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Doom Eternal's first public gameplay demonstration has been unleashed upon the world, and it was hella good. The demon-slaying, industrial-metal-pounding, all-the-time-action shooter sequel had its proper debut at QuakeCon this Friday after being revealed with a CGI teaser at E3 2018. It was actually a series of debuts, with several extended gameplay clips showing off different parts of the game, and you can see them all in the video above starting at about the 1:16:20 mark. But don't stop there - read on to see the five biggest reveals from the event.
Invasions get Dark Souls in your Doom
You ever find yourself thinking, "That Doom Guy's not so tough. I bet I could take him." Wait, really? After all the ripping and…? Wow, ok, well... Doom Eternal has the perfect new feature for you: Invasions! Yep, Id isn't being shy about its Dark Souls inspiration here, literally sharing the same term for letting other players come charging into your world with the lone goal of killing you to death.
At least you don't have to worry about the shadowy form of another Doom Slayer showing up to Glory Kill you; in this case, the invading players will possess a demon and try to use its abilities to ruin your day. Oh yes, I said "players": multiple people can band together to form Slayer Hunting Parties, which should make for some deliciously desperate battles. Id hasn't said whether Doom Eternal will have a traditional multiplayer mode like Doom 2016 did, but honestly, this sounds a lot better.
You can lop meaty chunks off way more demons
We already knew Doom Eternal was set to have twice as many demon types as Doom 2016, but you can't really appreciate that kind of abstract detail until you see so many of them shrieking towards the screen in a single setting. The gameplay demonstration was constantly queueing up and chewing through new demon types that required their own combat approaches - some returning from the original Doom 2, like the Pain Elemental, others unseen and heretofore unslaughtered.
And, oh, the ways you can slaughter them! Id describes its new approach as "destructible demons," showing the damage your attacks inflict in excruciating detail even before you get in the monster's face to finish the job. Pro Tip: demons don't like it when you blow bits off of them, so you should shoot at them until they die.
The Super Shotgun has a grappling hook
Id creative director Hugo Martin observed on-stage that the Super Shotgun is like the Doom Slayer's "Excalibur" - his trustiest weapon. How do you improve on the simple perfection that is a wooden stock, a trigger, and two chambers packed full of demon-flesh-ripping buckshot? Easy - you attach a grappling hook to it!
In Doom Eternal, the Super Shotgun can be augmented with an underslung "Meat Hook," an attachment that the Slayer can use to latch onto enemies and pull himself toward them. It's a fun way to get around and it lets you skip all that awkward mid-range combat where the Super Shotgun can't aerosolize faces.
The Doom Slayer is an acrobat now
You can get going fast in Doom 2016, but your movement's mostly limited to running, jumping, mantling up walls, and Glory Killing demons (an underrated form of transportation). Doom Eternal opens your traversal tools up with some options that will be familiar to anybody who's ever played a modern action/adventure game: you can dash, break through certain parts of the world, swing off of horizontal pipes to get extra air, and even climb rough walls, jumping back and forth like a hulking, armored ninja (and don't forget about the Super Shotgun's new Meat Hook).
From what Id showed, it doesn't look like Doom Eternal is going for grand, cinematic exploration - all this scrabbling around is purely in service of getting you toward more demons to kill, faster.
Doom Eternal's launching on Switch, too
We hope you're ready. #DOOM Eternal will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. pic.twitter.com/J9DCga2YoWAugust 10, 2018
Doom's Switch version arrived more than a year after the others (you can't blame it, Switch wasn't even out when Doom 2016 first arrived), but there will be no such delay this time. Doom Eternal doesn't have an official release date yet, but whenever it does arrive, it will come to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch all at once. Hell yeah.
Want some more stuff to look forward to in the short-term? Check out our list of the best upcoming games of 2018.
