GreenTeaGamer

Classic Doom is rightfully considered one of the greatest games of all time.  Not only did the legendary duo of John Carmack and John Romeo create a technical masterpiece, but Doom made the FPS genre what it is today.  Now nearly a decade after the original, Id Software’s Doom reboot has put Doom back in the spotlight.

Doom and I immediately got off on the right foot.  One of my pet peeves in FPSs is all to often long wait before the game hands you a gun.  Doom hands you a gun in the first five seconds.

The player takes a very active role in Doom’s gameplay.  Whereas in Call of Duty there is lots of waiting, especially on harder difficulties, you wait for your health to regenerate, you wait for enemies to move out of cover and wait for your gun to reload, Doom demands constant mobility.  Standing still usually means death. If your health is low you have to frantically run around to find health or get close to an enemy and perform a glory kill.  Your guns don’t even need to reload.  Doom guy moves very quickly, faster than any other FPS protagonist I’ve played as.  Movement is fast and fluid and the combat areas accommodate for Doom guy’s considerable speed.  Doom even gives the player powerups, something rarely seen in a modern triple-A FPS.  Grabbing an invincibility powerup feels out of place and very retro, but  Doom puts gameplay first and doesn’t care about making sense.  

Shooting demons in the face is Doom’s bread and butter.  Doom gives the player many different guns to do the shooting and many different demons to shoot.  Enemy variety is a highlight.  Except for one enemy type, all of Doom’s demons aren’t simply cannon fodder.  Each enemy requires a different strategy. The demons are very aggressive and display some impressive AI intelligence.  Moment-to-moment gameplay is much more ad-lib than other FPSs.  The player can’t keep using the same strategy over and over.  The combat itself feels very visceral.  Doom is quite violent, you’ll find yourself ripping the arms off of demons and beating them to death in no time.  But Doom’s violence is more than just show.  It works as player feedback.  You’re never unsure if a shot killed a demon because they usually explode in a shower of blood and entrails.  Few games have made me feel like such a badass.

Exploration is usually an afterthought in otherwise linear games especially in the FPS genre;in Doom it is not.  I enjoy collecting for collection’s sake but Doom makes exploration rewarding on a gameplay level.  Each of Doom’s levels has tons of upgrade tokens hidden throughout the level.  An entire upgrade path is focused on making collectable-hunting easier.  These tokens are used to upgrade your passive abilities, weapons, health and ammo.  Also hidden in most levels are rune challenges.  When completed they award you with a new passive ability which can themselves be upgraded.  Almost like an RPG Doom has multiple secondary challenges.  There is always a weapon to upgrade, a challenge to complete and a secret to find.  After my initial playthrough I immediately started again and searched every level for all the secrets and challenges I missed.  Doom’s detailed 3D map for each level keeps the hunt from being frustrating.  From the very beginning Doom incentivises exploration, a task few linear games take seriously.

Graphically Doom is pretty in it’s own hellish kind of way.  Consisting mostly of reds and browns, Doom’s art design isn’t vibrant but many of the environments, especially the hell levels, are visually interesting to look at.  If you are a classic Doom player you will be pleased with the enemy design.  Id Software clearly spent a lot of time making sure these modern demons look like their classic sprites.  All of the classic Doom enemies are easily recognizable even if you aren’t that familiar with the original Doom.

There is a story in Doom, if you want it.  Despite Doom being infamously scarce on story details, Id Software did take the time to build a considerable amount of lore.  Most of it consists of data logs picked up through the game.  The campaign’s plot is mildly interesting but never gets in the way of the action.  Doom guy, the protagonist of the Doom series, is what keeps the story from being a boring cliche.  He is a silent protagonist, but far from the Links and the Gordon Freemans of the world, he still communicates emotion.  Doom Guy shows his dislike for demons from the very beginning.  He doesn’t just shoot demons, he snaps their necks and tears their heads in half.  When asked to remove a power core slowly, any other video game protagonist would have complied.  Not Doom guy. He punches the power core until it explodes, showing his disdain for the person giving orders and communicating that Doom guy dislikes whatever the power cores were powering.  Doom guy understands he is a one dimensional character.  You know Doom guy dislikes demons because you feel it during gameplay.  Id Software took Doom guy from an insignificant character -, to a legend who could easily take his place in gaming royalty.

There are two online modes in Doom, classic multiplayer and snap-map.  The multiplayer is nothing special, I only played for a couple hours.  Team deathmatch, kill confirmed and capture point make for a painfully-familiar multiplayer mode that didn’t hook me.  Snap-map is a different story.  Part of the appeal of classic Doom was how easy it was to mod and make custom maps.  Snap Map doesn’t have the power of full modding tools but it is still surprisingly powerful.  In addition to creating custom maps, Snap Map allows for custom gamemodes and rudimentary logic-based coding.  My favorite Snap Map I found was a fully functional recreation of CoD zombies complete with purchasable upgrades and unlockable doors.  I don’t have much time to learn a map editor.  But the little time I did spend making my own map impressed me.  It is surprisingly easy to get a fully functional map up and running.  Playing on PS4 I was also surprised how easy using a gamepad turned out to be.  Already there are copious maps of high quality so if you really enjoy Doom there is a nearly infinite amount of Doom content for you to consume.

If you can’t tell already, I really enjoyed my time with Doom.  That being said, it does have some flaws.  Most glaringly it crashed twice on my PS4.  This wouldn’t have been terrible if the second one hadn’t corrupted my save.  Hopefully you won’t run into this but make sure you backup your saves.  Other minor gripes I have are with pacing.  Doom’s upgraded system necessitates lots of exploration, making for long pauses in between combat.  There are designated combat areas and once one is cleared Doom becomes eerily quiet.  At times I was at a loss of where to go after I cleared a combat area.  Doom’s old-school sensibilities ensure the player is not given much information. I applaud Doom for this approach but sometimes I wished for a little more information on where to go next.

Doom doesn’t do anything new.  It strives to be an old-school FPS and it eminently succeeds.  Doom reminds us that a big-budget game in 2016 doesn’t need a massive, open world or a deep,engaging story to be really fun.  Much of gaming’s history was built on shooting things and Doom carries on that tradition.  If you are looking for a great, classic, singleplayer FPS look no further than Doom.           

Wind the clocks back to 2007.  Call of Duty was already an industry powerhouse, but with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the triple-A video game industry changed forever.  Modern Warfare became the gold standard for online FPS multiplayer.  But after nearly a decade of gritty Call of Duty-like shooters Overwatch is a breath of fresh air not only for gamers but the industry at large.

Blizzard is nothing if not one of the most intelligent developers in the industry. It was impossible to miss the marketing barrage Blizzard unleashed leading up to Overwatch.  Everything from the animated shorts to the giant tracer statue in downtown Hollywood and the lengthy beta had one goal: make everyone fall in love with the characters before the game comes out.  It worked.  I had never seen so much chatter about video game characters for a game that wasn’t even out yet.  The massive amounts of fan art, cosplay and yes even the NSFW stuff fed the fire that was Overwatch hype.  It’s the heroes and the personality of Overwatch that drew me in and I’ve been having fun ever since.

I love Overwatch.  Everything from the bright color palette to the quirky cast of characters sets it apart from most other triple-A releases.  But that would mean nothing if it wasn’t fun.  The heroes allow for many different types of fun.  Maybe shooting people with Phara’s rockets is your jam.  Or you take personal pride in keeping your team alive as Mercy.  Overwatch is what we have come to expect from Blizzard, an existing idea that has been polished to near perfection.  Although Blizzard has introduced many improvements to the online FPS multiplayer genre: Overwatch doesn’t do anything revolutionary.  But it is really fun to play.     

Overwatch is a love letter to classic FPS multiplayer.  Quake, Counter Strike and most obviously Team Fortress 2 are all inspirations for Overwatch’s gameplay.  Unlike Call of Duty Overwatch requires constant teamwork.  Knowing where your teammates are, what heroes they have chosen and how you can best benefit your team are imperative for victory.  Each of the four classes, and each of the 21 heroes spread across those classes, has a specific place in the team dynamic.  The most rewarding aspect of Overwatch is the interplay between the heroes.  Modern FPS multiplayer holds 1v1 match ups above everything else.  Every design choice ensures no one player has an advantage over any other.  A match of Call of Duty could be seen as six 1v1 matches.   Overwatch takes the exact opposite approach focusing on team v team.  This design philosophy allowed Blizzard to design heroes without worrying about 1v1 match ups.  Tracer won’t beat Roadhog 9 times out of 10 but distracting a Roadhog player still benefits the team.  This allows for a much wider variety in hero play styles.  Your success in Overwatch is not measured by KD ratio but rather how well you do the job your chosen hero was designed for.  The ability to change heroes during the game makes for very interesting tactical choices as each team has to react to the other’s hero choice

There is no loadout customization in Overwatch.  Each hero is equipped with one weapon, two abilities and an ultimate, although this exact ratio varies from hero to hero.  Learning the ins and outs of a hero and the interplay between abilities is half the fun in Overwatch.  There are only three gamemodes, attack/defense, payload and king of the hill.  Much like League of Legends, Overwatch’s gameplay variety comes from the heroes. The same gamemode can feel totally different depending on which hero you choose.  It nails the “simple to learn but hard to master” idea that so many games struggle to capture.     

Blizzard has given each hero their own personality both in terms of gameplay and presentation.   The visual design of each hero is consistent with how they play.  Tracer is on the small side of the hero roster and wields two small pistols.  Her backstory says she was a test pilot for teleportation aircraft.  Everything we see from Tracer in the trailers, from her abilities to her upbeat personality, is reflected in game.  She plays fast and is great for flanking.  Her pistols don’t do much damage, small guns generally don’t, but they are used to distract and hinder the enemy team.  Even her audio voice lines are always cheerful and optimistic no matter the situation.  This synergy between visual design and gameplay may not seem important but it is.  Allowing a new player to get a feel for a hero from looking at them on the character select screen makes Overwatch very accessible and less intimidating for newcomers.

Overwatch is great and it is really popular right now, but the true test will be how long it can keep people playing.  Once the novelty of Overwatch wears off will it still be fun after the 900th match?  I think only time will tell.  Blizzard’s first test will be competitive mode which launches in about a month.  Having a rewarding competitive mode will do wonders for Overwatch’s long-term player interest.  Blizzard’s other silver bullet is their DLC plan.  All future maps and heroes will be free for all players.  Keeping the player base unfragmented is a bold, player-first move. 

That being said, I do think there are some problems with Overwatch. The biggest is the price point.  On the gameplay side Overwatch is easily compared to Team Fortress 2 while their overall strategy is more in line with League of Legends.  With a big unfragmented player base and a huge e-sports push Overwatch is attempting to recreate the global phenomenon League has become.  There is one huge problem.  TF2 and League are free to play.  Overwatch is asking sixty dollars.  As much fun as Overwatch is I have a hard time condoning a sixty dollar price point for an online-only game.  In addition to sixty dollars Overwatch offers micro transactions in the form of loot crates.  Yes, it is all cosmetic stuff that doesn’t affect the gameplay but I don’t think that matters.  This is still a sixty dollar game locking some of its content behind luck-based microtransactions.  And yes, I know you can also earn loot crates by playing the game and use in-game currency to buy skins etc.  But the in game currency can only be earned through the loot crates themselves which defeats the purpose of it entirely.  You can’t grind for the currency to get that awesome Mercy skin because it is all up to chance.  Because of this the progression system is not rewarding at all.  I don’t feel like I am working toward anything besides a bigger number next to my player icon.  Blizzard could easily solve this by giving each player a tiny bit of currency after each match.  As much hate as Call of Duty gets their progression system works.  I always felt like I was working toward something.  However, in Overwatch I brace myself for disappointment every time I open a loot box.           

Overall, the future looks bright for Overwatch.  If you want to relive classic FPS multiplayer days, or you want to try something new, Overwatch is one of the best multiplayer games to come out in years.        

              

   

Broforce is simple, jump, shoot and blow crap up.  An action platformer in the pixelated style studio Devolveer has become known for Broforce takes joy in the simple act of shooting bad guys and blowing stuff up.  Each character the player is given access to is a parody of a famous action movie hero but with 100% more broification. From Bro Hard (die hard) to Brominator (terminator) most well known action movie heroes are represented in some way.  Broforce’s character variety is it’s greatest strength.  Hidden throughout each level are prisoners, rescuing one immediately changes the player into another action movie hero.  One minute you are the terminator with a heavy machine gun the next you are indiana jones dispatching bad guys with his trusty whip.  Each level offers the player a variety of different approaches.  You wouldn’t guess it but it is possible to stealth your way through a Broforce level.  Every inch of the level is destructible allowing the player to dig tunnels under the bad guys and attack from behind.  But in all seriousness, guns blazing is the best approach.  With the obligatory explosive red barrels it is possible to set off spectacular chain reactions which leave only blood and guts where there used to be bad guys.         

Broforce isn’t without its faults, cheap deaths are a constant nuisance as your character dies in one hit.  I died many times not even knowing my character was in danger or I accidently shot a red barrel I was next to.  Despite being a game about running in guns blazing Broforce can require more finesse than the controls are cut out for.  Throwing the grenade in the right place or platforming your way over a minefield is more frustrating than it should be but it never breaks the game.  Broforce remembers that dumb fun is sometimes the best fun and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that.  Despite its flaws, after fifteen minutes Broforce kept me playing and it is definitely worth a try.