Early First Impression: Doom

So, after an excessively long download I finally got to play Doom last night and I was pretty happy with the way the campaign feels. Read on for my very early, first thoughts.

Blue_key
You need the blue key

Alright so I'm one of those guys who played Doom and Doom 2 along side games like Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem etc. (never did like Duke much) I played all the Quake titles, and I really anticipated seeing Doom 3 back when it came out some years ago with somewhat disappointing results. So when Bethesda and ID started showing us the newest Doom, I was of course excited and feeling nostalgic and kind of wowed by the look of it.

I started the Steam pre-load at 11:03pm on Wednesday and since where I live my internet is anything but spectacular, it took until 9:15pm Thursday (last night) to finish the 43.8GB download. But I could just jump in and play from there so I was happy enough. I figured "hey I'll open OBS and get some video" for the TwinstiLP channel on You Tube. OBS unfortunately had other ideas, like only recording a few frames from the menu and nothing else except audio. So that got trashed.

Aaaannnywhooo

praetor suit
Oh man, thanks for letting me know!
Q4_table
Quake 4

I found, to my enjoyment, that the single player is actually pretty damn fun. I noticed the opening sequence somewhat reminiscent of a certain scene in Quake 4. I liked that feeling of familiarity even if it was technically from a different brand. And the second my character stood up, I was in control and putting my fist through some demon faces.

Soon I encountered a room that was nice enough to inform me that a demon incursion was taking place (whew glad they let me know) and provided me with a rather iconic looking suit of armor. I fought my way through another enemy wave and made it outside.

Doom_table
Doom.... 4

Wow, Mars looks awesome. It's a great reveal with some excellent visuals, and, my settings are mostly just on high, not ultra. It's certainly quieter than it was inside in terms of a demonic invasion and all, but it's clear that shit has gone down. The pace here slowed a bit and let me orient myself and explore to get used to controls and gain some composure. Then Doom started throwing hordes of Imps and Possessed soldiers at me and I had a great time because you know what this game feels like? Doom.

 

He looks just like me! Kind of a Sistine Chapel thing going on there...

Now that's about as far as I made it because just ahead, after a few more enemies, I kept leaping to my death trying to grab a collectible that was taunting me from a ledge. Why? I dunno, I never really felt it necessary in any game before to grab every collectible, and why does Doom even have them? Again I dunno, but It's fun and so far I'm loving it.

 

This really doesn't do it justice

I've yet to try any multi player stuff, I never played any beta content so It will be my first experience when I finally do. Although I've yet to hear anything good about it. Yoda told me it's all loadouts and equipment selection before a match instead of good ol' floating weapon collection and shots fired. But I'll still give it a try, and to be fair ID didn't develop the multi player portion of Doom. That fell to Certain Affinity. The folks who gave us some of Call of Duty's maps and some for Halo Reach... ugh.

Anyway I guess if you're into that kind of multi player model that's great, but I'm not. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't belong in a game like Doom. But such is life, and I haven't tried it yet so I won't continue to say how I most likely won't enjoy it very much.

Menus by the way, are really comprehensive. There are tons of settings and sliders in the advanced sections including the ability to turn off or on film grain, even how much you may want (off damnit) and adjust your field of view along with many, many more. You'll be able to find a way for it to run smoothly if it doesn't already.

In Short

Ok so, I like the campaign so far, even though I'm only about an hour in. I have no idea about the MP yet, haven't tried the map maker. Is Doom worth $60? Well, I suppose if you dig the way the multi player was made, and like all other other aspects, that it might be worth it to you. But the single player campaign is only supposed to be worth about 12-14 hours, and let's be honest, neither ID or Bethesda can or ever has made a story big enough to fill a sandwich bag. So thinking about it from that point, maybe not.

But it's a hell of a ride so far, and if I can figure out how to make OBS capture it I'll record some for the LP channel. Doom looks great, runs great, sounds great and how cool are those Glory Kills?

title

System Requirements for Doom are as Follows:

MINIMUM:

    • OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-2400/AMD FX-8320 or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 670 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or better
    • Storage: 55 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Requires Steam activation and broadband internet connection for Multiplayer and SnapMap

RECOMMENDED:

    • OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions)
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770/AMD FX-8350 or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB/AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB or better
    • Storage: 55 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Requires Steam activation and broadband internet connection for Multiplayer and SnapMap

7 comments

  1. Avatar
    Tim Chesson says:

    Against my better judgement, I stayed up to play it last night too. It unlocked a couple minutes after midnight, then took 45 minutes to ‘unpack’. So I didn’t play as long as I would have liked, but I think we quit about the same area, not long after you get outside.

    I’m loving it so far. It feels buttery smooth at a solid 60 FPS. And it’s not a cakewalk either, even in these early stages the enemies will tear you apart if you sit still too long. More than once my health dropped to dangerous levels, but a glory kill sprays health pickups.

    I played the multiplayer on both consoles and the PC and it was ok. I liked the Warpath mode much more than just plain deathmatch. What really has my interest is the snapmap feature, and what the community can do with it.

    • Scrooloose
      Scrooloose says:

      Yeah holy cow that unpacking time…
      I’m pretty surprised at how smoothly it runs, I’m kind of in the middle range as far as system specs. I’m above on the CPU but I have 3gb video card instead of 4. Still having very few frame drops.
      Yep it’s fun so far. Hopefully I’ll get to play it some more today myself.
      Glad the multi player seems fun at least. I’ll check it out at some point, hopefully I’ll enjoy it too.

  2. Avatar
    brokedownsystem says:

    I instantly hated the MP, based upon the beta. I just didn’t sit well with me.

    I am still curious about the single player, and trying not to let my distaste for the MP keep me from getting Doom.

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