A remake or reboot is always a tricky thing to handle. You've got the nostalgic memories of what made thing you're rebooting so special and the source material to create new and innovative ways to expand it to a new group of people. Which route do you go? Satisfy the oldies who made the material popular from the beginning or try to reach a new audience that could potentially like it more?
Well, over the past few years reboots have been making! a stronger and stronger return.
Two prime examples are iD Software's latest game — DOOM and the Netflix's reboot of Full House — Fuller House. Now with being a big Full House fan I couldn't find any faults in the show. The cheesy, goofy, bone cringing lines were exactly what I wanted.
However, when popping in DOOM this past weekend, I was very displeased with it. The gameplay was repetitive, there was very minimalistic storytelling, and I had no idea what I was doing – then again, I'm not very familiar with the series.
If you were to ask the majority of people, I would be in the minority of disliking it. I have seen people saying it's the best shooter, fun, and exactly what they wanted it to be — and that right there resonated with me. I don't want to say DOOM is a bad game, but in modern gaming, I personally would fit this under mediocre due to a vast amount of reasons… but that is not the point of this post.
Seeing people say its exactly what they 'wanted DOOM to be', makes a lot of sense – they are running off of nostalgia. I have never played DOOM. I don't know what it's about, I don't know the special demon like creatures and I don't know what DOOM managed to capture when it first released in 1993. However, having played enough games throughout my lifetime, I personally think that DOOM is at best decent and that's being very generous.
You go from room to room, clear out hordes of enemies, and press buttons to advance to the next area. This might be exactly what DOOM was back in the day, but not having the history with the game kind of puts others, including myself, at a disadvantage.
The same theory applies to Fuller House. I know its bone cringing and embarrassing, but in my eyes that's what make makes Full House, well, Full House. After completing the season and reading other sites reviews, it was only then did I notice what Fuller House really was – bad (to everyone that wasn't a fan of Full House). Despite the negative reviews, I managed to understand both sides. To me, the source material was used correctly and I personally was very satisfied – because I had always been a fan.
This will probably be the same for DOOM gamers. If you managed to play the original and you got this visually stunning, faced paced shooter with loads of guns at your disposal, then the odds are you are going to love the heck out of this game. If you are anything like me and new to the series, I would strongly advise staying away from the game until it is discounted.
Reboots of a beloved franchises, whether it's games, TV, or even movies, will always be seen through a nostalgia filter. It's hard not to love a reboot of something you thought was going to be gone forever or to see the improvement of what was once a lackluster experience.
This topic slightly falls into play with what's wrong with reviews. Choosing the right reviewer for this game is critical. If I was tasked with a review for DOOM I would most likely give it a very low score, but someone that has a history with the franchise might absolutely adore this iteration. It's a tangled web that could get lost within a matter of seconds.
With more reboots on the way, it has to make you wonder… Are these games or shows things we really want to be remade or should we push to a new generation of "soon to be classics"?
I'll leave that for you decide in the comments below!
