Hell is other people
The game is more than just its single player, though, and that’s where the praise slows down a bit.
Online multiplayer was in its infancy back in those days, and Doom pioneered the idea of the Deathmatch multiplayer mode. This new game doesn’t, unfortunately, have much else to offer.
There are multiple modes, and they’re each fun in their own way. There’s nothing bad here, by any stretch. It’s just not terribly memorable. It’s weird to say this about a Doom game, but the multiplayer feels like an afterthought.
While I can’t tell the future, I’d imagine it’ll be tough to find matches a few months from now when people are busy with other, much more memorable multiplayer shooters.
The game’s map-builder, called SnapMap, is a bit like Mario Maker for Doom. Upon loading up SnapMap, you’re presented with an intimidating set of tools that will let you, within certain constraints, brew up just about anything you can imagine. People are already creating some awesome stuff.
The interface isn’t ideal on consoles, though, and building a level on PlayStation 4 proved difficult at best and more often frustrating.
The upside of this is that the content created in SnapMap is platform agnostic. You’ll be able to play PC-built maps on PlayStation and Xbox, so the possibilities should be just about endless. The maps can be single or multiplayer, too. Keep in mind that’s just sharing the map that’s cross-platform, not actually playing on it.
While I found SnapMap difficult, the potential it has is huge to give the game a long life and to spice up multiplayer. It just has to pick up the necessary audience to get enough momentum to start moving, and it’s hard to say at this stage in the game’s life if that’ll happen.
Technically, the game is a beast. It ran like a dream on PlayStation 4 throughout. I did fall through the map once or twice, but it wasn’t common, and I didn’t experience any other bugs. My only real complaints are that this is a shooter that feels to me like it’d be significantly improved by a mouse and keyboard, and that the loading times are very, very long. Both of these, of course, are moot points on PC, and they didn’t significantly hamper my time with the game.
Doom, like 2014’s Wolfenstein revival, is exactly the game we wanted. All the best parts of the game, including the fast pace, brutal difficulty, and heavy metal sensibilities, are back, while the things that would make it feel dated have been left behind. I can’t promise the multiplayer will have a long life, but Doom‘s single player alone is worth the price of admission.
Buy
Disclaimer: We received a copy of Doom for the PlayStation 4 from the publisher. We completed the campaign on Normal difficulty and checked out multiplayer and SnapMap before writing this review.
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