It’s been a long time since id Software last ventured into the world of Doom. The last main line release in the series was Doom 3 back in 2004, but sometime this year fans will finally get their hands on Doom. As the title would suggest, what once was Doom 4 is essentially a remake of sorts of the original game that started the series. There will be a lot of familiar faces for fans so let’s get right to what you can expect from id Software’s latest.
Recent first-person shooters have adopted a cover system, the ability to regain health by not getting shot and other mechanics that pull away from the main objective of shooting everything in sight. Doom goes back to its roots by not offering any kind of cover system and encouraging players to duke it out in brutal head-to-head battles. You won’t regain health if you stay away from enemies, there’s no cover system at all, and the game is much faster-paced than your typical FPS title.
The new Doom might feel familiar to fans of the Unreal Tournament series. The raw speed of the upcoming shooter forces fast-paced action in single and multiplayer modes. There are health packs and armor pick-ups you can collect throughout levels, and a number of familiar weapons and monsters. The super shotgun and BFG 9000 are both confirmed to return, as well as the Revenant, Mancubus and Cyberdemon enemies. While it’s not officially retelling the events of the first game, this is a reboot in almost every sense of the word.
Many games in recent times have multiple developers. One handles the single player aspects of a title, while the other deals with multiplayer modes. Long-time Doom developer, id Software, is handling the single player aspect of Doom, but the multiplayer is being developed by Certain Affinity. If you’ve never heard of the company, don’t worry too much. Certain Affinity has handled various multiplayer aspects of a number of FPS titles, including Halo 2, Halo Reach, Halo 4, Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Ghosts just to name a few.
Players should expect the standard assortment of multiplayer modes from Doom. We can confirm four-player deathmatch, domination, freeze tag and clan arena at the very least. In addition to the health and armor pick-ups in the single player game, multiplayer will add power-ups and teleporters scattered around levels. Players will even be able to pick up pentagram items that allow them to transform into monsters and attack their foes. Once again, speed and head-to-head action is the emphasis, so you won’t find players camping or trying to find sniping points.
In addition to the single player and multiplayer experiences, Doom will feature the Doom SnapMap. This new feature allows players to create their own custom levels and game modes, then share their designs with the community. This is basically Super Mario Maker for Doom. While this isn’t a new feature in the FPS genre, you don’t see it in most releases these days. It should be interesting to see what kind of level designs and game modes players come up with once the game has hit retail shelves.
While no release date has been set for Doom beyond the first half of 2016, the new title will release on the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Stay tuned to Prima Games for more information on the upcoming title as it’s released. In the meantime, be sure to check out our brief history of Doom and our first look at the title shortly after it was announced.
