I finally finished Doom. That game is really good. Good enough that it should have been at #2 on my
top 10 games of the year instead of #5. I was only about half way through Doom when I put my list together. At that point I had seen enough to know it belonged on the list but I hadn't seen a lot of the best parts of the game yet.
I started Doom when it first came out. I played about half of it and went on vacation. When I came back other games (like Overwatch) grabbed a lot of my attention and I didn't get around to finishing it. A couple weeks ago I finally decided it was time to start the game over and actually finish it this time. I was only slightly further than where I left off last time when the game really got it's hooks into me deep.
The second time around I spent a lot more time looking for upgrades and collectibles. The first suit upgrades I took were all focused around making it easier to find secrets. Not only did this let me explore the awesome environments and find stuff I never saw the first time through, it also meant I had access to weapons, upgrades, and rune abilities sooner.
I found the Super Shotgun a full level earlier and I had it's mastery ability unlocked pretty early in the game. That turned the Super Shotgun from a weapon I didn't really like because it was the only one that has to be reloaded into easily my favorite weapon in the game. Super fast reloads and the ability to shoot twice before having to reload meant that I could just sprint around the room and take everything out without ever having to slow down. This made a game that was already great a lot more fun for me.
They continued to introduce cooler enemies and greater quantities of them which made flying around with the Super Shotgun even more fun. I also focused all my rune abilities around glory kills and faster movement to make the pace even more insane. I'm actually glad I didn't finish the game this summer when I was just plowing through to the objective because I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much.
I was pleasantly surprised with the story too. Typically when I heard people talk about the game they said that there really wasn't a story. It was just demon killing fun. I disagree with that pretty strongly. No, there weren't cutscenes before and after every mission. There were really only about 2 to 3 cutscenes the entire game and most of them were only a few seconds long. If you take the time to explore and read the codex entries you find there is actually a pretty interesting story to be found.
I already knew Doom was very good from what I played this summer. After finally finishing it it isn't hard to see why it got so much praise. If you like FPS games and don't mind lots of gore you should definitely check this out. And no, nostalgia for the original game is not necessary to enjoy this. I played the first few missions of the original for the first time earlier this year.