Doom's 2016 release is beautiful, with immersive, sometimes horrifying environments filled with tons of evil demons to blast into a billion pieces. So, of course, we decided to mess with it. In this episode of Potato Mode, the series where we take great looking games and dial the graphics back to zero, Joey and Jean-Luc turn Doom's devilishly good-looking levels into total mush.
First, we dim down the lights and shadows. Then, we come for the textures, reflections, and eventually, peel back the layers of Doom's hell and its ghouls until the game is, well, kind of comical-looking mud.
Of course, after you enjoy seeing the game reduced to puddles of goo, you should play Doom at its best, especially since it got a 4K update for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. In addition to being one of 2016's best looking games, it's also a lot of fun. In GameSpot's Doom review, Peter Brown said the game captured the same "cathartic craze of the original Doom and Doom II" while offering a louder and faster shooter experience.
"Many shooters chase the thrill Doom delivers, but few are as potreent in their execution," said Brown, who gave the game an 8/10. "It captures the essence of what made the classic Doom games touchstones of their day, and translates it to suit modern palates with impressively rendered hellscapes and a steady influx of tantalizing upgrades. Doom is the product of a tradition as old as shooters, and while it's not the model to follow in every case, modern shooters could learn a thing or two from Doom's honed and unadulterated identity."
If you loved seeing Doom descend into mush, check out more episodes of Potato Mode, like the time Joey and Rob pushed Crysis past the lowest setting and regretted everything, or the time the guys made a maniacal mess of Hope County in Far Cry 5.
