Doom (2016) Isn’t Perfect, but It Holds up Really Well (2025)

As of this writing, Doom: The Dark Ages is just a few months away from release. Besides giving players and the Doom Slayer a new location, time period and arsenal — most notably a shield/chainsaw and a gun that feeds on enemies' skulls — the prequel will finally tie the classic First-Person Shooter (FPS) games to their universally acclaimed soft reboot, Doom (2016).

With this in mind, there's no better time than now to revisit Doom's rebooted game series. When it first came out, gamers heralded Doom as the savior of both its namesake franchise and the wider FPS genre. Given how it was a much-needed breath of fresh air at the time, these admittedly overblown sentiments were understandable. However, they also glossed over the fact that Doom has a few glaring flaws that hold it back from true perfection.

Doom (2016) Brought Its Gameplay Back to Basics

The Game’s Combat Can Be Too Simple for Its Own Good

A lot has already been said about how the original Doom all but created the modern shooter game. All these analyses and praises still hold well even nearly 30 years after the game first hit stores. Doom wasn't the first FPS game, but it's definitely the most important and influential game of its kind. Topping its gameplay, especially in a time when top-class shooters are the norm, seemed impossible, but Doom succeeded. Not only did this reboot improve on everything that its classic predecessors did, but it also redefined what a Doom game and a shooter can and should be. The graphics are everything that players wanted, and they hold up even today. Mick Gordon's soundtrack is nothing short of legendary, so much so that his pulse-pounding music is now synonymous with demon slaughter and gunfire.

Players who grew up with the classic Doom titles will enjoy its simplicity. Instead of forcing the player to endure Quick Time Events (QTEs) or overlong boss fights, it just drops them into an arena filled with demons. All the player has to do to advance to the next level is to kill all the demons. Players are also given an entire armory's worth of weapons, both old and new. The biggest change is that most guns have an alternate firing mode, effectively doubling the number of guns they can use. This was a great way to reintroduce the classic guns to newcomers while still giving veterans something new to wield. This puts Doom above its fellow Boomer Shooter revival, Serious Sam 3, which also brought back its classic arsenal but with no additions to speak of. Where Serious Sam 3 was a modern update of its classic predecessors, Doom was an entirely new game.

Doom's otherwise solid gunplay is only held back by how the Super Shotgun overshadows everything too much. It's not uncommon for players to finish the entire game with nothing but the Doom Slayer's signature double-barreled shotgun. Because of this, every other weapon — especially the starting pistol — feels like dead weight. The only reasons why players would pick another gun are to complete an upgrade challenge, score an achievement, or just to toy around with everything at their disposal. Even accounting for the occasional ammo shortage, there are enough upgrades and workarounds (i.e. the chainsaw) that will take care of this concern fairly quickly. Because of this, and the fact that the gameplay is also simple and straightforward to a fault, Doom's combat can get repetitive really fast.

Like the classic games, all the player has to do is run around and shoot a demon in the face. The occasional Glory Kill, treasure hunt, and platforming section spices things up for a bit, but these become routine over time. Worse, the platforming is so frustratingly inconsistent that it can and will kill players' adrenaline rush. No matter how good the player is, there will be times when they die from a bad jump or a failed grab. But by the halfway point, players will have mastered everything, leaving them with nothing else to build towards besides the boss fights. Doom is exciting and even empowering in the moment, but it doesn't have much replay value beyond increasing the difficulty. To its credit, Doom knows exactly what it wants to be, but it could've done a bit more to be more than just an update of its series. The story could've addressed this, but that is where the game truly flounders.

The Story Is Optional at Best

Doom (2016) Doesn’t Even Bother With Its Narrative and Characters

It's not that Doom told a bad story, but that it barely had one to begin with. In fact, Doom arguably didn't even try to have a story. It starts with the Doom Slayer waking up from his eons-long slumber and then proceeding to single-handedly murder Hell's legions. The reasons behind the UAC's deal with Hell and the demons' invasion are paper thin. Exposition that could've given the Doom Slayer's war more context is relegated to text logs and runes that the player can ignore. Throughout the game, the Doom Slayer only ever interacts with three characters, one of whom is the artificial intelligence that tells the player what to do and where to go. Samuel Hayden and Olivia Pierce are introduced as a questionable ally and an antagonist, respectively, and stay that way from beginning to end. The Doom Slayer himself says nothing, and never deviates from his silent rage and penchant for carnage.

Granted, the lack of more complex narrative and characters is in itself a deliberate storytelling choice. Doom hearkened back to the original game's simplicity, both in terms of story and character. After all, one of Doom 3's biggest criticisms was that it traded the previous games' bare-bones appeal for a more intricate storyline that was too far removed from Doom's simple approach. The original Doom and this reboot are all about the Doom Slayer's war against Hell, and nothing more. There's a visible and unsaid sense of escalation thanks to the gradual increase of demon types and numbers in each succeeding level. Meanwhile, the Doom Slayer is a literal blank slate for the player to project themselves onto. He was also pure rage and violence made flesh. He doesn't need to speak or be shown doing anything else besides killing demons, since his actions do all the talking for him. Samuel and Olivia only exist to push what little plot there is forward, and they served their purpose well.

The lack of the kind of narrative and characterization expected from a modern Triple-A shooter wouldn't have been a problem if Doom didn't spend so much time lingering on its story segments. Despite being hailed as the return to FPS' heyday due to its apparent rejection of narrative, the game still often forces the player to listen to Samuel or Olivia monologue about their grand plans in between shooting arenas. The most players can do is control the Doom Slayer and interact with the environment out of boredom. For better and worse, this recalls how players could still control Gordon Freeman during what passed as "cutscenes" in the Half-Life games from almost 20 years ago.

In effect, Doom's story is a distraction from the action that kills the pace and momentum. It would've been better if it committed to either not having a story at all and just focusing on the action or to giving the Doom Slayer his newfound depth through a properly fleshed-out narrative. Instead, the game tries to have it both ways and comes out with a half-baked attempt at a narrative. This is one thing this otherwise excellent soft reboot could've and should've left in the past.

Doom (2016) Is Still One of the Best FPS Games Ever Made

The Game Was Only Outdone by Its Sequels

Excluding additional installments in its series, there hasn't been another FPS on Doom's level since its release roughly 10 years ago. Doom not only revived its long-dormant franchise and impressed gamers, but it showed what modern shooters can and should be. It's just a pity that Doom didn't inspire more shooters to follow in its footsteps so that the genre can finally break free from the boringly "cinematic" military simulators that have swamped it since the late 2000s.

In that regard, Doom didn't really save games as fans claimed it did. That said, this is more the industry's fault than this game's. At its worst, Doom feels a bit slow and repetitive on a replay, but only because the much superior Doom: Eternal exists. But on its own, and especially on newcomers' first playthrough, Doom is an exhilarating bloodbath and one of the best gaming power fantasies ever made.

Doom (2016) is now available to play and own physically and digitally.

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DOOM (2016)

On Mars, a massive research facility tapping energy from hell has been overwhelmed by demonic forces. As the last DOOM Slayer, you have been resurrected to do one thing: to cleanse this world and send them back to where they came from.

FPS

Platform(s)

PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Released

May 13, 2016

Developer(s)

id Software

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Pros & Cons

• The game combines the best of old and new FPS titles.
• The game's combat is easy to pick up and satisfyingly brutal.
• Mick Gordon's soundtrack is still one of the best in gaming history.

• The combat can get repetitive after a while.
• The game doesn't even bother trying to tell a deeper story.

See at Playstation Store