Editorials
‘Doom’ Review: Gorehound Gumbo
After a twelve year hiatus, the Doom we know and love has returned, and it’s even learned some new tricks since we last saw it. Developer id Software had to overcome numerous obstacles over its troubled development, even going so far as to start from scratch back in 2011 when the team realized it “lacked a soul,” and the result is a bloody good time.
Referring to a video game’s soul seems a bit silly. I sometimes refer to it as the “core”, a central idea or mechanic that much, if not all, of the rest of the game revolves around — but when Bethesda broke the news that its pre-2011 iteration lacked a spirit, and that it “didn’t have the passion and soul of what an id game is,” the meaning is clear. It just didn’t feel like a Doom game.
The “soul” of a video game is the foundation for everything else, and for Doom, it’s about the flow of the combat. Its the fast pacing and fluid movement that transforms every battle into a bloody ballet that doesn’t stop until the last man, woman or demon is left standing atop a sea of mangled corpses and spent shells. You either run out of enemies or you’re overcome by them.
Doom doesn’t set aside any time for you to reload, take cover or find another weapon, and thanks to the addition of Glory Kills, even wounds can be mended without ever having to pause.
Glory Kills are brutal executions that double as a tremendously satisfying way of finishing a staggered foe without breaking up the purposeful flow of the combat. When an enemy takes enough damage they become temporarily incapacitated, leaving their supple demon bodies vulnerable to all sorts of terrible things, like a finishing move that effectively transforms them into a living piñata filled with health, ammunition, or even armor, when you have the required perk.
This is what separates Doom from just about every other game in the genre it created, the exception being the handful of other 90s era shooters we still occasionally hear from today, such as Wolfenstein or Unreal Tournament. There’s no pesky stamina meter you need to monitor either, so you never have to take a break from the gory fun so your character can catch his breath.
There’s more to these games than the frantic combat that makes them so addictive, but that’s a crucial part of it. It’s also one of the many areas where this reboot truly succeeds in modernizing the gameplay without sacrificing any of the many different things that form the Doom experience. This is the most impressive, and respectful series reboot I’ve played since the 2003 Resident Evil remake for the GameCube.
The world is there, in all its dusty glory. Villains assume their roles with the requisite amount of malevolence, their philosophical musings, agendas and general dialogue marinated in just enough sinister intent so as to make them easily identifiable as big ole meanies. They’re the co-narrators of this tale of renewable energy and demon genocide because they have to be. Maybe our marine will follow in the Master Chief’s footsteps and gradually learn to speak like a human being, but I doubt it. That’s not what Doom is about.
Even the Union Aerospace Corporation, which owns and operates the Mars facility on which much of the game is set, hasn’t let up on their maniacally dickish pursuits of Hellscience, nor have they found a way to contain the shit when it inevitably hits the fan. It seems as if they’re struggling to graduate from Shit Containment 101, alongside most other evil video game corporations.
The story and dialogue are mercifully thin, their sole purpose to quickly provide you with enough substance and motivation to mull over as you venture to Mars to Hell and back. Neither are ever bad, but they’re also never really all that good. That’s par for the course with this series, which has always treated both as a checkmark in a box on a list of things modern video games need to have.
So in that case: does Doom have a story and dialogue? Check.
Before it was thrown out, pre-2011 Doom was much less linear than the first two games, which weren’t completely linear themselves. The openness of their design has always been part of the appeal of this series, as it allows players to explore freely, without nagging reminders from NPCs, tooltips, beacons, blips, and the like whose job is to annoy you into quickly closing the distance between you and your objective.
Pre-2011 Doom sounded like it was more or less an open-world game, and though the game we got doesn’t go quite as far as its creators originally intended, it is considerably more open in its expansive level design than any of its predecessors.
The game basically recaps your accomplishments at the end of each chapter — total kills, upgrades procured, hidden collectibles discovered — so you’ll want to explore all of it, if only to make sure you’re properly geared up for the final showdown.
The arsenal is traditional for these games, and it does a fine job in covering all your bases. The shotgun, super shotgun (sawed-off) and chainsaw are swell at carving demons from within their personal bubbles, and the chainsaw even showers you with gore and ammo, should you find yourself in need of the latter. The heavy assault rifle, plasma rifle, and pistol are more adept at long-range combat, then there’s the chaingun, gauss cannon and rocket launcher, which you might want to save for bigger foes.
Plus, most of the weapons have two mods that equip them with secondary abilities, like the shotgun’s burst fire mode, the assault rifle’s micro-missiles, or the rocket launcher’s homing capabilities.
Self-improvement isn’t limited to your arsenal, your Praetor Suit can also be upgraded using tokens that buffer your resistance to environmental hazards, boost your agility, and enhance the efficacy of power-ups, among other improvements. There are also small glass Sauron Eyes you can break to release their unholy essence, granting you a permanent boost to your base health, armor or ammo capacity.
The Runes make up the final piece of this self-improvement puzzle, though getting them may prove to be a challenge as you’ll have to find the hidden portal that takes you to an isolated area where you must conquer a trial. Each trial comes with specific objectives that must be completed before the time runs out, with the reward being a Rune that enhances your marine’s equipment (grenades), his penchant for Glory Kills, etc. No more than three can be equipped, and if you can get it, you’ll want one of them to be the Rune that gives you one extra life. That would’ve saved me some frustration, not that I ever die.
There’s multiplayer too! You might’ve seen one of the many multiplayer-centric trailers I’ve shared here over the last few months that break down its maps, modes, power-ups, and customization features. I’ve never loved the arena-based combat, but I have played enough to say it’s decidedly Doom in flavor.
The Doom multiplayer is designed for a very specific audience to which I do not belong. I’m awful at it. I’m too slow to react to an enemy’s presence, and I’m far too easily distracted by shiny objects. I can’t be sure, but I think my armor actually attracts more bullets to my tender flesh. With that said, it’s still enormously amusing in small, bite-sized portions. If you’re a fan of the multiplayer offerings in the first two games, you’ll probably like what id has done to update it.
The verticality of the level design really stood out to me. Opponents can come from anywhere, and based on my experience, an awareness of one’s surroundings, and specifically what’s above you, is often just as important to one’s survival as anything else.
Classic Doom multiplayer with a modern twist is one-half of id Software’s strategy for fostering an active community around this game, and it’s joined by the new SnapMap modding utility. For the uninitiated, SnapMap is a level editor that allows the curious and/or the creative to come up with their own creations, similar to the Forge Bungie introduced with Halo 3, or Steam Workshop, if you’re a PC gamer.
It’s powerful and more than capable of realizing the imaginations of those who think about more than which structure(s) look the most like the head of a penis, yet it appears easy enough to use for those who do think about that sort of thing. I imagine SnapMap will be the feature that keeps Doom interesting long after the season pass has finished inflating the multiplayer, so I’m eager to see if it catches on with modders.
I’m relieved and more than a little giddy to be able to say that Doom has returned in all its gory glory. It’s made up for the solid, if somewhat bland and predictable experience that was Doom 3, and I think it’s new enough to entice newcomers while staying familiar enough to keep from upsetting Doom vets. Whichever group you belong to, I absolutely recommend you check it out.
The Final Word: id Software has successfully reinvented the classic Doom experience for a modern audience without actually having to reinvent anything. It’s not a reboot, it’s a revival. If you’ve ever wondered what Doom might look like in 2016, this is it.
It took nearly five decades for it to happen, but the tide has turned for Jaws 2. Not everyone has budged on this divisive sequel, but general opinion is certainly kinder, if not more merciful. Excusing a rehashed plot — critic Gene Siskel said the film had “the same story as the original, the same island, the same stupid mayor, the same police chief, the same script…” — Jaws 2 is rather fun when met on its own simple terms. However, less simple is the novelization; the film and its companion read are like oil and water. While both versions reach the same destination in the end, the novelization’s story makes far more waves before getting on with its man-versus-shark climax.
Jaws 2 is not labeled as much of a troubled production as its predecessor, but there were problems behind the scenes. Firing the director mid-stream surely counts as a big one; John D. Hancock was replaced with French filmmaker Jeannot Szwarc. Also, Jaws co-writer Carl Gottlieb returned to rewrite Howard Sackler’s script for the sequel, which had already been revised by Hancock’s wife, Dororthy Tristan. What the creative couple originally had in store for Jaws 2 was darker, much to the chagrin of Universal. Hence Hancock and Tristan’s departures. Hank Searls’ novelization states it is “based on a screenplay by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan,” whereas in his book The Jaws Log, Gottlieb claims the “earlier Sackler material was the basis” for the tie-in. What’s more interesting is the “inspired by Peter Benchley’s Jaws” line on the novelization’s cover. This aspect is evident when Searls brings up Ellen’s affair with Hooper as well as Mayor Larry Vaughan’s connection to the mob. Both plot points are unique to Benchley’s novel.
The novelization gives a fair idea of what could have been Jaws 2 had Hancock stayed on as director. The book’s story does not come across as dark as fans have been led to believe, but it is more serious in tone — not to mention sinuous — than Szwarc’s film. A great difference early on is how Amity looks and feels a few years after the original shark attack (euphemized by locals as “The Troubles”). In the film, it seems as if everything, from the townsfolk to the economy, is unaffected by the tragedies of ‘75. Searls, on the other hand, paints Amity as a ghost town in progress. Tourism is down and money is hard to come by. The residents are visibly unhappy, with some more than others. Those who couldn’t sell off their properties and vacate during The Troubles are now left to deal with the aftermath.
Image: As Martin Brody, Roy Scheider opens fire on the beach in Jaws 2.
It is said that Roy Scheider only came back to fulfill a three-picture deal with Universal (with Jaws 2 counting as two films) and to avoid having his character recast. Apparently, he was also not too pleased (or pleasant) after Szwarc signed on. Nevertheless, Scheider turned in an outstanding performance as the returning and now quietly anguished Martin Brody. Even in the film’s current form, there are still significant remnants of the chief’s psychological torment and pathos. Brody opening fire on what he thought to be the shark, as shocked beachgoers flee for their lives nearby, is an equally horrifying and sad moment in the film.
In a candid interview coupled with Marvel’s illustrated adaptation of Jaws 2, Szwarc said he had posted the message “subtlety is the picture’s worst enemy” above the editor’s bench. So that particular beach scene and others are, indeed, not at all subtle, but neither are the actions of Brody’s literary counterpart. Such as, his pinning the recent deaths on Jepps, a vacationing cop from Flushing. The trigger-happy drunk’s actual crimes are breaking gun laws and killing noisy seals. Regardless, it’s easier for Brody to blame this annoying out-of-towner than conceive there being another great white in Amity. Those seals, by the way, would normally stay off the shore unless there was something driving them out of the ocean…
Brody’s suspicions about there being another shark surface early on in the film. For too long he is the only one who will even give the theory any serious thought, in fact. The gaslighting of Brody, be it intentional or otherwise, is frustrating, especially when considering the character is suffering from PTSD. It was the ‘70s though, so there was no intelligible name for what Brody was going through. Not yet, at least. Instead, the film delivers a compelling (and, yes, unsubtle) depiction of a person who, essentially, returned from war and watched a fellow soldier die before his very eyes. None of that trauma registers on the Martin Brody first shown in Jaws 2. Which, of course, was the result of studio interference. Even after all that effort to make an entertaining and not depressing sequel, the finished product still has its somber parts.
Image: A page from Marvel’s illustrated adaptation of Jaws 2.
How Brody handles his internal turmoil in the novelization is different, largely because he is always thinking about the shark. Even before there is either an inkling or confirmation of the new one. It doesn’t help that his oldest son, Mike, hasn’t been the same since The Troubles. The boy has inherited his father’s fear of the ocean as well as developed his own. Being kept in the dark about the second shark is also detrimental to Brody’s psyche; the local druggist and photo developer could have alleviated that self-doubt had he told Brody what he found on the dead scuba diver’s undeveloped roll of film. Instead, Nate Starbuck kept this visual proof of the shark to himself. His reasons for doing so are connected to the other pressing subplot in the novelization.
While the film makes a relatively straight line for its ending, Searls takes various and lengthy detours along the way. The greatest would be the development of a casino to help stimulate the local economy and bring back tourists. Brody incriminating Jepps inadvertently lands him smack dab in the middle of the shady casino deal, which is being funded with mafia money. A notorious mob boss from Queens, Moscotti, puts a target on Brody’s head (and his family) so long as the chief refuses to drop the charges against Jepps. In the meantime, the navy gets mixed up in the Amity horror after one of their helicopters crashes in the bay and its pilots go missing. A lesser subplot is the baby seal, named Sammy by Brody’s other son Sean, who the Brodys take in after he was wounded by Jepps. Eventually, and as expected, all roads lead back to the shark.
In either telling of Jaws 2, the shark is a near unstoppable killing machine, although less of a mindless one in the novelization. The film suggests this shark is looking for payback — Searls’ adaptation of Jaws: The Revenge clarifies this with a supernatural explanation — yet in the book, the shark is acting on her maternal instinct. Pregnant with multiple pups, the voracious mother-to-be was, in fact, impregnated by the previous maneater of Amity. Her desire to now find her offspring a safe home includes a body count. And perhaps as a reflection of the times, the author turns the shark and other animals’ scenes into miniature wildlife studies; readers are treated to small bits of infotainment as the story switches to the perspective of not only the killer shark, but also the seals and a navy-trained dolphin. The novelization doesn’t hold back on the scientific details, however weird as it may sound at times. One line sure to grab everyone’s attention: “There, passive and supine, she had received both of his yard-long, salami-shaped claspers into her twin vents.”
Image: Roy Scheider’s character, Martin Brody, measures the bitemark on the orca in Jaws 2.
Up until the third act, the novelization is hard to put down. That’s saying a lot, considering the overall shark action borders on underwhelming. There is, after all, more to the story here than a fish’s killing spree. Ultimately though, Szwarc’s Jaws 2 has the more satisfying finale. Steven Spielberg’s film benefitted from delaying the shark’s appearance, whereas the sequel’s director saw no need for mystery. The original film’s reveal was lightning in a bottle. So toward the end, Jaws 2 transforms into a cinematic theme park ride where imagination isn’t required. The slasher-at-sea scenario is at full throttle as the villain — wearing her facial burn like a killer would wear their mask — picks off teen chum and even a pesky helicopter. And that’s before a wiry, go-for-broke Brody fries up some great white in the sequel’s cathartic conclusion. That sort of over-the-top finisher is better seen than read.
It would be a shame to let this other version of Jaws 2 float out to sea and never be heard from again. On top of capturing the quotidian parts of Amity life and learning what makes Brody tick, Hank Searls drew up persuasive plot threads that make this novelization unlike anything in the film franchise. If the Jaws brand is ever resurrected for the screen, small or big, it wouldn’t hurt to revisit this shark tale for inspiration.
Image: The cover of Hank Searls’ novelization for Jaws 2.
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