Doom

Rating: 9.0

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

Doom is one of the best shooters I've played in years, the single player experience was something I haven't experienced since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare back in 2007. So it's the best shooter I've played in nine years. There are a variety of enemies, weapons to use against them, the action is non stop, and the story isn't half bad either. 

Run n' Gun

Doom is all about staying in motion and reacting quickly to enemies. Certain enemy types are weak against certain weapons and when a flood of them approach, you have to think quickly about how to go about the situation. Running around and singling out enemies worked best for me. Each weapon has two modifications that can be unlocked, which then can be upgraded. To add, certain weapons share the same ammo, so you have to be very careful about what you're doing. There are two energy weapons, two shotguns, and two machine guns. Deciding what you want to upgrade becomes very important and you have to compliment your own gameplay style if you're going to be successful.

Weapon Types

Each weapon has a strength and weakness, along with certain enemies that respond differently to weapons. There is the standard combat shotgun which has decent range and good damage up close. It can take out most minion type enemies in one shot or leave them ready for a glory kill. This is the most commonly used weapon to take out weaker enemies. Along with that is the double barrel shotgun which has very limited range but much more power than the combat shotgun. I found no use for this weapon. 

The heavy machine gun and chain gun both share ammo. The heavy machine gun is good for distant enemies since you can upgrade it with a scope. Headshots are very effective and when there isn't too many smaller minions chasing you, this weapon is used to take out more powerful enemies. The chain gun burns through ammo but can be used when situations get overwhelming. It will chop through weaker enemies all while damaging the larger ones that accompany them. It's a good way to weaken everything around you until you run out of ammo, and then switch to a more powerful weapon to finish everyone off. 

The pulse rifle and gauss rifle are the energy weapons. The pulse rifle holds a lot of ammo and shoots rapidly, but has low damage. The Gauss rifle is a long range high damage weapon that uses much more ammo per shot than the pulse rifle. I found the pulse rifle to be useless, and the Gauss rifle was much more superior along with it's upgrade tree. 

Last is the rocket launcher. Extremely good at taking out hordes of low level enemies and formidable against the more powerful ones, it's probably the most versatile weapon in the arsenal. With the nature of verticality and moving around a lot, you have to be careful when using this weapon since there is residual damage from your rockets. Blowing up an enemy too close will also damage you, and this is really the only downside to the weapon.

Artwork/Animations

The enemy AI and animations are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are complex with platforming features that require precise timing and jumping. Just when you think you can get to a safe area, the enemy AI gracefully jumps towards you. Even enemies you would not anticipate could do that based on their normal pathing. Nothing looks bad while all of this chaos is going on. Enemies are chasing you all over the map no matter where you go, they also try to get to vantage points. When you witness this happening, you can only appreciate the time and effort that went into that. It's some of the smoothest gameplay I've ever experienced and it seems like each scenario has been thought through, or it was incredible level design to avoid issues. 

The character models are top notch and there is a ton of detail and variety with each enemy. Based on their powers, strengths, and weaknesses comes the design of the character. You can tell fat guy is build for being slow and shooting a powerful weapon. Smaller four legged creatures with a horn are probably going to charge. Once their dead and you've actually inspected them, it seems like every inch of the character was thought about. Everything ties back into the personality of the enemy, from the necklace they have or chips in an enemies horn.

The environments are highly detailed and stayed true to the theme. There are two settings, hell and a facility on Mars. This allowed for a great focus to be put on two environments that have a deep variety. Different spaces in hell created an immersive experience and really makes you envision what hell would be like, and even the politics of what go on there. It truly was like being put in another mythical world and getting some perspective on how it would be.

Summary

If you're looking for a very polished game, this is one definitely worth picking up. Be weary that it's a shooter, and if you're not into shooters and gore this might not be for you. Anyone that loves the genre must pick up this game as it sets a new standard of what a next gen shooter should be.