Doom 2016 review

Introduction to Doom 2016
Doom 2016 sets the return of the doom marine in wonderful graphics.
Doom 2016 is a first-person shooter where you kill demons in the most brutal way. Not only can you shoot the demons to death, you can literally rip them apart, this is called a glory kill (see gameplay).
There are many weapons to collect and upgrade. The praetor suit that you wear can also be upgraded. You will get the praetor suit after killing the first demon horde in the tutorial.  You have to find the secrets to gain skill points. Throughout the game, the demons will come in hordes towards you.
There are many different kinds of demons, from the low ranks off hell to the strongest demons off hell. You will also encounter boss demons that will try to kill you. The story is set on both Mars and Hell.
I have only played the main campaign. I will not review the multiplayer section of Doom 2016 because I have not played the multiplayer section of Doom 2016.

Story
You awaken in a facility cuffed on a table. You are able to break free and kill the demons that are attacking you. You collect your praetor suit and collect a pistol. You find out that you are in the facility on Mars. The facility tried gaining infinite power by drawing their power from hell.
Samuel Hayden has awakened you to defeat the demons that have been set free on Mars. All humans have either been possessed or killed by the demons. Olivia Pierce let all the demons that had been captured in hell, free to run amok on mars.
You fight your way through the facility is called the UAC. You need to realign the satellite towers to assess the damage done by the demons on Mars. You are guided by the A.I called VEGA. You learn that the foundry is in critical mode and is about to explode. You quickly head over the foundry and destroy all the demons in your path. You have succeeded in stopping the meltdown in the foundry that would otherwise have blown up the whole base. Olivia Pierce wants to open the portal to hell so all the demons can be free to destroy Mars and eventually Earth. Olivia overclocked the argent tower to drill a hole into the hellscape. This would set hells army loose. You stop the argent tower from drilling into the hellscape and prevent setting loose all the demons. Olivia Pierce won’t give up; she takes an accumulator to the top of the argent tower with the intent to open a transdimensional rift. You try to stop Olivia Pierce by killing her.

Unfortunately, you are too late. You get sucked into the hell portal.  While you are lost in hell you cannot stop the demons that are loose on Mars. You kill everything in your search to find your way back to Mars. Your task is now to find a way to force the demons back into the hell portal and close the hell portal. You are now heading towards Olivia Pierce’s office in the Lazarus complex to try and find the relic that can close the hell portal. It is a long journey with many demons that are trying to stop you. First, you will cross the advanced research complex. Once you arrive at the Lazarus laboratories you notice that the demons here are much stronger. You learn that the relic is called the helix stone. You need to find this helix stone to stop the energy from hell that is coming from the well. Inside Olivia Pierces office you learn about the crucible. The bad news is that the crucible is inside the core of hell. Samuel Hayden has installed a program in your praetor suit to return you from hell easily. With that in the back of your mind, you leave for hell once again.

You fight of hells demons and you reach the core of hell, where the crucible should be. The crucible is guarded by guardians but they are no match for you. After collecting the crucible you can return to Mars and close the well for good. You can use the A.I of VEGA to stop the energy coming from hell but VEGA will die in the process. With the power of VEGA absorbed in the crucible, you need to find the well in hell to close it. The explosion of VEGA’S death creates a hell portal that leads to the well. After fighting off many demons in hell, that got sent by a mysterious voice to stop you, you arrive at the core of the well in hell. You find Olivia Pierce alive, she has mutated into a horrible beast. You fight her and kill her for good. You use the crucible to absorb the power of the well. You return victorious back to Samuel Hayden. He betrays you and steals the crucible. He is going to restart the project to harvest infinite energy from hell using the crucible. He does not want you to stop him and he sends you away to an unknown location. The chances are that you have been send back to hell.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Doom 2016 is fast-paced. The demon hordes are coming in big waves towards you. You need to defend yourself from them; you can do this with your guns or by punching them in the face. The best thing is to keep moving throughout the whole game. Standing still will get you killed.
Jumping is also very important in Doom 2016, either for avoiding an incoming demon or reaching a secret area. In this game, you can grab ledges by pressing the jump button again when you are near a ledge.
When you have done enough damage to a demon you can execute a glory kill. Depending on how you are standing in comparison to the demon and where you aim at the demons a kill animation will play. Blood and gore is the main thing that you will see from the demons. All the demons have a different glory kill animation. The lost soul enemy does not have a glory kill animation. You can find health kits and armor scattered all over the place. When you have executed a demon with a glory kill there is a higher chance to receive health, armor, or ammo.

Collecting skill points in Doom 2016 is done by finding elite guards who have been defeated by the demons. There are multiple ways to use the skill points. These are the skill point categories, environmental resistance, area scanning technology, equipment system, power up effectiveness, and dexterity. If you collect all skill points you can upgrade all skills. You might be best to upgrade area scanning technology, this will let you find secrets easier. The secrets will give you weapon skill points that you can use to upgrade your weapons. You can upgrade weapons with skill points as well. These are called weapon mods and can be switched whenever you want. At the end of each weapon skill tree, there is a challenge to complete. When you complete this challenge you will gain mastery over the weapon and gain one more bonus skill this is the best skill for that weapon. The secrets you can find in Doom 2016 are multiple ones. You can find data logs to gather more information on enemies and the places on Mars. Some of the data logs are hidden in hell; these data logs will tell the story of the doom marine. There are also funko dolls scattered on mars and in hell of Doom 2016. Collecting these funko dolls will give you weapon skill points. You can also find field drones; they can be used to unlock the skill trees for your weapons. In every level there is a hidden lever that leads to a secret room; in this secret room is a little piece of a classic doom map. You can also collect argent cells to upgrade your main stats: health, armor, and ammo. The secrets can be in plain sight or are extremely hidden. You can access the secret classic Doom map, but instead of the small piece, you can play the complete classic map.

You also have challenges called rune trials. You will be transported to another dimension where a certain weapon needs to be used. Most of the time you will only have 30 seconds to perform a task, this can be difficult or easy depending on your skill in the game and weapon preference.  When you complete the trial you gain a rune that you can use to upgrade your abilities. For example: glory killing a demon lets the dead demon drop armor. Runes can also be upgraded by performing a certain set of tasks. What this task is will depend on the rune.
You need to collect the runes that are all scattered throughout the main campaign. All the maps, except for the first one, have special challenges you can complete. When you complete the challenge you will gain extra weapon skill points. The challenges are different for each mission that you play in the main campaign. For example: the challenge can be: Killing ten demons while using power-ups.
You will have enough weapon skill points to upgrade all of the weapons. If weapons have two skill trees they can both be unlocked. You will also gain a permanent upgrade later in the game; this upgrade will be for your boots. Once these boots have been acquired you will be able to perform a double jump. The rune trials can be selected from the menu to replay the trial. There are also temporary power-ups scattered throughout the game to help you fight the demons.

Bosses
There are three bosses in Doom 2016 but they don’t pose much of a threat. The hardest part in Doom 2016 is dealing with big hordes of demons.

Cyber demon
The first boss you will encounter is the Cyber demon. A scientist thought it was a good idea to put a giant dead demon together. When the scientists powered up the dead demon with argent energy the Cyber demon started to regenerate himself.
One of the scientists had to die to get the Cyber demon back in his cell. When you enter his cell, the Cyber demon will attack you. The strategy is to dodge his attacks and shoot the Cyber demon into pieces. After his defeat, the Cyber demon will be resurrected.
For the second time, you need to shoot him to pieces. Empty all of your weapons on the Cyber demon until he is defeated for good.
I found this one of the hardest bosses to defeat since you don’t have all the weapons at this stage. You also don’t have many upgrades.

Hell guards
You will fight the Hell guards when you try to take the crucible. The Hell guard uses a hammer to make shockwaves and punch you. Shooting the hell guard will not harm him. Dodge the attacks and shoot when you see an opening. If there is no opening you will do no damage. After the Hell guards defeat there will be two new Hell guards that will attack you. These two hell guards look like a formidable foe but in fact, they are just little parasites in a huge armor suit.
You will need to wait for the opening to fire your most powerful weapon. Be careful the opening is only there for a second or two. The two Hell guards will leave more openings than the solo Hell guard.
Once you see the bosses pattern this will be an easy boss to defeat. The two Hell guards have a slightly different pattern but it is not hard to see.

Spider Mastermind
This is the end game boss of Doom 2016. She can put up a tough fight but if you keep moving while shooting her, she will go down easily.
Use the gun called big fat gun to stun the Spider mastermind and shoot her to deal a lot of damage. Spider master has some powerful attacks that can be hard to dodge. For example, she can electrocute the ground. You need to stand on the pillars that spawn after the ground has been electrocuted. If you choose the wrong pillar spikes will grow under your feet. You cannot see if you have chosen the wrong pillar until you feel the spikes. My tactic was to not use the pillars but keep double-jumping over the electrocuted ground. This did less damage than choosing the wrong pillar.
For me, this was the easiest boss to defeat because you can have all the upgrades and weapons before you initiate the fight.

Weapons
This is a list of all the weapons in Doom 2016.
The pistol:
This is a weak pistol that can kill demons but won’t cause much damage. The pistol only has one skill tree. There is a challenge to kill a mancubus demon with the pistol, it took me nearly 5 minutes because the pistol has a low damage output.
I barely used the pistol.
The shotgun:
This weapon can inflict medium damage on the demons. This weapon has two skill trees.
I liked to use this weapon. I have used the shotgun for the better part of this game.
The super shotgun:
This weapon uses two bullets in one shot and it has a long reload time. The super shotgun deals immense damage and you can destroy many demons with ease when you use the super shotgun
The super shotgun only has one skill tree.
With this weapon, I have scored many kills.
The heavy assault rifle:
The heavy assault rifle is a weapon that fires very fast. This also means that you use many of your bullets. This weapon has two skill trees.
I have used the heavy assault rifle for the bigger demons that had more health points.
The plasma rifle:
This weapon shoots plasma projectiles that deal heavy damage on the demons. This weapon has two skill trees.
This is a very fun and useful weapon to use.
The chain gun:
This weapon fires even faster than the heavy assault rifle. Beware your bullets will run out very quickly. This weapon has two skill trees.
I have used this weapon a couple of times but it was no match with my playing style.
The Gauss cannon
This weapon shoots a strong laser beam that deals immense damage to all the demons. This weapon works very well on the bosses. This weapon has two skill trees.
The Gauss cannon surprised me in how effective it is. I used this weapon almost as much as the shotgun once I acquired it.
The rocket launcher
This weapon deals heavy explosive damage. It is a must-have for you as a mighty demon slayer. This weapon has two skill trees.
I have used the rocket launcher but I only mastered to blow up myself. When you only hit the demons the rocket launcher works wonders.
The chainsaw
With this weapon, you can chop enemies the demons in half. The downside is that the chainsaw has only has three ammo. The chainsaw does not have a weapon skill tree.
I have only used the chainsaw for specific missions.
This big fat gun
This weapon will destroy all the demons in the room with one single shot. The big fat gun deals heavy damage to bosses. The downside of the big fat gun is that you only have three ammo. The ammo for this weapon is scarce. This weapon has no skill tree.
I have used this weapon every time I had the ammo for it.

Arcade mode

Because the developers thought that you would not replay the campaign mode, they have made an arcade mode. You will need to gather points in the levels. You need to get the gold medal by scoring as many points as possible.
In the arcade mode, you will get a set of weapons and runes that are the best match for the level that you choose. The goal in the arcade mode level is to complete the level as fast as possible. You also need to kill as many demons without getting hit.
You will encounter mines that you can use to your advantage and explode many demons for points. Beware the mines can hurt you as well. Killing enemies with glory kills will also give you extra points.
You will also find relics for extra points. Don’t die since you have lives in this mode! To gain extra lives you will need to find funky dolls. The more lives you have at the end of the level, the more points you will receive.

You can spend hours, days or months in this arcade mode. Depending on what your mindset is.

Pros
* The blood and gore graphics look very good.
* When you get a glory kill it is very satisfying. The different animations feel like a reward.
* All of the weapons have a unique feeling to them.
* A good story in a first-person shooter game!
* The gameplay works smoothly throughout the whole game.
* The collectibles and secrets are fun to look for.

Cons
* The sound can be wacky. My Bluetooth headphones don’t work with Doom 2016.
* The save points are easy to miss. For example: I had to complete a whole mission before closing down the game because I could not find a save point.
* Some of the challenges in Doom 2016 can be hard to complete.

If you like first-person shooter games you should not miss out on Doom 2016!

I give this game a…drumroll…

7,3

I certainly enjoyed playing this game but the campaign was shorter than I expected. I have played Doom 2016 on a gaming laptop for 25 hours. In this time I gathered 22 out of 54 achievements.
The arcade mode can be fun if you like a rushing play style.
Have you played Doom 2016? Or are you planning on playing Doom 2016? Share your thoughts and experiences in the forum