DOOM

Doom is one of the greatest game franchises ever. Doom 1 and 2 are two of my favourite games ever. I spent an entire summer playing through both games while between years at university. Doom 3 then came along, it had more focus of being a horror game, but still kept the great gunplay, demons and hellish environments.

I really loved Doom 3 and I respected the fact it was a long game which took a certain amount of dedication to complete; the story didn't really kick in until over 10 hours in and after a long sequence of level after level, wading through UAC's Mars installation. The drawn out nature of the middle of the game worked brilliantly to setup the end, as the whole story unveils itself before you and the horrific nature of the Mars installation comes to light. I thought it was genius. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was a good 20 hour game.

Now we have Doom, not Doom 4, just Doom. Not sure why they shied away from putting a 4 on the end, as everyone will call it Doom 4 (a bit like Rancid's second self-titled album becoming known as Rancid 2000 - the year it was released). The multiplayer beta was out over the last weekend and ended on Monday and luckily I jumped in straight away. And I loved it! I've been watching YouTube videos and reviews and there are so many negative views, but I'm already getting withdrawal from the beta! The negativity seems to revolve around the style of the multiplayer, it's not fast enough or not competitive enough, but I don't really care, I haven't had so much fun in a FPS in years!

Visually the game is stunning, mind-blowingly stunning. I haven't seen graphics like this before. The gunplay is slick and feels great, as every Id Studios title always does. The setting is everything Doom should be, hellish and filled with blood. The music sounds like it's been copied straight out of the original games, and done really well. The trailers for the single player look amazing and I can't wait to get my teeth into it.

I want to pre-order the game but I can't justify £40 for a game until I get a job. As soon as I start earning, I'll buy Doom. I need it!