Rip & Tear.
Bethesda’s QuakeCon event just debuted the first gameplay footage of Doom: Eternal, the upcoming sequel to 2016’s critically acclaimed fps Doom. The content for Eternal, including information given by presenters and concept art, begins at around the halfway point of the recorded stream of QuakeCon, and can be viewed here.
Discussing and leading Doom: Eternal’s demo were two representatives from developer id software: Creative Director Hugo Martin and Game Director Marty Stratton. The team wasted no time in conveying their dedication and excitement in this product, with Stratton saying they wanted to make this iteration of the Doomslayer “The strongest, most powerful hero we’ve ever created”.
According to the team, this iteration will allow players to take control of a host of new tools and weaponry. Many classic weapons have received new and improved utility or dramatic redesigns. Some of the more standout armaments include a slick new demonic-looking Rocket Launcher and a new Railgun-type explosive crossbow that fires powerful bolts which detonate a few seconds after landing. At no part in the gameplay footage shown did the later weapon fail to demolish the target it was fired at.
They also went on to speak on the new foes players can expect to come face to face within the latest title, with the new game featuring twice the number of enemy types as the first.
And what followed was a gameplay demo. A confusing gameplay demo at that.
The demo opens with Doomguy stranded on what appears to be a cityscape after a demonic invasion. In the distance, hundreds of demons hurl through the sky, firing bolts of dark energy at targets hidden behind red mists. After a single moment admiring this incredible (and quite effed up) backdrop, Doomguy turns his head and fires a grappling hook out of the bottom of a shotgun, pulling himself to a demon, then turning it to chunks in his next shot.
The footage that follows continues to show off the grappling hook, and all the power it gives to the player. The hook seems to be on a very short cool-down, and the player uses it on enemies quite far away – both horizontally and vertically – to catapult themselves around the field. Also new is a recharging dash that grants the player a quick burst of movement speed and can be used in mid-air to alter one’s trajectory.
The player also interacts with the environment in a host of new ways – Climbing up walls, punching down other walls, and even picking up an extra life, indicating that the latest game may allow the player to run out of lives if they’re not careful.
While the grappling hook does look very powerful, it looks like it will only allow players to travel to enemies, and the footage does not suggest that the player will be able to grapple onto any walls or ledges on their own.
Still, though this footage does seem quite impressive and show a great leap in both graphical fidelity and gameplay speed, it feels… Off somehow. A bit slower than the first game. The demo player spends a lot of time looking at walls and menus and not quite enough time playing like a normal person.
This is a similar mistake to the one id software made during their showcase of the first Doom: The demo player adopted a playstyle very traditional of people showing off games in front of large audiences, where they will move slower and more deliberatley in order to make sure the audience can follow the action. While this allowed people to see what was going on, doing this with the first game made it difficult for people to see how fast the game really played, and made it much more difficult to follow as a result.
So why are they making the same mistake twic-
Oh.
OH.
Never mind.
After the first bit of gameplay comes to a close, Stratton looks unhappy. He asks the crowd if they’d like to see some faster-paced gameplay. And shows the second demo.
The second demo is very different.
They were f*cking with us. Doom Eternal is very much still Doom. And it looks fantastic.
Featured Image Via Flickr / Instacodez
