DOOM (2016)
Inside DOOM’s Brutally Fast Single-Player Campaign
DOOM (2016)
Hugo Martin is flick-switching.
We’re seated in a small theater inside id Software’s Richardson, Texas, studio. We had just tried our hands at an early level in DOOM’s single-player campaign, and soon we would test our skills in a later level. But for now we’re in the dark, watching as DOOM’s affable Creative Director shows off for us. And, well, it’s awesome.
Controller in hand, Martin turns to face us. “I’m not playing this for show,” he says before he begins. “I’m just gonna play like nobody’s here. I like to play as fast as I can. It might feel like I’m swimming all over the place. But that’s the way I’d normally play.”
He’s not kidding. That Bruce Lee in a skatepark with a shotgun analogy which Martin is fond of using? This is it. We’re watching Martin fly through a mid-game level called Lazarus – set in a glistening UAC facility on Mars that’s been overrun with demons from Hell. While it starts off inconspicuously enough – Martin mows through some fodder as he moves down a shiny corridor that’s quickly slickened with demon blood and guts – Martin soon finds himself in what the team colloquially refers to as one of DOOM’s many “skate parks”: a multi-tiered, open arena space that’s awash with hellspawn, including some real heavies like the meaty Mancubus and the relentless Revenant.
This is where the show really begins. Martin seems to be everywhere at once. He mantles to an upper deck and hits one demon with some plasma fire. He drops to a lower level and uses his modded Rocket Launcher to detonate some heavy ordnance behind a heaving Hell Knight. Out comes the Chaingun for some rapid peppering of multiple enemies. He staggers one demon, then another, then rushes forward to Glory Kill the first and immediately dispatches the second with an explosive burst from his modded Combat Shotgun. And, as he earlier promised to show us, he’s flick-switching – id’s in-house term for the instinctual and nearly instantaneous swapping of weapons that players can pull off once they learn their way around the weapon wheel. A quick tap, a quick flick… and the weapon wheel never even appears. “It makes you feel super slick when you’re doing it,” Martin smiles. “You’re just flick-switching between weapons and you’re like…” Martin pauses to make some rapid-fire pew-pew-pew sound effects. We get the point.
But Martin isn’t just showboating for us. He’s also demonstrating something we haven’t yet seen in action: the player progression system. While id wasn’t ready to reveal the mechanics behind this system, they wanted to give us a taste of how players can customize their abilities to fit their play style.
In this case, Martin is focused on pure speed. He’s made a series of choices that will allow him to do everything quicker. Switching weapons? Faster. Swapping weapons mods? Faster. Movement? Faster. And best of all (considering that Martin is a self-professed Glory Kill fiend), his DOOM Marine gets a temporary speed boost any time he does a Glory Kill. This enhanced speed can be maintained for as long as possible by staggering several demons and zipping from one Glory Kill to another to trigger a succession of speed boosts. Oh, and if that isn’t speedy enough, Martin also set up his Marine so he acts like a vacuum-cleaner, hoovering up health and ammo from a greater distance; that way, Martin never has to take a break from the relentlessly fast killing in order to grab any goodies that spew forth from demons (alongside the copious blood and gibs).
But if speed isn’t your thing, no worries. There are numerous ways to customize your Marine and – this is of key importance to id Software – you’re not permanently stuck with the choices you make. Let’s say you want to prioritize defense over dexterity in a particularly brutal level. No worries, just change it up. Or maybe you want to do a speed-run through a level. Change it up again! “You’ll never regret your choices,” Executive Producer Marty Stratton promises. “We want you to feel like a badass no matter how you play.” Stratton also adds that there are no “micro steps” in DOOM. Every upgrade you earn will be significant and meaningful.
Run and Gun… and Chainsaw
As stunning as it was to see Martin play his own game, it was nothing compared to the fun we had when we played DOOM ourselves. We started off in a level called ResOps, the second mission in the game. Our goal is to make our way through this Martian facility en route to a satellite array that will reveal the source of invasion.
The first thing we notice: We’re fast. In fact, we’re faster than almost anything in DOOM’s world, Stratton tells us. Which makes sense in a game where movement is essential for survival. “You constantly have to move,” Stratton says. “You have to run and jump and circle-strafe. If you stand still, you will die.” Stratton further warns us that movement is our only defense. There is no crouching or hiding behind cover. The only way to break the line of sight with a demon is to move, move, move.
Naturally, DOOM does everything it can to keep the player moving. For starters, there is no reloading. And ammo is relatively plentiful… as long as you keep moving and killing. (That’s where Glory Kills come in; they’re not just a brutally fun finishing move, but they also cause enemies to drop more ammo and health.) In short, Stratton tells us, you should never be afraid to use all your guns. The only real way to run short on ammo is to power through trying to use only one gun. “Use the tool that’s best for the situation,” Stratton advises. “If you only have 10 rockets left, you don’t have to save them. Screw that. Use your rockets.”
In ResOps, we’re also introduced to the Chainsaw, a special weapon – and one of only two that aren’t part of the weapon wheel (the other being the BFG). Mapped to the controller’s D-pad, the Chainsaw is a one-hit-killer with some caveats. First, you need fuel to power it – and fuel is one of the few things in very limited supply in the game. Second, you need more fuel for bigger foes. But don’t think of the Chainsaw as a simple Get-Out-of-Hell card; the real value of a Chainsaw kill is that it results in an eruption of ammo. “If you find yourself low on ammo, look for an enemy to kill with a Chainsaw,” Stratton says. Or, as Martin suggests, make sure you have some fuel for your Chainsaw before you enter an arena area. That way, if you’re leaning on a powerhouse like the Rocket Launcher, you can always whip out the Chainsaw and rip up some low-level fodder in order to resupply. “Think of it as a utility knife to get more ammo whenever you need it,” Martin suggests.
Straight to Hell
Playing through ResOps was bloody, brutal, vicious and fun. It was also a great introduction to the gameplay, giving us the opportunity to plow through fodder like the ambling Possessed or the agile Imps with the Pistol and the Combat Shotgun – and to experience our first arena area (where we did, in fact, get killed a few times). But it was in Titan’s Realm where we were truly put to the test.
A later level set in Hell – or, to be precise, within the body of some sort of long-dead behemoth deep inside Hell – Titan’s Realm challenged us with a relentless onslaught of different demons that forced us to move even faster – and to use our Glory Kills in a very strategic manner. Every time we staggered a demon, we had an opportunity to pull off a ferocious finisher that helped us replenish our health and ammo. Or, we could take it out with a final shot from a distance. Or we could leave it there for a quarter-second to pepper some more demons with gunfire, only to return and finish it off immediately afterward. Every Glory kill is context sensitive – we didn’t often see the same ones twice in a row – and they are lightning-quick, never disrupting the action. (Our only regret? We never staggered a demon close enough to a wall. “Glory Kills are contextual to the walls, too,” Martin told us. “So if a guy’s close to a wall, do a Glory Kill. He’ll actually smash his head into the wall.”)
We also dug in to the weapon mods, which altered the guns in intriguingly strategic ways. The Rocket Launcher’s remote-detonate mod helps with everything from splash damage to landing a killing blow behind a shielded/armored demon. The Shotgun’s triple-burst mod was perfect for clearing some space at close range – but at the expense of depleting your ammo. The Pistol packs more of a punch with a charged shot, but it takes a moment to build up. The HAR can be modded to fire micro-missiles that fan out – great for tackling a spread of foes at mid-range. Also handy was the Plasma Rifle’s stun shot, which helped us quite a few times when we were surrounded by heavies. These mods are effortlessly activated (on a gamepad, you simply use the left-trigger). And almost every weapon has two different mods, enhancing your ability to tackle any situation in a variety of ways. Mod-swapping also happens in real-time with just a tap of a button, allowing players to (for example) quickly switch between the Shotgun’s burst-fire and explosive shot as needed.
You’ll need all those weapons and mods to take on the assorted foes you’ll face. “It’s a hallmark of DOOM to have enemies that are effectively like chess pieces,” Stratton says about the different demons. The more we played, the better we began to understand what each gun could do to each enemy in the handful of situations we faced. While we spent only 90 minutes in the single-player campaign, we already began to get a good feel for what we needed to survive – either in the cold corridors of a Martian UAC facility or the sticky depths of Hell. Sure, it’ll take us a little while to get as good as Martin – and we certainly needed more time in the game before we would be able to flick-switch like a pro – but DOOM quickly reveals itself to be a game of skill… one that’s unlike any other shooter currently out there. Indeed, DOOM isn’t just about killing demons. It’s about the style in which you kill those demons. The choices you make in killing demons. And the speed at which you kill those demons.
“You become your own fight choreographer while playing DOOM,” Stratton says. Judging from what we experienced – and having seen Martin play DOOM in his own unique manner – we couldn’t agree more.
For a more detailed look at ResOps and Titan’s Realm, be sure to check out Game Informer’s previews:
A Legend Reborn: Hands-On With DOOM's Single Player
DOOM: A New Vision of Hell
Arm yourself with more DOOM content exclusively on Bethesda.net:
22 Reasons to Love DOOM – Part 1
DOOM Release Date, Collector’s Edition and Pre-Order Bonuses
