Doom: Fall of Mars Beta Released
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Their hatred is perhaps a price worth paying, for I had a great time. Unlike the proof-of-concept last version I wittered about a while back, this is getting on for being a complete game. It has a start and a finish, it has linked maps and levelling, it has a ton of Doom foes and weapons, and it has all the ludicrous compulsiveness of Diablo's ever-escalating click marathons. Were this released in the mid-90s, it'd probably have been hailed an instant classic.
Inevitably and understandably, it's a bit crude of visuals and interface, and as with any Diablolike the second you realise you're playing it more to watch a bunch of numbers slowly increase than for the visceral fun of the combat, the illusion shatters a little. Plus there's something fairly obtuse about the idea a space marine who's running for his life through a demon-infested moonbase pausing to mull over whether +2% life-drain is better than +4 armour or not. But that's an inherent complication of the genre, not Fall of Mars. In fact, I enjoy Fall of Mars' combat rather more than much of Diablo, as the guns really do fit the Diablo structure beautifully, and ramp up in effectiveness spectacularly. I was lucky enough to get an ultra-rare Minigun (named, cutely, the Nailgun) as a drop, and the resulting devastation was glorious.
