DOOM (PS4, XB1, PC) Review

DOOM is one of the biggest surprises for me so far this year. It's a master class in first-person shooting action and exploration that all adds up to a mighty enjoyable experience. Check out how and why with the SuperPhillip Central review.

Play Like Hell.

Confession time. I haven't played much of the original Doom. Yes, revoke my gamer card if you must, but after playing the brand-new reboot, DOOM (notice the name in all caps because that's how it's being marketed, and it's not just me yelling the name out loud), I felt immediately like I was taken back to the golden age of classic shooters, and that is a feeling I haven't felt in a long time. It was absolutely, positively a great feeling.

In this iteration of DOOM, you awaken as a nameless and not-particularly-talkative soldier who had been strapped down to a table. Upon leaving your initial prison, you enter your suit, and see the literal Hell that has taken over the facility, the Union Aerospace Corporation's research quarters, with red blood painting the walls, ceilings, and floors and showing torn asunder corpses all over the place. Apparently, trying to siphon and harness the energy from Hell was indeed a bad idea. Who knew.

At its core, DOOM is a simple shooter, dumb fun at times, repetitive at others. However, there is no question in mind that this dumb fun, which makes up the majority of DOOM's 13-level length, is sometimes all one needs to have a great time. Running from chamber to chamber, eliminating all of Hell's demons that occupy the room, allows the ability to progress on in a given level. You begin solely with a modest pistol. Shoot a foe enough, and they'll start staggering, flashing a hue of blue or orange. At this time you can run up them, press the melee button and perform a Glory Kill. This usually results in ripping off a demon's appendage and smashing it into them to make them wish they never escaped Hell to begin with. Glory Kills grant you with a supply of health pickups, making these very important to get considering that DOOM is the type of game that doesn't have regenerative health to ease the burden of battle.

Well, no one said Hell's finest were going to win any beauty contests.

A relic of a bygone era in shooters returns like it never had gone away with chambers where you are forced to kill all enemies before proceeding. Unlike traditional shooters a lot of us play now, the careful hiding behind cover, popping one's head out to take pot shots at a vulnerable foe, isn't how DOOM plays out. Instead, the game encourages you to rush around areas right out in the open, maneuvering through these chambers of death, blasting away at enemies, picking up health packs along the way, while either blowing demons away with your gun, or performing a well timed Glory Kill to not only gain pickups but also to get a brief respite in the chaos of battle, as performing a Glory Kill gives you complete invincibility during the deathblow animation.

The demon horde that occupies both the UAC on Mars and Hell is full of varied types of size, shape, danger, and aggression. Starting out in DOOM, the enemies featured are small, sauntering zombie-like cannon fodder for you to blast into oblivion. As you move on to later levels, the dangers become more prevalent demon-wise-- of course dipping into the who's who of DOOM enemies like the Mancubus, a colossal bloated foe that launches shots from the guns that are located where its arms should be; the Pinky, a charging bull-like bastard whose only course of attack is to run into you while shrugging off even the most powerful of your attacks; and the Baron of Hell, a giant demon that rushes you, getting up in your face to deliver monstrous close-range attacks.

This Mancubus is good at short-range, medium-range, and long-range attacks.
A true danger in every sense of the word.

Aside from typical demons found throughout DOOM's thirteen levels, occasionally you'll encounter at the end of a level a boss to battle. These confrontations aren't as simple as circle strafing a giant foe while slowly emptying their health bar. No, these fights actually reminded me slightly of the Metroid Prime series's boss encounters, having you need to be aware of when a boss was telegraphing an attack and requiring you to evade it intelligently. There's still the matter of aiming of a boss's weak point, slowly plugging away at turning these stronger demons into demon souffle.

DOOM's level design is quite unlike what we've seen out of a lot of first-person shooters over recent years. It's by no means a corridor shooter at all, instead offering rewards for fine exploration of its levels through its labyrinthine-like design. Secrets abound in DOOM's levels, featuring worthwhile rewards like enhancements to your suit, upgrades to your weapons, and collectables. Many of these secrets are housed in truly clever locations, so exploration is indeed highly rewarding and most importantly, a lot of damn fun. Sure, some can simply be found by just taking a detour when it's obvious which path you should actually be going, but other times more persistent observance of the environment can show hidden things like an out-of-the-way ledge or obscured vent that leads to something massively gratifying.

The environments and levels offer lots of verticality and secrets to discover.

One of such secrets found in levels are runes, which when interacted with, they transport the player to a special area where a specific objective is given to them. These objectives include clearing out all of the enemies in a room with limited health and ammo, performing a specific Glory Kill on a set number of foes, or reaching a destination before time runs out. In exchange for completing said objective, the player earns a rune, which can be equipped to do a wide host of benefits, such as staggering enemies more quickly, giving the player more control in the direction of their jumps while in midair, and getting speed boosts directly after performing Glory Kills, to name just a few. Runes can be leveled up once to master them, giving the player an even greater level of benefit to the ones equipped to them.

It wouldn't be DOOM without the BFG, and yes, this IS a big [redacted] gun.

In addition to finding runes, field drones can also be found in levels, some hidden some in plain sight. These give players weapon mods to their guns. From performing a charged burst with the regular shotgun to being able to lock on multiple mini-rockets from the Rocket Launcher, these new mods for weapons add to the variety of ways you can take out Hell's spawn, making for even more engaging combat and shooting action. These mods can be upgraded via points earned from exploration and combat. Mods can also be mastered by completing certain tasks a specific amount of times. Such a weapon mod mastery task like with the Super Shotgun requires you to take out more than one enemy with one shotgun burst. The tasks to master a weapon mod are different between each weapon mod, and this adds to the longevity of DOOM, while also rewarding players for altering their play style.

The single player campaign of DOOM is indeed a massive treasure and pleasure to play. The multiplayer component on the other hand doesn't fare as well, though it is still fun in its own way. Unlike the campaign, DOOM's multiplayer sticks more closely to a Call of Duty or Halo by way of having two weapons equipped to each player at the start of the round. You can find health and ammo pickups through the various maps, but the big draw here is various demon runes that turn players into seemingly omnipotent demon beings. These can turn a simple match into a total blowout, as playing as a demon throws the balance of the multiplayer out the window and into the depths of Hell. Still, like I said, there is fun to be had with DOOM's multiplayer, but it's obviously the weakest part of the entire package of the game.

The Plasma Rifle unleashes contained charged shots to unload into enemies.

While DOOM's traditional multiplayer is a bit of bust, the game also features a map-building component known as SnapMap. Here, you simply cycle through level parts and snap them to a grid to create a series of rooms that can be played cooperatively or competitively. The amount of different rooms isn't the largest, and you definitely can't remake old maps from past DOOM games, but what's here is rather exciting and enjoyable. The inclusion of a helpful tutorial assists in giving inspired creators the ability to make some pretty cool stuff. The also helps along with the tutorial that SnapMap itself is so intuitive and accessible with its specific tools.

With an absolutely masterful single player campaign that harks back to old school classic shooters without feeling 100% dated while offering new school fun, DOOM delivers. The levels encourage exploration, and the open-ended approach to combat makes for firefights that give the player control over how they want to play. The multiplayer is indeed weak compared to the rest of the package, but overall, DOOM is a blast from the past while still retaining many features from the present.

[SPC Says: A-]

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - Retro-ing Out of July Edition

Another Monday means another edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs! This week the VGMs bring some retro goodness into your lives and your ears!

We start off fast and loose with a song from Sonic Advance 2. Continuing with the sequel idea, we then jump into Shenmue 2. Streets of Rage follows with its well known boss theme, and then we go into a puzzle mood with Tetris Attack. Finally, Mega Man 5 wraps things up with a song from the Complete Works version.

Just click on the VGM volume name to hear its song. And as always, check out the VGM Database for all past VGM volumes featured. Now, let's get onto the music!

v1191. Sonic Advance 2 (GBA) - Leaf Forest Zone, Act 1

The first level of Sonic Advance 2 takes Sonic and the gang to the Leaf Forest Zone, an engaging first zone in the game full of places to speed through with wild abandon. Despite the Game Boy Advance's sound chip being relatively weak, composers did their best to produce good music and sound regardless, as heard with this song.

v1192. Shenmue 2 (XBX) - Dou Niu Rooftop Battle

With the upcoming Shenmue 3, it seems like an opportune time to bring up one of the two other Shenmue games. However, rather than go for the obvious pick with the revolutionary and more well known Dreamcast Shenmue, I'm going with the Xbox sequel. While the track name isn't official by any stretch of the imagination, what is genuine here is just how good this battle theme sounds.

v1193. Streets of Rage (GEN) - Stage Boss

We continue our Sega theme for one more VGM with the boss theme of the excellent beat-em-up Streets of Rage for the Sega Genesis. Yuzo Koshiro shows his brilliance with a catchy theme that makes for great background music to beating up the bigger threats that Streets of Rage possesses enemy-wise.

v1194. Tetris Attack (SNES) - Ice World - Bumpty Stage

Developed by Intelligent Systems, Tetris Attack is the western version of the Super Famicom's Panel de Pon. Instead of original characters like the Japanese version had, Tetris Attack used a Yoshi's Island theme with it. Tetris Attack remains one of my favorite falling block puzzle games for any platform. It's addicting, easy to learn, but tough to master.

v1195. Mega Man 5 (NES, PS1) - Gravity Man (Complete Works Version)

Various Mega Man games got a second life on the PlayStation with a Complete Works version. This brought the NES classics to Sony's system with new remixed songs. The example here is for Mega Man 5's Gravity Man stage. Whether you prefer the beeps and boops of the original NES soundtrack or these new renditions on the PS1, you're getting some wonderfully infectious music regardless.

Tearaway: Unfolded (PS4) Review

A new review has appeared! It's for a game that I really enjoyed on the PlayStation Vita, and now it has a second life on the PlayStation 4. (Though it received the same amount of popularity-- read: little-to-no popularity). It's Tearaway: Unfolded, and this review should get you into the fold on how good this game is.

An old game gets some new tricks

The original Tearaway is one of my favorite PlayStation Vita exclusives. It not only was a charming adventure from the makers of LittleBigPlanet, but it used the majority of the PlayStation Vita's hardware features to great effect. However, the originality and large quality of Tearaway didn't transition into big sales for the game. Now, Tearaway gets a second chance at popularity with a re-imagined version for the PlayStation 4, Tearaway: Unfolded. An old game gets some new tricks with this delightful return to the world of Tearaway.

You control one of two messengers tasked with trekking through a colorful and imaginative world to deliver a message to the You, an all powerful being that is literally you. You see, Tearaway: Unfolded casts you in a co-starring role alongside either Atoi or Iota, and the game casts no aspersions to make that clear. Tearaway: Unfolded is very much a fourth wall-breaking experience, and that is simply part of its charm.

Play as either the female messenger Atoi (as seen here) or the male messenger Iota.

Tearaway: Unfolded consists of sixteen main levels spread out across three different story scenarios. At the beginning of your journey, your messenger has a limited move set. He or she can't even jump until a couple of levels into the game. As you and your messenger proceed through the world of Tearaway, you as the overseer of the world gain new ways to interact with said world via the Dualshock 4 controller.

While Iota would love to stay for the party, he has an urgent message to deliver.

For instance, in dark areas you can hold down the L2 or R2 button to summon a ray of light to not only interact with different objects in levels, but you can use it to confuse the enemies of the game, the Scraps, into running off the level, defeating them in the process. You can also stroke the touch pad of the Dualshock 4 to summon a gust of wind in the direction that you stroke. This can be used to interact with that environment, such as blowing a hollow log over to your messenger for them to cross over an otherwise impossible-to-cross chasm. Meanwhile, tapping the touch pad results in certain materials in the game world to send whatever sits on them to launch into the air.

Stroke the touch pad to give flight to your messenger as he or she rides a paper airplane through the skies.

Because of the differences in how you're able to interact with the world between the Vita game and this new PlayStation 4 re-imagining, many of the levels feature brand-new designs, alterations, and collectable locations. Thus, if you're already played the original Tearaway like I had, you'll find that this PS4 edition feels like a greatly new experience.

Speaking of collectables, while Tearaway: Unfolded is a pretty lengthy game as it is, the longevity of the game comes from finding and collecting all of the hidden goodies the game possesses. Like the original Vita Tearaway, each level contains hidden presents that contain confetti that is used to purchase new shapes to customize your messenger with and different visuals effects for your camera, as well as colorless papercraft shapes that when a photo is taken of them, they regain their color and add that piece of papercraft to your collection.

There are also extra things to do per level outside of the typical goals. A lot of these essentially have you create shapes and designs via "drawing" them with the touch pad-- such an example is an early one where you are required to design a crown for the king of the squirrels. Sure, you can cheat and draw anything you want basically (yes, even to get your X-rated jollies with), but it was more engaging to me to see my creations appear in the game world. Designing a flame pattern for all the game's torches or drawing a snowflake design to shower down dozens of my own design from the skies of Gibbet Hill was a very cool experience for me.

What seems like the initial end of your messenger's adventure in Gibbet Hill is really only the beginning of the fun.

Each level tracks how many confetti you've collected, hidden presents opened, extra things to do completed, papercraft uncovered, and for the levels that feature them, Scraps defeated. Getting 100% completion in Tearaway: Unfolded is a mighty challenge, as things are very well hidden, and yes, it can become maddening trying to track down those final confetti you need in a given level.

Though not a requirement, you can use the PlayStation Eye camera to put yourself into the game.

It can also become maddening because going back to previous levels to collect stuff can be mighty annoying. This is in part due to most scenes within Unfolded being impossible to skip, making repeated play-throughs of a given level torturous. Furthermore, several of the extra things to do in levels require you to carry what the game calls a "Misplaced Gopher" from its starting location to its home. If your messenger loses its stamp (done by getting hit too many times or falling into the abyss), then the Gopher returns to its starting point. The problem here is that there is no way in-game to start the level over from the Misplaced Gopher's location. You have to either restart the level from the beginning or hope your last checkpoint is around that Gopher's starting spot. This is a tremendous inconvenience that the requirement to sit through most story sequences only further agonizing.

Still, if you're just wanting to beat the game, then Tearaway: Unfolded is nowhere near as annoying. Sure, you might die (i.e. lose your messenger's stamp) a bunch, but "death" is not a harsh penalty at all. You simply are revived at a nearby location. Simply playing the game normally without collecting stuff isn't completely without its annoyances, as the camera isn't the greatest, and it can actually result in your messenger losing its stamp due to a poor angle somewhat more regularly than you'd probably wish.

The world of Tearaway: Unfolded is unquestionably charming and endearing.

Tearaway: Unfolded's world is entirely made of paper, and the power of the PlayStation 4 enhances the game's world considerably compared to the Vita version, which already looked superb. Little touches when interacting with the environments of levels are quite astounding, and the quality of the visuals is very high. The frame-rate is pretty consistent as well, only sometimes offering slowdown here and there. Meanwhile, the sound is also well done, featuring voice acting for the two essential narrators of the game, while every other character speaks in gibberish. The music is delightful, delivering something of great quality for the player.

Despite its faults like its occasionally bothersome camera, Misplaced Gopher missions, and the inability to skip most story sequences, Tearaway: Unfolded is very much worth playing, especially if you didn't play the original on the PlayStation Vita (which was obviously A LOT of people). Containing the same level of charm and quality as Media Molecule's other well known franchise, LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway: Unfolded's world may be paper thin, but the actual game is thick with fun.

[SPC Says: B]

World of Final Fantasy (PS4, Vita) Welcome to Grymoire! Trailer

World of Final Fantasy is the other big Final Fantasy game that is due out this fall alongside Final Fantasy XV. This one, however, is more to tickle the nostalgia bones of fans of the series, as well as presenting lots of new ideas both gameplay and aesthetic-wise. World of Final Fantasy launches in October.

Localizations, Please! Midsummer Day's Dreams Edition

With the advent of digital marketplaces on consoles and handhelds, gamers in the west have seen more games that might have been stuck in Japan decades earlier see release on this side of the Pacific.

The Localizations, Please series of articles continues with a new edition featuring five more games that are currently only available or planned to be available in Japan. These games are ones that many gamers wish would reach our side of the world.

After you've perused and seen my arguments for why these upcoming five games should be localized, feel free to name other yet-to-be-localized games that you'd love to see brought to the west.

Dragon's Dogma Online (PS4, PS3, PC)

Released in 2015 in Japan, Dragon's Dogma Online has been a free-to-play game with cross play for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the game. A new land known as Lestaria is where up to four players can join a party and quest throughout the land, doing battle with enemies both small and large. If you'd rather go it solo, three AI pawns can join your cause to help out. It's essentially all of the goodness of the offline Dragon's Dogma games with a larger world that is planned to get expansions. With the interest that gamers had toward past Dragon's Dogma titles, it seems like this free-to-play online iteration of the series would do well if only Capcom decides to release it for the west.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS4, Vita)

The latest chapter in the long-running Ys series is set to release later this year in Japan. The title, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita title that for the first time in series history features a dual protagonist system. Obviously, Adol Christin returns, but a new female character acts as the other protagonist. Otherwise, Lacrimosa of Dana plays similarly to Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta, offering a three party system where players can switch between characters on the fly as opposed to Oath of Felghana and Ys Origins' more platforming-focused combat. No word yet of localization has been heard, but it seems more to be a matter of when rather than if. Hopefully, westerners like us get to officially see Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana get a localization announcement in the coming months.

Great Detective Pikachu (3DS)

Danny Devito as the voice of Pikachu or not, it would be a grand pleasure to have Nintendo release Great Detective Pikachu over here on this side of the earth. The Creatures-developed game released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop earlier this year in Japan after a three-year development period. Great Detective Pikachu itself is an adventure game with players assuming the role of young boy Tim Goodman who teams up with Detective Pikachu in order to investigate, examine, and solve a number of peculiar mysteries. This is done through examination of various scenes, the discovery of clues, and interviewing both people and Pokemon. The numerous spin-offs of the Pokemon series are usually pretty stellar, and the creativity behind Great Detective Pikachu makes it an exciting prospect for release in the west. Hopefully Nintendo pulls through on this.

Digimon World: Next Order (Vita)

With the release of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth earlier this year, Digimon is back in the minds of gamers. What better way to continue the series's momentum than with releasing another recent Digimon game from Japan to the west? That's exactly what the PlayStation Vita exclusive Digimon World: Next Order is. No doubt that a retail release wouldn't be the smartest to do, so like Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, the latest in the Digimon World series could see a digital-only launch, as Vita owners are very much a dedicated bunch and still buy games. Regarding the actual gameplay, Digimon World: Next Order plays similarly to past games in the series, though this time a second Digimon partner is available, changing things up considerably. Here's hoping that Cyber Sleuth did well enough to have Namco Bandai consider localizing Digimon World: New Order for the west.

Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain (Vita)

The dungeon crawler is quite the niche genre in gaming. At the same time, it has found a home of dedicated handheld systems like the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita. Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain is a game that released last month in Japan on the latter, offering detailed dungeons to travel through with clever traps to carefully avoid. The use of dolls to equip to party members in the game's dungeons is a major part of the gameplay, allowing for all five party member slots to equip eight dolls each. This adds up to 40 players in battle. With the popularity of anime-styled games with niche genres on the PlayStation Vita in the west, it's with heavy hopes that NIS America picks up Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain and brings it over to our side of the world.