Impressions from NeoGaf (possible minor spoilers)

So a guy got the game early and this is what he thinks.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=202991655#post202991655

So, here I am after playing quite a few hours (can't tell you how many as the game is not visible on my Xbox profile, but I guess at least 6). I'll drop some notes bullet point style, in no particular order. Feel free to ask questions, of course, and in case I'll happily try to answer.
Oh, a premise: I intentionally did NOT watch the 1hr long stream dedicated to single player, as I really wanted to experience the game directly, being genuinely surprised by the experience. So pardon me if some of the things I'll say might be obvious for you at this point.

• I think this game will be pretty divisive, as some of the base mechanics are pretty particular and not really that expected. Despite a not so memorable beginning, I'm definitely having quite some fun with it, but still I think this new iteration of Doom might not be everyone's cup of tea.... but I'll get to that.

• The graphics on Xbox One are really, really good. The world is detailed, rich and with lots of great effects all around, and thanks to the absolutely solid art direction the overall effect is honestly truly impressive. Even more considering that the game runs at 60 FPS, with no apparent slowdowns whatsoever (except for maybe one or two minor occasions while loading a new area, but absolutely never in combat). Unfortunately though the tearing is back (as it was in the Alpha), and it's definitely visible. I also experienced a weird problem during a mission, with one particular kind of enemy looking completely gray - as if the textures weren't properly loaded - and the ambient voices suddendly going silent: I had to quit the game and start it up again to make things right, weird. But again, apart from those flaws, the visual impact is pretty fucking amazing.

• I dig the art direction, a lot. At first it felt a bit too sci-fi and less satanical (even if the sci-fi was surely fascinating with its emphasis on heavy machinery and industrial settings, with some elements that reminded me of both Halo 4 and Warhammer 40k), but once you get to Hell... woah, you will not be disappointed. The character designs is equally great, I personally adore the designs of the various demons: they look menacing and grotesque, and it's super fun to tear them apart. And also, something that is a big plus in my book: the game is not afraid to use colors. Of course the palette will be mainly red and brownish, but the tones are super saturated, and here and there you will see some inspiring and jaw-dropping panoramas of damnation.

• The music is ACE. It's not always there, as when you are exploring it's mostly ambient effects and noises in the background, but when you start fighting and the soundtrack kicks in, it's fucking BADASS. Seriously, it's empowering as fuck, and it's another element that pushes you to be even more aggressive, more brutal and more lethal. Mick Gordon is really a beast (not that I had any doubt after the awesomeness heard in Killer Instinct!), and expect something beyond the crazy good industrial tunes. Gregorian chants in hell anyone?

• There is a lot of exploration: the levels are frankly pretty huge, elaborate and absolutely full of secrets. Lots of collectibles, data and power ups to find, and once per mission even some vey well hidden sections taken straight from the original Doom, with the graphics suddenly changing and becoming like the dream section seen in Wolfenstein TNO, to give you that sweet retro feeling (even if the enemy models will stay the same).

• To my surprise, there is quite some plot. Nothing that really gets in the way of the action, but I wasn't even expecting so many dialogues, little cutscenes and that amount of info regarding the lore. It's no The Last of Us of course (the main character is really just a dull shell, pretty much), but it's still entertaining... and it reminded me of Dead Space a couple of times (the tone is similar, and also some of the events, with basically hell unleashed on the surface of Mars)

• The RPG like progression of the main character is another element that took me by surprise: you are expected to explore the levels and fight with style (I'll get to that...) in order to become more powerful. By doing so, you will improve your personal abilities - i.e. more grenades, quicker weapon swap, better defense - but also your weapons (each of them has two secondary fire modes activated with LT, plus some other abilities like quicker cooldowns, more shells etc etc). It's nothing mindblowing, but it's a nice touch that adds depth to the experience (also because to fully max out a weapon you need to complete final special task like "kill 5 Mancubi with a Charged Rifle Shots" or stuff like that).

• The pacing and the way combat happens is honestly a bit weird, and I think that not everyone will enjoy this: you basically explore areas that are/feel more or less empty, then you get to certain points and... BAM! you fight like hell. Basically, enemies start spawning around you almost in waves, and you have to survive and kill them all to move on. Mind that you are not constrained in a small area (like a single room), yet the fight happens in a particular (and usually not so small) place, so you will definitely experience a bit of an arena-like feel. In that sense, the E3 demo with the Hell setting is really representative of the whole experience: the level is there at your disposal, and you have to be smart to use it at your advantage: some of the creatures will chase you, other will wait for you, others will keep jumping here and there... And you will have to simply bring mayhem all around, traversing the level at full speed, double jumping all over, hiding for just a couple of seconds inside a grotto, finding power ups and shells that are there to assist you in your massacre. The soundtrack will pump straight through your veins, adrenaline will rush, you will have to act smart and sometimes even improvise, judging what to do in a split second (which will result in either a beautiful victory or a shameful game over!) and there will definitely be blood. Like A LOT of it.
Once you've killed everyone, the enemies will stop spawning, so you will be completely safe and you won't encounter any more monsters in that area (which kinds of removes the tension IMO, but that's clearly the way they designed the game).

• Let's get real: as it was evident since the E3 presentation, there is a ton of emphasis on finishers. It's not just a matter of being spectacular per se (also because they kinda become the norm at the 27th Glory Kill agains an Imp), but it's also something that's deeply rooted in the game design itself. And, of course, that won't please everyone. Let me explain a bit how it works: when a demon is hurt enough, he will glow blue - with a very distinctive and honestly kinda annoying visual signal. That means you can perform a Glory Kill on him: if you are close enough by pressing R3 you will fuck him up for good with a quick and super gory finisher à la Mortal Kombat (the animation depends on the enemy type and on your position, and they are of course nasty and gruesome). A Glory Kill not only means that your opponent will instantly go down: it will also mean more rewards for you, like more health, other bullets and... more style points. Yes, because the game features - surprisingly, at least for me - a system that rewards you for killing your foes with style. Imagine something not too different from the one seen in Bulletstorm, even if a bit simpler: you can get up to 5 UAC shields per mission, and each one of them is used to improve your weapons as discussed before. So, willing or not, if you want to play well and become more powerful, you need to (ab)use the Glory Kills as much as possible. How much will you enjoy this, will depend solely on you: it's certainly a particular mechanic that pretty much defines this new chapter of Doom. Consider this: at times I found myself attacking purposely from a distance, in order not to hurt a demon too much, just to get the change to trigger the Glory Kill... Which is kind of a paradox, but still.

• The AI could be better. I'm playing at Ultra Violence and I think it's a bit on the easy side: opponents could be a lot more aggressive, more cunning, more vicious. At times they do feel like simple meat there to be slaughtered, frankly. Which is of course nice in a way, as you feel powerful as fuck... yet I wouldn't mind more challenge.

• Weapons are really good. Some are better than others (i.e. the standard gun and the heavy machine gun are not that useful, at least for my playstyle), but overall you get an absolutely rewarding sense of inflicted pain when shooting some evilish creature in the face. It's brutal, it's squishy, it's cruel, it's Doom.

That's it, at least for now... if something else comes to my mind, I will add more.

I heard the game runs on 900P on XONE and 1080P on PS4.

" Once you've killed everyone, the enemies will stop spawning, so you will be completely safe and you won't encounter any more monsters in that area "

Wait... In the stream i saw, enemy keeps spawning after you leave the battlefield.

DooM_RO said:

So a guy got the game early and this is what he thinks.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=202991655#post202991655

• Let's get real: as it was evident since the E3 presentation, there is a ton of emphasis on finishers. It's not just a matter of being spectacular per se (also because they kinda become the norm at the 27th Glory Kill agains an Imp), but it's also something that's deeply rooted in the game design itself. And, of course, that won't please everyone. Let me explain a bit how it works: when a demon is hurt enough, he will glow blue - with a very distinctive and honestly kinda annoying visual signal. That means you can perform a Glory Kill on him: if you are close enough by pressing R3 you will fuck him up for good with a quick and super gory finisher à la Mortal Kombat (the animation depends on the enemy type and on your position, and they are of course nasty and gruesome). A Glory Kill not only means that your opponent will instantly go down: it will also mean more rewards for you, like more health, other bullets and... more style points. Yes, because the game features - surprisingly, at least for me - a system that rewards you for killing your foes with style. Imagine something not too different from the one seen in Bulletstorm, even if a bit simpler: you can get up to 5 UAC shields per mission, and each one of them is used to improve your weapons as discussed before. So, willing or not, if you want to play well and become more powerful, you need to (ab)use the Glory Kills as much as possible. How much will you enjoy this, will depend solely on you: it's certainly a particular mechanic that pretty much defines this new chapter of Doom. Consider this: at times I found myself attacking purposely from a distance, in order not to hurt a demon too much, just to get the change to trigger the Glory Kill... Which is kind of a paradox, but still.

This is false, glory kills are completely optional:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRjbYdcXbs

Only one glory kill was performed and it was by accident.

Soooo... it sounds exactly like classic DOOM mixed with Brutal DOOM, with a dab of dead space & mortal kombat, and a dash of doom 3 and doom 64.

And refreshed for 2016.

What's not to like here?

Buckshot said:

Soooo... it sounds exactly like classic DOOM mixed with Brutal DOOM, with a dab of dead space & mortal kombat, and a dash of doom 3 and doom 64.

And refreshed for 2016.

What's not to like here?

Idk, everything? Some people just don't like things.

AnonimVio said:

Idk, everything? Some people just don't like things.

Good thing you don't have to play the game then.

Buckshot said:

Soooo... it sounds exactly like classic DOOM mixed with Brutal DOOM, with a dab of dead space & mortal kombat, and a dash of doom 3 and doom 64.

And refreshed for 2016.

What's not to like here?

This! If I'm lucky I might be playing this baby tomorrow so I'm wondering was he playing with day one patch or not? Is day one patch live right now? (I don't want to play with screen tearing and I hope that the first patch addresses this issue) I don't know but I'm hyped as fuck again right now! What I saw in the latest streams really really impressed me!

Sounds like the new Shadow Warrior.
And that's a very good thing, if they manage to improve on that formula.

Hofmann said:

This is false, glory kills are completely optional:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRjbYdcXbs

Only one glory kill was performed and it was by accident.

Didn't Marty state that you pretty much need them during Ultra Nightmare?

Flesh420 said:

Didn't Marty state that you pretty much need them during Ultra Nightmare?

I don't remember him saying that, what I do remember is him saying they are completely optional.

Kaskaum said:

I heard the game runs on 900P on XONE and 1080P on PS4.

Not a problem. Happens all the time.

Hofmann said:

I don't remember him saying that, what I do remember is him saying they are completely optional.

Then where would you get more ammo and health? It's not laying around
everywhere like in the original Doom. So you're essentially forced to use them.
Unless theres little rooms of health packs, and vials. I'm assuming you have to rely on your finishers for 70% of your ammo and health.

Flesh420 said:

Didn't Marty state that you pretty much need them during Ultra Nightmare?

I think he said that about the upgrades, not glory kills.

Champskiez103 said:

Then where would you get more ammo and health? It's not laying around
everywhere like in the original Doom. So you're essentially forced to use them.
Unless theres little rooms of health packs, and vials. I'm assuming you have to rely on your finishers for 70% of your ammo and health.

Did you even watch the fucking video I posted, the guy killed over 30 demons without performing the finishers. And there IS plenty of ammo laying around.

Hofmann said:

Did you even watch the fucking video I posted. And there IS plenty of ammo laying around.

It looks like the enemies drop bits of health upon death.
And I was saying there is no rooms with health packs, and vials
just everywhere like in the original. Probably some, in-between battles; but isn't the norm in this game. So if you DO want to survive in he harder difficulties you are forced to rely on the finishers for the most health.

Champskiez103 said:

It looks like the enemies drop bits of health upon death.

Yes, regardless if glory kills are performed or not.

Champskiez103 said:

And I was saying there is no rooms with health packs, and vials
just everywhere like in the original.

There is plenty of ammo laying around in every arena that was shown, and outside of arenas.

Champskiez103 said:

Probably some, in-between battles; but isn't the norm in this game.
So if you DO want to survive in he harder difficulties you are forced to rely on the finishers for the most health.

Stop talking out of your ass, you don't know that, just take a good look at every single player video that was published. Also the guy in the video that I posted was playing on UV maybe even Nightmare, it was definitely higher that Hurt me plenty.

Hofmann said:

Stop talking out of your ass, you don't know that, just take a good look at every single player video that was published. Also the guy in the video that I posted was playing on UV maybe even Nightmare, it was definitely higher that Hurt me plenty.

Well to be fair, you don't know if what you're saying is true either.
But every SP video shows glory kills. I haven't seen one without it; so I'd say my logic that it's necessary makes the most sense. And if they were truly just there for fluffery, then there'd be an option to turn them off completely.

It has been stated in more than one (unofficial) stream that if you want to upgrade your stuff alot, you need to perform glory kills. You even have a meter on your HUD which VEGA enabled quite early, and it rises with every glory kill (as well as with normal kills, but not as much).

So they are optional in a sense that if you don't want to perform them, the game will simply be much harder because enemies drop less stuff and you don't get as many upgrade options to your stuff.

Champskiez103 said:

Well to be fair, you don't know if what you're saying is true either.

Hofmann said:

There is plenty of ammo laying around in every arena that was shown, and outside of arenas.

Also the guy in the video that I posted was playing on UV maybe even Nightmare, it was definitely higher that Hurt me plenty.

1. Everything that was SHOWN has plenty of ammo to pick up (Proven to be TRUE)
2. It's true that we don't know the difficulty in the video that I posted, but you can see that an Imp does 36 damage with a regular fireball, whereas in the Hurt me plenty video Imp's regular fireball does 15 to 25 damage. So we come to a conclusion that the gameplay was higher than Hurt me plenty. (Proven to be True)

Therefore I know what I'm talking about.

Champskiez103 said:

But every SP video shows glory kills. I haven't seen one without it; so I'd say my logic that it's necessary makes the most sense.

Marty said that glory kills are completely optional, but why should we believe him, so here's again the higher difficulty gameplay video without glory kills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRjbYdcXbs

Yes, higher difficulty can be played without glory kills. If this is not enough evidence for you, than I don't know what else to say.

Champskiez103 said:

And if they were truly just there for fluffery, then there'd be an option to turn them off completely.

Why would there be an option to turn them off if they are completely optional? There is an option to kill the glory kill highlight and that's enough.

tuo said:

It has been stated in more than one (unofficial) stream that if you want to upgrade your stuff alot, you need to perform glory kills. You even have a meter on your HUD which VEGA enabled quite early, and it rises with every glory kill (as well as with normal kills, but not as much).

So they are optional in a sense that if you don't want to perform them, the game will simply be much harder because enemies drop less stuff and you don't get as many upgrade options to your stuff.

Nope, you get upgrade points from doing challenges as well. A challenge doesn't need to involve glory kills, it can be exploration as well. So you can either upgrade weapons through combat (with or without glory kills) OR you can finish challenges and receive upgrade points.

Neofag has some nice screenshots there.

Hofmann said:

Nope, you get upgrade points from doing challenges as well. A challenge doesn't need to involve glory kills, it can be exploration as well. So you can either upgrade weapons through combat (with or without glory kills) OR you can finish challenges and receive upgrade points.

Okay, let me rephrase, so word-twisting stops:

If you opt to not do glory kills, you won't get as many upgrade points as if you would perform them.

Better?

If not, I don't know how your logic works.

Situation A: I perform glory kills AND do challenges => I get X amount of upgrade points
Situation B: I don't perform glory kills (thus I get less upgrade points from regular combat) AND do challenges => I get Y amount of upgrade points

X > Y

I could go on that the challenges we have seen until now, some of them rely on glory kills to succeed, but I won't, because it's such a silly thing to argue about.

Buckshot said:

Soooo... it sounds exactly like classic DOOM mixed with Brutal DOOM, with a dab of dead space & mortal kombat, and a dash of doom 3 and doom 64.

And refreshed for 2016.

What's not to like here?

Oh man, that's my dream.

But, maybe just mix In Brutal DOOM's gore, that's about It. And about the the difficulty, kind of sucks that UV Is easy as the guy explained, but since I'll be forced to play It on a controller, It might take me sometime to get used to It all, so... You know.

I'll get slaughtered, a lot.

tuo said:

Okay, let me rephrase, so word-twisting stops:

If you opt to not do glory kills, you won't get as many upgrade points as if you would perform them.

Better?

If not, I don't know how your logic works.

Situation A: I perform glory kills AND do challenges => I get X amount of upgrade points
Situation B: I don't perform glory kills (thus I get less upgrade points from regular combat) AND do challenges => I get Y amount of upgrade points

X > Y

I could go on that the challenges we have seen until now, some of them rely on glory kills to succeed, but I won't, because it's such a silly thing to argue about.

Yes that's true, if you do glory kills you will get those points faster, but that doesn't mean you can't get all the upgrade points in a level if you refuse to perform glory kills.

Challenges involve things like perform 6 different glory kills on someone, so that's 6 glory kills and then you don't have to do them anymore, the same with the runes, do an amount of glory kills and you don't have to do it ever again. Also you get upgrade points from completing objectives.

Hofmann said:

Yes that's true, if you do glory kills you will get those points faster, but that doesn't mean you can't get all the upgrade points in a level if you refuse to perform glory kills.

Do we know that for sure?
If the enemies continue to spawn if you don't kill a gore nest while beeing in the arena, than that might be true. But one of the streams (the guy who basically didn't know what he was doing) showed him clearing the room, and then stumbling around with no enemies to be seen, until he figured out that he needs to interact with the Gore Nest.

If the assumption (and that's all I can base my post on) is true, than we might have a finite amount of enemies per map, and thus a finite amount of "style points".

I'd actually be very happy if there is an option to gain the same upgrade possibilities without glory kills!

I will never understand why people have such a problem with glory kills.

Doom64hunter said:

I will never understand why people have such a problem with glory kills.

I can't speak for "people", I can only speak for myself. I am afraid they become cheap/repetitive after a short time (like the Mancubus seems to only have one). So I have to play the game, and then form my opinion. Could be that I love them, could be that they don't bother me, could be that I think it would be better without them. I won't know before May 13th, and that seems to be exactly what the guy on NeoGaf says: he thinks they might not be something for everyone.

Doom64hunter said:

I will never understand why people have such a problem with glory kills.

Reasons

- You will be locked when the glory kills animation starts
- It's slows down the fight
- The animation is too long ( Wat!? )

Chickensoup101 said:

Reasons

- You will be locked when the glory kills animation starts
- It's slows down the fight
- The animation is too long ( Wat!? )

Reasons

- It'll give you more of a challenge If you're willing enough to do It Infront of a wave of demons
- If you stop to do one, you're basically fucked by a Imp fire ball In the back as said the first time
- It only takes 3 seconds to shove the Mancubus' heart down It's throat