At E3 last week during Bethesda’s press conference, the world got a look at the next title in an iconic franchise that has taken a rather long leave of absence. Doom 4 was actually officially announced seven years ago, back in 2008, but the project was also officially canceled only to be restarted in 2013 with a new direction that would return to defining Doom as the franchise it was rather than latching onto the FPS band wagon of yearly releases and lack of innovation.
In an interview with Polygon, Pete Hines from Bethesda explained that at the studio “We weren’t happy with the game that was being made… You can probably close your eyes and imagine a ‘Call of Doom’ or a ‘BattleDoom’ game, where it starts to feel way too much like: ‘Wait, this doesn’t feel like Doom, it feels like we’re playing some other franchise with a Doom skin on it.'”
It’s easy to get sucked into what the consumer wants when developing games which is exactly why Bethesda wanted to take a step back and make sure Doom stayed Doom which makes the new game seem much more promising, at the very least from a quality and commitment standpoint. Doom was one of those old, super fast paced shooters that thrived off of momentum. You slowed down and you were easily bogged down in enemies and overrun. It seems like that feeling is coming back in what we were shown at E3 with the very smooth gameplay, namely the seamless execution system. I could personally imagine the game moving way faster than the demo presented especially on higher difficulties, but they probably wanted a less hectic showing for the press conference.
The question remains though, will Doom 4 still be a definitive FPS? Many franchises have turned to a much more fast paced combat style with games like Titanfall, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Halo 5: Guardians, and even Destiny, being much more about mobility and momentum since 2008.
How will the new Doom 4 fit in with these other big names? Gamespresso will keep you updated.