#the art of the cheevo war

[jokersenpai-thenavigator]

My brother and I decided to start an achievement war - it's helped to get us to keep in touch more regularly, and talk and joke about what we're playing instead of isolating ourselves and suffering in silence.

But he makes the mistake of not really keeping up with what I'm playing. So while I know that he's playing Ryza, Monster Hunter Rise, and Ace Attorney, he only knows what I tell him I'm playing.

My Cookie Clicker achievements are going to destroy him.

[tearasshouse]

Attack on Backlog 2017 - No. 2 

DOOM (2016)

Breakdown: PS4 version at 38% cheevos and just under 16 hours; played the first few areas on Ultra-Violence and toned it down to Hurt Me Plenty because holy moly the enemies become bullet sponges, not unlike fellow FPS stablemate Wolfenstein The New Order at higher difficulties. Did not touch MP nor SnapMap because I don’t have PS Plus nor do I particularly care for multiplayer and self generated content.

I like this game! I like it quite a bit. It’s not as crazy and inventive as Painkiller Black Edition though. But, whatever. I’ll take good enough!

My memories of DOOM (or was it DOOM 2?) are hazy at best, but I do remember being quite scurred as a little babby child playing it. I’ll remember it best for those iconic sound effects and the meaty shotgun. Glorious, glorious shotgun. Even talking about it now I want to tip Steam a tenner and pick up the classic games. Goddamnit. Why am I still here?

Moving on, my experience with DOOM 3 taught me that monster closets are bullshit. DOOM 3 is the king of monster closets. It’s not my favorite thing. I believe, if memory serves, I got fairly far into that game, into Hell, and I put the thing down, because monster closets everywhere. God.

I even watched the DOOM movie in theatres and I enjoyed that one too but the DOOM 3 inspirations were a bit much.

So here we are with new DOOM. It’s really fast, it’s really stupid and it makes the fans in my PS4 weep and my my is idTech 6 pretty. Like really pretty. And 60fps too! Still, I’d say if you have a capable enough PC, just get it for that platform. You’ll want it to do the crazy acrobatics the air control rune upgrade affords you. The controller layout is great but it is what it is.

I also really like the big dumb lore dumps they throw at you! I’m a fan of that cheesy lore with the big stupid Mortal Kombat-like Hell levels and the reverence for the DOOOOMSLAYERRRR. It’s like the shooter equivalent to Diablo 3′s tone. I even own the artbook for that game! Though I am not a fan of the aesthetic they’ve chosen here, and again I’ll level the same complaint with D3′s art direction (and seemingly all of Blizzard’s homogenized, teen-friendly fantasy output since World of Warcraft). To me, both games could stand to be grimier to truly emulate that 90s/early 2000s aesthetic. And for DOOM 2016, I’m still not a fan of the overly sci-fi approach to storytelling and environment design and yes I know the UAC’s always existed in the first games and he’s always been a space marine. I guess I wanted a deliberately low-tech approach to everything in the same way the newest Star Wars movies and Alien Isolation pays homage to vintage looking tech? Meh.

But, if we’re going to have high-tech gadgetry then make it more like this! The weapon designs are wonderful. Truly wonderful. The pistol is kind of underwhelming though; I’d have preferred if they kept the sidearm from the classic games but this is set in the distant future so okay, fair enough. And the upgrades are all pretty good! The mods are all quite useful (Plasma’s Stun Bomb being very very useful) and I appreciate that the upgrades are all designed to remove their weaknesses and make them more effective. 

The game truly gets good in the last third because it starts featuring the densest combination of enemies and it’s where a lot of the level design opens up to become more gamey where you can use your double jumps to full effect. When a track like BFG Division comes on and you get the Glory Kills going whilst swapping weapons out and the gore and particle effects are going wild it’s quite a thrill! I even enjoyed the boss fights! They’re very videogamey and almost character action in style. I also briefly tried the Arcade Mode that was patched in and it seems pretty cool, though its seemingly just a score multiplier overlaid on top of the existing game, without altering the mix of enemies nor their bodycount. I would’ve preferred a wave mode kind of implementation but such as it is, its a decent if not stellar addition. 

Also, playing with classic view (where it centers the model) is amazing and actually helps your aim! 

So to conclude... I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the new Wolfenstein, which I also liked but never found myself truly enjoying. But! I do want to revisit that one again on PS4 now for some odd reason. Hmmm...