DOOM Game of the Year PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Things could have gone badly wrong for DOOM. After a long development time, a severe lack of single player footage, and a complete absence of reviews on launch day, the title relied on word of mouth throughout its first week of availability. Is it any good? What's the campaign like? Has the multiplayer been improved since its beta? These were all questions that nobody really had the full answer to. But in the end every one of these queries was answered positively, and six months on from its release, we can confidently say that DOOM is one of the very best first-person shooters of 2016.

"id Software knows what you're here for and so that's exactly what it give you: a giant army of demons to kill"

Everything great about DOOM is communicated to you in its very first level. You're instantly handed a weapon and told to start slaughtering the demonic race in front of you, just as the ripping heavy metal soundtrack kicks in to make you feel like a complete badass. The words "demonic invasion in progress" greets you next to kick off the self-aware tone that runs throughout the game, and it's this that really elevates the title to the next level. id Software knows what you're here for and so that's exactly what it give you: a giant army of demons to kill and a whole host of weapons to do that with. The game is light on story to further back this up, with only a few scenes taking you away from the action.

And it's that relentless action that makes DOOM such a good game to play, largely thanks to glory kills and the huge arsenal you accrue throughout the campaign. Glory kills allow you to tear a demon apart in seconds, and a shotgun blast to any foe leaves them decimated on the ground. The classic rocket launcher makes a return to wipe out any large gangs of fiends, the chainsaw gracefully tears a beast into two, and the supercharged BFG-9000 eradicates anything and everything in its path. It's a phenomenal roster of weaponry that defines what a shooter should be in this day and age.

When you combine the fluid and intense combat, the booming soundtrack, the genius self-aware tone, and a ton of weapons to deal with any brute, you get the sensational 2016 version of DOOM. There isn't anything else quite like it this generation, as it pays credit to its past by giving you everything that made the previous id classics great, and baking in some new advancements such as the glory kills. DOOM is an absolutely blast to play and we struggle to think of anything else that could match it in terms of pure enjoyment, which is why it more than earns its place on our top ten list.

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Did you think that DOOM was doomed prior to its low-key release? Did id Software's shooter surprise you? Pump your shotgun in the comments section below.