We dive into DOOM’s lightning-quick Team Deathmatch mode and discuss the game’s other fast-paced offerings with id Software’s Marty Stratton
Enter the phrase “Bruce Lee with a shotgun on a skateboard” into your search engine of choice and you’ll quickly discover it’s the favoured description id Software’s executive producer Marty Stratton likes to use to sum up DOOM’s aggressively paced gameplay. While the colourful catchphrase’s implications should please loyal but sceptical fans let down by Doom 3’s slower, survival horror-inspired style, we were determined to dig a bit deeper into the imaginative analogy.
Before diving into our demo of DOOM’s blistering new Team Deathmatch mode, we ask Stratton – who prefers to refer to the upcoming title as a “new start” rather than a reboot – to elaborate on his infamous elevator pitch. “It’s really the way our combat feels,” he begins. “Areas feel like skate parks, and the way you move, the speed at which you move, the fact enemies shoot projectiles at you and, in many cases, you’re actually faster than them and you’re weaving back and forth between them and choosing between every gun in your arsenal... it’s all of these things working together. It’s just freaking really, really fun.”
Satisfied with – and a bit frightened by – Stratton’s giddy clarification, we jump into a six-minute, six-versus-six match (yep, that’s 666) on the game’s Heatwave map. Featuring a heavy industrial vibe and lots of hot liquid magma, the arenastyle area should feel comfortably familiar to anyone who’s ever thwarted an otherworldly threat against an atmospheric backdrop of coughing machinery and spitting lava pits.
Hands-on in hell
Of course, pausing to soak up the immersive surroundings for more than a second or so isn’t an option. Soon after, Stratton warns, “If you stop, you die”. We do exactly that. It takes two more unceremonious deaths before we realise DOOM has essentially rewritten the definition of ‘Hit the ground running’. Following a few quick re-spawns, we shelve our meandering sightseeing of the id Tech 6-fuelled environments in favour of double-jumping, mantling and generally not staying still long enough for anyone to get a bead on us.
Armed with a Super Shotgun, Static Cannon and Frag grenades, we run like hell and frantically spray hot lead at anyone who crosses our path. As fun as this is, Stratton suggests we swap from the punch-packing Super Shotgun to the Static Cannon for a true taste of DOOM’s need for speed. “This gun actually gets better the more you move,” he says excitedly. “It charges up as you run through the environment. If you stop, it will de-charge, so it’s kind of like a rail-gun that gets more powerful as you move.”
Swiftly navigating the map’s vertically inclined layout while wielding the motion-powered hand-cannon proves an effective strategy... until the Revenant joins the fray. equipped with a jet-pack and shouldering a pair of rocket launchers, the classic DOOM baddie is now, according to Stratton, “the ultimate player power-up”. During this particular variation of TDM, players can swipe a randomly spawned demon rune to transform themselves into this table-turning terror. Snatching up the pentagram-like power-up not only grants the gift of flight and rocketpropelled grenades, but also gives its lucky bearer twice the life of their foes.
Our few encounters with a rival Revenant leave us horizontal on Heatwave’s catwalks, but Stratton ensures all hope isn’t lost when this hell-spawn is unleashed. In addition to utilising quad-damage and invisibility power-ups, players can even the odds with the gauss Rifle. Appearing as randomly as the rune, the super weapon, which Stratton says can “wreck enemies”, takes down human adversaries with a single shot and puts a Volkswagen-sized dent in most demons’ health meters. As we witness during the lightning-fast round, the appearance of both the Revenant and the only weapon capable of quickly sending him back to Hades injects the familiar TDM formula with a fresh, frantic dynamic, while the seat-of-thepants pacing packs plenty of thrills into the moment-to-moment gunplay.
Three ways to play
Our six minutes in hell is sadly all too brief, but Stratton says this pre-alpha slice barely scratches the hot molten surface of what’s to come. DOOM’s dedicated multiplayer component, which also includes the previously announced Freeze Tag and Clan Arena modes – as well as some yet-to-berevealed goodies – makes up just a third of the game’s total offerings. In fact, according to the 15-year id veteran, the final package will feature a tasty trio of fully-fleshed, contentpacked components: “We really are approaching the game as three pillars. equally important to us as the single-player campaign experience, is the multiplayer and SnapMap. None of these should feel lacking to the player. I would hope that people sit down and play all of them and enjoy all of them, but if they just choose to play one, that’s £50 worth of entertainment.”
Those betting all their hard-earned bones on DOOM’s single-player campaign can plan on their investment paying them back in more blood and guts than they can shake a chainsaw at. If you’ve spied any of the previous peeks of the game’s story mode, you’re well aware DOOM’s wearing its 18-rating like a blood-drenched badge of honour. That said, its over-the-top violence isn’t just about shock value. Sure, having a big, scary hell-spawn beat you to death with your own graphically detached limbs might provide fodder for future nightmares, but the horrific act is all in the service of storytelling. Sort of.
Stratton isn’t oblivious to the fact people play DOOM because it’s one of the few games that allows them to halve hell’s monsters with chainsaws, but he also feels there’s room for some meaningful narrative to be delivered through that primal filter. “We know players are coming to the game to kill demons and we’ve tried to apply that to how we approach the story. A nod to some of the things we’re doing is when a demon smashes a guy into a console and you later find that guy and have to tear his arm off to get access to an area. That’s certainly not the extent of our story, but we try to do it in interesting and clever ways that stay out of the way of somebody who just wants to blow stuff up and kill demons.”
Whether you’re following the story or simply slaying baddies, DOOM’s campaign, like its multiplayer, rewards those who don’t stop to smell the cooked flesh. Calling it “way faster” than Doom 3, Stratton elaborates on how the next instalment is “widely” different than its slower-paced predecessor. “From a game development perspective, you’re always learning from what you did in the past. When we started this, it was about figuring out the quintessential essence of DOOM. We hit on some really good things and it boils down to the way the guns feel, the way the enemies feel and, yes, the movement and how that works together as a package.”
That cohesive package is also complemented by some design decisions that could initially leave the Call of Duty crowd wondering where all the conveniently-placed waist-high cover points are. As Stratton explains, though, DOOM’s steeper, more nuanced difficulty isn’t about frustrating players, but promoting adrenaline-fuelled fun. “We love combat where you dive in and attack the enemy. Does regenerative health fit into that? Hell no. Taking cover? nope, that doesn’t fit either.” When queried about DOOM’s strict no-reloading rule, Stratton is equally enthusiastic: “every time I pull the trigger, I want an amazing, explosive experience. Reloading does not fit into that, because when I’m out of ammo and I pull that trigger and hear ‘click’, that’s the worst feeling ever.”
On top of never running dry, DOOM’s death-dealers have been fine-tuned for optimal enemy-eviscerating fun. The arsenal, which Stratton calls “Varied, distinct and responsive,” includes plenty of unique options, all with very specific purposes. In addition to the aforementioned ass-kickers, fans can plan on blowing bad guys’ faces off with various shotgun types, plasma rifles, heavy assault weapons, and chain-guns. Complementing the ability to reduce hell’s hordes to hamburger from behind a BFg of your choice, is a new gun-swapping mechanic; utilising a weapon wheel that holds as many guns as you can find, players are treated to a slick slo-mo effect that’s as strategic as it is cinematic.
Of course, those craving the most graphic kills will want to cosy-up to their targets before triggering melee finishers capable of covering the walls in bloody bits and pieces. Whether curb-stomping Satan’s minions, feeding them their own feet, removing their mandibles with extreme prejudice, or simply punching their ugly mugs into a crimson-coloured mist, unleashing up-close kills is never anything less than a stomach-churning affair.
DIY DOOM
DOOM’s advanced sci-fi arsenal may splatter the spotlight, but it’s SnapMap that’s id’s most ambitious feature. An intuitive user-generated content tool, it’s aiming to bring modding – previously the domain of PC gamers – to console.
Stratton says it “puts the power of creation in players’ hands,” allowing anyone with an xbox One and a copy of DOOM to carve out their own levels, scenarios, missions and play modes. Citing his personal inexperience with modding as an example, Stratton tells us just how user-friendly it is: “I made an escort mission that I was playing for two hours; I’ve made combat races where two players go off on a symmetrical map and race through it, setting traps for each other, and sending bosses into the other person’s encounter... it’s so accessible.”
Calling it “deep, yet easy to use”, Stratton believes SnapMap will please experienced modders with its breadth of options, but also introduce budding game designers to a new world just begging to ignite their creative sparks (and, in its lava pits, their frail bodies). Those who’d rather cut a bloody swath through the existing levels rather than create brand new ones can, of course, still reap the benefits of others’ hard work. Surfing for and accessing fresh user-generated content is a quick and painless process that gives all players access to a bottomless pool of new experiences. Additionally, because everyone has the same core assets and components on their systems, there are no lengthy downloads or complicated steps involved in sampling these shared creations; simply browse the content hub, see what looks cool, fire it up, and let the demon-demolishing action begin. Combined with a brimming slate of online multiplayer content and a lengthy solo campaign for lone wolves, SnapMap essentially brings infinite replayablity to DOOM or, as Stratton more modestly puts it: “Anybody who spends their money on the game is getting something that, literally, you could spend years with.” While not every mode will pack the same appeal for each player, at least one of DOOM’s three dedicated components should hook any gamer suffering from an itchy trigger finger. And at the absolute minimum, we can’t imagine anyone who’s ever clutched a gamepad not being a little curious to discover what it feels like to bury a buzzing chainsaw blade between a Cyberdemon’s horns.