You should probably check out the Serious Sam games. No real plot, just run and gun.
+1 Excellent recommendation; I picked up a few Serious Sam games back in the day and they are totally new 'Dooms'.
IIRC the "plot" involves time travel, aliens, and how fast you can shoot them. Loads of fun, pretty difficult, decent 3d graphics, none of that other bullshit.
Re:Doom
by chunkstuntman on Friday September 12, 2014 @02:52PM
(#8309703)
Painkiller is based along similar lines but retains Doom's darker demonic palette whereas Serious Sam is very light-hearted and colorful. A number of people have mentioned that it is essentially what Doom 3 would have been if ID hadn't changed the series' genre to horror rather than staying an action shooter.
Painkiller trailer, for anyone else interested:
I have the exact same feeling about Quake 2. I have a feeling many people feel this way about many different id games. I really felt part of the when playing Q2 in a dark room when I younger. The music and the general dark art direction sucked me in.
DOOM was really easy to understand: "If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway."
I've recently installed the Doomsday Engine (http://dengine.net/) on my Mac and have been replaying through Doom and Doom 2. I also invited a friend over so we can play some COOP and deathmatch games.
Still one of the most fun games ever.
Hear, hear! I replayed the old Dooms (< 3) a few years ago using Doomsday and was surprised at how fun they still were. I was afraid they'd be outdated and boring, but they really seem to tick off all the right boxes in terms of fun gameplay.
I still think Quake 1 is a lot of fun, too.
Pick an episode, pick a difficulty, and literally 3 seconds later you've blasted somebody in the face. And the music. Phenomenal. Why is everything orchestral now?
It was a game. Not a semi-interactive movie. You could play it for 30 minutes or 3 hours, didn't matter. Dozens of enemies on screen, shooting you, insane fun.
What did we arrive at? Overly-dramatic, Michael-Bay-inspired "Saving private Ryan"-wannabe's with "realism" and "grit" and a 50 minute intro, with 5-minute levels, separated by 5-minute cut-scenes....ugh.
I would, immediately, pay $60 for a game like Doom, with retouched graphics, Fast-paced, fast-moving, maze-like levels you have to actually explore, with secrets (yes, I know it's not realistic) and just dozens of baddies you can blast to smithereens. And when you die, get this - you respawn in 3 seconds or less. No dying animation, no "Loading..." screen.
$60, right now.