DOOM is out in the open. As of today, players are able to get their hands on a copy of the latest installment in the massively influential shooter series.
So where are the reviews? Publishers Bethesda held back copies of the game until release, explaining in a press release that it wanted reviewers to get a better handle on the multiplayer and SnapMap level maker modes – both of which rely on access to a server that wasn’t live prior to launch.
Press reviews are now beginning to trickle in, along with user impressions. On Steam at the time of writing, 93% of DOOM’s user reviews are marked as positive. Many of these give plaudits to the game’s pacing, sense of movement and the feel of various guns, while main criticisms currently seem to be leveled at the game’s multiplayer mode.
In Rock Paper Shotgun’s first impressions, Alec Meer found issues with homogenous enemy and level design, but claims the emphasis on pacing and momentum leaves little time to worry about aesthetics: “If this had been a conventionally-paced game that looked this homogeneous, I’d be thinking it was a total damp squib, but the forward momentum and the rhythm means that, so far, it’s getting away with it.”
Eurogamer has also put out some early thoughts, ahead of a full review next week. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell says the new iteration does a lot to reconcile the original DOOM’s level design and combat flow with latter-day story shooters in the BioShock camp. The result, he says, is pretty good: “It’s not just Doom-as-was with refreshed visuals, or a slick, generic, modern-age contender with some throwback cannons. And for that, I’m going to take a risk ahead of our full review and say it might be worth your time.”
PCWorld has waxed lyrical about the sheer run-and-gun glee that comes from mowing down demons in DOOM, but did find a few pacing issues with the game’s map:
“Fighting you every step of the way is the map. It actually wouldn’t be too bad, except for the fact every time I open it, it’s three-dimensional mess of blue and grey lines has reoriented itself to an entirely unusable position, which is frustrating because it disrupts the pace of the game to sit and swivel and zoom each time.”
Other outlets are taking a bit longer to mull over the game’s single and multiplayer modes before writing up impressions, but we’ll chuck them in here when they surface. We’ll also have our own thoughts on the game next week.
Previous coverage carries on the next page
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