Doom (2016) - One More Try
In the hierarchy of first person shooter video games, Doom would arguably be considered royalty. It was not the first 3D shooter, but it certainly was among the first to popularize the genre. Since the inception of the original for pc, there has been at least one Doom title released every decade. Doom 3 (2003) was not as well received as its predecessors, but even then, the hype for it was immense. I still remember the excitement around the time it came out. There weren’t computers out there capable of handling it. People were building new PCs with the sole purpose of playing Doom 3 at the highest possible settings. I think it might have been the first game to have dynamic lighting. Ultimately, having to manage light source was something most players did not like about the game. Although more and more players are recognizing it for a fun shooter that it is.
The next Doom (also the one I am going to be playing now) came out in 2016. It was the “return to roots” entry in the Doom library. Bethesda had already relaunched Wolfenstein with great success, there was no reason to think they would not be able to repeat it with Doom. It was fast and frantic with gore flying everywhere. The story did not get in the way of action. All the old demons were back, and so were all those original guns needed to blow them apart. Doom slayer was solely focused on slaying. He had no time for excuses and certainly did not care for the narrator’s rambling.
I originally got Doom (2016) on console (Xbox One I think) since I did not have a computer that could handle games from 2016. After listening to the reviews and multiple podcasts touting the greatness of this game, I decided to give it a try a few years ago. I did not like it much. It was a fast paced shooter where I found aiming to be a real chore. Especially the demons who would jump from ledge to ledge and then strafe me while throwing fireballs were a damn nuisance. I could not move my gun fast enough to keep them in sight. The shotgun was available early in the game, but the ammo was scarce. I kept running out of shells, forcing me to resort to the weak pistol. After struggling through the first few levels, I got stuck on a part where a particularly tough enemy could not be beaten because I just did not have enough ammo to deal with it. Instead of dropping difficulty, I stopped playing. I was just not having enough fun to justify coming back to it.
When I built my new PC, it gave me an opportunity to revisit quite a few of the games I had abandoned or avoided. Bethesda and ID started the new decade with a Doom title instead of waiting. Doom Eternal was one of the hottest games of the last year. Again, it received a strong positive critical response. There was a time when one could not avoid Belle from Animal Crossing and Doom Slayer from Eternal. When the Steam Sale rolled around, it was discounted quite a bit, but not as much as the previous one. I still had my reservations about Doom (2016), but at about $5 it was less than a chicken strip meal at Whataburger. I figured I will skip eating out one day and give it one more try.
Most my problems with the last experience had to do with controller based aiming. With mouse and keyboard, I figured I may be able to have a more enjoyable experience. There are so many games I had started simultaneously, what difference would one more make? So today I started Doom one more time. If it was still the same kind of experience, I was not going to spend too much time with it.
I was immediately blown away. It feels like a completely different experience. The game, by no means, looks ugly on the console. It is on a whole other level on PC. The colors are vivid, the everything seems to pop out of the screen. With the headphone on, music had me going from the moment Doom Slayer pumped his shotgun. I was ready to go when he broke the monitor to shut the narrator up.
Aiming with mouse was the missing piece that had kept me from enjoying the game earlier. Being able to aim quickly and more accurately made the action more manageable. The fast moving demons were no longer intimidating, and the shambling corpses were just fodder for my pistol. I was able to handle the waves of enemies with ease, and glory kills felt more natural when I did not have to push the joystick down for it. In fact, the melee to glory kill felt like a smooth extension of the shoot to stagger mechanic. I even used glory kills on staggered enemies to reach higher ground as traversal strategy.
I was out of the lab and onto the surface of Mars without a hitch. Mouse wheel makes switching between weapon on the fly possible. This changes how I handle different enemies. Switching shotgun in and out between enemies makes ammo management frictionless. This was not as smooth on the controller, where I ended up using a shotgun until I ran out of ammo and then made the switch. It feels more natural to choose guns based on who the opponent is.
First Person shooters are the second genre where I am seriously considering never playing on the console (unless they are console exclusives of course). Anything with aiming just easier with mouse and keyboard configuration. I am already not too keen on playing wRPGS on consoles. They are usually buggy with limited mod support (if any). There are quite a few unplayed games I have accumulated for PS4 and Xbox One over the years. I have a feeling I will end up buying most of them on PC again. In the meantime, I am going to see how far I can get in Doom and Doom Eternal.
01/17/2021
