Doom single-player impressions: Hell and back again

Because Bethesda Softworks didn't make a final version of its new Doom reboot available to press before today's release, we won't have a full review ready for a little while. But we've spent most of the day diving into the game, so we thought we'd give readers who just can't wait some early impressions based on our first few hours playing on the PC, which encompass the game's first three loosely defined "levels."

Even this early in the game, Doom takes pains to force your attention on its backstory, told mainly through holographic projections, video screens, and the occasional environmental detail on a corpse. So far, it's unclear why so much effort needs to be spent explaining a story that boils down to "demon-possessed workers in a Martian facility want to kill their un-possessed co-workers and roam around." The few identifiable characters have so far failed to make any impact except as plot devices. I think Doom would have been better stuffing all of this plot into optional reading rather than cut scenes.

At least the story scenes are relatively short, letting you get to the action quickly. Basic movement is sufficiently zippy (at a smooth framerate on our GTX 980 rig), with the kind of instant acceleration and never-tiring speed you'd expect from the Doom series. There's also a nice floaty jump that comes with the ability to make a quick and handy automatic clamber up the side of ledges. This is a big help in navigating levels that so far make strong use of the third dimension, often forcing you to look up or squeeze down through a tunnel. A rotatable 3D map in the menu screen helps in finding your way around, but after a while I wanted a mini-map on the HUD for more immediate orientation.

After mowing down some dull, shambling zombie-like demons right off, I was shocked at the lively appearance of the game's first Imps. Their lean, muscular form is gruesome enough, but it's the realistic animation that makes them come to life. The Imps clamber around on all fours with an apparent sense of balance and self-control, climbing up columns and leaping to nearby platforms to get in a better position to hurl fireballs (which fly towards you with a believable parabolic arc). Through it all, their motions look naturally animalistic, never obviously looping or repeating in an apparently canned pattern. The elegance of the movement helps draw you into the firefights.

Unfortunately, the lack of canned animation doesn't extend to your own character. Doom quickly introduces the concept of "glory kills"—special, extra-gory, close-range melee finishers that you can pull off after you've made an enemy demon stagger with a few well-placed shots. With a single button press, you might grab the enemy's skull and crush it in your over-sized fist, or pull off a demon arm and beat the enemy to death, or shatter a demon's spine after knocking it off balance with a kick to the ankle.

These canned animations give you the same kind of little adrenaline thrill as a good Mortal Kombat fatality the first time you see them. But after a few hours, I'm already getting tired of seeing them all repeated ad nauseum. You can ignore the glory kills if you want, of course, but the game gives health and ammo encouragements for you to keep repeating those animated attacks over and over.

At least the animations are short enough that you can get back to shooting quickly. Overall, the basic strafe-and-shoot mechanics feels instantly reminiscent of the classic Doom games of old.
The last two decades have led to some obvious additions, like jumping, integrated melee attacks, aiming up and down, etc. With so many of today's shooters relying on stop-and-pop shooting that requires cowering behind whatever cover you can find, it's refreshing to play a game that lets you rush in to cut-and-dodge through a room full of enemies out in the open and at speed.

Doom's pre-title screen prologue takes place in a series of small rooms and tight corridors that make you think the entire game is going to feel like the claustrophobic Doom of old. Almost as soon as the title fades away, though, you're presented with a huge, dusty red Martian vista, filled with craggy cliffs and huge valleys to explore. It's a beautiful landscape that highlights the game's color scheme; muted, but not so depressingly grimdark that you can't make out the enemies or see the world around you.

So far, you can usually march in an almost-straight line to the floating HUD dot that indicates your next objective, with an occasional required detour to find a key. But it pays to explore, because that's how you find hidden weapons, upgrades to your artillery and suit, and bits of lore, enemy, and map information.

We'll have more detailed impressions of Doom, including its multiplayer and Snap Map modes, sometime next week. But for now, the best thing I can say about it is I'm eager to dive back in.