Played via Doom Slayers Collection on the PS5.
I never felt much of a need to sit down and play Doom. After all, it felt like I had already absorbed the entire game through cultural osmosis. Doom is a known quantity, I've played Sonic Robo Blast 2, I know what its legacy is thank you very much. However, after falling down the boomer shooter rabbit hole this year with Duke Nukem 3D and Powerslave, continuing to drag my heels with Doom started to seem ridiculous. It's like being a fan of platformers without having ever played Super Mario Bros. or getting deep into puzzle games but never touching Tetris; it's weird, frankly sick behavior.
Having now played all four core episodes of vanilla Doom as well as the more recently released fifth episode, Sigil, my main takeaway is that a lifetime of experiencing Doom by proxy is a piss-poor substitute for actually playing it. Sure, I knew that it was a "genre defining game," that it's a classic by every conceivable metric, but all that praise didn't really set in and click until I sat down and spent some time with it. By E1M3, my ass gliding around racking my shotgun and blasting demons, I finally "got" Doom.
Of course Doom is not perfect, it has some issues, particularly in how labyrinthine some of its levels are (especially by the third episode), but I never got so horrendously lost that it took away from the fun I was having. Comparatively, I think some of Duke Nukem 3D's levels are easier to get turned around in and a lot vaguer about where to go. Doom's placement of its keys and locked doors often require you to loop back to areas you've already visited, helping build familiarity with your surroundings while carefully placing ambushes and "monster closests" to constantly keep you on your toes. Insidious enemy placements teach you to use your surroundings to your advantage and to never treat any one part of a map as "safe," and limited ammunition keeps you cycling through weapons, helping build familiarity with your arsenal while demons put you on your back foot. The way Doom measures empowering you and putting you under duress is graceful, though the sadism and creativity of Doom's design doesn't really hit its zenith until episode 4, Thy Flesh Consumed, which is a profoundly unforgiving gauntlet of bonus levels intended to test those who had "mastered" the base game, subverting what they've come to expect, at times dropping enemies on them in ways that border on comical dickishness. This is especially true of the first two missions, which start spawning cyber demons on your head while keeping you confined to tight corridors and narrow walkways. John Romero wanted to make me his bitch in 2000, and he finally succeeded in making me "suck it down" in 2022.
Speaking of John, he hasn't lost his touch for level design if Sigil is anything to go by. I debated covering this as part of this review or handle it as its own thing, but since I played all of these sequentially, it feels like part of the whole package to me. Sigil amps up the brutality of Thy Flesh Consumed, but also goes in hard on more complex level maps, and adds a wrinkle to the red/blue/orange key formula by introducing eye sigils that must be shot to raise and lower pathways. Sigil's levels are a lot more puzzle driven than previous episodes, its environments deadlier, and more densely packed with demons. Dying and losing all of your progress is certainly punishing, but at the same time satisfying. Doing another loop through the level, knowing what to expect, reopening secret rooms to arm yourself and pushing back even harder feels great. Something these last two episodes really help highlight is how rhythmic this loop of death and progress can be... unless you use quick saves like a pansy (you should probably use quick saves though, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. John doesn't actually want to make you his bitch, he feels bad about that.)
So yeah, sure, Doom isn't perfect, but it's still a solid 5 out of 5 for me. I usually feel ready to put some distance between myself and a game after I beat it, even the ones I really like, but I kinda just want to keep playing Doom. If anyone has some good WADs to recommend, please drop them in the comments, because I'm not ready to put this one down yet.
I never felt much of a need to sit down and play Doom. After all, it felt like I had already absorbed the entire game through cultural osmosis. Doom is a known quantity, I've played Sonic Robo Blast 2, I know what its legacy is thank you very much. However, after falling down the boomer shooter rabbit hole this year with Duke Nukem 3D and Powerslave, continuing to drag my heels with Doom started to seem ridiculous. It's like being a fan of platformers without having ever played Super Mario Bros. or getting deep into puzzle games but never touching Tetris; it's weird, frankly sick behavior.
Having now played all four core episodes of vanilla Doom as well as the more recently released fifth episode, Sigil, my main takeaway is that a lifetime of experiencing Doom by proxy is a piss-poor substitute for actually playing it. Sure, I knew that it was a "genre defining game," that it's a classic by every conceivable metric, but all that praise didn't really set in and click until I sat down and spent some time with it. By E1M3, my ass gliding around racking my shotgun and blasting demons, I finally "got" Doom.
Of course Doom is not perfect, it has some issues, particularly in how labyrinthine some of its levels are (especially by the third episode), but I never got so horrendously lost that it took away from the fun I was having. Comparatively, I think some of Duke Nukem 3D's levels are easier to get turned around in and a lot vaguer about where to go. Doom's placement of its keys and locked doors often require you to loop back to areas you've already visited, helping build familiarity with your surroundings while carefully placing ambushes and "monster closests" to constantly keep you on your toes. Insidious enemy placements teach you to use your surroundings to your advantage and to never treat any one part of a map as "safe," and limited ammunition keeps you cycling through weapons, helping build familiarity with your arsenal while demons put you on your back foot. The way Doom measures empowering you and putting you under duress is graceful, though the sadism and creativity of Doom's design doesn't really hit its zenith until episode 4, Thy Flesh Consumed, which is a profoundly unforgiving gauntlet of bonus levels intended to test those who had "mastered" the base game, subverting what they've come to expect, at times dropping enemies on them in ways that border on comical dickishness. This is especially true of the first two missions, which start spawning cyber demons on your head while keeping you confined to tight corridors and narrow walkways. John Romero wanted to make me his bitch in 2000, and he finally succeeded in making me "suck it down" in 2022.
Speaking of John, he hasn't lost his touch for level design if Sigil is anything to go by. I debated covering this as part of this review or handle it as its own thing, but since I played all of these sequentially, it feels like part of the whole package to me. Sigil amps up the brutality of Thy Flesh Consumed, but also goes in hard on more complex level maps, and adds a wrinkle to the red/blue/orange key formula by introducing eye sigils that must be shot to raise and lower pathways. Sigil's levels are a lot more puzzle driven than previous episodes, its environments deadlier, and more densely packed with demons. Dying and losing all of your progress is certainly punishing, but at the same time satisfying. Doing another loop through the level, knowing what to expect, reopening secret rooms to arm yourself and pushing back even harder feels great. Something these last two episodes really help highlight is how rhythmic this loop of death and progress can be... unless you use quick saves like a pansy (you should probably use quick saves though, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. John doesn't actually want to make you his bitch, he feels bad about that.)
So yeah, sure, Doom isn't perfect, but it's still a solid 5 out of 5 for me. I usually feel ready to put some distance between myself and a game after I beat it, even the ones I really like, but I kinda just want to keep playing Doom. If anyone has some good WADs to recommend, please drop them in the comments, because I'm not ready to put this one down yet.
4 Comments
I've seen this Castlevania one around, so I'm definitely trying these out, but I'll look into all of them. Kinda want to try doing a stream where I just check out a ton of WADs but idk.
Doom 2 has most of the good WADs, because the added enemies are a lot more interesting and the SSG helps avoid grindy combat. Eviternity is often recommended, I played some of it in multiplayer and they're solid maps. For Doom 1 specifically, No End in Sight is a 4 episode WAD that's well regarded.
The community is so old and Doom is so versatile that there's a crazy amount out there. Reading the Cacowards on Doomworld can give you some initial recs. Warning: combat focused WADs are usually much harder than the vanilla maps, saveless Ultra-Violence is not for the faint of heart.
The community is so old and Doom is so versatile that there's a crazy amount out there. Reading the Cacowards on Doomworld can give you some initial recs. Warning: combat focused WADs are usually much harder than the vanilla maps, saveless Ultra-Violence is not for the faint of heart.
Thank you for the recommendations! I'm looking forward to getting to Doom 2 but I'll probably put off playing that one until next month while I work through a few more backlogged games. Good advice too. I'll admit I've not played enough of Doom yet to feel comfortable diving into the harder difficulties, but I do want to check them out sometime.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago
- Castlevania: Simon's Destiny Only played the first level or two but basically, the first Castlevania game but in DOOM. Not much else to say other than that.
- Strange Aeons: Lovecraftian-like map layout centered on warped dreamscapes and atmosphere, pretty cool and the music from other games are very effective
- Lullaby: Released last year, this one can be tough as nails but is mad up for by frankly really dope and spectacular aesthetics and level tricks
- The Golden Souls: Mario platformer by the same dude behind the Castlevania WAD that sounds as weirdly dope as it sounds, I haven't finished this one as well but I enjoyed what I played regardless.