It has been more than a decade since Bethesda has released the last game in the Doom franchise, and seeing how sci-fi FPS games are now one of the most popular genres played today (especially on the PC), Doom could not have a better time to re-emerge with a new and graphically/systematically upgraded game. But why did everybody hate the Doom Multiplayer Beta?
However once the multiplayer was released to the public as an open BETA, instead of a pleased and excited community the developers faced a massive mob of angry and bitter players. Some of their hate stretched to the point of absolute despise towards anyone who talked positively about the game or even showed clips of it in the background of a YouTube video and etc. So what went wrong?
Well… To start off, the angry mob comparison may have been slightly exaggerated, however the grand majority of people who played the Doom Multiplayer BETA did not claim to have had a good experience, and certain old fans of the franchise even appeared to be upset by what they witnessed as well as seriously worried about what the complete game design will be once the game is fully released.
One of the most common complaints that are heard about the game is that it is too generic, as a lot of its gameplay functions are borrowed from other games that are popularly played on the PC and consoles today. Features that are found in other modern first-person shooters, like levelling, challenges and kill/death ratios have been implemented into the game, which theoretically should not be there as the Doom games have been famously acknowledged as being classed as arena shooters, which in other words are quick “jump in and have fun” shooters.
This most likely isn’t a coincidence as the developers for Doom’s multiplayer are the same people who have worked on “Halo 5 Guardians’” multiplayer and have therefore most likely transferred certain aspects from their previous game onto Doom. Check out also our post about the five best simulation games.
There have also been a lot of negative attention towards certain gameplay aspects by the public, notably old Doom players. One of which is the fact that players are not able to take their opponent’s guns and are instead forced to carry the guns that have been set by their load-out. The gauss rifle was the only gun that was available to be picked up from the ground, which is most likely due to the fact that it is considerably more powerful than the rest of the guns that are available for the players.
This also brings up the point that certain weapons are a lot more powerful than other, therefore causing Doom’s the general weapons arsenal to be unbalanced, therefore making it very likely that future players will only use a single gun in multiplayer if this is still the case once the full game is out.
Instant melee has also been borrowed from Halo which is unusual as Doom’s previous titles used melee as its own weapon that you had to select from your weapon inventory in order to bash an enemy. This is disappointing as the old mechanic resulted in interesting and no less entertaining ways to kill enemies e.g.: the chainsaw. The chainsaw itself has been seen in the single-player demo, however, there is no evidence that you will be able to use it in multiplayer. See also our review of Dragon Ball Xenoverse.
Another similarity with other modern shooters is the fact that weapons have to be unlocked in order to be used. This is obviously a feature that has been taken from Call of Duty and restricts the use of interesting guns for the player. It also gets in the way of enjoying Doom for its large variety of different and entertaining weapons that were easily obtainable within the first few levels of previous Doom titles, therefore, leaving the player with the rest of the game to enjoy the mass weapon variety that has been given to him. For certain people, this even acted as the franchise’s unique selling point because there aren’t many other things that are as fun as blowing the head off of a large hell monster with an energy beam laser rifle.
Lastly, the game also uses random hack module drops to give a boost to a certain aspect of the player. The drops themselves look like something that is found in Destiny and should therefore not really exist within Doom. There is also a Halo/Call of Duty-ish double jump thrusting mechanic which acts as the icing on the cake for making Doom’s multiplayer eerily similar to every other modern shooter that is currently out there. Check out also Der Eisendrache-How to get the Void Bow.
Overall the game does not seem to be a bad game by generic standards, however, it is a giant disappointment by Doom standards because too many features and aspects appear to be directly borrowed from other mainstream shooters that are the most popular on the market. Perhaps the developers were looking to make the game’s multiplayer more mainstream in an attempt to peak the interests of a casual Call of Duty and Halo player, but the problem is that Doom has always been seen as an arena shooter with its own unique charm, and most of its community will always consist of old as well as new Doom fans. The classic Doom to be precise. For the best free mobile games, click here.
Hopefully, the developers will address the problems that are listed above, if not then Doom may end up being just another game that is popular for two weeks and then never touched again by most.