Doom [4] reveal first impressions

[Jaxxoon R]

Nah, that'd be crazy news by this point.

[Koko Ricky]

MajorRawne said:

Does anybody else think Doom 4 is going to be total crap?

After witnessing a demo that both met and exceeded many of my expectations--and considering that I waited six years for footage, so the hype just kept mounting--the only thing that will keep from neo-Doom from kicking ass is boring layouts. The demo gave pretty much no indication of what level exploration will be like, so cross your fingers.

[Olroda]

MajorRawne said:

Does anybody else think Doom 4 is going to be total crap?

Yes, without a doubt.

[Jaxxoon R]

Explain in great detail.

[Olroda]

Assuming you mean me, sure.

I'm guessing that it will be visually impressive and will be good for a single playthrough which won't last more than a few hours. Much like most new games.

The release will be buggy, since it will be up for sale before it is tested properly. This may or may not be sorted out later on.

DLC (how I despise that "word") will be available, and will allow you to modify the look of the weapons and other useless, superficial rubbish. What's better than killing demons with a shotgun? Killing them with a PINK shotgun of course! Urghhhh...

Shotguns are likely to be absolutely useless beyond five meters, because shotguns are melee weapons (unlike our favourite from the original games, which can kill at a pretty realistic range).

And so on...

My point is that it will be a modern-next-gen-immersive-shooter-buzzword-bullshit-developmenthell-hypepileptic type of game, and it will be total crap in comparison with the originals.

If it isn't compared with those, then it will probably turn out to be an all right game, by today's standards. Which are low, in my opinion.

Of course, I'm hoping that I'm wrong...

[doom_is_great]

Olroda said:

Assuming you mean me, sure.

I'm guessing that it will be visually impressive and will be good for a single playthrough which won't last more than a few hours. Much like most new games.

The release will be buggy, since it will be up for sale before it is tested properly. This may or may not be sorted out later on.

DLC (how I despise that "word") will be available, and will allow you to modify the look of the weapons and other useless, superficial rubbish. What's better than killing demons with a shotgun? Killing them with a PINK shotgun of course! Urghhhh...

Shotguns are likely to be absolutely useless beyond five meters, because shotguns are melee weapons (unlike our favourite from the original games, which can kill at a pretty realistic range).

And so on...

My point is that it will be a modern-next-gen-immersive-shooter-buzzword-bullshit-developmenthell-hypepileptic type of game, and it will be total crap in comparison with the originals.

If it isn't compared with those, then it will probably turn out to be an all right game, by today's standards. Which are low, in my opinion.

Of course, I'm hoping that I'm wrong...

Well, telling from all the impressions that have been given by eye witnesses of the demo, you are most likely wrong.

[Marnetmar]

Olroda said:

Assuming you mean me, sure.

I'm guessing that it will be visually impressive and will be good for a single playthrough which won't last more than a few hours. Much like most new games.

The release will be buggy, since it will be up for sale before it is tested properly. This may or may not be sorted out later on.

DLC (how I despise that "word") will be available, and will allow you to modify the look of the weapons and other useless, superficial rubbish. What's better than killing demons with a shotgun? Killing them with a PINK shotgun of course! Urghhhh...

Shotguns are likely to be absolutely useless beyond five meters, because shotguns are melee weapons (unlike our favourite from the original games, which can kill at a pretty realistic range).

And so on...

My point is that it will be a modern-next-gen-immersive-shooter-buzzword-bullshit-developmenthell-hypepileptic type of game, and it will be total crap in comparison with the originals.

If it isn't compared with those, then it will probably turn out to be an all right game, by today's standards. Which are low, in my opinion.

Of course, I'm hoping that I'm wrong...

You do realize you're basing this off of nothing, right?

[Olroda]

doom_is_great said:

Well, telling from all the impressions that have been given by eye witnesses of the demo, you are most likely wrong.

I certainly hope so. I'm not convinced, however. The entire business tactic of the reveal sound like a cheap way of generating "buzz" to me (by not actually showing something to the larger populace).

Marnetmar said:

You do realize you're basing this off of nothing, right?

It's pure speculation, sure, but I wouldn't say it's based off nothing. In my experience, most new (meaning high-cost) games, movies and so on have great visuals, but are seriously lacking in the content apartment. The same tired cliches are constantly repeated, because the larger developers are too afraid or stupid to try something new (which would be something old, in the case of a new doom). It's far easier to copy what everyone else is doing than to come up with something original, unfortunately.

[Lila Feuer]

It seems to be going back to the original formula that made Doom so great in the first place, most of the people who're working on this have most definitely played the originals as well as Doom 3, and Doom is id's baby, the one thing they haven't allowed other devs to touch, if they screwed this up it would spell doom (pun intended) for the franchise and I doubt they want that to happen. It's not meant to be a replacement of the original series, to which they are certainly aware of its massive and prolonged success with the community to this day, but it will be a fun game by the sounds of it, and more preferable to Doom 3 in some people's cases, unless there's those who'll think Doom 3 was better, but either way it sounds pretty great and I have decent faith in it. It's had some slippery slopes to deal with in the past development but now it seems they've actually got it under control this time, or so we'd hope. Only thing I'm not so keen about is the lack of a number 4 to differentiate it from the original game, but this is typical of modern marketing, also see Tomb Raider and Rise of the Triad.

[Koko Ricky]

I'm still holding the position that id really want this to be a good game, and chose to reveal it exclusively in order to settle the nerves of the hardcore fanboys who had the convenience of being able to attend QuakeCon. Sure, it meant lots of other fanboys were left in the dark, but I understand the reasoning behind it. I mean, id threw away what they had been working on because they themselves didn't feel it met the standards they had set out for themselves. That really says something about their dedication to making a quality game. Now, do they actually POSSESS the skill to make it as good as we're all hoping? The demo suggests yes. I think things are looking good.

[DooM_RO]

Were there any obvious or less obvious games from which Id took inspiration?

[Koko Ricky]

Visually, it resembles Doom 3 and perhaps Quake 4 or Dead Space. Sometimes it looked like Doom 64. The overall art style is very modern, but distinctive. It didn't really look generic and it certainly wasn't boring.

[Jaxxoon R]

Ooh... Doom 64?

They really are trying... Did it go so far as to have moody colored lights/entire rooms tinted a certain shade? I wonder if they'll bring back the Mother Demon and the darts...

[DooM_RO]

I know you are being as objective as you can GoatLord, but saying that it looks like Doom64 - or any of the classics just a little bit is quite a claim for some people. I believe you but could you upload a screenshot from D64 that even vaguely reminds you of what you saw or be a bit more specific? I wouldn't like the imagination of people getting out of hand and hurting the game.

[Koko Ricky]

I'll see what I can do. I'm just going by what I was reminded of while I was watching. There was a lot of moody lighting with intense colors that reminded me of Doom 64. There was one area that had some eerie aqua-marine lighting and hanging body parts that was a lot like "In the Void." Much of the demo was like Doom 3 with superior lighting and much better enemy/weapon designs and excellent gore. The maps were a lot bigger and more open looking, even though the player didn't do much exploration. So it reminded me of all the classic Dooms in one way or another.

[DooM_RO]

While you're at it, did the game resemble those leaked screenshots at all?

[Koko Ricky]

No. There were some crude test shots shown at the reveal implying the scrapped version was set on Earth. That all but confirms those leaked shots as being official. That said, the Doom demo was set on Martian facilities. It had the grungy cyberpunk aesthetics of Aliens and Event Horizon. What little I saw, environmentally, gave the impression of old school exploration. It was very moodily lit, though lacking a fuller shadowing system that can properly simulate additional shadows.

[doom_is_great]

GoatLord said:

No. There were some crude test shots shown at the reveal implying the scrapped version was set on Earth. That all but confirms those leaked shots as being official. That said, the Doom demo was set on Martian facilities. It had the grungy cyberpunk aesthetics of Aliens and Event Horizon. What little I saw, environmentally, gave the impression of old school exploration. It was very moodily lit, though lacking a fuller shadowing system that can properly simulate additional shadows.

Sounds good to me. Doom 4 will be a smash hit.

[DooM_RO]

GoatLord said:

No. There were some crude test shots shown at the reveal implying the scrapped version was set on Earth. That all but confirms those leaked shots as being official. That said, the Doom demo was set on Martian facilities. It had the grungy cyberpunk aesthetics of Aliens and Event Horizon. What little I saw, environmentally, gave the impression of old school exploration. It was very moodily lit, though lacking a fuller shadowing system that can properly simulate additional shadows.

Ok, so if it was official, how better was the game from a production standpoint compared to the leaks?

[Marnetmar]

Well, considering the original Hell on Earth setting was supposedly a linear Call of Duty-style shooter with forced vehicular combat and a storyline where you played as a resistance fighter...

[DooM_RO]

So compared to RAGE and TNO how does the gameplay stack up? These games had very awesome guns with loud clanking noises, beautiful animations on weapons and enemies and great enemy reactions like blood and sparks coming out of everywhere. How is this in comparison? Do you think Doom 4 will surpass these games?

[Koko Ricky]

Considering I haven't played Rage, TNO...or Doom 4, for that matter, take what I say with a grain of salt. The gameplay looked, from what I can tell, to be very dynamic and immersive. The player leaped about with grace, like an expansion of the smooth horizontal movement of the classic Dooms. It was very fast-paced. The guns looked and sounded very powerful, and there was a an extremely satisfying reaction from enemies when hit. Their deaths were dynamic and as shockingly visceral as the first time you saw a player gib in the old games.

[Caffeine Freak]

GoatLord said:

I'll see what I can do. I'm just going by what I was reminded of while I was watching. There was a lot of moody lighting with intense colors that reminded me of Doom 64. There was one area that had some eerie aqua-marine lighting and hanging body parts that was a lot like "In the Void." Much of the demo was like Doom 3 with superior lighting and much better enemy/weapon designs and excellent gore. The maps were a lot bigger and more open looking, even though the player didn't do much exploration. So it reminded me of all the classic Dooms in one way or another.

I had the exact same thought during the gloomy part with the body parts hanging from the ceiling and the pentagrams, that it reminded me of Doom 64.

[Caffeine Freak]

DooM_RO said:

So compared to RAGE and TNO how does the gameplay stack up? These games had very awesome guns with loud clanking noises, beautiful animations on weapons and enemies and great enemy reactions like blood and sparks coming out of everywhere. How is this in comparison? Do you think Doom 4 will surpass these games?

The demo was reminiscent of Rage's beautiful and visceral gunplay and dynamic animations. There was plenty of both to be seen.

[DooM_RO]

Caffeine Freak said:

The demo was reminiscent of Rage's beautiful and visceral gunplay and dynamic animations. There was plenty of both to be seen.

I see, so it's similar to RAGE, which is good, but is it better?

[William Blazkowicz]

DooM_RO said:

I see, so it's similar to RAGE, which is good, but is it better?

I hope it is not similar to Rage in terms of gameplay! Don't get me wrong, Rage was a good game. But I would like DooM gameplay yes, please, thank you.

[Caffeine Freak]

DooM_RO said:

I see, so it's similar to RAGE, which is good, but is it better?

Keep in mind that gunplay needs to be experienced firsthand to truly be evaluated, since it's partly a visceral thing, one of the elements that you 'feel' in the game. With that being said, I think it looked better. Enemies suffered procedural dynamic damage constantly by having chunks of their bodies blown off, or being dismembered, which is a feature Rage didn't have a lot of. Suffice to say, the gunplay seems to go a few steps further than the gunplay in Rage, not necessarily in terms of complexity, but in sheer grim satisfaction.

[DooM_RO]

That's exactly what I wanted, Doom's complexity doesn't come from the weapons anyway, rather from resource management and movement.

[Agentbromsnor]

William Blazkowicz said:

I hope it is not similar to Rage in terms of gameplay! Don't get me wrong, Rage was a good game. But I would like DooM gameplay yes, please, thank you.

Hmm. I feel like the only person alive who thinks RAGE was kind of cool. Except for the ending. The ending was complete trash.

Consider me happy if Doom 4 meets at least the half decent gameplay of RAGE. If they add some atmospheric elements on top of that, I'll be a happy Doomer.

I just find it annoying that Brutal Doom fans encourage the 'takedowns', while I think they are stupid and interrupt the gameplay. Apparently people hate QTE's, but when people market them as 'takedowns' it's suddenly alright...

[Touchdown]

Because QTEs and takedowns are not the same thing. Takedowns are contextual actions that require pressing a single button. QTEs are cutscenes where you have to go through a sequence of pressing buttons highlighted on a screen to progress.

Also, takedowns / executions appear in pretty much every modern action game. It's not BDs invention.