When series lay dormant, they can lose their identity. Not many franchises get the opportunity to reclaim what they’ve lost, but DOOM isn’t an ordinary series. The grandfather of the FPS genre would not die as a, pathetically non-frightening, horror-FPS. DOOM would climb out of the pits of hell if it had to, and it desperately needed to, but could iD Software recapture the magic of the first two games?

You’ve awoken chained to a table in a UAC lab. You don’t know how you were imprisoned in hell, or how you were freed, but you don’t care. Quite a lot of time has passed. The UAC has begun extracting the energies of hell to use as power for the human race, but they’ve been compromised. Armed with the new praetor suit, assistance from the UAC, and your rage, you must rip and tear through everything in your path until hell has no road to earth.

The Slayer is more agile now than ever. He can now double jump, access a weapon wheel, and use sub-weapons. The star of the show is the new glory-kill system. After inflicting enough damage to a demon, The Slayer will perform a gorey takedown that rewards you with plenty of pickups to aid you in battle.

Cover is no more, and you must remain agile to dodge every deadly blast and blow to survive. The essence of DOOM is not lost. You’re still exploring dark hallways and massive landscapes in search of keycards to progress, ammo to replenish, and demons to slaughter. Backed by the heavy metal of Mick Gordon, there’s a distinct flow to combat that I can’t describe. Constantly scrounging for ammo, but never feeling like you don’t have enough, you must pick your targets, and the weapons you’re shooting them with, wisely.

In a nice change of pace, The Slayer can now be outfitted with many upgrades to help you along your path. The praetor armor can be upgraded by finding praetor tokens. The Slayer’s power can be boosted by finding argent energy cells. You’ll get the choice to invest in higher health, more armor, or a larger ammo capacity. Weapons are upgraded by completing challenges in combat. The most useful upgrades came from runes. You collect them by completing challenges hidden within levels. There’s a wide variety of runes that all offer different effects.

My biggest problems with DOOM II, and DOOM 64, stemmed from the gigantic levels. They’re bigger than ever here, but they don’t feel empty. Every nook and cranny has a reward for exploring it. It didn’t matter how many times I’d go off the beaten path. I’d find a praetor token, gasoline can, or much-needed health pick-up to reward my curiosity.

DOOM 2016 can be monotonous. Each individual battle will take you about five minutes, but campaign missions have around ten battles. The story will not take you long to complete, and it was extremely fulfilling, but I would have to take more breaks than I’m accustomed to. It can be a lot to take in, even for the experienced player.

This is the golden example of how to reboot a series. DOOM 2016 doesn’t feel like a reboot. There’s not a disconnect of what I remember or an abandoning of established lore. DOOM 2016 is the return of an old friend. They’ve grown a lot, there are some cons, and new scars have formed, but you love them just the same.