DOOM Multiplayer preview: A mixed bag of fun and frustration

As a kid, id Software’s Wolfenstein and Doom were my favourite games. While everyone would go around playing Mario, I’d spend hours playing Wolf and Doom, unearthing secrets, blowing monsters to smithereens and indulging in speedruns of my own. Considering that Doom was among the very first games I ever played (the original Prince of Persia being the first), I’ve always had a soft spot for the title in particular and the franchise in general. In my mind, the 2004 sequel was a considerable disappointment, only delivering on the graphics front. The multiplayer was stale and slow, gameplay was tedious and there were too many jumpscares.

2016’s DOOM (henceforth, the original game is Doom and the 2016 version is DOOM) remake looks more promising as it harkens back to the original Doom, offering frenzied firefights and multiplayer mayhem in equal measure. The DOOM multiplayer open beta that ran this weekend gave me a chance to put those claims to the test. Sadly, I came away a little disappointed. When it comes to multiplayer deathmatch, Quake III has been the gold standard. The game’s mix of quirky movement controls (strafe-jumping), fast-paced deathmatches and level design are exceptional. The new DOOM captures quite a bit of that atmosphere. The levels are well-designed and fun, the matches are reasonably fast-paced and the monster rune (which lets you transform into one of DOOM’s myriad monsters for a limited amount of time) adds a twist to the mix. I enjoyed all of the above, but what I didn’t like was the structure of the game. Gone are the 10 weapons to choose from, the scramble for the spawn points, the terror of the rail gun. All of this has been replaced by a level-based class systems a la Call of Duty (CoD) and Halo and a restriction of 2 weapons and a grenade. You play, you slay the enemy, you level up and you unlock more classes and weapons. This isn’t the deathmatch I remember, this is CoD and Halo reskinned in DOOM clothing. Don’t get me wrong, DOOM’s multiplayer is a boat-load of fun, it’s just not fun for a purist like me. If I wanted unlockable classes and limited weapons, I’d rather be playing CoD. The essence of Doom and Quake, even more so than raw skill, was a sense of timing and opportunity. Armour and weapons were key to success and either acquiring them or denying them to the enemy was a metagame in itself. DOOM lacks that character and depth of gameplay. That said, nothing’s going to temper the rabid anticipation with which I await its launch.