What's more fun than playing Doom? More Doom! Id Software surprised us with its 2016 reboot of the classic first person shooter. With a 'so so' marketing strategy and a 'no advanced' copy policy, the game ended up as a success. Now that the game has been out, its arcade mode just adds up to the game's awesomeness.
Doom's selling point is its single player mode so many were disappointed when Bethesda confirmed that all the game's downloadable content would be based for multiplayer modes. Then there's light at the end of the tunnel as id Software created something in the shadows to please everyone, a free single player content that offers tons of mayhem. As a fan of Doom, I personally prefer it to be single player just like what it was in the 90s. As IGN describes it, "it's an old-school run and gun mayhem" which fits perfectly for people who have short tempers.
The fourth free update for Doom isn't your regular single-player add-on, where most would expect new enemies, weapons, bosses, or levels. What they did was something astonishing, and only a few, I bet would think have thought about it. Id Software just decided to slap around existing content and then created a score attack Arcade Mode. Personally, what I see is just a few game assets and programming were rearranged and created a new set of rules for the arcade mode but I've got to admit, it's brilliantly done.
How does the arcade mode work?
Each level can be played on a difficulty of your choice, with all power-ups unlocked. From this point, you get points for eliminating enemies and pickups; add a dash of items with boost bonuses. Consecutive kills will increase a score multiplier and if you stop killing for a while, the multiplier goes down, just like what most bonus rounds on shooters do. Additional points go to glory kills and head shots. Each stage will reward you with bronze, silver, and gold medals, depending on your performance.
Although the sets of rules are pretty normal, knowing that the game is Doom and it is gory, it feeds my satisfaction on tearing apart demonic aliens to the bone, especially on hardest difficulty settings. Even in the 90s where the game was still in huge chunks of pixels, I would sit for hours playing the levels over and over again.
Concept is simple but why would it still work?
By introducing a score multiplier, it pushes players to finish each stage at fascinating speeds, remember, multiplier goes down if you rest killing for a while. Normally you would finish a certain stage in an hour or so, the arcade mode pushes you to do that in minutes. Another reason is that Doom's arcade mode manages to keep things in motion by unlocking all power-ups and have players use them as they please. When playing the game in normal mode, you tend to scavenge on stuff because your items are limited, taking the focus away from being a fast-paced shooter because you're busy treasure hunting. Some people even admit that when they played the game, they are more concerned on their inventory rather than slaying demonic aliens.
In summary, the Arcade Mode, takes away the bells and whistles of the main game and take its essentials to just purely play classic Doom, a game where brutally killing off enemies is a joy to the heart. Here's a gameplay video that would melt your emotions:
