Look, you might not think that a video about “The Guts And Gore” of Doom [official site] would be particularly insightful, but I’ve embedded three videos about id’s upcoming shooter below, and it’s the best of the lot. I’m delighted that Doom is an unabashed gore-fest but I didn’t expect a video explicitly focusing on the gore to tell me a great deal about how the game plays. While showing off a bursting, belching Mancubus, id take time to alleviate fears that melee kills and elaborate death animations will detract from the flow of the game. It’s a good insight into the speed and flow they’re aiming for. There are also videos about the SnapMap mod kit and the id Tech 6 engine.
In the initial Doom reveal, the melee kills were the only thing I found particularly off-putting. Incorporating them into the need for constant movement is smart though and while I’ve never made a connection between Jackie Chan and the Doom Marine before, I am absolutely on board with the idea of struggles against gangs of enemies playing out like choreographed fights.
Here’s some tech stuff that I don’t find as interesting as the GUTS. You may enjoy it if you like shiny shiny shotguns.
Last up is a guide to the SnapMap level design feature.
I haven’t made a map for a game since Quake II and the very idea that I’m going to be playing a new Doom and making maps for it in 2016 is exciting. Here’s the thing – I don’t need a new Doom so if everything doesn’t work out quite as I’m hoping, that’s fine. But do I want a new Doom? Hell yeah. And at the moment this one looks like it might scratch the itch.
07/09/2015 at 10:04 Darth Gangrel says:
Mandatory Doom comic reference since the word “guts” is in the article: You’re huge, that means you have huge guts. Rip and tear, rip and tear…
Doom 3 was great, but the game wore out its welcome after an hour or two of searching the same dark hallways after clearance codes on PDA’s. Even with the Perfected Mod, I couldn’t play the game that long before tedium sunk in. Although, the mention of mods here means that variety won’t be lacking in Doom.
07/09/2015 at 10:04 marano says:
It looks good, that said, I hope it’s not too fast paced though. I sincerely think atmosphere and storyline would suffer greatly if the only thing you’re doing is jumping from enemy to enemy. Games which want to simulate a creepy atmosphere need moments where nothing happens, but anything could happen.
Think of dead space or res evil.
07/09/2015 at 10:33 GameCat says:
Storyline? I can’t hear you through all that blazing gunshots, explosions and death screams of first two Dooms.
07/09/2015 at 12:01 damoqles says:
Dude. It’s Doom. Not Dead Space and definitely not Resident Evil.
07/09/2015 at 12:36 Jalan says:
They lost the ability to rely on that excuse the minute they released Doom 3.
07/09/2015 at 12:57 Kaeoschassis says:
Which is widely regarded as a mistake, a decent atmospheric shooter but a terrible Doom game. See the point here?
08/09/2015 at 16:07 Razumen says:
Only by the small hardcore Doom crowd, Doom 3 was id’s most successful game in the company’s history.
07/09/2015 at 12:40 Kefren says:
I agree with this. I didn’t sprint through Doom levels, I crept through them. The game was a mix of mounting tension, then frantic release, then tension again. If it is all fast action then I just get bored quickly.
07/09/2015 at 18:58 MultiVaC says:
Agreed, maybe it’s just the pushback against Doom 3 but people seem to forget that the original Doom’s bigger guts & violence arenas often had some brooding, labyrinthine corridor crawls in between them. Obviously it was never a “survival horror” game and it still had it’s pretty quick pace and things to shoot, but it definitely could calm down a bit and build some good atmosphere for its time. That ebb and flow keeps the action from losing all it’s intensity, and the hellish nightmare vibe was another big part of the game’s identity. I hope they don’t completely lose sight of that.
07/09/2015 at 21:14 Kefren says:
Yes, I think you put it better than me! I especially found the pace slowed when I was badly wounded, making me even more cautious, but often leading to the most excitement.
08/09/2015 at 16:14 Razumen says:
I totally agree with you, the thing is that Doom was a lot of things for many different people, to the point that anything id makes isn’t going to please everything. For me it had it’s hectic moments, but it was also interspersed with tense wandering through labyrinthian levels.
But from many comments from fans (who are of course the vocal minority) you’d think Doom was all nonstop action, all the time like Serious Sam or Painkiller.
07/09/2015 at 14:59 Mr_Blastman says:
This is not Doom you speak of. Doom is supposed to be fast paced and full of violence.
07/09/2015 at 18:19 JFS says:
Yes.
08/09/2015 at 16:16 Razumen says:
Except for the parts where it’s not fast paced, like in the originals, wandering through levels looking for that damn keycard hoping you don’t turn the corner into a Cyberdemon’s waiting bosom.
08/09/2015 at 22:50 grrrz says:
from the look of it the story can be sumed up as a belch.
07/09/2015 at 10:07 ninjapirate says:
Watching those videos, it turns out that Doom isn’t my cup of tea. I find the gore rather off-putting, to be honest.
07/09/2015 at 11:08 GWOP says:
Yeah. Gibbing in Doom and Quake was comical and not hard to stomach. Watching people’s head blow off in Fallout 3 made me queasy enough, and this is on another level.
07/09/2015 at 12:29 -funkstar- says:
I found myself thinking “honestly, that looks pretty horrific” with a frown. Followed by the quick cut to “talk to me about ‘Glory Kills'” (you can just hear the trademark) and the subsequent faux joyous talk about gibbing, and I don’t think this is for me either.
Maybe it’s the pacing: slowing down for gratuitous kills seems, I don’t know, un-Doom-like. One of the reasons the original Doom scared me shitless was that I could never stand still, never rest, in an fight. Even if these are as fast as they claim, it goes against that feeling of intense vulnerability, creeping just a little bit too far into violent power fantasy for me.
07/09/2015 at 13:49 bit.bat says:
I agree. The first doom video I watched was the one that was shown in front of a live audience in the most recent E3 and I was quite creeped out by all the cheering and laughing during the more violent moments…
07/09/2015 at 15:51 Distec says:
Sounds like your fun sensor was broken at the time, honestly.
07/09/2015 at 15:00 Mr_Blastman says:
Meh, I dunno, I think it looks really mild. Go play some Sergeant Mark IV’s Brutal Doom and get back to us.
07/09/2015 at 10:08 davec1 says:
As someone how really enjoyed the fast-paced shooters of old, I think I would enjoy the flow of this and the melee stuff seems to fit in quite well, unlike the impression it gave at reveal. I find all the gore-porn a bit off-putting, though. It would be cool to get that kind of flow in a more cheerful setting.
07/09/2015 at 11:30 Zanchito says:
A modern shooter absolutely cloning Serious Sam: the Second Encounter would be excellent.
07/09/2015 at 10:15 Harlander says:
Hmm, has the original fanbase of Doom just ‘aged out’ of liking gore, or has increasing photorealism crossed some kind of threshold?
07/09/2015 at 10:22 c-Row says:
A bit of both I think. Guess I will pass.
07/09/2015 at 11:26 Nasarius says:
Probably both. I remember Mortal Kombat being super cool when I was 9 or 10 years old because of the gushing blood and tearing out spines, but now that seems extremely silly. I played a ton of DOOM at that age too, but it wasn’t because of the demon entrails.
And yes, realistic violence is pretty obviously more disturbing than cartoonish violence. I know some people like gory horror movies, but I’ve always thought they were boring at best.
07/09/2015 at 13:00 Kaeoschassis says:
Gonna be honest, I think it’s mostly the latter. I’m still up for it, I still get that juvenile satisfaction out of blowing some monster’s head off, but there is DEFINITELY a line, and yeah, they may have crossed it.
07/09/2015 at 15:52 slight says:
The latter for me. I was never interested in gore but the sort of low fi gore in older games never bothered me. This does though and I think I’ll be passing unless it’s possible to tone it down through options.
As someone else above said I found that watching the Doom video from E3 I was a bit disturbed by all the cheers for skulls being ripped in half or whatever.
07/09/2015 at 18:22 fco says:
yeah, the same happened to me, but I thought it was because I’m getting too old for this.
Also maybe it’s me, but I don’t remember Doom 2 being all about speed. I remember it as mainly about exploring and finding the way out of each level.
07/09/2015 at 18:07 teije says:
In my case, I’ve aged out of it. Now find excessive gore in games boring and lazy on the parts of the devs. Maybe having kids has made me too “sensitive” :)
07/09/2015 at 21:05 kael13 says:
Good lord. Well if anything, this commment section illustrates quite nicely how the RPS community are slowly turning into a bunch of namby-pamby old farts who can’t enjoy a bit of – completely relevant for the universe – ultra-violence.
08/09/2015 at 20:51 Kempston Wiggler says:
…It’s like we’ve been invaded by a Mother’s Meeting of the Church Bridge Club.
My thoughts while watching this? “It’s a shame these are pre-rendered, scripted animations and I can’t have fun creatively destroying simulated bodies…(sadface)” I’d happily plonk down a grenade and watch a shower of chunks and limbs and a ragged torso go flying through the air, you namby-pamby cry-babies.
07/09/2015 at 10:29 Pizzacheeks McFroogleburgher says:
Prescripted gore animations don’t work for me, and power ups magically appearing when you kill the undead is stranger than.. Having to kill the undead.
My concern is that this looks a bit like doom 3 with Better graphics.. But can you skip the repeated animations?
Doom3 wasn’t really a doom game..it was space horror. It did scare me by switching the lights off now and again, but As marano suggests.. Dead space blew doom3 out of the water…
I want doom to terrify me with the desperate urgency of the task at hand..
Id like to be made to want to survive in a hopeless, relentless depiction of hell please.
07/09/2015 at 10:59 Not_Id says:
Gameplay looks more like Bulletstorm than Doom. And what the hell is with those sparklies?
07/09/2015 at 11:03 Not_Id says:
Edit: Why is a bloke from Bethesda/Zenimax interviewing other guys from Bethesda/Zenimax?
07/09/2015 at 11:27 Janichsan says:
It’s a form of group masturbation.
08/09/2015 at 14:42 king0zymandias says:
I love that guy from management who literally has nothing to add to a conversation about how the game plays. So he starts feeling left out and then finally interjects by saying that the game is all about being like chess. I mean what?
07/09/2015 at 12:59 Crusoe says:
It’s been received quite well in previews, they’re going to make a lot of money, so now they’re stuck in a self-congratulatory loop.
07/09/2015 at 11:06 Barberetti says:
I can’t view the videos at the moment. Any mention about being able to use a proper map editor, or are we going to be stuck with the Snapmap thing? If the latter, then any interest I have in creating maps for this game goes out the window.
07/09/2015 at 11:09 Shazbut says:
Isn’t the most enjoyable shot you take in a FPS the one that actually kills the enemy? It’s like running up to the bullseye and putting the bullet in by hand.
07/09/2015 at 11:55 dangermouse76 says:
Second Video @ 53 seconds, “We have probably the best tech team ever at ID.”
Ouch John, ouch !
07/09/2015 at 13:25 The_invalid says:
Haha, glad I’m not the only one who spotted that and winced a little. Given that Carmack basically steered the direction of real-time rendering for over twenty years, that statement honestly came off as needlessly arrogant and hubristic.
07/09/2015 at 14:58 pepperfez says:
Sure, he shaped the development of the medium and set the standard for a whole genre, but what’s his record on Brutal Melee Executions?
07/09/2015 at 12:46 Spacewalk says:
Serious Sam 3 x Soldier Of Fortune: Payback in high definition.
07/09/2015 at 12:47 Neutrino says:
When the in-game visuals look as good as that I think it would be a good idea to maximize immersion and remove the HUD entirely. Let your armour/health status be displayed on a wrist mounted PDA and a bullet counter on the guns.
Deadspace did that really well, although it was so slow paced I couldn’t stick with it to the end.
07/09/2015 at 12:48 Kefren says:
Weird, this just kills my interest. And this is from someone who fought the Doom Wars. link to karldrinkwater.blogspot.com
The graphics look like Doom 3. But they seem worse because my expectations have increased since I completed Doom 3 (twice). They also seem worse because of the little highlighted things that pop out of enemies. So bizarre. In Doom you occasionally got ammo from bodies, but it was appropriate. Basic soldier might have a spare clip. Shotgunner might have a usable weapon. It wasn’t highlighted – you could see it if you looked closely, or you ran over the body, searched it quickly (in my mind). But this just looks silly, like fireworks.
I hate the idea of the melee combat too. In Doom I wanted to keep my distance because things were so dangerous. The exception was using a shotgun at point blank – even then I often hid round a corner, and waited for the enemy to walk into my sights. I thought of myself as a terrified, half-mad survivor wanting to run but forced to fight. But this game shows a demented super-strong psychopath, not afraid of PUTTING HIS ARM IN A 1 TON DEMON’S MOUTH FOR LOLZ. Let alone how he pulls a heart out with his fingers. This is some weird power fantasy that involves being a character that I never was when I played Doom.
07/09/2015 at 12:55 Kefren says:
I also take issue with the way enemies glow to indicate that you can step up to them and press a button. It means you can’t even ignore the silly melee thing and get on with the game without ever seeing it – the enemies will be lighting up around you all the time like a synchronised torch show. It’s as if this year’s fashion for demons are gimp suits that flash when they are ready to be Mastered.
Melee in Doom was a last resort, not a “way of moving forward” (that’s the arrow key). And the melee in Doom was punch punch, dodging all the time – simplistic, yes, but somehow satisfying and tense, and strangely more complex than what they are building in this new version of the game.
08/09/2015 at 16:22 Razumen says:
Why can’t you ignore them? melee executions are optional, not mandatory. Just keep shooting if you want to keep shooting.
07/09/2015 at 15:04 pepperfez says:
But this game shows a demented super-strong psychopath, not afraid of PUTTING HIS ARM IN A 1 TON DEMON’S MOUTH FOR LOLZ. Let alone how he pulls a heart out with his fingers. This is some weird power fantasy that involves being a character that I never was when I played Doom.
Alas, you were and never even knew it.
07/09/2015 at 21:25 Kefren says:
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that! Just shows, silent protagonist = interpret him how you want to as a player.
07/09/2015 at 20:14 zigguratvertigo says:
Don’t forget the berserk medkits that let you explode monsters by punching them. The original Doom did have some of this silliness, but yes, they were few and far between and the substance of the game was something else entirely.
07/09/2015 at 21:18 Kefren says:
True. Though many levels I wouldn’t use one at all; or rather, I used them as ways to heal, but didn’t change my playstyle. Whereas this version of Doom they’re making looks like you’re on a berserk pack intravenous pump.
08/09/2015 at 16:23 Razumen says:
Or the completely gratuitous and impractical chainsaw that no marine would ever use in a combat situation.
08/09/2015 at 14:46 Deadly Sinner says:
“This is some weird power fantasy that involves being a character that I never was when I played Doom.”
And that character would be Duke Nukem without the quips. I’m pretty sure you even shove something down a monster’s throat in Duke Nukem Forever.
07/09/2015 at 12:52 Kaeoschassis says:
“Here’s the thing – I don’t need a new Doom so if everything doesn’t work out quite as I’m hoping, that’s fine. But do I want a new Doom? Hell yeah.”
Yeah. Exactly that. Look, whether this turns out awful or perfect it’s not going to stop me playing Doom2 almost daily. But it sure will be awesome if it DOES work.
07/09/2015 at 14:18 sebagul says:
If I had the opportunity of interviewing the developers, I would demand from them the promise of no unskippable cutscenes, absolutely no Quick Time Events, no FPS cap, and absolutely configurable FOV.
If they refuse any of those, I would explain to them why they are universally hated, ruin the games, ad are generally a bad idea.
If they don’t understand, I would look at them with a reprobatory gaze, and casually start up the chainsaw.
07/09/2015 at 14:56 Mr_Blastman says:
LOL Fluid and fast? What? The guy moves so slow! And he has a double jump! This isn’t doom…
07/09/2015 at 16:13 Kaeoschassis says:
The player character seems a lot faster when the player’s actually fighting and not taking it deliberately slow to admire the scenery and show off all the pretties, but I do agree that it could still do with being paced up a little.
As for the double-jumping, have you played the Demonsteele mod? Manages to incorporate double-jumping and some other fancy acrobatics whilest still feeling remarkably Doom. I wouldn’t say a double-jump is a turn-off in itself.
08/09/2015 at 07:04 tonicer says:
*sigh* And another game franchise ruined by consoles thanks consoles.
08/09/2015 at 11:03 MD says:
Thonsoles.
08/09/2015 at 14:53 Deadly Sinner says:
Sorry, but it still looks like the kill animations interrupt the gameplay, even if it’s not quite as long as other games. And the worst part is that they’re impossible to ignore, since they give more health and ammo, not to mention the ugly glowing.
08/09/2015 at 15:59 Razumen says:
I think this game looks great, but if they don’t release proper editing tools on PC it’s not going to get the success they’re hoping for.
Also, a lot of Doom fans need to stop complaining and do something productive. Doom 3 wasn’t the best Doom, but it was extremely moddable, with some work by the community it could have been THE best Doom. But of course people bitched and moaned and took their bunched up pantie-asses back to Doom 2.
08/09/2015 at 23:01 grrrz says:
actually recreating this kind of silly abstract demonic world full of gore and violence and devoided of purpose either for the world of the character we were used to in the 90’s (and hopefully no story or cinematic); with a modern point of view (and 3D engine) seems rather unique and eccentric in this day and age
11/09/2015 at 07:39 particlese says:
May I ask for more of that bizarro metal-blues of the original? Maybe as collectable cassette tapes for your helmet-Walkman and MIDI files for the collector’s edition?