Well Hell-o there!
Doom isn't just another shooter. It's a very important game with a very specific feel, purpose and tone. It's not just about shooting monsters. It's about shooting a particularly disgusting breed of Hellspawn at a particular speed, while ducking around with a particularly giddy, kinetic sort of movement. Its combat must be deceptively clever, and its violence must be brutal and cartoonish all at the same time. So has this here new Doom got it right? Having fine-toothed my way through all the new E3 footage (campaign trailer, multiplayer trailer, and extended stage demo), I reckon the answer is a resounding 'Yes!'.
That door noise
Skreeeeeee! You know that sound. That shrill, metallic scraping that indicates that you have entered a fresh new room and are ready to Doom your way all over its wretched inhabitants. It's less a sound effect, more a glorious, chest-beating battlecry, and it's in the new Doom trailers multiple times.
The E1M1 music
AKA, At Doom's Gate. AKA, the greatest FPS theme music ever written. 'Inspired' by a whole bunch of 'proper' metal, but remixed into something immensely more air-punchingly triumphant, Bobby Prince's E1M1 theme has been modernised (but not too much) for the main Doom trailer, and that officially makes it Doom.
Health packs
Those tube-like pick-ups are really rather reminiscent of Doom 3's large health packs. Does that mean that regen is definitely out then? No it does not. But it does mean that collectible health is definitely going to be a thing. ie. Get the hell out from behind that cover, you wuss, and get on with killing some things. And speaking of killing some things...
The Super Shotgun is stupidly overpowered
Perfect. It's just perfect. Glorious, in fact. The first time you see the Super Shotgun splatter a zombie in the main gameplay trailer, it hits a fairly wide group of three and tears through the lot of them with a single shot, evaporating the first and blowing the merry crap out of the other two. That is how a double-barrelled shotgun should work in Doom. We can continue.
Armed zombies are still your standard, low-level goon
This will be your new soldier zombie, I reckon. He's not visibly carrying a shotgun, but he does look like a meaty, but distinctly human, bastard, outfitted with military armour and technology. These will be the guys you'll be mowing down for ammo drops, then.
It's all about smooth, flowing freedom
Doomguy runs. Doomguy vaults. Doomguy lands and kills a thing. Then he runs to what looks like the end of the level, leaps straight over, and kills a buttload of things 50 feet below him. We are not looking at Doom 3's claustrophobic corridor-horror here. This is big, rangey, omnidirectional combat that allows you to explode out at anything you want wherever it may be. DOOM! And on a related note
There are huge, multi-class mob fights
This is how Doom combat works. One or two big, scary, f*ck-you monsters as your main targets, throwing down the big fire, and a whole mob of smaller, quicker, more focused mooks making your life a living nightmare by getting in the way, running distraction, and trying to limit your movement. Until, that is, you combine strategy with viscerality, and go all one-man RTS with a chaingun to take them down. Speaking of which...
It's all about massive arsenals and seamless chain-killing
Particularly in the Hell-set part of the on-stage demo, Doomguy does not stop. He's ducking, he's weaving, he's decapitating, he's whirling past big enemies to take out their mooks, before coming back to the big guys with bigger guns, and crucially, he's always, always switching weapons. That's a big old weapon wheel right there, and with the game slowing - but never stopping - when he opens it up, that means you'll have total tactical freedom to use what you want, when you want, to destroy who you want, on a second-by-second, monster-to-individual-monster basis.
There are high-level power-ups hidden in tricky places
My, that rich blue glow up there... Could it... Could it be a Soulsphere? AKA the Supercharge pick-up, AKA, 'Watch out goons, I have 200% health and I'm coming through'? Yes. Yes it could. And it is. But of course it's placed tantalisingly in view, but desperately out of reach, up on a high, high platform with seemingly half a mile of non-linear exploration and a couple of impossible-looking jumps between you and it. Of course it is, because that is the Doom way, and this is Doom.
It's all overpowered melee, all the time
Remember the old Berzerk pack in the original Doom? That delightful medical care package that turned you into a flame-eyed brute capable of punching a demon into soup with a single hit? It seems you don't need it any more. Do enough damage to an enemy, and a ludicrous melee mangling is yours for the grabbing. That's just How Things Work now. Because Doom.
There is a Cyberdemon
And good Lord, does he look chunky and rather up for a fight this time. Thats how we want our big Doom monsters to look. Huge, imposing, slight cartoonish, and utterly, utterly unintimidated by how expertly weve been slaughtering their minions. New Doom Cyberdemon, you are a thoroughly acceptable Cyberdemon.
