I have been playing the Hell (guitar riff) out of both ye olde DOOMe and nu DOOM. Nu DOOM might be my GOTY. So many little details are packed into it. The later stages thrown in level design akin to the old DOS DOOMs, with boxed-in arenas laced with powerups and mancubi. Reminded me a lot of DOOM II’s Map07: “Dead Simple”. Just checked Google, apparently I’m not the only one who caught that.
Glory kills give fights great pacing, there’s demon infighting, and the humor is just all over the place? I was also consistently surprised how, despite how red a Mars setting is initially going to be, there’s quite a bit of color going on. They could have just gone for dark and gritty guns and mortar but there’s bright greens and blues everywhere during fights.
The glory kill and chainsaw mechanics are so good for the pacing of fights that I wish there was an endless mode. The harder the game gets, the more satisfying the mechanics are. Nightmare mode is a wild ride. I almost wish there was a combo system, having that would really push it into Platinum Games territory.
The first time I made it into the hell dimension, in the midst of a firefight, I heard a strange, unfamiliar roar. I turned to see two adorable cacodemons hovering my way, and I actually yelled out in excitement. It’s such a feelgood game.
I like reading old, simplistic game narratives as little myths and folklore, so seeing that nu DOOM embraces that same mindset and makes that the main thrust of the story was probably my favorite thing. Doomguy is a mythic being of anger and vengeance, and there’s no use characterizing him beyond that, there’s only getting out of his way.
On another note, I went and bought all the Wolfenstein and Quake games (and downloaded about 20 years worth of DOOM wads oops), so maybe I’ll git gud through exploring those. Mostly I’m not gud so far.
(also also Wolfenstein 3D is a pretty adorable arcade ancestor to DOOM 1’s eventual trendset)