Vibe Checking Hell

Don’t you just hate it when you think you’re in a good place but it actually turns out to be a bad place?


Pictured above: the communities initial reactions to
the parry and shield system in Doom: The Dark Ages

Yesterday’s article was basically a tl;dr for Doom: The Dark Ages in it’s entirety, albeit based on only three levels out of the 22 available. I wisely labeled it more of a vibe check instead of giving it an official preview moniker of course, because I’m not a fucking maniac. More so due to the notion I think the structuralism of previews in their official capacity are almost too restrictive in their approach, and like a bad tutorial, far too exhaustively hand-holdy in the process. The tl;dr of The Dark Ages I put forth was a simple one; the halfway point between 2016 and Eternal, in a move that may end up making no one truly happy in a moment of compromise. Or maybe in a more playful paraphrasement; 2016 walked, so Eternal could run, while Dark Ages ends up getting winded while catching it’s breath and frustratingly trying to keep up.


This scene sprang to mind when conceptualizing the
contrast between the last two Doom games styles of
maneuverability, and then upon a quick second thought,
immediately regretted my abhorrent shortsightedness
in drawing the comparison

I think one of the reasons I’ve found value in the vibe check, almost putting forth the notion of the “game in a nutshell” maybe even at a dangerously early point in gameplay, is that as much as no one really likes to admit it, video games are, distilled to their most basic essence, repetitive motions involving a formula. This leads to the idea of a gameplay loop that’s been iterated to death upon, and one that has proven to work on some level. I’m reminded of the 30 seconds of fun quote hailing from Halo legend, and I don’t ever really let the idea go out of my head for too long because it happens to really fit into the idea that games at their core are really just straight forward, small segments of stupid fun repeated ad infinitum.


Sometimes they even forget to include the fun at launch,
making some games just small segments of stupid 𝖿̶𝗎̶𝗇̶
repeated ad infinitum

Even though I’m comparing ridiculously different games seemingly with broad strokes, I take this moment now in declaring why I feel the vibe check is appropriate for contrasting all games under the sun, accepting the premise of the 30 seconds of fun quote applied widely and without prejudice, from anything ranging between Doom and Animal Crossing. Not only do I find the stress test involved with the vibe check a fun effort in seeing how close my predictions end up being, but strangely enough, Death Stranding really helped to solidify the moment of why trusting my gut was the way to go in deliberating on what an experience was going to be. Just this insanely simple notion of seeing the content for what it truly is, very akin to borrowing a tried and true methodology imbued with the phrase “trust people the first time they let you know who they are”. With Death Stranding, after about five hours of delivering packages, I thought to myself “damn, I’m just going to be ass deep in boxes this whole game, huh?” Many others said “no, you’ve got to give it more of a chance”. I wasn’t so sure I was wrong. Fast forward 200 hours later, and what do you know?


Ass deep in boxes

Luckily, in Doom’s case, the series mission statement tends to be “Rip and Tear, until it is done”. An endearingly brutal sentiment, to be sure, though I think the reason Dark Ages is getting some push back about it’s inherent nature is due to the notion that this time around, instead of ripping and tearing, we are “Shielding and Parrying, until it is done”, which definitely takes some bite out of the canine, in trying to teach this old dog a new trick.

~Pashford