Slasher on 14/6/2016 at 01:43
As announced at E3 (:confused:), the first level of the game can be played free for a week (
http://store.steampowered.com/app/379720/) on Steam. Download is 6.0GB. I told Steam I was born in 1900 and it let me pass, teehe!
Twist on 14/6/2016 at 16:50
Quote Posted by Renzatic
The only thing I ended up not liking about it is that it too heavily leans upon an "empty hallways leading to an ambush in a big room obviously built for a fight" formula. One of the nice things about Doom was that there were enemies everywhere. You never knew what was lurking around the next corner. In Doom 4, it's obvious what's meant to be an arena, and what's going to happen there.
Still an excellent game, but it could've been even better if the leaned just a little bit more over to the oldschool in a couple of regards.
I agree, except this mostly applies to the second half of the game. In most of the earlier levels, they do a better job integrating the combat arenas into the exploration flow of the level. Later in the game, as the combat arenas become bigger and more elaborate, Doom shifts to a repetitive routine of Linear Exploration Area -> Combat Arena -> Linear Exploration Area -> Combat Arena.
I'm a little disappointed how critics haven't commented on this problem. It's like they were so surprised by how good the game was and got so enamored by the first half of it that they overlooked all the linearity and repetition in the latter part of Doom.
In much of the game, enemies do spawn outside of those combat arenas. There are even a couple of Doom 3 style jump scares where you're crawling through air vents, and an imp spawns right behind you. It just becomes less and less frequent as the game progresses.
Ironically, one of the reasons the game works so well is the separation of the exploration areas and the combat areas. With the movement speed and over-the-top weaponry of a proper Doom game with modern graphical detail, combat only really works when the scale, proportion, and flow of an area works like that of a well-designed deathmatch map. Forcing that combat into a lot of the other parts of the game would give the player an annoying bull-in-a-china-shop feeling.
In the best levels, there are some fun Deus Ex-like bits of exploration, where you're either jumping and mantling to explore vertically or rummaging through the detritus of a dilapidated research lab. Cramming Doom-style combat into these parts would feel cramped, clunky and irritating.
The problem is that in the second half of the game, these combat arenas became too discrete and too insulated from the rest of the level, and the level design begins to feel like a series of these discrete, insulated deathmatch maps strung together with near-empty exploration bits.
I still enjoyed playing those later levels. The flow, connectivity, and balance of those combat arenas encourage the dynamic tactical use of your weapons and movement abilities. I think many of the combat arenas in the last third of the game would make better multiplayer maps than most of the maps in Doom's multiplayer component.
I agree, however, that Doom would have been better if id had managed to sustain the balance and integration of the combat arenas with the non-linear exploration areas. In the levels where they pull this off, the game feels like a veritable masterpiece.
scumble on 19/6/2016 at 21:50
Quote Posted by Slasher
As announced at E3 (:confused:), the first level of the game can be played free for a week (
http://store.steampowered.com/app/379720/) on Steam. Download is 6.0GB. I told Steam I was born in 1900 and it let me pass, teehe!
After hearing of a demo I decided to give it a go to see whether I'd be interested. I wasn't sure because I'm not the biggest fan of horror themes and thought I might be a bit scared...
I'm glad I did try it because I'm stunned at how fast and smooth the game is. Not a hint of stutter to be seen. Meaning I noticed it immediately as qualitatively different. A sort of "holy crap" moment being hit with the action, no tedious introductions or cut scenes. It's almost a shock to be running about like mad dodging fireballs blasting horrific things to pieces. It reminds me that there can be too much choice in how you want to play in many modern action games. My immediate comparison is to Duke 3D in terms of pace because I played more of that than Doom.
I seem to be reading that the full game tails off a bit, I'm just very impressed with the way this thing runs. The adaptive sync must be very good, and possibly the dynamic resolution thing is coming into play. I'm not sure because the quality appears consistent, and I've set it to high. I'm not sure if I'll notice the difference with Ultra, it already looks excellent.
Update - ultra seems to be fine too, but I'm not sure I can tell the difference. Possibly it needs a restart, although there was no message to suggest this...
Sulphur on 20/6/2016 at 04:03
When I try to access the demo's page, it redirects to the the normal game's store page both on Steam and in a browser. Region-locked demos? Good stuff, Beth.
Sulphur on 20/6/2016 at 06:21
Oh, I know. It wasn't available since it was announced this side of the pond. Searching for 'Doom Demo' always returned a hit and still does right now, so I'm guessing it's still available to others.
DarkForge on 20/6/2016 at 07:17
Just to be clear though, it's only the download that has the week-only availability, right? If you got the demo installed during that week, I'm assuming you can actually go back and play it for as long as you want?
scumble on 20/6/2016 at 07:30
It was working for me yesterday.
Are you sure there is no "install demo" button on the store page? It's the same situation with the 3dmark demo, the button just isn't obviously highlighted.
Sulphur on 20/6/2016 at 07:39
Ah, check. -1 to me for observation. I was looking for it under the main section, which is where I could've sworn the option for most demos is usually placed. It's on the right side of the screen in a button format that's usually relegated to wishlisting or the exploration queue.
Thanks, scumble!
PigLick on 20/6/2016 at 13:31
I didnt have any trouble just went Games>Demos> and there it was
