I love dodging in Doom

[My Celium]

My favorite thing about Doom that separates it from almost every other fast-paced shooter is that dodging projectiles feels viscerally satisfying. Although I am a very big fan of Ultrakill and Doom Eternal, sometimes I just want pure and simple movement without dashing or invincibility frames. Whether it's fighting against an ordinary crowd of imps, being in a punching match with a baron, or using the BFG like a battering ram against a Cyberdemon, it's always exhilarating to see and hear the projectile whiz by.

My favorite moments in doom are when there's an encounter in a map where demons surround you on all sides, and I get transported to a pure flow state where I feel like I can effortlessly dodge every projectile, even when it's behind my back and I cant see it. The power of stutter stepping. That's why I also find fast monsters fun once in a while because it forces me to be very attentive to projectiles.

 

Although it's kind of a meme to say that most doom enemies are just imp clones but bigger, the enemies that aren't provide all the variation I need. I remember while studying Orbital Mechanics for Physics class in school, I suddenly connected the concept of centripetal force to homing revenant rockets and it blew my mind. They are so much more complex than other homing enemies in other games, such as the vores in Quake or those tall red wizards in Dusk. In those games, either the projectile speed is too fast or too large that you cant really exploit it in unique ways.

 

The last thing I want to say is that it could be an interesting idea if walking in Doom made you have more control over your player by making Doomguy have less acceleration. Doomguy kind of feels like he's always on rollerskates with how long it takes to speed up and slow down.

Edited June 30, 2023 by My Celium

[baja blast rd.]

  On 6/30/2023 at 2:47 PM, My Celium said:

The last thing I want to say is that it could be an interesting idea if walking in Doom made you have more control over your player by making Doomguy have less acceleration. Doomguy kind of feels like he's always on rollerskates with how long it takes to speed up and slow down.

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There are techniques you can learn here for running like 'counterstrafing'. For example this area with the cyberdemon is a real PITA without it but somehow looks easy watching back this clip of mine O_o

 

 

You strafe to the left, then you let go and tap 'right' for an instant to stop completely, or vice versa. Tap whatever keys oppose your motion entirely and you'll stop on a dime. Tapping should be not even a 1/3rd of a second, more like a 1/10th. 

 

That also is useful while platforming. 

[Manny84]

I've been replaying a lot of shooters from my youth recently (Doom, Quake, Duke3D). Doom is by far the most enjoyable to play, and this is a big part of the reason why. The slow projectile speeds and the way Doomguy moves allows you to dance around attacks so gracefully, even at my low skill level. Duke3D is all hitscanners or really fast projectiles, and most fights in Quake are in close combat and you don't actually get to do much dodging.