DOOM Google Stadia Review

"Once More, To Hell"

Campaign

August 26, 2020 at 4:16am
By Jason Stettner

The blistering fast action of the rebooted DOOM arrived on Google Stadia and it’s still largely great. This is a packed experience that’s being delivered through cloud streaming. For context, this is one badass game that gets right to the point. At the start of the story you literally awaken, crack some skulls and pick up a suit of armor.

From there, it’s a never ending onslaught of demon blasting across the landscape of Mars. It’s not necessarily heavy on narrative, but it delivers heart pounding action the whole way through. It’s definitely a worthwhile time if you haven’t played it yet, and it was nice to revisit it again. This is my third go at the game, so I have an idea of how it scales across the various platforms.

There’s a solid campaign length to it, and it is expanded upon in other ways gameplay wise. There’s also an arcade option to take on challenges across various levels. It’s all about scores and unleashing wild weapons in order to obtain them. They’re fast paced action and a good supplementary addition to the experience. If that’s not enough, there’s also the multiplayer.

Now, this doesn’t seem to feature cross-play so I didn’t run into anyone when I tried to play any of the modes. There’s a practice mode if you’d like to experience what multiplayer has to offer against bots, but it’s kind of lame without having that sense of progression attached to it. It’s disappointing the online multiplayer is dead right off the bat, as it’s really quite enjoyable.

Gameplay

With this streamed version my account offers the 1080p 60fps which was nice and fluid. The controls felt responsive and great for mulching up any demons that got in my way. It was stable, though with just the HD it came across as slightly muddy at times. It’s far better than the Nintendo Switch version, but compared to Xbox One X it’s obviously a step down due to that one pushing towards 4k.

Still, looked great and ran well on this platform. It was also a treat that this essentially eliminated loading, and that kept the pacing going no matter what part of the game I went to play. It’s a great way to try the title whether you’re wanting to enjoy it through a keyboard and mouse or a controller input. The game features a wide range of really intense environments. From the desolate wastes of the Martian surface, to high tech labs and even some intense hellscapes.

This game has a little bit of everything with largely linear areas which do offer some minor freedom of creativity in how you tackle them. It’s got a fun selection of weapons, it’s dripping in gore and particle effects for one wild time. It’s really just such a great package and take on this series in order to modernize it perfectly for the current era.

The Conclusion

DOOM delivers once again on Google Stadia with a high sense of fluidity, though the multiplayer component is a ghost town. I think that’s quite a shame, the multiplayer was definitely a highlight of my earlier times with the game.

It would be great to perhaps see cross-play come into effect, or something to get it going as a key part of it really is the action online in battling others. I do understand that’s unlikely to happen since it released so many years prior. It just seems like a waste to have an extensive mode which so much content just left to rot. Still, the campaign is certainly worth your time.

That’s also true with giving the arcade a whirl as that’s fun to blast through as well. It’s definitely a fantastic title that still looks excellent despite being slightly older at this point. The lack of people in multiplayer is disappointing, but you can try practice mode and there’s plenty of single player content present in this one.

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DOOM Review on Google Stadia
Review Code Provided by Google

Rating Overall: 7.5