Doom

   During all this time the Euro's have been on and I haven't had time to write any of these for all you lucky people, I've filled myself with ideas for it. More on all of that later, as I'm here, almost 2 months late, to talk about Doom. You can mostly blame that on Uncharted (which I can't even be bothered to talk about (other than to say I don't get the hype)) and the Euro's, but with Portugal vs Austria in the background, here I am.

   I'd hope you would know what Doom is, but in case you don't, it's basically the game that launched the FPS genre (yes, I know it's not the first one, but it's the one everybody jumped on and has fond memories of) in the mid 90's, Yes, there has been sequels, but Doom 3, the last major game in the series was initially released 12 years ago mow, so, they're back, without a number in the title (which is the 'in' thing right now) with a new offering, and it looks like they haven't played an fps since Doom 3 came out, and that is a fantastic thing.
   Before I explain that weird sentence I'll give a brief overview of the plot (potential spoilers, but they're not that important). You are the Doom slayer, awoken from being frozen by Samuel Hayden in a facility on Mars to end the invasion of demons from hell which they have been using as an energy source, but whoops, Olivia Pierce, one of the researchers looking to help improve the situation has turned heel and now more hell is being raised (literally) that Stone Cold Steve Austin in the 90's. Luckily the Doom slayer feels alright in the noise and the light of mars and hell, and slaying demons lights his fire.
   Okay, what I meant before was this is a classic FPS. I myself didn't play Doom, or Quake, or Unreal, or Goldeneye, or Wolfenstein, or perfect dark, but what I did play, to an insane level, was Timesplitters (and Timesplitters 2 &3). This had the same qualities that Doom 2016 (not an official title btw) is offering though, and that's how my nostalgia was peaked. That's because there's no regenerating health and no ducking and covering. Just charge down your enemies and blow their faces off. In this game, classic controls play the ultimate roll in gameplay, and I didn't know how much I missed it, and loved it (and still do), and that's what lights MY fire.
   What is it that differentiates it from the likes of COD, Battlefield and so on. As i said, ever since Halo we have expected to have regenerating health, and hell, I'm happy with that, games are so, so much easier than when I was a kid, with limited lives, no saves and game overs, which wound up in many broken controllers for me and still would today were it still the case (btw, there is unlimited lives in this, thankfully (unless you play the hardest level)). What was I on about? oh yeah, so, health pick ups, yes, there are a few around, but it's all about the glory kills on enemies, with some beautifully gruesome actions (achieved by finishing an enemy with a melee attack) that give you the big payout in health, shields (also not regenerative) and ammo (the bigger the enemy, the bigger the payout). Couple this with the run and gun style that this game wants you to play and it's made to go together, charging around the battle areas and wiping out what you can, towards the end of the game you're facing enormous amounts of enemies, with a high amount of them being extremely hard to kill, I kept thinking it was getting too much, but I knew I was lying to myself, It made me feel like a badass.
   Some other added elements, light RPG elements where gear is advanced through kills and weapon challenges, but mostly through exploration, which is interesting at times, and I did it a fair bit, but found no where near all of the secrets, so if you want everything, you're going to be at that for a while. There's the nostalgia there for Doom fans as well. All the classic enemies and weapons return, and I did have fun googling images of enemies from the original and comparing them to now (seems like a good point to add that I love the artistic direction of this game) which is interesting. There are bosses though, and you know my thoughts on them. They weren't too bad here to be fair, and there's only 3 (or was it 4?) in the game, and though sometimes it didn't seem right, and wound my nerves up with continual restarts, mostly it came to waiting to figure out the best time to use the BFG (top tip, save your ammo for that for when you really need it). Hmm, long paragraph.
   The multiplayer is very forgettable unfortunately, and right around the time of Overwatch so can't see anyone playing it for any reason beyond getting a few achievements/ trophies (that's the only reason I tried it), but that's not what I bought it for anyway. If you just want to go around shooting things in the head, you're in here. Sometimes it seemed tough but i couldn't get enough of it, it scratched an itch I didn't know I had, and if you remember any of these 90's FPS' and have any love for them, you have to play this. Doom 2016 kicked ass, and that's the bottom line.