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DOOM DOOMED BY ITS OWN LEGACY? - by Mr Biffo

8/2/2016

9 Comments

 
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I saw the campaign trailer for the new Doom before I saw the box art. I groaned at both. I mean, literally groaned.

I loved Doom, along with everyone else. Doom 3 is also up there among my favourite games, and is - in its own way - as influential as its progenitor.

How many abandoned, blood-spattered, space bases have we seen in its wake? Prey and Alien Isolation and Dead Space might as well take place in the same location as Doom 3. 

And that's the problem. If the new Doom wants to live up to the legacy of its predecessor it can't just look like every other spacebase shoot 'em up, even if it did inspire the sub-genre. And that's exactly what it does look like: even down to the bland, Master Chief-esque figure, on the cover. Frankly, in trying too hard, it just isn't trying hard enough.

DOOMLADEN
I get that this is me judging a game before it has even been released, but I can't help it: isn't that the purpose of pre-release trailers and artwork? Consequently, from everything I've seen thus far, I'm judging this new Doom as wanting. 

The opening shots of a sterile, abandoned space station with blood smears leading to a pressure door... we've seen that a million times now. That almost lost me, but it was barely a couple of seconds later before my enthusiasm evaporated altogether: when the character's disembodied arm slammed a corpse's face into a retinal scanner. Again, it's hard to think of a more cliched beat.

Then it treats us to shots of guns being reloaded, enemies exploding in a shower of gore, energy beams, monsters hanging around in hallways like they're waiting to be shot, eyeballs being ripped out and gothic halls. All of it, inevitably, soundtracked by crunching metal guitars. It's like a parody of itself.

I know all of that is sort of what we want from a Doom game. I know that this is precisely what New Doom is trying to be. But things have moved on. Doom isn't the only game of its ilk - and Doom has been cloned, and copied, and ripped-off again and again. Simply releasing another game that looks like a Doom game, that does the same sorts of things that we expect from a Doom game, isn't what I want anymore.
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DOOM MONGER
​Of course, Doom is going to sell well.

As brands go, there aren't many bigger - even if it has been over ten years since the last bona-fide Doom game. But times have changed. Doom 4 looks far too much like Doom 3.

The series needs to find a way to make itself matter again, to be relevant and stand out in a market that is already full of blood-soaked, me-too shoot 'em ups. And that's what's so crushing about everything I've seen from this new Doom thus far: it feels like it's chasing trends rather than setting them.

I'm trying to remain optimistic. Who would've thought that Doom's old stablemate Wolfenstein would've been so brilliantly resurrected in the shape of The New Order? That was a game that managed to pay homage to its origins in a way that was knowingly self-referential, and yet also intelligent.

At the moment, Doom looks as if it's trying too hard to appeal only to teenage adrenal glands, a Cannibal Corpse album cover brought to life. They might as well have advertised the game with a lank-haired young man in a black t-shirt making Devil horns with his hand, going "YEAH! HITLERSATAN ROCKS!".

I'm keeping my Devil horns crossed that the finished game manages to add some much-needed innovation and intelligence to the mix.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
DOOM "4" REVEALED
10 VIDEO GAME CONTROVERSIES
HAPPY DOOMS(BIRTH)DAY
9 Comments
GetBant link
8/2/2016 01:12:03 pm

I feel that this doom is trying to be what a doom hd remake/reimagining would be.
The choice to call it Doom and not Doom 4 seems to point to this.
Is that a good thing? I'd like to see it really play upto that old doom feel. It was very much of its time. I don't really listen to metal anymore but would be nice to have that in a game once again. That's not to say I can't see your point here. As a fan wanting the next doom it could be disappointing.
One thing I didn't like from the first trailer was the lack of colour. I don't want realism I want over the top but it seems like it might have changed some since then.

The cover was and is highly disappointing but is Doom the only game out there that should get a free pass into this genre? It's not Dooms fault that other games came out in its style. This is Doom and it should be Doom.
I wouldn't take it from a new game but I also wouldn't want a game like halo to change because other games have tried to copy it.

Reply
RM
8/2/2016 01:15:16 pm

I came to the conclusion a while ago that id software got boring when John Romero left. That isn't to say that he's some kind of genius that id have been crippled without (Daikatana should put that theory to rest) - if anything, Carmack is the bona fide genius of the outfit. But I think creative tension is necessary for a team to be more than the sum of its parts and Quake 1 was a game that obviously pulls in different directions, giving it a really timeless quality.

It's easy to guff this kind of bogus narrative out after the fact though. The main thing for me is that doom and quake felt like they had a culture of their own. You can tell it was made in texas what with the double barreled shotguns and the demons making noises like a farm boy's nightmare about being eaten alive by pigs or something. Then quake 2 went all in on the space marines vs cyborgs thing, quake 3 was like a greatest hits collection, and they just lost their identity after that. I'm pretty sure that sooner or later they're going to call it quits and just be a game engine company because that's more or less what they're doing now

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Mr Biffo
8/2/2016 01:28:21 pm

Interesting. Also... Quake 2 was my favourite Quake.

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Stoo
8/2/2016 02:15:18 pm

Doom 3 just took its abandoned, blood-spattered, space base from the System Shock series.

I agree this looks a lot like Doom3. I'm hoping the action will be more like the originals though. That is, lots of movement and strafing dozens of demons at once. As oppose to Doom3 which was more about BOO scares and demons teleporting behind you.

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Zetetic
8/2/2016 04:17:18 pm

In the few short minutes of the E3 Demo - we saw the same canned 'kill animation' repeated - imagine this after 3 hours!

Something that has straight combat at the deep heart of its product should at least look to recent action games such as "Bulletstorm" to ask "Is the simple moment to moment gunplay as fun as this?"

I had an entirely similar reaction as mentioned here, and I do hope to be proved wrong (and that it was just their Marketing peeps - making a mess of the message).

RAGE was.... OK, too ..... :/

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Spiney O'Sullivan
8/2/2016 10:52:03 pm

Bulletstorm was my favourite FPS of the last generation. Every single weapon was designed to make you go "hell yes" and the game really tried to make the player get creative with bold plays for points. It was ridiculously fun, although the plot was occasionally at odds with the tone of the gameplay (the suitcase hanger was a good emotional note, actually a bit reminiscent of some of the stuff you'd see in the brilliant Spec Ops: The Line). It's a real shame we're probably more likely to see another Duke Nukem than we are another Bulletstorm.

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Nick the Gent link
8/2/2016 04:46:48 pm

Brother Biffo, again the old cliches are taken down by your truthspeak.

The retinal scanner thing at the start - I could sort of grimace and accept the old cliche, but what was the need to drive the corpse's face into the scanner? Over the top.

It's all about level design in the end. This type of FPS nowadays now are just about cutting down enemies in corridors.

The original Doom, after 20-odd years, still stands up on the strength and variety of its level design. People have perceptions of original Doom that it was either survival horror about being crammed into tiny dark corridors, or all-out action in open arenas with hordes of baddies rushing you. The truth is it was all of those things, often in the same level, plus traps and elevators and enemies jumping out from behind doors, and weaving hallways and environments that shifted and altered around you.

About the only good thing to be taken from the gameplay trailers is that the main character zips around quickly, a clear influence from the original. But do we really need an HD remake of the original Doom?

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Tinker's Cuss
8/2/2016 04:59:12 pm

I'm saving me money and playing this instead, for the princely sum of free!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSzYliSASKc

http://brutal-doom.en.uptodown.com/

(the shotgun strap is now switched off by default, it did look slightly like a gentleman's pendulous bawbag)

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Andrew Gillett
8/2/2016 06:52:20 pm

To break out of the cliché zone, they should use this as the background music: https://youtu.be/2WhbGccT3yw?t=3m4s

Reply



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