Over the weekend ID Software ran a closed beta for the reboot of the founding fathers of the first person shooting genre, DOOM. We were only able to get a small taste of the multiplayer portion of the game and although my time with the game was brief, I cannot wait to dive into the full release. Here’s why.
I was given a choice between two different multiplayer modes. Team Deathmatch was the first that I tried and was pretty stock-standard as far as the rules of Team Deathmatch go. Warpath was the second mode on offer. The easiest way to describe it being a mode where you have to capture & hold a position, but with a number of set pieces taking place around the map.
I can’t recall a time that I have played a game mode like Warpath and I have to say I heavily enjoyed it. I constantly felt like there was the threat of being attacked. On one hand there were times when I was in an open space in which attack could come from all direction. There were also times where I was in quite close quarters with my opponents which resulted in absolute carnage.
I never had any issues finding matches which is a rare for a beta, and matches always ran smoothly. Whilst I always had the worst connection, I never felt that the game was negatively impacted due to it. I had no lag, experienced no inaccurate damage and overall had a really positive experience with the online portion of the beta.
As per the norm with multiplayer shooters you can utilise the game’s preset load-outs as well as unlocking your own custom loads as you level up. The beauty of DOOM was that there were a number of approaches to take in your arsenal, where it be a rocket, shotgun, lighting gun, rifle or sniper. Further to this you’re able to modify the way you fire these guns as well as make changes to the aesthetics.
The overall visuals can be described as slick and smooth. Everything from running and jumping to shooting felt like an absolute joy. I can’t think of a single moment where I felt that the game was visually unimpressive. Absolutely everything on-screen was visually amazing and every single colour was popping. The visuals were exaggerated with the over the top armour, colours and ridiculous taunts.
I ended up spending a few hours with the game and I found that I was levelling up quite quickly, reaching level 15 within this time. With every match challenge achieved and victory earned I was levelling up and unlocking perks at an incredible rate. I was able to test out a number of in-game modifiers which made me able to boost experience, show opponents health or display item count down items.
Doom will release on May 13th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Be sure to check back for our review closer to release. You can also watch some of my recorded gameplay below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYeIzP-3q9k
