Staff Picks: Frick, Fierce Femmes, and Fan Fiction
Still from the video game Doom, 2016.
The striking thing about (2016), a game in which the player enters a portal to hell and rips demons in half with an increasingly ridiculous arsenal, is the level of subtlety and care evident in its design. is the dictionary definition of , , and , but I’ve played few other games that even come close to matching its buttery smooth difficulty curve and firm sense of place. Resurrected by a sinister corporation that’s solved the energy crisis by harvesting the power of hell, the main character wanders corridors of abandoned space outposts, finding everywhere. Comfort is elusive, perpetually just out of reach. Never did I lose the rush of fear I’d feel when I saw a hell knight charging me from across the map, nor did I escape the jumpy, amphetamine-like rush of landing in a new arena filled with horrible creatures. is loud, but necessarily so; it’s refreshing to find a work so thoroughly committed to raising the hair on one’s neck.
