With just two weeks left till the much awaited title makes itself to store shelves, a lot of buzz has been in the air about what the story campaign for DOOM has to offer. We got to experience a lot of the multiplayer aspect of the game but DOOM has always been, primarily, about its single-player experience. Thus, that’s why the developers from id Software recently did a Twitch livestream showcasing some of the levels from the campaign.
The livestream had a run-through of three levels – Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility, the Lazarus facility and the Titan’s Realm. The Titan’s Realm is as ominous as it sounds and the developers stated how the players will frequently be visiting and slaying different “fractures” of Hell through the course of the game. One of the main things you notice about each level is how open the layout is; it isn’t one of those linear corridor shooters. DOOM gives you a lot of movement space and different ways to traverse the map to reach the objective. Furthermore, the open space is imperative to the gameplay because it’s all about constant movement when fighting the hordes of hell; staying still or ducking behind cover is just a quick way to die in this game. In each of the levels there were Gorenests which is the game’s version of an arena. The rooms or the space in which the Gorenests were situated allowed for a lot of verticality and momentum in movement, which made this spots of arena-like combat all the more enticing.
The developers mentioned how the game would not have a heavy focus on cutscenes and cinematics to drive the story, they are going more of a Dark Souls sort of route by telling the story and lore of the DOOM world through codex that players have to find. Thus, allowing players to breeze through the game by just going from level to level killing demons or by exploring the map in detail in order to find the codexes and secrets.
The gameplay shown was nothing less than bloody and fast-paced. The players will have a variety of weapons to choose from, such as those showcased in the multiplayer beta, along with others such as fully-automatic shotguns and pistols – the most important ones being the BFG and the chainsaw. The chainsaw seemed to be a one-hit-one-kill and it could even be used to take out bigger enemies with ease but the developers limited its use by giving it a very minute oil capacity. Therefore, you can’t run around whole maps slaying demons left and right by only using the chainsaw, it’s more of the weapon you would want to save for tight spots. The Glory Kills look beautiful in the goriest ways possible! They did not come off as robotic or out of place in the flow of combat. Added to this is that the kill is context specific – thus, if your crosshair is aimed at an enemy’s leg, the player will perform a Glory Kill that is completely different from how it would be if you aimed the crosshairs at the enemy’s back, face or chest.
There is a ton of customization that the game has to offer. And from what was shown, it truly changed the experience of the game. Primarily you can augment your suit to be more movement focused, more defense focused, more exploration focused and so on and so forth. And within each of their tiers there are a plethora of combinations to be had. The weapons showed the same level of customization, allowing players to not only modify how the primary function of the weapon but even the secondary function. The player will also have access to a feature known as Runes, which is the games version of perks. Basically players achieve these runes by performing certain tasks throughout the game (perform X number of Glory Kills) and then they achieve a rune that modifies their gamestyle. Some runes give you a momentary boost of speed after a Glory Kill while another one gave you infinite ammo if your shield level was above 100.
There might have been a lot of contention behind how the multiplayer aspect of DOOM turned out but fans can rest assure that id software has ensured that the singleplayer did not fall short. It seemed the right amount of grueling mixed with the right amount of fun. However, we can only speculate that for now, but be sure to hear more from our review once DOOM releases on May 13th.
