Doom Open Beta Impressions
Disclaimer: I fully understand that a beta isn’t the final product of a video game. However, when a beta is so close to launch, it’s clear that most features and mechanics are set in stone at this poin. That being said, I feel that my impressions of the Doom open beta are very close to representing the feel of the overall multiplayer.
Growing up, I never really had the opportunity to play old school shooters or arena shooters like Quake. I wasn’t introduced to the genres until I was well into my late teenage years, and even then I was only able to get ahold of games like Doom and Unreal Tournament 3. Both were fantastic and really showed a side to the shooter genre that I hadn’t seen before. Of course, most of these games never really made it far in the mainstream like Halo and Call of Duty have today. Because of this, games like Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Duke Nukem have been rebooted in an attempt to gather newcomers, as well as give something for the older fans. Accommodating two very diverse crowds like this can be very difficult, and as many have seen, not all reboots seem to pan out all that well. That’s not say it isn’t impossible, as a game like Shadow Warrior showed that a lot of good can be done with a reboot of an older game. Blending modern and old shooter mechanics and features, Shadow Warrior succeeded in creating a fantastic game. All this being said, if an independent developer could create a perfect reimagining of a classic game, it stands to reason that the studio with the rights to the IP could easily recreate a game, right? While I can’t say much for the single-player, in my brief time with the multiplayer, I’m not very impressed.
Doom’s multiplayer is an odd one, it’s slower than Quake or Unreal Tournament, but faster than modern shooters like Halo or Call of Duty. It situates itself in an uneven middle, where at times I felt like the game really slowed down, only to gain short bursts of speed every now and again. Even in terms of combat, the pace never really felt like it fluctuated evenly. Pace in game is allowed to spike, but when it is this uneven, especially in a multiplayer experience, it tends to leave a bad taste in one’s mouth. Part of this uneven pace I felt had to do with the player’s speed versus the overall map size. The speed is a bit slow compared to most arena shooters, leaving me with ten to fifteen seconds worth of me just running around not seeing a single person. This may not seem like a lot, but in the world of arena shooters, it feels like it lasts a lifetime. Now this doesn’t mean that I want to see an enemy around every corner, but it certainly didn’t help the game feel hectic. Of course, the pacing wasn’t the only problem.
When you play a MOBA or a strategy game, the announcer is someone who is methodical or calm. When you play a shooter or even a fighting game, the announcer hypes the player up, sometimes increasing aggression levels in people. What I’m trying to say, is that in a competitive game, the announcer needs to fit the theme of the game. Sadly, Doom’s multiplayer announcer just doesn’t belong. It’s not a matter of bad voice acting, but more the wrong voice actor in the wrong place. In a demonic, dark, hyper violent gore-filled extravaganza, the last thing I’d expect is someone calm talking in my ear. When I’m tearing off the limbs of a poor marine and beating them to death with them, I don’t want the voice in my head to be sunshine and rainbows, I want rage. I want something to pump me up, to applaud my horrible behavior and encourage me to continue on with my psychotic rampage. The lack of a good announcer really helped to take me out of the immersion, even more than the overall pacing.
Thankfully, the Doom multiplayer wasn’t a total mess. Aside from pacing, the design of the combat, was very solid. Hitboxes were very responsive, and the non-recharging health and armor was a warm welcome back to the shooters of old. While the loadouts feel out of place in the supposed arena shooter, they ultimately don’t detract from the overall experience too heavily. Though I did miss running around and picking up weapons found on the battlefield, the pre-determined loadouts made the matches fairly balanced. One thing I did find strange however, is that I wasn’t able to pick up any weapons, other than the special ones. Enemies I had defeated didn’t drop their weapons, and in a game with loadouts, players are typically encouraged to pick up dropped weapons. It allows for experimentation, so that if they enjoy the gun they picked up on a whim, they can use that in a loadout.
Overall, I just didn’t know what to make of Doom. On the outside, it looks like an arena shooter, but getting to the gameplay, it really doesn’t know what to do. It feels like the design team wanted to create a game that catered to both old-school gamers and a new crowd, but lost themselves somewhere down the line. What’s left is a game with an uneven pace, and doesn’t even identify as a modern
