Do You Prefer Doom As A Action, Horror, Or RPG Title??

[Domestic-Weirdo]

Similar to Evil Dead II, the classic Doom games are well known for utilizing a fairly balanced blend of multiple genres which, in this case, incorporates action, horror, and RPG elements. The fast-paced gameplay is accompanied by robust lighting and SFX systems with non-linear map layouts that encourages thorough exploration. However, it seems nearly every title after Doom II had decided to build their entire games' identity around only one of these categories. 

 

Doom 64 and Doom 3 definitely veered towards horror by emphasizing lighting, using atmospheric music, and redesigning the monsters to be more realistic. While Doom 64 still manages to play fairly close to the first two games, Doom 3 took it a step further by integrating a flashlight into the player's inventory and making reloads necessary. Then there's the Doom RPG duology made by John Carmack, mainly because he had been disappointed with the offering of phone games at the time. These games were presented as turn-based dungeon crawlers that features enemy classes and an expanded use of RNG, which were sensible choices given the limited hardware. Finally, the reboot games are centered around what the developers refer to as "push-forward combat" that incentivizes the player to rush into and directly engage enemies in order to obtain attractive rewards such as health, ammo, and armor. Even though these games make slight use of RPG mechanics like skill trees and weapons mods, the overall gameplay is decisively rooted into action first and foremost and the horror aspect has been considerably toned down.

 

Personally, I say that the horror element has been somewhat underused in the franchise and that Doom 64 was arguably the perfect in-between Doom II and Doom 3. I would be really interested in seeing id Software making a modern game in the genre, Doom-related or not, using all the advances in tech and game design of the past decade. While pretty unlikely, perhaps they could even give Doom 3 the remaster treatment that the Resident Evil games have been delving in lately. With all this said, what is you preferred genre for Doom? Do you like it when Doom focuses in on one direction or was the nuanced approach of the classics more fulfilling as an experience?

 

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by Domestic-Weirdo
Less vague title

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I would like the series to focus more on a dark atmosphere, but not necessarily horror. Hell should look evil, monsters should look disturbing. I would like to see the series take on a more surreal style.

[banjiepixel]

I love it when action and rpg gameplay are being mixed. I prefer action most of all while Doom's attempts at horror is what I like least. In my dream world, modern Doom games would had evolved into something more like the Borderlands games.

[Sonikkumania]

I prefer Doom to be more about action with horror elements. Quake can have all the otherworldly surreal horror stuff.

[Fluuschoen]

As a fighter jet simulator. Obviously.

[Wyrmwood]

Just plain action with a hellish theme, I wasn't a big fan of the RPG-lite stuff in Doom16 and I definitely don't want to be talking to NPCs. Doom 3 is a pretty good survival horror game but the wrong direction for the series. There's loads of good RPGs and survival horrors, don't need Doom to be one.

[Duskztar]

Well 64 is my favorite so I like the action gameplay but with a horror focus on the atmosphere. I also really like 64's gothic design for hell levels.

[No-Man Baugh]

e-sport

[SMG_Man]

Doom has been at its best with frenetic action; even for a game like Doom Eternal with some questionable design choices made in it (in my eyes), the combat is fairly engaging, and that makes it fun for me to come back to. With Doom 3, the issue was that they tried to go for a more horror-inspired vibe without committing to it. There aren't as many monsters on each level, yet the combat maintains the general simplicity of the original Doom and Quake. Higher quality/more complex and threatening enemies along with some rudimentary ability for the player to "pick and choose" their battles as needed would go a long way towards selling the idea that Doom 3 is a "Horror" game.

 

As far as RPG elements go, I think the extent of the upgrade mechanics introduced in "Nu-Doom" are more than enough (in fact, they can probably be dialed back a bit).

Edited November 11, 2022 by SMG_Man

[Herr Dethnout]

On 11/8/2022 at 7:08 PM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Hell should look evil, monsters should look disturbing.

I disagree, a DOOM game without cute cacos is not a DOOM game...

[whybmonotacrab]

I'd like the series to be tonally something like Doom 64 - atmospheric and creepy, but still an action game.

[Antroid]

My ideal Doom would be atmospheric, oppressive and daunting, but with enough tools for the player to be able to fully push back. Action and horror together at last.

 

I really don't like skill trees and upgrades for Doom, a dozen upgrade currencies, none of that please. Also, none of the mechanics that make your resources essentially infinite (from punching enemies and chainsawing them, for example). However, I wouldn't mind slight "immersive sim" elements, basically an extension of ye olde keys and doors thing, finding tools that can unlock things for you in different ways. Does that count as RPG elements? It would just be a slight addition that doesn't really change the core gameplay, like the PDA and interactive terminals in Doom 3.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Antroid

[Mr. Freeze]

On 11/8/2022 at 4:08 PM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I would like the series to focus more on a dark atmosphere, but not necessarily horror. Hell should look evil, monsters should look disturbing. I would like to see the series take on a more surreal style.

 

Doom 3 had the best Hell in the series. It was dark, twisted and oppressively vile. You felt like an entire dimension was pushing down on you, not like NuDoom and the Firey Romper Room that Hell is in that. 

[7Mahonin]

Action-horror as it was intended. It has to have a good balance between the two. If I wanted to play an RPG, I’d play an RPG, not Doom, except the Doom RPG games but I haven’t played those since when flip phones were the most commonly used phone tech, and the Wolfenstein RPG games were better than the Doom ones.

Edited November 11, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[TheSlipgateStudios]

I like blasting hardcore metal while playing Doom so I guess more Action oriented

[BGreener]

I like to compare my desired atmosphere of Doom to that of the IP it was initially going to be: Aliens. Similarly, you can compare it to Predator. I like having the initial feeling of “aw yeah, oo rah” and you’re getting pumped, then things progress and things start to get really bad. Knee Deep felt good about this.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

12 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Doom 3 had the best Hell in the series. It was dark, twisted and oppressively vile. You felt like an entire dimension was pushing down on you, not like NuDoom and the Firey Romper Room that Hell is in that. 

It's definitely the best part of the game, even though I still like DOOM 3 well enough in general. I also like the way Hell is imagined in classic DOOM, I just think that the Hell maps themselves in the original games could have been done better both in terms of atmosphere and layout/combat. There are plenty of community maps that use vanilla assets (with new music, importantly) to create an oppressive atmosphere while still having good gameplay as well. DOOM 64 has my favorite visual design, but it's more of a "gothic Hell" than a surreal/disturbing one. I'm not a fan of NuDoom's atmosphere and environmental design at all. 2016 was passable if generic, and Eternal is just silly. And the "lore" is laughable, both in terms if writing and implementation.

 

As for the RPG aspect, I don't mind a well-implemented weapon upgrade system, but that's about it. No multiple currencies, no skill trees with uninteresting buffs, etc. 

[TheFocus]

how about...ACTION...HORROR? how could it be??

[heliumlamb]

doom is an immersive simulation of real-time dungeon crawling where Doom "John" Guy's role must be fulfilled.

Edited November 13, 2022 by heliumlamb

[Firedust]

Anything goes as long as it's fun. Problem is people understandably associate horror with Doom 3, which was laughably bad, but I reckon if a talented game studio was granted a good budget to carry out a project removed from the action trope, then we'd get to see a truly immersive horror Doom experience.

[LadyMistDragon]

Horror, but more like FEAR than cartoon villain Dr. Betruger

[knifeworld]

I'd like to see something utilizing horror and action to varying extents depending on the per-level theme or the current point of progression thru the game (and its story, if any) to more hellish and disturbing levels.
Something like a modern take on Doom 64 but with more interesting combat would be nice.
 

[Budoka]

On 11/11/2022 at 5:14 AM, No-Man Baugh said:

e-sport

Jokes aside, VR e-sports is the only e-sports I'll acknowledge. Nothing against good old-fashioned PVP, but it isn't "sports" by any stretch of the definition. Speaking of... motion-VR Doom Deathmatch. There's an idea.

 

Anyway, focusing on the more important part (SP), well, like some others have said, action-focused mechanics complimented by a horror aesthetic and tone. That's generally been the winning formula for commercial Doom at least. Mods however can get away with a lot more freedom as far as aesthetic and tone are concerned.

[No-Man Baugh]

1 hour ago, Budoka said:

Jokes aside, VR e-sports is the only e-sports I'll acknowledge. Nothing against good old-fashioned PVP, but it isn't "sports" by any stretch of the definition. Speaking of... motion-VR Doom Deathmatch. There's an idea.

 

I was half-joking with my post, calling Doom a sport was the joke, but my love for deathmatch is entirely sincere. An entirely underrated aspect of Doom that every online PvP game needs to go back and kiss the dirt that it continues to tread on