It’s been a long time coming, but we finally have new information on the new Doom game from id Software, now formally titled Doom. I attended QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas and saw the first public footage of the game, tailor-made for fans of the series. They didn’t allow any kind of photography or video, but at least allow me to paint you a word picture.
The room erupted with cheers as Marty Stratton took the stage to unveil the game. He talked about wanting to make a game that would evolve the way we expect and FPS to look and feel. Doom is inspired by the earlier games but reimagined for today. Doom will be released on the id Tech 6 engine at 1080p 60fps, for what that’s worth.
The demo opens inside a Mars UAC base with the player putting on a helmet and equipping a large shotgun. He walks through a door looking at the surrounding area, filled with what looked to be mining machinery. After seeing some demons in another room, the player engages with them in a heated battle. He dodges orb looking projectiles and riddles the demons with shotgun pellets.
After taking significant damage the demons glow and the player rushes in for a melee kill. Stratton discussed how melee combat is a larger focus of the game. The player dispatches several enemies with melee combat, each one a more gruesome and gory kill than the last. He snaps the neck of one demon right before ripping a hole through the center of another. As the demo goes on, he also pulls a demon’s head apart from the jaw and stomps on a few heads.
With each crunch of bone or splatter of blood, the crowd erupts into deafening cheer. A locked door stands in the player’s way with a hand scanner for a lock. He tries his hand, but no luck, so he rips the hand off a nearby corpse and uses that to unlock the door. The hand slips down the panel after he lets go, leaving a trail of blood. The player grabs a double-barreled shotgun and the entire room beings screaming for joy after seeing the iconic weapon.
The first section of the demo ends with the player getting brutally mutilated by a demon wearing a jetpack. The demon jumps on top of the player and rips off both of his arms, throwing one away and using the other to beat the player to death. Pieces of his helmet break apart and the screen goes black. The crowd cheers wildly.
In the second section of the demo, we are shown similar base environments lit differently before moving out onto the surface of Mars. The player engages with a group of demons playing around with the arsenal some more. He exchanges his shotgun for a pulse rifle before switching back to the shotgun and using an alternate fire that shoots all the rounds in succession.
The player pulls up a weapon select wheel and hovers over the chainsaw long enough for the crowd to register and being cheering once again. Bodies were sliced from all directions, one demon tried putting his hands up to fight, but the chainsaw ripped through them like butter.
We see a bit more maneuverability in the next series of fights with the player double jumping onto crates and evading enemy attacks. He switches between a handful of weapons in his arsenal including an RPG, which absolutely decimates foes. Body parts fly and blood squirts out of the demons. At one point the player rips out a demon’s green-pulsing heart and stuffs it down the demons throat. It’s gruesome and lives up to the Doom name.
The demo ends as a door opens and a gruesome looking Hell Knight looms over the player and roars loudly. The crowd roars louder.
This new Doom seems to be exactly what a new Doom game should be: action-packed, fast-paced and bloody as hell. While this demo was a bit of one-note throughout, it is exactly the note id Software needed to hit. It embraces new technology while sticking to the core concepts of what made the original Doom games so successful.
No information on the release date or multiplayer was given, but Stratton assured the crowd multiplayer would be a big part of the game. They are targeting PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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