If there’s one thing I’m most conflicted about in the world of the 21st century, it’s that we keep releasing new versions of the things I absolutely loved when I was a kid. Right now we’re in the midst of waiting for the release of a new Ghostbusters movie, a new He-Man movie, another Little Shop of Horrors, Fletch, Drop Dead Fred, Starship Troopers, Wargames, The Birds, Commando, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Escape from New York, Highlander, My Fair Lady, Romancing the Stone, Scarface, and the list I just found on the internet goes on and on. And these reboots/remakes/sequels often wind up taking priority in the films we talk about when we talk about the movies we want to see.
And I’m conflicted because although I enjoy the nostalgia as well as the chance to get a new story in a world I love, I also want new stuff. New stories. New characters. New worlds.
Enter the 2016 sorta sequel/reboot to Doom called Doom, a fresh (well, five years old) take on a game I absolutely adored as a kid.
And it has been pretty great so far. I’m only about a quarter of the way through, but this game has so much of the insane first person shooter energy that made the original game an instant classic. Not only do you get new takes on some of the most outrageous monster ever designed, but you get that frantic energy of suddenly finding yourself in the midst of dozens of overpowered monsters with far too little ammunition, wondering if there’s any health nearby as a demon-skeleton with rocket launchers on his shoulders jumps down in front of you and cackles maniacally.
Sure, there’s a story that is moderately interesting, and the level design definitely causes you to want to dig in and explore (except when they expect you to do some first-person platforming, which is a thing I wish video game developers would stop thinking is a good thing). But what it’s really about is when the metal music starts kicking up around you and you realize you’ve suddenly hit another spawn location and you’re outnumbered and you’re just hoping you can find a place to duck and cover as you run around in circles shooting whatever weapons you have equipped while wondering if they’re ever going to bring the BFG into this thing so you can finally start causing some real carnage.
That’s the kind of stuff I loved about the original, and that’s the stuff they’ve brought in spades to this game. Unlike Doom 3, which was a fun game, but far less about that shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality required for the original games.
And I’m hearing that Doom Eternal is even better…
But, um, I mean, the independent video games market is still pretty awesome. Ask me about Automachef sometime…I won’t have a ton to say about it, but it’s unique and a whole lot of frustrating machine building that will make you tear your hair out as you wonder how in the heck you’re supposed to keep your machines from putting out too many ingredients.
Adam Oster: Unfocused Creative 