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Doom4
Doom4 has been announced, id are looking for people, if you are that person, and are good at what you do, have a look.

http://www.idsoftware.com/

Doom4, discuss it or not.
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I'm pleasantly surprised because I expected total shit. Sure, I can see enough things to point out. Things like the death animations becoming repetitive already, primarily still claustrophobic environments, loot drops and so on. But on the other hand I see a ton of things they are doing right. Will it be a great game? I don't know. But for the first time in over a decade it feels like Id listened to the fans and are really trying to give them what they want. You say an editor and MP is expected but they failed to really deliver on those since 1999. So to me it feels like the game has a lot of heart and that is something I will always applaud, flawed or not. 
Doom E3 Shot Porn 
 
I'll concede that the Cyberdemon is awful. 
 
Looks like potential for fun stuff. Only thing in the trailer that really gave me a frowny face is the color scheme; it's still very Doom 3 and this would have been a cool chance to do something more "out there" visually (and maybe call back to Doom 1/2 color-wise). Otherwise, it's hard to tell much so far, but it at least looks like maybe they've taken the good bits of Rage and gone in a better direction. 
#575 
Hmmmm.

Ok, I like what they've done with the mancubus, where the cyber bits actually look organic and sort of like hard boney growths. That looks cool.

But then, they don't seem to have applied that across the rest of the monsters, who all seem to have that clean Doom 3 UAC look to their cyber bits... 
Mancubus Was Way More Terrifying In D3... 
...with the meaty tusks, no mouth, man boobs (aren't them the scariest thing?).

This latest steamed lobster with leds does nothing for me.

And, oh, it seems the art director on this is really big on seafood, look at them Cacos. 
This 
Looks like potential for fun stuff. Only thing in the trailer that really gave me a frowny face is the color scheme; it's still very Doom 3 and this would have been a cool chance to do something more "out there" visually (and maybe call back to Doom 1/2 color-wise). Otherwise, it's hard to tell much so far, but it at least looks like maybe they've taken the good bits of Rage and gone in a better direction.

Trailer was annoying because 90% of it was just gibs or weapons loading, well hey at least we know that gibs that you'll never see in slo-mo and weapon loading you'll never see at all both work well, woot woot. BUT from the tiny bits that were comprehensible, it looked pretty cool to me, as do the screenshots. 
 
btw they showed about 8 minutes of actual gameplay footage (well, scripted in-game fov30 train riding rather), I am not sure what to link because I don't want to provide some re-hosting prick with views.

Sound design seems as bad as Doom 3 and Rage, at least I was reminded of all the bad sound bits from those games again. Gameplay seems just like any other recent FPS? 
CUE DRAMATIC ACTION MUSIC LOOP 
 
 
Oh, there is another 5 minutes of footage. Why the fuck are those not at Bethesda's account? 
Okay Much More Usefully, How About Someone Actually Links It... 
https://youtu.be/2KApp699WdE?t=30m21s

<Shambler> HAHAH
<Shambler> i love the bit with the hand scanner
<Shambler> tbh it looks a lot like Doom3 but MOAR BETTERER which i'm happy with
<Shambler> although the door prising open and the kill anims are too modern fps for meh 
 
Oh, there is another 5 minutes of footage

You mean the hell level? Yeah I only found that after I posted my "meh" impressions above.

So...yeah these 5 minutes of gameplay look marginally more promising. At least the environment looks a bit more 3d.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_XbtE6g3GM 
 
I don't think the speed is a problem. It seemed fast enough... speed has to be balanced with environment scale and so many other factors, and it seemed fine here. If you speed things up a ton in 3D environments that aren't scaled well for it, it turns into the ROTT reboot which had way too fast of movement and felt fucking awful to move around in. It's faster than most games today, without being excessive, that's all that could be asked for. 
 
The 3D of the levels and gameplay are a problem though.... even the hell level which had some vertical elements, was still 95% horizontal gameplay. Might as well be a topdown shooter at that point. 
Strange 
How did you guys feel about the health management in the gameplay footage? It felt very diablo 3 to me. Let's kill a mob and pick up a bunch of health from it...

I actually liked doom 3, the story elements I thought actually added to the game experience. Here we just have a gore-fest though. I kind of feel like those execution moves will take away from the experience in a fast paced game, what's that imp doing over there while you're snapping his friend's neck.

Of course it's only E3 footage, so it's been designed to show that off. Dunno, I'm sure it'll be fun. 
 
assuming that all those kill cams are just for the video, it looks cool.

those monsters are wild! 
 
How did you guys feel about the health management in the gameplay footage?

All depends on how generous they are with the drops. I also see traditional pick-ups in the levels, can't recall if they were health pickups though.

If you can just pretty much recover your health after each enemy kill through these "loot drops" though, then I'd say that seems a bit crap and dumbed down. 
Doomitty Doom Oom 
Well, after watching the two gameplay showcases a few times, I have pretty mixed feelings. The choreographed demonstration played with a controller gives little insight on what actual gameplay, especially with mouse and keyboard, will be like.

All aspects of the game have some obvious rough edges, but the game isn't coming out for at LEAST another year. E3 and alpha footage of Doom3 was far inferior to the final product, could be the same case with this.


PROS

-Gore looks cool

-Seem to have good intentions


CONS (Visuals)

-Art direction in general feels generic, flat or lacking any real flavor.

-Enemies aren't very distinguishable from one another. The game as a whole seems to be using fairly muted base colors (though lots of them) with bright, more saturated accents on key things (enemies, doors). If they're gonna go this route they should make the most of it. For example, the cacodemon could benefit from a glowing eye and mouth (like in the original doom), this would help it stand out against the world.

-Continuing that train of thought, monster sounds seem both artistically uninspired and mechanically useless as they lack definition from each other.

-The music is cool, but inappropriate for this game. I was hoping this was "dev music", stand-in tunes for E3. Toward the end of the Hell gameplay the music was obviously of the same batch that was used in the teaser trailer that came out last year. This makes me feel like they've already chosen to go with this composer and musical direction :/

-The quasi-diegetic ui is pretty meh. Id rather have unique, distinguishable items rather than a generic blue holographic tag on them that was pulled right out of dead space (worked well in that game, not so much here).

-Happy to see the SS, but again, weapon design feels uninspired and unnecessarily constrained to realism. "realism" is already out the window, you have a lot of creative room before things start to become painfully improbable. But even then, it's doom. I'd like see more exploration and play within the doom universe to come up with more unique and interesting art.

-On that note, Hell was pitifully bland and generic.

-Cyberdemon design in particular was not appealing.

-The visual fidelity in general looks almost last-gen. This is surprising. I feel like this is what it would look like on all low settings.


CONS (Gameplay)

-Doom made you feel strong and in control by way of powerful weapons and enhanced mobility (speed, in this case). Doom4 is attempting that same sensation of control via mobility but the "realistic" aesthetics requires reduced movement speed so they have doublejump and grappling/mantling to make up for it. IMO, this could work, but grappling/mantling would almost always have to be an integral part of gamepley with levels being built to maximize use of that mechanic. Otherwise, if it's not constantly in use you simply have slow movement speed with occasional, clumsy and ultimately irrelevant bursts of mobility.

-too slow of a tempo, not enough enemy numbers and variation per encounter.

-Enemies seem pretty static and stupid. I would like to see more movement and interactivity.

-I feel like finishing moves break the flow of play and would quickly grow tiresome.

-Health drops from enemies. They'll go all out arcady in this area but wont speed the player up or give us more interesting/whimsical visuals? ok.

-Levels feel very flat and lacking interesting enemy positioning. Looked very linear with occasional scripted arenas *cough*HL2*cough*. I think a more open and interconnected floor plan similar to that of older fps games would a) be more fun to navigate, b) would utilize grappling/mantling and double jump, and c) be more visually compelling.

-Fuck that weapon wheel.

-Nearly pausing time when selecting weapons is unnecessary hand-holding and takes away from the challenge of playing the game.

Meh, there were a couple other things that struck me as odd, but I'm reminding myself they still have a year of dev ahead of them. It feels like they're trying to make a game that gives the impression of fast paced, challenging combat while still remaining accessible to the consumer base, particularly the console market. I don't think that can be pulled off. I hope it congeals into something fun. I'm still cautiously optimistic, though now more emephasis on the caution. 
You Know What 
To me it looks like it might be fun. That's all. 
Mixed Feelings. 
Yeah Killpixel, your pros and cons list shows mixed feelings for sure. 
Let's Face It... 
Based on all we've seen so far, none of us have any idea whether it's going to be any good or not. There's nothing in those videos that's so heinous that it can't be forgiven if the game has good, interesting level design. I'm talking about level design that balances combat with rewarding, non-linear exploration with great replay value and satisfying, non-trivial environmental interac- sorry I've got to stop myself right there, it's hard to type when I'm laughing this much... 
 
level design that balances combat with rewarding, non-linear exploration with great replay value and satisfying, non-trivial environmental interac-

Not even I am expecting that from 2010's id. 
 
the original doom fanbase are all in the 30s and 40s now, aw hell some could be into their 50s if they were playing doom2 at 30yo.

many don't play games like they're 15 anymore, pumped up on energy drink sinking hours and hours into a lightning fast game that would make a normal person dizzy in a few minutes. they just don't want to realise it.

maybe, secretly, id know that, so they'll never return to the extreme fast pace of doom. the old skool can't handle it. the new skool of console gamers can't either because they don't have the mouse/kb. 
 
The Doom community regularly sees new faces, and they're not in their 30s. They're teenagers, looking for a fun game, and sometimes one of them hears about Doom and really gives it a go. And they love it. I feel old in half the Doom discussions I stumble across, so, it isn't just an old man's game. 
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