Hayden: I loved Doom and I continue to enjoy my time with Overwatch. It sucks that the developers wasted time and money bolting it on rather than crafting more single-player shenanigans, and it doubly sucks that all of Doom’s DLC thus far has focused on multiplayer rather than beefing up the campaign even further. Shut up, rock out, and reload that shotgun. If it isn’t killing demons, Doomguy doesn’t care. Doomguy fist-bumps collectible action figures he stumbles across and smashes exposition-spouting computer terminals.

Hayden’s down on the story but I love how ferociously Doom embraces the dumb. The sheer frenetic ballet of it all is pure adrenaline and instinct its primal allure helped make even those weaker later levels thrilling, at least to me. As Hayden says, the game gloriously mixes firepower and fisticuffs, and the way Doom forces you in close to refill your health and ammo (via melee and chainsaw attacks), forces you to keep pushing, dodging, and punching while Mick Gordon’s outstanding techno-industrial-metal soundtrack blares guitar riffs in the background. It’s not perfect, as Hayden says (what’s up with those slowdowns during alien turns?) but this gem is a beauty despite its minor flaws.īrad: Doom ’s second-to-second gameplay is pure dumb shooter, honed to perfection. You constantly feel harassed, oppressed, and on the brink of disaster in XCOM 2-but XCOM’s legendary RNG-centric gameplay and customization options help the game shine rather than suck. You thought XCOM: Enemy Unknown was tough? Ha. Your base is a mobile command center that flies around the globe, hunted by UFOs as you bolster resistance efforts those timed missions instill a fast “strike-and-move” feeling a new concealment system helps you get the drop on patrolling forces and now-destructible environments help you literally drop turrets and Sectoids off of roofs and out of cover.Īll the while, monthly “Dark Events” give the alien overlords bonuses that can’t be avoided and must be planned around. While you commanded a multi-national force in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, in XCOM 2 you’re in charge of a rag-tag force that leans heavily on guerilla tactics. And unlike Hayden, I adore the abundance of timer-based missions, as they’re just one of many new gameplay additions that reinforce the fact that in XCOM 2, you’re fighting back after the aliens already won. XCOM 2 is the first game in a decade that I started playing again immediately after beating it-and I’m considering firing it up again during this year’s holiday break.Ī big reason I can keep going back to the well is XCOM 2’s procedural level generation, a first for the series. Brad: How hard? So hard that I’m watching an XCOM 2 stream on Twitch right now as I write this.

Hitman pc game list