How do you reinvent one of the most consequential video games ever made? If you’re id Software and that game is DOOM, you don’t really change a whole lot and, instead, you focus on the basics that made the title great in the first place. That’s how the new 2016 DOOM was conceived.
How to Download DOOM
To download the 2016 edition of DOOM click on the Download button at the end of the review. You can get the game as a digital Steam download.
If you fancy old-school shooter games, you should also have a look at Ion Maiden which is another modern take on the nostalgic 3D shooting from the 90s.
The Game Review
Released in 2016 by Bethesda (of The Elder Scrolls fame), DOOM is a modern take on the 1990s PC classic that offers up visceral graphics and gameplay that ratchets up the action a notch while keeping the same core style there. You can rip off arms and tear open heads, but you can also blast your way through Union Aerospace Company’s Mars facility using shotguns and BFGs.
In what is a big departure from the original games, which had a serviceable and minimal story at best, the version of DOOM released in 2016 has a narrative for you to follow and tries to make some sense out of the otherwise haphazard lore presented thus far. It’s relatively hit or miss but the structure it gives the game is a welcome change for the game.
As the DOOM Slayer, you make your way through levels that eventually culminate in some kind of boss experience. The original PC games had this system in a way but those encounters tended to be the introduction of a new enemy type, not a massive, epic encounter. DOOM turns these boss battles into huge battles with different mechanics than a regular enemy. This helps tie together some of the narrative themes introduced as well as keep the gameplay fresh.
Largely confined in the range of actions you could undertake as the DOOM Slayer way back when the 2016 game gives you a ton of acrobatic options and emphasizes quick combat over stealth and strategy. This isn’t a game that will encourage you to take cover but rather rewards you for throwing the DOOM Slayer into the heat of the action, for better or worse.
And pretty much everything the game has on offer emphasizes this approach. From a booming metal soundtrack that pumps you up to rip off demonic heads to fluid controls and combat that encourages run-and-gun gameplay, DOOM’s reboot takes so much of what people loved about the originals and gives it a modern twist and, in many regards, improves upon the original formula.
Of course, you can’t mention a DOOM title without discussing multiplayer and it is present and accounted for here as well as accompanied by a powerful level editor that puts creative powers in the hands of the player himself. Create your own levels and test them out on the servers and see how people respond. Or just go try out others’ creations – DOOM makes online play easy and more accessible than ever before.
