--Samuel Hayden, Doom
A game that is very focused on a few key experience features, Doom appeals to a very particular audience, relying on its brutal intensity and action-oriented FPS gameplay to entice players. And, if you are part of that audience, you could derive some serious enjoyment from playing it. It is the first Xbox One game I played by myself, so I thought I'd review it to commemorate the occasion.
Production Values
The graphics are clear and detailed, and I never experienced frame rate drops despite the screen sometimes being crowded with enemies--and sometimes it can get very crowded, with numerous enemies of different types descending on you. The combat can become very intense in some situations, and yet the frame rate stayed consistent for me. The sound keeps up with the action rather well. Expect a lot of loud explosions, gunshots, and demonic shrieks accompanied by electric guitar riffs. Voice acting is competent, but, considering the focus on fast-paced gunplay and mild solo exploration, there is little actual dialogue.
Gameplay
People who want to play this game probably want to have fun killing demons with diverse weaponry, and those who appreciate inflicting death on the enemies will have a lot to enjoy. The fighting can get brutal, and I died multiple consecutive times in the same area more than once. The difficulty can be adjusted mid-gameplay via the pause screen if one needs to tone down the challenge. Combat takes the form of using vicious gun (and chainsaw) attacks and melee finishing moves to obliterate hordes of demons intent on overpowering the unnamed character controlled by players.
Players will find that Doom combines retro and modern elements, blending arcade-like elements with contemporary graphics. The power ups, collectibles, and minimal emphasis on story all contribute to the game being one that struck me as an old formula in a new skin. I still loved the experience!
Metroid lovers might see some similarities between that franchise and this game, since Doom has map stations, a map screen that looks like one from the Metroid Prime games, and various collectibles often findable only through optional exploration. Really, Doom is basically an intellectually simpler version of Metroid Prime with God of War level violence added.
Story
(Some spoilers are below)
No, Doom doesn't have a particularly developed narrative, but that's not what the creators aimed for. The premise of the game is that in the future a group of scientists in an organization called the UAC, led by an android-like robot inhabited by a human mind named Samuel Hayden, have engaged in an operation on Mars that resulted in a portal to Hell being opened. The unnamed player character wakes up and finds the facilities in a state of infestation by various demons.
Samuel Hayden apologizes for the disaster, but insists that his work was strictly for the betterment of humanity, his utilitarian ethics coming up at least at one key later time. A former employee of his (I think) named Olivia Pierce is in league with the demons, seemingly having been seduced away by promises of power, and she is the one who opened the portal that allowed the demons to come to Mars. The purpose of the UAC Mars operation was to harvest Argent energy.
The player visits hell to pursue Olivia, returns to Mars, and eventually goes back to hell to actually kill Olivia. The journey there led to the destruction of devices used in the Argent energy project, and Hayden confiscates an object from Hell, saying he will continue his work and that he expects to meet the player character again in the future.
Intellectual Content
If players are up for some exploring, they can find different types of collectibles (ranging from data logs to suit upgrade tokens to little figures). But the item hunting is definitely secondary to the shooting. Still, there is definite collectible variety for completionists who want to obtain all the secrets.
Doom features an artificial intelligence, a cyborg, and a semi android-like being. The "android" (he is humanoid, but taller than the average person and doesn't have actual or simulated human skin like some androids do) is actually a shell holding the consciousness of Samuel Hayden, a scientist. The game largely glosses over the issue of cybernetic transference, which is transferring a human consciousness into a machine body. Such a thing is logically possible, though this does not mean that in actuality humans will ever be able to preserve their minds by placing them in machines. I don't recall the game actually explaining how this transference happened, only (in an optionally readable data file) that Hayden, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, used the last months of his human life to ensure his nonphysical mind would outlast his biological body.
A human mind/consciousness is not a brain, even if it is generated by a brain. A brain is a physical organ; consciousness is the immaterial thing that perceives, thinks, experiences, and reasons. However, if the biological death of the brain means the cessation of consciousness (at least in terms of it animating a body), then I don't know how that consciousness could be resurrected into a machine frame. Doom doesn't explain this in the course of its narrative. If it does in the optional data files, I missed where it does so.
Conclusion
If you don't like gory games, Doom is one to skip. If you like games with deep lore and stories, again, Doom is one to skip. But if you are fine with violence and an emphasis on action over character development and a dissection of grand themes, then Doom might be a game you will take pleasure in playing!
Content:
1. Violence: As some of the screenshots here indicate, Doom is a very graphic game. A variety of melee attacks and guns can be used to rip apart enemies, and, yes, there is a lot of blood. All of this violence is inflicted on demonic beings, though, and thus not on humans.
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