not forget we live in an age with proven review alteration methods, be it from the critic's end, or the publishers. Bethesda could easily tell you not to discuss the multiplayer until X time, or simply not put up the servers, and so critics could make "in progress" or campaign exclusive reviews on the game. That'd be the most logical and consumer-happy approach, but no Doom wants to be a good little moth that flies right into the flame. This just has people even more hateful about it, and now even as a supportive and hyped up FPS fan, I can't say squat against them. I'm even a bit skeptical myself now. They have every darn right to be a little uneasy about a game that refuses to show itself before a judge, especially if they were already trashing it. So I've just got to sit in a corner and figure out if Bethesda really is hiding something, or if the game might just be making a stupid move and turn out as exceptional as I pictured it and this is all just their silly move.

However here's the thing: what am I worried about? Lets go over it again, I love the looks of this game because of everything I've seen at its core. I love the pacing, the weapons & gunplay, the mixing of gothic + dark sci-fi aesthetics meeting, and the fact that we'll be managing our resources and replaying the game with new configurations. Oh and the campaign is 12 hours long, and you've got a timesplitter-like map editor, so that's all great as well. They've shown off about an hour or more in footage, and let us play the multiplayer at potentially 3 different sittings, and everything has checked out alright since the very announcement of the game with its description full of bulletin points like "No regenerating health". Its not exactly trying to tell a story either, so its not like we're all going to cry over the way the game ends. If Bethesda is hiding something, what the hell can it be?

Occasional Serious Sam type wave battles? We saw that, its ok Bethesda

Though I do have a slight counter-argument to my own self on that note: Brink. I've told this story before, but its worth repeating. Brink launched from a hyped up successor to Killzone for hardcore shooter fans, to landing with all the grace of a thud. It hit every note I was buying it for though. It had strong gunplayer, fun customization, great battles, fun dynamic objectives and rooms, and the environment was at least slightly more flexible than most shooters. However it failed at a level so fundemental that nobody in their right mind was looking for it: Maps & modes to play. Its supposedly blurred campaign was a hoax way of saying "well we have bots in this pre-fixed map order that coincides with a loose story". It was just multiplayer with bots, which was really your only source of multiplayer because the netcode was either broke, or once it was fixed the playerbase was bleeding rapidly. The multiplayer itself was also just the campaign... basically just those 8 maps and objectives, and basically a typical attack or defend position. No team deathmatch, no conquest/domination mode, no huge variety, and not even a lot of DLC with just two maps being launched. I fell for it because you just don't predict your problem being running out of staple FPS content. That's like being excited for the next Mario platformer, only to find he can't jump on enemies, and then feeling awkward because you never looked for that but you shouldn't have to.

Not pictured: He crashes and burns himself

Now that being said, I can't think of that going wrong here. Doom has mode variety in its beta, never the less its full game. Its going to have multiplayer, a real campaign that's estimated to be 12 hours long, and a map maker because why not design your own mode and levels if the game doesn't have enough for you as is. Then what is the big deal? I can't help but speculate either Bethesda is nervous enough to hurt itself here, or they think someone is going to hate some simple minor change like the animated melee, or the Serious Sam-esque wave moments where you need to shut off a portal. Maybe the online doesn't work on launch? Or maybe they're telling the truth, and are just idiots about how reviews/multiplayer work? I don't know, but in every case I can't find a reason to be deterred by Doom. The only core mechanic I can imagine is in danger, is the fact that health seems to pop out of enemies rather than traditional placement, so worst case scenario is the game actually has a weird almost regenerating health that works like Bloodborne/Space Marines in that you get it automatically back for killing enemies. That's not exactly that bad, and it could certainly be worse with real regenerating health. Everything else checks out. There are big guns, wild enemies, various modes and multiple ways to play each piece of them, and some solid looking mechanics. I'm excited.

...and finally there have been streamers. I quickly found a stream late last night showing Doom by a critic with similar FPS tastes as me, and yet he was on the skeptical side of Doom. He was having an absolute blast, and I literally walked right into his stream hearing him say "This is great! Far better than I expected it to be. The movement is snappy, encourages all this jumping, shooting things is fun..." and he just went on and on about it. It looked good. It was working, functional, and he was enjoying things. I think everything here checks out for me. I'm going in blind from here, but I mean that in a good way. Lately I've been a little tired of over-doing the game news stuff. I'm tired of the negativity, all the whining, all the cynicism, and all the doubts people will fill your head with. The internet can be a glorious place in the right areas, but it can also be a draining one in other scenarios. Sometimes I wish I had never combined it with video gaming, and still had that innocent thought process of "this looks fun. OH, it is fun!". I don't really mean that entirely since I know I've dodged some bullets and got some cool stuff from the internet, heck just recently a mere E3 rumor lead me to remembering a System Shock 1 remaster was on steam and now I'll grab it when it goes on a sale. However I can't say the thought crosses my mind to free my mind of it. So Doom is going to be that game. Its going to be that game where I do my best from launch to just see the fun in it. The negatives of the internet have only been so awful as to just laugh most off, but once its released there will be more legit moaning about, and I don't want any part of that until I've got only my own thoughts and happiness on it. If something really bugs me, I can share it and discuss it with others who may agree. However these thoughts, this fun, and this excitement... I'm not going to let them be robbed because of skepticism or because the internet doesn't approve.

As for this sticky situation with reviews, well depending on how excited you were vs on the fence I'd tell you there are three options: If you loved everything about the game, just grab it. From what we all can tell, there's plenty of working and believable gameplay footage out there, and things are looking to match what we see. If this has you too nervous and you might not be all that excited, just wait. Wait for next tuesday if you were willing to depend on reviews. Besides, that's when most games release anyway. Finally, if you're in America, well there's something called Redbox that Bethesda almost always caters to. I saw a Doom ad plastered over it just yesterday as opposed to Uncharted 4 surprisingly, and they'll have it. You can rent the game, and all of its "awful" or "glory" will just cost you $3 per day to test this and be your own reviewer without sinking a ton of dollars on this. In general, Doom has you covered, and I'm thinking the excitement is real and releasing today. I'll try and have a first impressions up soon, but don't count on it if its too fun to pull myself away from.