2016's DOOM is a middle finger
to the modern video game.
From the rejection of cinematic cut scenes...
to the silent, destructive protagonist. This is a game focused
on delivering a pure hands-to-controller
gaming experience.
Just look at how DOOM begins. You're shackled to a
table and, in the space of a couple of minutes, you've already
crushed demonic skulls and acquired the
franchise legendary shotgun. No cinematic
cutscenes; no dialogue heavy exchange.
Just you, your bullets and some demons.
There's one moment in DOOM that has been stuck in my mind for
a long while now.
You're playing as Doomguy, while Samuel
Hayden, the voice that follows you around, orders you
to carefully release the hinges on an object.
Now take a look at what happens...
Instead of listening to him.... you just straight up crush
the object and continue with your journey.
This is DOOM in microcosm. An exercise in
simply not giving a f*ck; an exercise in
getting on with the damn thing and destroying everything in your path.
It doesn't make any attempt in humanising your protagonist...
and by doing that, it actually makes his journey
more compelling. After all, Doomguy is
confused and angry. So it's only fair that his journey
be uninterrupted and his path of destruction
totally seamless.
The game wants, and requires you, to cause chaos.
If it were to inject cutscenes and make a cinematic
journey out of the story, you would lose momentum.
Doomguy would lose momentum in his journey.
This breakneck, cutthroat speed
is the reason why DOOM stood out above most games for me last year.
By rejecting the typical structure of the modern video game,
essentially remaining true to its franchise,
DOOM excels.
It offers not only a freshness to the player, but
an experience that requires your eyes to be glued to the screen
at all times. I honestly cannot remember the last time
my fingers ached from constantly being
attached to my pad.
DOOM manages to be a throwback to times past
but also paves the way for gaming without restrictions and
pauses. The 60FPS
also helps reinforce the fluidity and speed of the game.
The sound design, though, I feel helps thrust
this idea forward. When the game starts out
you're greeted with Mick Gordon's heavy metal soundtrack
but as it progresses
the music gets louder and more elaborate. The stakes
grow bigger and the sound certainly reflects that.
By your final boss fight, the rhythm of the music
is what keeps you alive. Or at least
it did me. Utilising the music
as a means of finding rhythm and reminding yourself of
the necessity of movement, certainly aids any fight
in this game.
Very rarely do we sit for a video game and hear something so
unadulterated and unabashedly loud.
We're either given something cinematic, akin to a
film score, or we're dropped in with
something emotionally manipulative. There's nothing wrong with either.
And this isn't an attack on cinematic gaming, it's rather
a love letter to the balls-to-the-wall craziness
of DOOM. What's interesting is that the soundtrack
to most games reflects where you are, rather than what you're doing.
What I love most is that DOOM is a game that
encourages you to explore, supported by the easter eggs
and various Doomguy models scattered around the map.
But its levels are designed to discourage hiding.
Everywhere you go, it's open season. Enemies
will fly your way. It keeps the speed of the game ticking,
but also pushes players to resoundingly
defeat every single enemy rather than running away
from conflict.
How about those mechanics? You can't take cover.
You can't reload. The game takes pleasure in being batshit
crazy. By forcing the player to constantly move...
and constantly shoot... the requirement for there to be an
expansive storyline and cinematic cutscene is
therefore void.
Listen, DOOM ends on a fucking cliffhanger!
There is literally zero resolution to the story, yet the majority
of people seem to love that. Why?
Because nobody cares about the story. It's merely a vessel
for either theorising, or simply ignoring.... but it
isn't a requirement for you to be able to blitz through the game.
Instead of having Samuel Hayden backstab you in the end,
or become the final boss,
he just walks away. The devs were ballsy
as hell with this game.
There are so many moments where it can descend into your atypical
action title, or lose itself in its own narrative...
But instead it rejects all of those things
for the sake of one: adrenaline-pumping gaming...