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Doom open beta gets hellish reviews on Steam

Last week, the Doom open beta came to all platforms, but not everyone was impressed.

Doom open beta

An overwhelming 63 per cent of players that rated the Doom open beta on Steam gave it a negative review.

The general consensus amongst the negative reviews is that it feels more like Halo than Doom. The more succinct comments ranged from, "Never could get into Halo games", to, "Not a big fan of Masterchief's new look," with a few Call of Duty references peppering the page.

"You'd think a game where you can play as a demon armed with a jetpack and multiple rocket launchers would manage to feel well... anything. It manages to not do anything badly but somehow also not do anything particularly well either.

"Somehow, despite the features that sound so awesome, the effects that look admittedly rather good and the prestige of being a game in the DOOM series, this is one of the most unambitious, least exciting and just plain dull games I've managed to play. If it was to be a free to play game, fair enough, but anyone paying £40 for this on release is bound to be disappointed by the fact that the new Unreal Tournament game slated for release this year is probably going to be better," said another user.

Game developer and fan of the series, Gary Riches, told the BBC, "I still like Doom 4 but it doesn't feel like Doom 4, it feels like a sequel to Quake or Unreal Tournament. To me that's disappointing. It's still cool, it looks nice but it has lost what makes it Doom."

Obviously the reviews aren't all bad, and the game is still in beta, but not much of the fundamental gameplay is going to change in four weeks.

If you've had a chance to play the beta, weigh in with your thoughts below. Should Doom fans shell out for the reboot or give it a miss?

Doom is out on May 13 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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