Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Was the DOOM Beta a Bad Idea?

Was the DOOM Beta a Bad Idea?

Did you play the DOOM open beta this past weekend? It’s understandable if you didn’t, since the period was rather brief. Trying to be sure you’re there sometime between April 15-18 can require a bit of doing. It may have been to your benefit if you did, though, because early reviews aren’t good.

Wait, that’s underestimating things. Allow me to be more specific. On Steam , there are over 12,000 reviews for the DOOM open beta. Of those 12,000, over 7,500 are negative. There are only over 4,600 positive reviews in comparison. People are being exacting in their critiques of the game as-is, and they aren’t good.

Here are a few choice lines from some of the DOOM open beta review. A user named Earth says, “This isn’t DOOM . This isn’t old school, and they aren’t going back to their roots… The only similarities to ” DOOM ” is that there’s no health regeneration and it takes place in hell.” Sc0mBuNNeRRR says, “DOOM (2016) feels like ‘Bruce Lee with a shotgun on a skateboard’ says Id. DOOM (2016) feels like ‘Master Chief with a squirtgun on a shopping cart’ says me.” Perhaps Blitz’s concise , “The game doesn’t know what it wants to be” says it best. Early indications suggest it isn’t the DOOM experience expected. Rather, it’s a generic game with the Hell backdrop and demonic elements that were often attributed to DOOM .

Which makes us wonder what the future could be like for DOOM . Typically, after a game’s closed or open beta phase, we hear people raving about the title. The hype for the product increases, as people go on and on about their experiences. Companies are typically smart enough to put their best foot forward with these affairs to generate good buzz. But this beta doesn’t give a good first impression, despite having offered a look at two game modes, two maps, one demon, and multiple weapons. As The Fifth Horseman said , “Bethesda decided to use the multiplayer portion to give us our first impression of the new DOOM . Either they had no idea it was so bad, or they thought it was representative of the game… and I really don’t know which is worse.”

Was the DOOM Beta a Bad Idea?

This is critical, as open betas have become the new game demos, especially for games like Halo 5 , Destiny , Gears of War 4 and DOOM , where the strong multiplayer component will help sell it. If people aren’t enjoying the element they’ll be participating in for weeks after the campaign is complete, what incentive do they have to buy the full game? If the multiplayer beta doesn’t do a good job of upholding and representing the DOOM legacy and identity, what does that say about the final product?

This is especially worrisome since DOOM is too far along for id Software to make any changes. It’s supposed to be released worldwide on May 13. That’s less than a month away. The sorts of things people are (rightfully) complaining about in the open beta are too substantial to be addressed in post-launch patches. There would need to be a delay and additional development to give it the sorts of themes and gameplay elements it currently lacks. It certainly seems like this DOOM open beta could doom the game’s launch.

To top