Still the most immersive game

[bimlanders]

I have been playing Doom since 1994 and never take very long breaks. But what really strikes me that the game's appeal lies in the immersive quality in that I really feel like I am Doomguy traversing through the levels. When fireballs, and plasma-balls narrowly miss me, I often find myself involuntarily dodging the projectile by moving my head away from the line of fire. I also caught myself trying to look up, and over, and peer down, to spot enemies that were a bit too low to see from an elevated position. The Cyber Demon's rockets fragging me usually cause me to elevate my ass in my seat, and close my eyes for a second. Why does such an old game cause such realistic responses in reflexes? I am playing with ZDoom, so it's not exactly 1994 anymore, but I am still amazed.

I don't really ever have this kind of experience with any other game.

[Sallan]

Nostalgy cause this

[Guest]

[Doominator2]

Sorry to say, but Doom isn't really as immersive anymore when you compare them to games such as Thief, Deus Ex and Morrowind where the whole game revolves around immersion.

[Combinebobnt]

i wonder how much u will dodge if u play doom in VR

[Spocks_Beard]

Combinebobnt said:

i wonder how much u will dodge if u play doom in VR

I already flail around a bit when playing Doom, I might just snap my neck if I tried VR.

[40oz]

I think it has a lot to do with the speed, ive played racing games where ive had similar feelings.

[Aaron Blain]

I think I understand what you're articulating and I agree with you.

I think "immersive" is a vague and unhelpful word which is most often applied to the sorts of games that I don't consider worth playing. When the word "immersive" appears in an article or video I always close it immediately and permanently disregard the author.

I would say that Doom is the most engaging and compelling game. I quit playing mainstream videogames after Halo 2, but they look like a bland wash of numbing stimuli to me. Doom, on the other hand, strongly arouses my thinking and my imagination.

The zdoom retroshader mod is now standard for me because it helps the game gel so much better visually and feel like a real universe.

[VGamingJunkie]

Spocks_Beard said:

I already flail around a bit when playing Doom, I might just snap my neck if I tried VR.

There's actually a mod for GZDoom that allows VR function.

[Michael92]

Does "Doomguy is supposed to be you" factor helps a lot?
Moreover, I guess that there are big differences between nonlinear maps (especially when they contain secrets) where you choose the way all by yourself and scripts that do everything for you.
By somehow, by playing Doom I feel I am in this game more than playing Half-Life, despite its epic narration and finding any way (like crawling through ventilation shafts, turning some big devices on) to go further through.

[ASD]

bimlanders said:

The Cyber Demon's rockets fragging me usually cause me to elevate my ass in my seat, and close my eyes for a second.

Same here when I first got to E2M8. Imagined someone launched a round shot / cannonball in my face, crashing my teeth inside.