Recent reviews by Flash of the Blade

There is a pure simplicity in the gameplay of Doom. 'Visceral' has become a buzz word in pop culture these days, a shorthand for "gritty", "violent", "intense". In describing Doom, I must reclaim the word visceral: it is something under your skin, something that plays not to the intellect, but to the hardened insctincts buried deep in our brains.

Doom is a game that taps into heart of darkness.

It is the thrill of fighting for your life every step of the way, towards a single goal: the total destruction of everything in your way. With the utmost efficiency of narrative, you push deeper and deeper into the abyssal Hellscape.

On a narrative level, Doom supplies the bare minimum necessary to be engaged. It lacks the mythos of Halo, the literary rabbit-hole of Marathon, or the cosmic transcendence of Half-Life. It is tough-guy male power fantasy distilled to its 100-proof essence. Unlike its successor, Quake, which had too little narrative in its single-player, Doom gives you some compelling reason to keep fighting.

Gameplay is fast-paced, the sound design and music still hold up. Even its sprite graphics have aged well, looking better than many 3D games of the 90s.

Doom is a must for any FPS fan. To play it in 2016 is to boil the FPS experience down to its bare essence, and to see Id Software's influence across two decades. Well worth $4.99.

Is Hell ready for you?