This Tittle Made Me Love FPS Games
It showed what they can do
When I was a kid, I played video games during most of my free time. Some of them were the first-person shooters that almost everyone was talking about at the time, which were mostly Call of Duty and Battlefield.
However, every time I played them I always felt a bit disappointed.
It wasn’t that the games were bad but something was missing for me and I didn’t know what it was until in 2016 I saw the trailer for DOOM (developed by id Software and published by Bethesda) and boy, that awoke something in me.
Official trailer
The idea of being a big green man too angry to die while fighting hordes of demons sounded so much fun to me, however, as a broke high school student I didn’t have the money to get it.
It took some time but in 2024, I was finally able to get my hands on it and after I finished it I understood what made this genre of shooters so much fun.
It was POWER.
Raw, brutal, and unrestrained POWER.
Let me explain.
Up to this point, only shooters I played were more tactical, and trying to rush would more often than not get me killed. This made sense since these games were trying to emulate what it feels like to be in the army or a military operation.
DOOM, on the other hand, was doing the complete opposite.
It was a fast-paced and brutal shoot first ask questions later type of game that rewarded aggression and quick thinking over careful planning. I didn’t have to follow orders from someone or have to care about casualties, I could just go crazy and shoot everything that moved.
It was the first time I played a game that dared to show me just how powerful the main character truly is.
While other games would have me taking cover and shooting enemies as they got closer or flanking them, DOOM had me rushing into hordes of demons with a shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.
In other words, DOOM was the first game that made me feel like a one-man army.
I mean can you blame me?
Imagine being a 6-foot-tall dude, that’s built like a brick house, can move faster than any other living creature on Earth, is armed to the teeth with the most advanced weapons and armor humanity can create, and can get ammunition from demons by giving them the pinata treatment but instead of using a stick, you use a chainsaw.
Yeah…I don’t think so.
However, there were a few things that stood out to me the most.
Angelo Sin
The Story
The first one was the story and exposition of the Slayer and his world because I used to play almost exclusively on consoles and I depended on my brother to get any games.
Most of the titles were either story focused or multiplayers for PlayStation or Nintendo consoles.
I'm talking about games like:
- Uncharted
- The Last of Us Part 1
- Assassin's Creed
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princes
- Call of Duty
- Super Smash Bros
Etc.
Then, when I got a PC I decided to try and get all those other games I always wanted to play and when I did, I noticed many popular games don't have a very detailed story.
Instead, gameplay is where all the good stuff is.
DOOM 2016 was one of these games.
It didn't have a deep and emotional story. Instead, it had an incredibly fun gameplay that honored the previous installments and revived interest for the series. It rode a nostalgia that brought back old fans and added modern features for the newer generation of gamers.
Now, I'm not saying I think the story is bad or anything. It was just the first time I play a game with a simpler and more straight forward approach to storytelling.
And honestly I liked it.
Instead of wasting time in exposition, the game throws you into the world and lets the environment and a few character interactions here and there do the talking.
Although, if you want to learn more about the world, the demons, and the characters, you can look into your Codex to read the entries you collect on every stage, and to learn about the DOOM Slayer you can listen to the Slayer Testaments you find in the missions in hell.
Here are all the testaments:
Gameplay
Next, I want to talk about the gameplay because it's here where it truly shines.
The way it does it is by not giving you boring and lengthy tutorials. Instead, it throws you into the action and a few text boxes appear to briefly show you what to do while the story is direct enough to guide you.
What I liked the most about it, though, is how simple its combat is because you only need to keep in mind a few things and you will be fine.
Basically, just keep moving and don't say in one place for too long, use the correct weapon on the right enemy, change weapon mods depending on the situation, perform glory kills at every opportunity, remember to use your chainsaw when low on ammo, pick up the powerups at the right time, and save the BFG for big tanky enemies
That’s all.
Honestly, my favorite combat feature were the Glory Kills because they kept the flow of the fight and rewarded me with health for being aggressive.
I also like the weapons. You can get them from secret areas or by progressing the story. I won’t get into much detail about them but here is a list of them in no particular order:
- A pistol
- A shotgun
- A super shotgun
- A plasma rifle
- A gauss cannon
- A heavy assault rifle
- A chaingun
- A rocket launcher
- A chainsaw
- The BFG 9000
All weapons are upgradeable so you can make them more lethal, which is good since the enemies kept getting harder as I progressed the story.
Personally, I liked most of them.
The only gun that felt out of place was the pistol because of how underwhelming it was compared to the rest.
It would have been great if the upgrades had made it into a kick-ass weapon but they didn’t. On the bright side, it has infinite ammo and a charge shot for more damage so it is effective for taking out the weakest enemies and safe the ammunition of your other guns for the big guys.
Exploration
I love when games allow me to explore the terrain and reward me for being curious and in the case of DOOM 2016, you have the chance of finding things like:
- Upgrades
- Armor
- Health
- Ammo
- New weapons
- Collectibles
- Secrets
Some of these secrets involve things like:
- Preator Suit Points – These allow you to find some chips that let you improve different things on your suit.
- Dexterity: by making you faster at climbing ledges, reloading, and changing weapon mods
- Exploration: makes it easier to detect secrets and hidden items
- Equipment: upgrades your grenades to make them more effective
- Resistance: makes you more resistant to damage from the environment, your own weapons, and explosive barrels
- Powerups: makes your powerups more effective and lethal
- Runes – These give you useful bonuses to support you in combat that you get after completing specific challenges.
- Keeps enemies staggered for longer so you have more time to perform a Glory Kill on them
- Attracts amo and health when dropped by an enemy
- Perform Glory Kills faster
- Survive a deadly attack once and get a chance to recover health by killing an enemy
- Argent Cells – This is a direct upgrade to the DOOM Slayer and improves his...
- Health
- Armor
- Ammo
- Weapon Mods – To modify and change your weapons make them more versatile and lethal.
- Maps – To help you know where you are going, where you have been, and where to find other secret items as well as extra lives.
- Levers – To open a secret area resembling the Classic DOOM stages.
As someone who never played the classic DOOM games, it’s nice to see how the stages looked and how much respect the developers have for the first title.
Design
Besides the gameplay, the second thing that DOOM nailed was the visual and sound design.
From the start, you are introduced to a place that has been devastated by the demons, with entire rooms decorated with blood and “meat status” created with the bodies of UAC employees giving a clear picture of how bad the situation is without directly telling you.
In the UAC stages, you see how advanced their technology and the presence of candles and symbols hint at the cult-like nature of the activities performed by the UAC personnel despite them being people of science.
That and the human sacrifices.
The Hell stages are desolated of all life and you can only find stones, skulls, guts, and some crude constructs with symbolism showing how savage the demons are despite being able to create portals to different worlds.
Speaking of the demons, their design is also great. They look like strong and formidable opponents that come in different shapes and sizes and can kill if you are not careful, especially the bosses.
However, I can’t talk about the ambiance of a DOOM game without mentioning the best part — the music.
I’m not a Metal fan, but Mick Gordon did an amazing job at creating the perfect tracks to make each moment even more intense. I mean, just listen to this:
Each track is strong, aggressive, cool, and most importantly it complements the combat instead of feeling like background noise. Now I understand why some people say that DOOM is a metal album with a free game.
Final Thoughts
DOOM has cemented itself as one of my favorite franchises in video games and I appreciate seeing the love and dedication the developers put into it.
I’m genuinely glad I finally got to play it, even if it was several years after its release. It's not every day that I get to play a game like this and have this much fun so it easily became one of my favorite games ever.
Fortunately, DOOM has inspired many other games, especially in the indie space so I'm sure I won't run out similar games to play for a pretty long time.
Thank you for reading.
