If mobile games can teach us anything it's that the game industry has no shame. It's incredible how many companies are willing to jeopardize their reputations over low-effort freemium games and shovelware cash grabs. It's one of those situations where there's no one to point the finger at because everyone is equally terrible. We're supposed to just accept that the mobile market is a cesspit of predatory apps, where all your favorite characters are just salesmen for gems bundles. It’s a bizzaro world where everything is designed to hold your attention but nothing is designed to actually be fun.
Everyone eventually takes a turn debasing their most beloved games for a quick mobile cash injection. Sony does it with Sackboy, Activision does it with Crash Bandicoot and Diablo Immortal, Nintendo does it with Pokemon Cafe Remix and Fire Emblem Heroes, and Square does it with, well, everything. Even Devolver, the cool 'indie' publisher that likes to take the piss out of industry for giving into its worst instincts, saw fit to use its own characters for a virtual slot machine. This week, Bethesda added more shit to the pile with Mighty Doom, a mobile Doom game that's exactly as bad as you'd hope it wouldn't be.
I'm particularly disappointed to see Doom reduced to mobile game sludge. Not because I expected more from Bethesda - this is the same company that pioneered cosmetic microtransactions with Skyrim horse armor back in the day - but because of what Doom represents. Doom is video games in their most pure distilled form. You have a gun, you shoot monsters, you have fun. It's perfect, just the way it is. So perfect in fact that all these years later we're still playing it. The stories have gotten more involved, the graphics are better, but in some way every game is an evolution of Doom. Turning Doom into a pocket casino really puts a spotlight on how greed-driven games have become.
If a duplicitous design practice exists, Mighty Doom has it. Energy timers, delayed rewards, loot boxes, overlapping and confusing currencies, and countless roadblocks you can only skip if you're willing to pay up. You can't even upgrade a stat without yanking the handle on a slot machine and seeing where your upgrade point lands. When designing this game, I can only assume the developers started with a big white board, wrote 'How To Be Evil' at the top, then threw every idea they could think of directly into the game. I can't stress enough how little this game will resonate with Doom fans, despite how heavily it leans on Dooms iconic characters and weapons.
The saddest part might be that there is a decent game underneath all of this shady design. A top-down, roguelike, Vampire Survivors-inspired reimagining of Doom is a somewhat novel idea. Vampire Survivors' take on the bullethell fits the Doomslayer's ethos remarkably well, and it's fun to earn a constant stream of minor weapon upgrades as you move from room to room until bullets are spraying out of you in every direction and turning demons into mulch. Mighty Doom could have been a cool spin-off, but it couldn't help itself from piling on every lousy monetization and engagement mechanic possible until there was barely any actual game left.
This is not befitting of Doom's legacy and Bethesda should be embarrassed, but given how prevalent mobile games like this are, I'm sure it will be able to hide in the crowd and avoid any pushback. It's a sad day when Doom is chasing trends, especially when the trend is giving the finger to your fans.