DOOM Eternal Gameplay Reveal Impressions

8 minutes ago, Houndoom said:

 

I liked the original space marine because he's not some overpowered ancient martian warrior in modified power armor.  Just some run of the mill grunt survived the original chaos and kicked Hell's ass on more than one occasion. Doesn't that count for something? This has to be Bethesda's handy work. They love taking other people's ideas and making their own versions out of them while barely keeping to the franchise canon. Doom 3 introduced us to ancient martian civilization and their war through the artifacts dug up on Mars. Doom 2016 you basically play as such a relic since no human could survive that shit and Bethidsda says this is a reboot and totes original!!111! (Which explains why the "Doomslayer" can't speak the universal language, Engrish). Also.. Why "Doomslayer?" It sounds like something a 12 year old could come up with on XBO as their gamer ID tag.. Anyone gonna help my oldschool mind make sense of this?

 

As for the main subject, I love the plasma rifle reincarnation. Nice and beefy, and I hope it hurts the demons more this time.

I think id stated that this is the same Doomguy, just with a nickname the demons gave him

As someone who started Doom with Doom 2, I personally believed 2016 was great and Eternal is going to be neat

On 8/15/2018 at 4:20 PM, Man of Doom said:

 

YES, this was something I’ve been meaning to talk about!

 

While it’s not really a deal-breaker, the fact that the scientists (especially the red keycard guy) looked more like characters from Dishonored or PREY 2017 is really off-putting and actually kind of tosses them into the uncanny valley, whereas Doom 2016 was more focused on actually making people look like people. 

 

It’s actually kind of a shame too because the exaggerated facial proportions of human NPCs in DE actually clash with the rest of their bodies which are realistically proportionate for a human being (for example, you can actually see the individual fibers on the suit the keycard guy is wearing, yet his face looks like some sort of high official in Dunwall). The other scientists actually seem to have it worse, a couple of them being reminiscent of that one scientist you have to save in a particularly notorious QTE in the Spider-Man 3 video game. 

 

Hopefully, this is just a development quirk that should get worked out before the final release. 

 I think that's part of the style on the basis of the former human. Redcard bro seems to have similar facial structure to him pre-zombie love. They seem to be open to feedback so maybe they will dial it back a bit to give a little continuity from 2016.

16 hours ago, Chezza said:

Did we see Revenants in any footage? I wouldn't be surprised if they were reworked.

Yes.  During the part when the 'invaders' join the game the first one that can be seen is a Revenant.  He seems a bit smaller, but it could just be the distance. You can see him if you put the video in slowmo and pause.

10 hours ago, DooM_RO said:

 

Plus, it might ruin the recognizability of the monsters. In Doom it's super important that you immediately recognize what you are facing. So all that extra work would go to making the game worse.

So if I make one imp have a yellowish skin tone, that would make it hard to tell if it's an imp?

The AI director in Doom 2016 did treat revenants as a separate faction, but I think it's actually that other demons don't regard the revenant as a "true" one of them, so, they won't take any shit from one whatsoever, and not so much that the revenant is specifically looking to fight them. IIRC somebody said something to this effect in the video about the AI that's on youtube somewhere.

On 18 August 2018 at 3:26 AM, Pegleg said:

I just watched the video yesterday, so these are my initial thoughts (and I haven't read through pages 4 - 11 of this thread to see if any of these have been said).

 

• They made the Doom Slayer a jacked, overpowered-looking, near cartoon version of the idea behind the character.
  • At least they acknowledged this by saying that you just want to kick ass as a bad ass demon slayer.
  • id evidently does not want you to feel trifled by being just a slightly stronger version of a normal space marine.
• "Here at id, we're all about lore."
  • I chuckled at that. I wonder if John Carmack is sitting somewhere shaking his head.
• The Doomslayer is kind of a dick. Or has less personality than a turnip.
  • He just drags the guy over by the keycard around his neck.
  • He just stares at the guard and takes his gun.
  • I know he's the Doomslayer, but he could at least say something like, "I need that." or "Thank you."
• What's the origin of all the demon-friendly slogans and voiceovers? ("Some find the word demon offensive." or "Please be aware that the environment may have changed.")
  • They just seemed odd, almost like they were trying to add a bit of levity to the game to relieve the tension momentarily.

Doomslayer = His an extension of the player, not the lone survivor anymore.

He ignores the science staff, doesn't engage with them because they are no threat. He stares the soldier down just enough to get through and take his weapon. His not trying to be a dick, his just there to kill demons, please step aside.

All the corporate PR about demons etc reflects how far gone the UAC is. They are completely corrupted from the highest levels of management all the way down the chain. It's just the bottom end staff and managers who have been kept in the dark and have no clue wtf is going on.

this video at 3:26, what enemy is that new one?

anyway i don't like too much the flipper gameplay, the original doom had a perfect pacing for me, too much jumping and phasing here...

3 hours ago, Amph said:

this video at 3:26, what enemy is that new one?

They said he's an arch-enemy of the Slayer and if we also put into consideration how big and buffed up that fucking thing is, it's clearly gonna be a boss.

3 hours ago, Amph said:

anyway i don't like too much the flipper gameplay, the original doom had a perfect pacing for me, too much jumping and phasing here...

Sounds to me like you don't like verticality.

5 hours ago, BLλZING_DUST said:

Sounds to me like you don't like verticality.

Or variety, for that matter. id has better technology now.

i don't like tarzan gameplay...

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

That archvile is also jacked. So much for the skeletal healer with a nasty flame attack of games past.

He didn't look very much beefier than he did before. I'm fine with the Eternal vile.

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

The Doomslayer is kind of a dick. Or has less personality than a turnip.

• He just drags the guy over by the keycard around his neck.
• He just stares at the guard and takes his gun.
• I know he's the Doomslayer, but he could at least say something like, "I need that." or "Thank you."

Doomguy never had much personality. I fail to see your point here.

About that third point, that kind of goes against Doomguy or Doom Slayer, doesn't it? He never spoke before, voicing him now would bring about quite an uproar.

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

Shooting grappling hooks into cacodemons and using them as an anchor to swing around seems like a potentially interesting dynamic. I wonder if it gets taken advantage of at some point without being cartoon-y.

Too many people are saying "cartoony" when they should say "ridiculous."

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

I wonder how you end up with the Crucible, since Hayden had it at the end of the previous game.

That wasn't the same Crucible, unless they decided to change the design, in which case they'll probably provide some sort of explanation behind it, "being all about lore."

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

My first impression of the way they described Invasion seemed like you could just enter some other random person's campaign (provided they were online) while they were playing and proceed to try to kill them.

• Which would be a really dick thing to do, if you think about it.
• Setting things up with a few friends to come and try to hunt you would be more reasonable.

Two things: first, it's optional, so they tell us, and Dark Souls actually used this sort of mechanic already.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/pvp

They haven't specified how exactly it will work, but it might not be too bad if there's some sort of prerequisite to do so.

On 8/17/2018 at 3:16 PM, Houndoom said:

Also.. Why "Doomslayer?" It sounds like something a 12 year old could come up with on XBO as their gamer ID tag.

It happens that my younger brother uses a Gamer ID tag on Xbox like that, something like "Doom of Bad" or something to that effect, so your statement here is more accurate than you might've initially thought.

My goodness, we're getting nitpicky about a barely there protagonist who has never spoken continuing to not speak? Have some of you forgotten what franchise this is?

18 minutes ago, GoatLord said:

My goodness, we're getting nitpicky about a barely there protagonist who has never spoken continuing to not speak? Have some of you forgotten what franchise this is?

You mean to tell me Doom is not as deep as Hamlet? Horatio one must Rippeth and teareth until it is done!

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

The Doomslayer is kind of a dick. Or has less personality than a turnip.

• He just drags the guy over by the keycard around his neck.
• He just stares at the guard and takes his gun.
• I know he's the Doomslayer, but he could at least say something like, "I need that." or "Thank you."

It's the RoboCop scene!, on the noclip interview, hugo stated that the id team referenced that movie a lot in terms of character building and that the intro scene on the previous game was essentially a robocop scene where you are told "you're gonna be a bad motherfucker!", this scene on the game were you walk and eveybody reacts to seeing you it's just a way to convey the idea that the player it's a badass and nobody fucks around with you, also 5 games in, and doomguy/doomslayer has never uttered a single word other than grunts, it would be quite odd to hear him speak this time lol
 

On 8/17/2018 at 12:26 PM, Pegleg said:

What's the origin of all the demon-friendly slogans and voiceovers? ("Some find the word demon offensive." or "Please be aware that the environment may have changed.")

• They just seemed odd, almost like they were trying to add a bit of levity to the game to relieve the tension momentarily.

Doom 2016 had holographs saying stupid shit like asking for volunteers for human sacrifices, holding a public forum to discuss the weaponization of demons and even chants showing a really cynic attitude to the whole "we have demons!" thing, the new demon friendly slogans are as ridiculous and in tune to those previous ones, so i didn't found them as odd as they sound considering the previous game

Also the whole lore thing, from interviews from the previous game it was stated that they made plenty of backstory for the game for the people that are interested in it, while people that didn't gave a crap about lore or story could just skip it all and go straight to the good stuff, looks like eternal might follow that trend. Maybe John Carmack was shaking it's head, but im sure that somewhere, Tom Hall was smiling a little because of that =P

While playing some good old-fashioned Brutal Doom v20b, I realized: the trooper hitscan mechanics would perfectly fit for a rifle wielding zombie type.

Specifically, BD uses these rapid tracers that aren't instant in hitting; as long as you're already moving and not at point-blank range (i.e. where the zombie would already go for a melee attack) you can just barely avoid the tracers, getting easier as you go out. BD's troopers have much better shot grouping than vanilla's, and so their shots are also unlikely to lead you by accident, similar to most projectile demons. Finally, BD's enemy bullets deal slightly less damage than equivalent vanilla ones; I believe 5-10 or so.

I'd love to see what they do with the possessed, personally I am hoping for at least one common variant with a firearm instead of purely energy armaments. This would also be a fun way to reintroduce enemies dropping equipment and supplies outside of glory kills; I think it'd be fun to snatch yourself a rifle off of a (technically) living owner, instead of always finding a dead friend to lend it to you.

What's up with the Heavy Cannon weapon? Is it more like a Heavy assault rifle, but with the Micro Missiles as ammo instead of bullets? Also the rocket launcher kinda looks like the Static Rifle for me. 

On 8/19/2018 at 6:23 PM, BLλZING_DUST said:

They said he's an arch-enemy of the Slayer and if we also put into consideration how big and buffed up that fucking thing is, it's clearly gonna be a boss.

 

Sounds to me like you don't like verticality.

I think it's named Doomhunter. 

7 hours ago, MTF Sergeant said:

What's up with the Heavy Cannon weapon? Is it more like a Heavy assault rifle, but with the Micro Missiles as ammo instead of bullets? Also the rocket launcher kinda looks like the Static Rifle for me. 

It appears to be a heavier, more powerful variant of the UAC Heavy Assault Rifle; the rounds in the belt look larger than the .50 FMJ used by the conventional HAR. It additionally has a powerful "charged" secondary fire similar to the Gauss Cannon in role, likely explaining why it's called the Heavy Cannon in the first place.

Lore-wise (we got a Doom Universe coming after all!) this can be for many reasons: the Heavy Assault Rifle was recently superseded by the more powerful Plasma Rifle, suggesting it is no longer considered sufficient for front-line use (especially given the oncoming war with the demons), and hence was up-gunned for Earth deployment, featuring a powerful secondary fire option for marksmanship purposes. The tactical scope in the original game feels excessively lame (you have to blaze away at a Hell Razer in the distance to kill them, which begs the question of why you shouldn't just use the Gauss Cannon), so this feature was likely introduced to make marksmanship with the assault rifle more rewarding.

I personally would love a weaker automatic that's less "holy shit huge" though; the Burst Rifle seems just peachy for that, and I sorely missed it in singleplayer D2016 as well.

11 hours ago, Rifle Infantry said:

The tactical scope in the original game feels excessively lame (you have to blaze away at a Hell Razer in the distance to kill them, which begs the question of why you shouldn't just use the Gauss Cannon), so this feature was likely introduced to make marksmanship with the assault rifle more rewarding.

 

Personally, I found the scope to be so much better than the micro rockets to use. Once you get Devastator Rounds, headshots just get so fun. Nothing compared to a good glory kill, but the scope ripped through targets. Like Siege Mode (imo) it took mastery to be cool

34 minutes ago, Dear Hoplite said:

 

Personally, I found the scope to be so much better than the micro rockets to use. Once you get Devastator Rounds, headshots just get so fun. Nothing compared to a good glory kill, but the scope ripped through targets. Like Siege Mode (imo) it took mastery to be cool

The assault rifle with the scope is awesome! Perfect for picking off those pesky imps in the distance. There are plenty of opportunities to lay the smack down on some baddies with the scope in Doom.

1 minute ago, Ex Oblivione said:

The assault rifle with the scope is awesome! Perfect for picking off those pesky imps in the distance. 

It's better served to harassing big guys as I get close enough to spray them with larger weapons. 

Or for the Pin Pops The Balloon challenge since the HAR doesn't often kill staggered Mancubi

1 minute ago, Dear Hoplite said:

 

It's better served to harassing big guys as I get close enough to spray them with larger weapons. 

 

Or for the Pin Pops The Balloon challenge since the HAR doesn't often kill staggered Mancubi

Absolutely! It’s great for softening them up for the final blow.

Just now, Ex Oblivione said:

Absolutely! It’s great for softening them up for the final blow.

Until you get the chaingun, it's often the best weapon for any given situation

Just now, Dear Hoplite said:

 

Until you get the chaingun, it's often the best weapon for any given situation

Just give those monsters a little bit of the old razzle dazzle with the chaingun. Mobile turret + Rich get richer= demons doing the cha cha cha

1 minute ago, Ex Oblivione said:

Just give those monsters a little bit of the old razzle dazzle with the chaingun. Mobile turret + Rich get richer= demons doing the cha cha cha

Oh man I preferred the Mobile Turret until I maxed out the Gatling Rotor. Now the Turret gets saved for big guys (Hell Knights and up)

1 minute ago, Dear Hoplite said:

 

Oh man I preferred the Mobile Turret until I maxed out the Gatling Rotor. Now the Turret gets saved for big guys (Hell Knights and up)

Good to see others who like the Gatling rotator. 

1 minute ago, Ex Oblivione said:

Good to see others who like the Gatling rotator. 

The Gatling is better against smaller targets, ESPECIALLY when mastered.

Slight digression: The city maps showcased in the demo give me an "Industrial Zone" vibe, what with the massive lava gap and the open, exploratory environment with lots of height variation and numerous accessible buildings. Not saying it's a remake, but more that it feels like a genuine attempt to appeal to the sensibilities of classic Doom map design philosophy. 

This focus on "bringing back the feels" is further emphasized by the classic take on enemy design, and while I very much appreciated Doom '16's interpretations, the "Eternal" versions are an exciting opportunity to realize the original designs with a level of detail that's never been seen before. In particular the new possessed variants are very Doom 64-ish, the aracnotron as well!

1 minute ago, GoatLord said:

Slight digression: The city maps showcased in the demo give me an "Industrial Zone" vibe, what with the massive lava gap and the open, exploratory environment with lots of height variation and numerous accessible buildings. Not saying it's a remake, but more that it feels like a genuine attempt to appeal to the sensibilities of classic Doom map design philosophy. 

 

This focus on "bringing back the feels" is further emphasized by the classic take on enemy design, and while I very much appreciated Doom '16's interpretations, the "Eternal" versions are an exciting opportunity to realize the original designs with a level of detail that's never been seen before. In particular the new possessed variants are very Doom 64-ish, the aracnotron as well!

While I agree with much of what you said, I'm going to point out how bad the Classic Mancubus looks in idTech 5/6/Whichever one we're on

10 minutes ago, Dear Hoplite said:

While I agree with much of what you said, I'm going to point out how bad the Classic Mancubus looks in idTech 5/6/Whichever one we're on

I think it looks fantastic, and certainly less disgusting than its original counterpart.