DooooooooooM

[Dark Jaguar]

More Doom, this time "The Dark Ages".  I mean it's still set in the future, but it's got a very gothic feel to it.  Also metal.  I mean it's got a flack canon fueled by crunched up skulls.



Take a look at this thing.  I noticed a lot of changes this time around.  First of all, the massive number of enemies is finally approaching what the original DOS games were capable of.  Secondly, far more open levels which apparently devs are indicating will involve more exploration, looping back and changes to previous sections of levels.  Again, a mark of the old Romero designed levels of the original game.

The ammo and health piñata effect is gone, so they seem to be totally rethinking how health and ammo get restored.  Maybe it'll just automatically be filling those UI bars instead of bothering with animating a bunch of little glowing powerups that get sucked up, or maybe they have something else in mind.

And that something may tie into the brand new parry mechanic.  So, it seems they decided that instead of having a shield AND a chainsaw, why not just make controls a little easier by combining them?  The new shield is meant to enable directly approaching heavy fire, parrying it for a stun, and going in for massive damage.  Speaking of massive damage, I didn't see any "glory kills".  It looks like they're rethinking that as a mechanic too, which dramatically opens up finishing enemies any way you like.  In fact, Hugo Martin went on to say that they were apparently listening to complaints about how Eternal locked in very prescribed playstyles and weapon rotations, so that now it allows a much more free and open method of using whatever weapons the player might like.  To that end, an enemy that reminded me of those much maligned marauders moseyed on my... by... and now they seem to have many more strats available for tackling their barrage of attacks and defenses.

All in all, as much as I'd have liked to see either a brand new property or a revisit to, say, Quake or even Catacombs 3D, if they're going to do Doom again, this is the way to do it.  I love that Id aren't just sitting on their laurels.

[A Black Falcon]

On the one hand, the game looks pretty cool.

On the other hand though... like, id already has a franchise with a fantasy-scifi-hybrid theme!  It's called Quake 1.  Why not bring back Quake for your scifi-fantasy-hybrid game instead of making it a Doom game?  I guess the reason is because of Doom being more popular now thanks to the last two Doom games being pretty successful, but still, when I saw the theme I was like, but Quake 1 is right there!

As for the modern Doom series, I started the first one.  It seemed alright, probably good, but I didn't get all that far into it, I rarely do with FPSes.  I don't have the second one.

[Dark Jaguar]

"But Quake 1 is right there!" Indeed!  Total agreement on that count!  So many of us speculated, after the stunning remasters of Quake 1 and 2, that we'd be getting a new Quake game announced.  I mean, it's the name of Id's own CONVENTION!

Of course, Quake 2 has absolutely no connection to Quake 1 (going for bargain basement borg instead of eldritch horrors), and Quake 3 even less connection (going for all those old Star Trek episodes where some higher power forces lesser beings to fight to the death for their amusement).  Every Quake game after those visted either Quake 2 or Quake 3's setting, but we all wanted them to revisit the more imaginative setting of Quake 1.

And we are kind of getting that, only with the Doom space marine instead of the Quake ranger.  Heck, as I mentioned above, I'd have loved if they made some brand new property, or even resurrected Catacombs 3D or borrowed the Heretic license from MS now that MS owns it too.  I think they must be... ahem... "gunshy" after the failure of their most recent attempt to invent a new franchise with Rage.  It's just a sad truth that modern massive game companies spend SO much money to make games that the people in charge refuse to take ANY risks on unknowns and want SOME assurance of success.  So, while the developers are being allowed to create new game mechanics and switch up the formula, they had to exhume Doomguy from his coffin even after Eternal more or less ended his whole story, brush him off, and toss him out into the fray once again.  Sheesh even his collectible toy can't get a break, running around in Smash Bros now.