DOOM Multiplayer Beta Preview

After a long time waiting we're finally getting ever so close to the arrival and return of the glorious gorefest that is DOOM. Purchasing Wolfenstein: The New Order got you an invite to the multiplayer beta. Now after some delays and a closed alpha, the closed beta for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One has come and gone. But was it enough for Id and Bethesda to convince us that this marks the return of the arena shooter up against the big leagues of Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield?

I spent some time with the beta on PC and as a big fan of the classic arena shooter from Quake, Unreal Tournament to recent iterations: Nexuiz and TOXIKK. And after a few demonic blood-fueled hours I can say that DOOM’s multiplayer does stand a chance at bringing back the arena shooter to the next generation, but it’s not without its compromises.

As with many betas, you’re limited to only a handful of weapons, modes and maps. So let’s get down to the details. The closed beta offers two maps and two games modes. First of which is your traditional Team Deathmatch and the other is the introduction of Warpath. Warpath in essence is King of the Hill, you capture a point and hold it for long as possible. Warpath puts a twist on the mode by having the capture point move through the map on a single path. This was the one I spent the most time on; as players would follow the path and conjugate amongst the capture point in a clash of firearms and gore. The final release will feature six modes alongside Team Deathmatch and Warpath, and if these are as just as hectic as Warpath they’ll be well worth investing in.

The two playable maps, Heatwave and Infernal are well designed. Heatwave a mining outpost, contains hazardous lava, corridors and walkways with plenty places to mantle upon and get the jump on the enemy. Infernal is set within Hell and features large open spaces with areas above and bridge across damnation to fight upon. So far, I’m liking the map design, feeling very old school and almost symmetrical.

Diving into a match was simple enough and uses your typical matchmatching system. It's become pretty standard these days, which is a shame as it would of been nice to see traditional server browser, but at least the servers are dedicated - although the connections were a bit off, with pings being anything between 60 to 100 ms. Before the match starts, you get your choice of loadouts. Yes, DOOM’s multiplayer features loadouts now, so no more weapon pick ups dotted about. There is one exception however, a single overpowered weapon that does spawn in for the taking to give you a brief moment of domination - if you survive long enough to annihilate the enemy with it. Aside from that, you’ve got your standard health, armour, ammo and power ups (haste and quad damage).

Altogether this was a little bit of a disappointment; as I’d rather have the traditional weapon pick up as it was in Quake and Unreal Tournament. Nonetheless not a massive downfall and It’s pretty clear the decision was made to make DOOM more approachable. With today’s games having the option of custom loadouts and personalisation, DOOM wants in as well. With its own customisation for weapons and character, albeit pretty basic in comparison. There are no weapon attachments, but you can customise both your marine’s armor and weapons by adding colours and patterns and even pick taunts for ingame.

Now for the nitty-gritty, the gameplay. The thing that stands out the most about DOOM’s multiplayer, apart from the terrible cover, is its approachable design, which may not sit well for the hardcore fans. It’s more like Halo, which doesn’t surprise considering the team behind the multiplayer is Certain Affinity, who just so happened to have developed the multiplayer for both Halo 4 with 343i. Supporting up to 12 players, It’s nothing like DOOM’s previous multiplayer component, but closer to Quake’s. It’s brutal and frantic; requiring you to be quick and precise. Making the whole experience hectic and most importantly fun. That’s easily the best word to describe, other than bloody, is fun.

The weapons available are very reminiscent of Quake and Unreal Tournament; you have your rocket launcher, shotgun, sniper rifle and plasma rifle. Of course there are more, but it’s these that will be most used - especially the rocket launcher. With a fixed crosshair there is little to no need to aim, so it’s all hip-fire gunplay here. Personally, for a series that fixates itself with destroying evil from Hell with hard-hitting destructive weapons, they don’t have much of an impact with weapons sounding rather flat, but that’s just my opinion. Same goes for lack of music during matches and the announcer's voice lacking any gravitas.

In terms of movement you have the ability to double jump, mantle objects, use boost pads and teleporters to fight your adversaries in hell. Although, even with those abilities it still feels very grounded compared to the manic pace of Quake. You can now melee and once an enemy is weakened you can strike with a glorious devastating finisher. Cool as it is brutal, it’s also tacky, with a yellow glow around the enemy when available, it’s far too easy to perform. A more subtle indicator would be more suitable, but with everything around going in a blaze of bullets and hellfire it serves its purpose.

To spice things up DOOM’s multiplayer features playable demons and multiplayer boosts. I like the addition of the boosts, called Hack Modules, these are very much like Titanfall’s burn cards. Being a one time use, they give the ability to increase your starting armor, highlight the last enemy who killed you and show the health bars of the opposing team. They work well within the game's style without being unbalancing. What I don’t like and do find unbalanced is the playable demons. The unnecessary resurrection of evil which allows players to become, if they’re lucky to pick up a demon rune. In the beta you get to play the Revenant, a jet-packed, rocket firing, skeletal demon. While fun to play as obliterating all in it’s path, till either killed or the timer runs out, it’s an overpowered nuisance throughout the match. There was many times where i’d be on a kill-streak only to have it ruined by a rocket to the face by the bloody thing. To me, this ruined the flow of gameplay, but didn’t stop my enjoyment.

As for the performance, let me say something about the engine. I don’t like Id Tech 5, at least not on PC. When first shown on console with Rage, it was a technical achievement, but on PC it was awful. The biggest issue I have is engine cap of 60 FPS. Again, excellent for console, but not so much on PC. The screen tearing (even with vsync on) was another issue and the fact that the resolution didn’t go above 1080p - even though set to my monitor’s 1440p instantly made me think console port. The beta had locked out advanced settings and there was no FOV (field of view) slider, which worried me further. We’re a month away from release so hopefully this will change. At least I hope it does as their PC track record with Id Tech 5 has not been the best.

Those interested in seeing the franchise's return and success is in its single player. Whereas the multiplayer of DOOM will not appeal to all. It will certainly to those who want to return to the glory days of the arena shooter, it isn’t simply tacked on and It feels like Quake’s younger brother who’s grown up on Halo, but the biggest worry is whether it will hold any longevity. This will be entirely up to the community and support by the developers. I see it having a home on PC, but only if the performance problems can be fixed, as I just feel the console players are the target and I don’t think they’ll be very accepting.