I Don’t Get DooM Lore…

So everyone remembers Doom, right? Revolutionary action game that popularized the first-person shooter and a timeless classic that holds up to this day, whether it’s played in its vintage form or via countless source ports and megawads? Good stuff. It’s one of the few games that sees regular play from me.

Back in those days, Doom lore was simple. You played some levels, you got a bit of text, and you beat the game, you got more text. Nobody cared about story in Doom. They just wanted to deathmatch and shit.

Nowadays, Doom has “lore” going back ages. Plain ol’ Doomguy, at some point, went crazy fighting demons and he became the Doom Slayer, the main hero for the recent Doom games. And the Slayer’s story came to an end with some DLC for the last game. Or so we thought.

Now we have Doom: The Dark Ages, which takes place in medieval times, but also features… the Doom Slayer. The same Doom Slayer who used to be Doomguy. The same Doomguy who used to punch Pinkies in the face with his fists after a Berserk power-up. Is there more to this story? Probably. Do I particularly care? Nope.

Listen, I’m sure the game will be fine and el dandy, but I may sit this one out. Doom 2016 was a thrill while it lasted and I never really could get into Eternal’s constant need for resource management when the whole thrill of Doom was shooting demons in the face. And so if you’re going to minimize the shooting in your shooting game… eh.

I do like that you have a shield. That’s a nice touch… we’ll see about the Dark Ages, which isn’t coming out for Switch – I’m guessing they’re holding off for the eventual release of the Knob next year to bring that game over. But for now, I’m fine sticking with classic Doomguy who was silent and wasn’t tainted by comic-inspired memes and shit.

Speaking of Doomguy, I recently picked up John Romero’s book. It’s a good read, you should check it out.

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