When comparing DOOM vs Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, the Slant community recommends DOOM for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” DOOM is ranked 18th while Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is ranked 149th. The most important reason people chose DOOM is:
DOOM differs from most modern shooters because it abandons cover-based gunplay and instead encourages you to never stop advancing. This is achieved by not only making your character very nimble, allowing you to run at high speeds and jump great distances, but also by removing weapon reloading entirely. There is also the glory kill system, which restores your health whenever you melee kill an enemy, so no waiting for your health to restore by itself either. All of this creates exhilarating gunplay where you never have to pause for anything.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Fast-paced, exhilarating combat
DOOM differs from most modern shooters because it abandons cover-based gunplay and instead encourages you to never stop advancing. This is achieved by not only making your character very nimble, allowing you to run at high speeds and jump great distances, but also by removing weapon reloading entirely.
There is also the glory kill system, which restores your health whenever you melee kill an enemy, so no waiting for your health to restore by itself either.
All of this creates exhilarating gunplay where you never have to pause for anything.
Pro Refreshing single purpose gameplay
There is no character development, this is a single purpose game that makes itself very clear from the outset. You are in this game to do one thing, kill demons, sometimes in the most gruesome ways possible. The game is very unapologetic about this, which is refreshing in a time when many games focus on story and play out like an interactive movie. This is much more a throwback to simpler times, run and gun, and it can be quite fun.
Pro Level editor for endless content
The game comes with a level editor, which allows you to create new maps and game types. These can be maps that play similarly to the campaign or even unique puzzle maps. You can share your creation online and also download other players' creations. This provides an almost endless stream of content, adding considerable longevity to the game.
Pro Fun hidden secrets
There are quite a few easter eggs and hidden secrets in the game, such as old school Doom 95 levels, a Commander Keen skull, a Terminator 2 animation, and even hidden Doomguy toys that your character will fist bump. There's a lot of these to find, creating a very entertaining side activity.
Pro Superb graphics that run quite well
Highly detailed environments, fearsome enemies, colorful particle effects, beautiful lighting, and a lot more. Whatever you're looking at in DOOM, it's a treat for the eyes, all without ever dropping below 60 frames per second.
Pro Great customizable weapon selection
There are more than 20 weapons in DOOM, including the super shotgun, the rocket launcher, and even the BFG9000. Each weapon has two modes that can be improved with one of three upgrades, totaling to over 100 possible combinations. Most of the combinations are really fun to use, which creates enough variation to keep you entertained for multiple playthroughs.
Pro Fantastic level design
The levels in DOOM are quite large, with multiple floors/levels, and many secrets. Some areas are very spacious, making large-scale battles possible, and some are labyrinth-like, hiding enemies behind every corner. You'd think it would be a very linear and guided experience, but most of the time it's up to you where to go and how to get there. Each one of these aspects make it a blast to fully explore the levels.
Pro Better framerate when ran in DX12
This game is DX12 compatible which allows for a higher frame rate over DX11. DX12 is only able to be taken advantage of on Windows 10, so that is something to consider, but for those that can take advantage, there is a slight gain to be had.
Pro Pleasing graphics
The graphics stand out as polished and make for a really nice looking RTS. This is top of its class in graphics for an RTS in 2016.
Pro Cool mechanic for controlling troops
There is a tool in the game that allows one to "lasso" their units together into an army. By making an army the player can then control that army as they would one troop unit, meaning that all micromanagement for a large group of troops is unnecessary as the game will deal with it in a more intuitive an easy manner. This can be done with as little or as many troops as the player want, which overall makes for an easy way to control the game when in the heat of battle.
Pro Good mix of gameplay modes for any skill level
The game features a single player story mode, a story mode called Ascendancy that will walk the player though how to play the game and multiplayer modes that are ranked as well as custom multiplayer modes. Through the assortment of modes the game allows for any type of player to find gameplay that they may like, whether they are a seasoned RTS player or a newcomer to the genre. Whether playing locally in single player or online with friends or random people, there should be plenty on offer for any skill level.
Pro Focuses on positioning over micromanagement
The maps in this game are large, sometimes taking up as many as 20-30 zones in a single map. What this means is that the player will need to focus a lot more on position of their units over actually micromanaging every aspect of each unit (due to the vast size of maps and the amount of units on them). This allows for gameplay that has a broader scope in strategy, as it forces the player to plan out what is best to protect and the best position to hold of enemy attacks all while still trying to grow their army in order to overpower their enemy.
Pro Easily allows the player to utilize specific info on their enemies
At all times the player can vies on a mini map how much their enemy has expanded and into what areas. There is also a thing called player power rating, which allows the player to know on a point scale what their enemies military and economic power level is. Which means you can get a sense of what fields your enemy is expanding into. Combining these tools allows for a quick way to know where the enemy is expanding and into what fields of tech they are concentrating on. This way the player can adjust their strategy accordingly, making for an even deeper level of strategy overall.
Cons
Con The gore might not be for everyone
DOOM has a fair amount of gore. Whenever you kill an enemy there's blood, guts, and limbs flying everywhere. Melee kill are particularly brutal with your character twisting enemy necks and breaking their bones. Some may find that level of graphic violence off-putting.
Con Physics are unrealistic
Many of the units will pass right through each other, making for units that behave in an unrealistic way and can pull the player out of the immersion of the title. The units also all hover over the ground, which means they have no real weight to their actions, when combined with the unrealistic way they move makes for something that just does not looked polished.
Con Demanding system requirements
The game requires a high end GPU as well as at-least a 4 core processor. This means the game is quite demanding and needs to take advantage of multi-cores in order to play smoothly at high graphical settings. So for those with a mid-range system, the game may play at lower frame-rates, which can be frustrating.
Con Lacking in options for factions and units
There are only two factions available in the game to play with, so makes for limited choice. On top of this each faction has only so many different units, which also shows a lack of choice. Combined, once the game has been experienced and both factions played with there will be little in surprise as to what the game has to offer.