With the upcoming release of the infamous franchise, Hugo Martin (Creative Director) and Marty Stratton (Executive Producer) from id Software took Doom to live stream to talk about the single-player campaign. While Martin demonstrated the gameplay, Stratton provided an interesting commentary of the gameplay and how some of it was brought to fruition.
You wake up in a research facility on Mars with no memory of how you got there. As a demonic outbreak happens in the facility, Doom Marine smashes, shoots and weaves his way through Hell. The first thing that you notice during the demonstration is the glory kill. The brutal finishing moves can be triggered after doing a significant amount of damage to an enemy. Other than it being a flashy addition to the gameplay, you obtain more loot from the enemy after executing the glory kill. Stratton talked about how important movement was as a defense mechanic. After seeing that most of the enemy’s attacks being projectiles, using your moves to evade them is a cornerstone to the gameplay.
There are many choices that you can choose to as far as visually optimizing your experience. The developer explains how you can strip your entire screen down in the options to it just being your gun and what’s in front of you if you wanted to, No hud, no tutorials, just gameplay.
As far as abilities, Doom Marines suit is upgradable. There is also an interesting aspect as far as gaining abilities. These are called Runes, which are acquired by seeking out Hellish Tablets. Stratton explained that after finding a hellish tablet, it will warp you into a challenge mode. After completing the challenge mode, you obtain a rune that holds a particular ability. After getting multiple runes, you can equip so many in your load out, altering your gameplay.
There are multiple weapons with various mods. There are typically two mods to each weapon, making your gameplay approachable in many ways. While having one mod equipped, you can “hot-swap†between these mods during gameplay. Stratton also explained that weapons are upgradable and how every time you upgrade a weapon it does not go unnoticed, as the changes to the gun are very significant.
After reaching a checkpoint that updated the players map showing different points of interest, Stratton explains that a big part of Doom is the exploration of the space. There is said to be several secrets in each map that you can explore. These secrets will be a variety of things. Hidden and early access to new weapons being one of them.
Stratton explained that MachineGames success somewhat influenced their inspiration. As in they want to succeed responsibly in the name of the franchise as they did with Wolfenstein: The New Order. The release date for Doom is next month May 13th. Are you ready kick some demon butt?