DOOM Closed Beta Thoughts - The old school shooter is back!

By Sam Coles:

Doom is only a few weeks away I’ve managed to get into the closed beta because I bought Wolfenstein The New Order with a code which I completely forgot about because I bought that game two years ago.  Does the Doom multiplayer beta capture the old school quick gameplay from 90’s FPS? Yes it does.

The first thing that hit me when I started the beta are the graphics, they’re absolutely amazing the new id Tech 6 engine looks absolutely stunning with brilliant lighting and particle effects. Environments have a dark and industrial look to suit the setting of Doom coupled with the detail models of the space marines. The game also runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second for the most part I did notice some frame drops when it got a bit busy. There is also a lot of screen tearing, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt as the game is not finished and hopefully this issue will be fixed when the game releases.

Let’s get into the meat of the beta and let’s start off by talking about customisation with your character, which is very extensive although it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. When you load up the multiplayer menu you wouldn’t be shocked if they had pinched the layout from the Call of Duty series because it looks exactly the same. You can customise loadouts with various weapons such as the Plasma Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Super Shotgun and the list goes on, there are no added attachments just the weapon and your reflexes so everyone is on an even playing field. 

You can equip hacking modules which function like perks in Call of Duty but you don’t have them for the match they have a time limit which again makes everyone equally matched which is good because it relies on the player’s skills and reflexes rather than stupid bonuses which dampen the match.

The gameplay is fantastic it’s fast which keeps you on your toes because there is no sprint button in this game it’s like the old school shooters where you run at break neck speeds, so if you try to use cowardly camping tactics it won’t work because this game requires you to keep moving. There is no regenerating health either so you can’t be a wuss and hide behind cover and wait for your forehead to grow back, no you have to find health packs around the map which brings back the skill of map control where you know where the picks are going to spawn. In the middle of matches a Demon Rune will spawn and whoever gets to it first can turn into a famous Demon from the game we only had access to the Revenant in the beta that has two rocket launchers on his shoulders and has a jetpack. This can be utterly devastating and you can really rack up kills if you need to catch up.

The only problem I have is the power of the Plasma Rifle it’s too powerful they need to tone down the damage a bit, I can understand if it is a power weapon you find on the map, but it’s not anyone can have this weapon the power needs to be turned down.

I enjoyed my time with Doom beta and it has got me very excited for the full release when it hits PS4, Xbox One and PC on the 13^th of May.