Creative director Hugo Martin on how Doom: The Dark Ages is a spiritual successor to the original game, and how the Saw Shield will completely upend your expectations
I’m hopeful! Doom 2016 was incredible, and Doom Eternal was a massive disappointment to me. So to hear them re-evaluate their approach to combat. Sounds like we have a chunk of time to wait to find out though, they’re slating it for a 2025 release.
Doom 2016 had a dark moody vibe, you learned more and more about who you were playing. It was very well placed, the environments felt lived in, as you explored you get the impression the facilities housed people up until pretty recently, you can see damage to equipment, signs of fighting. You start learning that the process of corrupting the company was slow at first, and ended with crazy shit like HR asking for volunteers for ritual sacrifice.
Compared with Doom Eternal, which was very arcadey, stages didn’t have that “Real life place” feel, instead they felt more arcadey, made in a customer available level editor instead of handcrafted environments. The feeling of atmosphere from Doom 2016 was gone, replaced by weapons and power ups appearing as floating rotating icons, and the occasional Holo projector which would play a ham-fisted tongue in cheek “HR Messages”. It felt more like Quake 3 arena then the moody atmospheric game that Doom 2016 was. Also the combat was annoying to me, having to paper rock scissors enemies by only using certain weapons for certain enemies, forced to chainsaw to get a shower of glowing power ups and ammo was the opposite of the look and feel of Doom 2016. Doom Eternal felt like a cartoony caricature of Doom 2016 in the worst possible ways.
I’m hopeful! Doom 2016 was incredible, and Doom Eternal was a massive disappointment to me. So to hear them re-evaluate their approach to combat. Sounds like we have a chunk of time to wait to find out though, they’re slating it for a 2025 release.
What was disappointing in Doom Eternal for you? I’m not an expert in this kind of game but I liked all Dooms so far.
Doom 2016 had a dark moody vibe, you learned more and more about who you were playing. It was very well placed, the environments felt lived in, as you explored you get the impression the facilities housed people up until pretty recently, you can see damage to equipment, signs of fighting. You start learning that the process of corrupting the company was slow at first, and ended with crazy shit like HR asking for volunteers for ritual sacrifice.
Compared with Doom Eternal, which was very arcadey, stages didn’t have that “Real life place” feel, instead they felt more arcadey, made in a customer available level editor instead of handcrafted environments. The feeling of atmosphere from Doom 2016 was gone, replaced by weapons and power ups appearing as floating rotating icons, and the occasional Holo projector which would play a ham-fisted tongue in cheek “HR Messages”. It felt more like Quake 3 arena then the moody atmospheric game that Doom 2016 was. Also the combat was annoying to me, having to paper rock scissors enemies by only using certain weapons for certain enemies, forced to chainsaw to get a shower of glowing power ups and ammo was the opposite of the look and feel of Doom 2016. Doom Eternal felt like a cartoony caricature of Doom 2016 in the worst possible ways.
No sir, I didn’t like Doom Eternal.