Is Hugo Martin secretly a genius??

[Consistent-Money-990]

So, we are all familiar with Hugo Martin within the NuDoom games. He is considered the saint within the Doom community. Unlike that other person who lied and abused former legendary composer Mick Gordon, Hugo Martin seems to have no bad blood with anyone within the doom community whether it be within ID's own office and outside of it. One can only hope Hugo Martin isn't as two-faced as farty Stratton is. But the question still remains, is Hugo Martin a genius??

 

With the reveal of Doom The Dark Ages, it seems that both fans of doom and non fans of doom, Doom The Dark Ages impressed a lot of gamer's who were doubtful that all 2025 would have to offer would be the eventual release of GTA 6, turn around and see what other AAA dev's where cooking up this year. It still seems as if Hugo Martin had a creative vision for the future of doom after all the eternal brought us. Where to even begin? first, you have Doom Guy himself dressed up in a fur-coat, dripped out with the aesthetically pleasing mid-evil armor praetor suit that seem's to predate event 2016's armor. And on top of that! you got Doomguy having his own shield. But, it's not just any ordinary shield that doom guy would use as his Defense, It's a chain-saw like shield that can rip and tear through hordes of demons that are in your way. Not only that, Doomguy seems to appear to be holding a mace with him to Glory Kill demons who are in a staggered state. Further adding into the cool factor that the Doom Slayer is profoundly showing all throughout The Dark Ages Trailer.

 

All this comes to question: Is Hugo Martin A Genius?? Clearly, what we have been seeing with the direction of Doom The Dark Ages, there is still a tone of passion and care put into this being (in Hugo's word's) "the best doom game yet". And that's no exaggeration, When Hugo was all up and arms at quakecon 2024 ready to reveal Doom The Dark Ages Behind close doors, allegedly he told the whole audience whether this new doom game would be the definitive Doom experience yet. And, as the crowed watched the 10 minutes worth of Doom The Dark Ages gameplay, they cheered and applaud all of what was worth. It seem's as if, Doom The Dark Ages will be a success with many fans and potential new fans of the series. And all I can think of, is Hugo's creative input on not only Doom The Dark Ages, but for this series as a whole.

 

All I can think of, is that this Hugo guy, has such a creative vision for the Doom games that we haven't seen since the days of the OG Doom devs who worked on the Legendary Doom 1993 and it's sequel Doom 2. Hugo knows what the audience want's in these new doom games. And from coming from the days where the Nudoom games were only know for their visceral combat and sick as hell glory kill's and kick ass soundtrack, 

Spoiler

(such a shame for the whole Mick Gordon controversy, dealing with who should not be named.)

Hugo knows how to step up the cool factor up a notch. Ffs we got Doomguy controlling a freaking mech and riding a dragon. Hugo, just understand's the cool factor of doom. Making me to believe that He is the only talent left in ID that sees a vision of doom that just works. A vision of Doom that will be remembered and talked about for ages. An artistic vision of Doom that will be eventually missed, once some other team at ID eventually tries to continue the success of Doom without Hugo's creative involvement. 

 

 

Hugo just understands doom 

 

Edited August 9 by Consistent-Money-990

[D4NUK1]

I don't think is a genius per se (That's would be something like John Carmarck making sure doom runs as they should in 1993.) but he's sure a game dev that knows to take risk and change the gameplay instead of making a little more of the later games but with extra flavors.

 

Stuff like jumping the shark for setpieces. Make you feel the badass when you know the mechanic of the games is their forte. But he's not a geniuses but one gear of all iD Software team to take risk's and still expand upon doom

[Metal_Slayer]

DOOM and Doom Eternal were good because of the team that worked on them, not the one person credited as the director, for example, some of the best levels from the two games were designed by Mark Diaz, the ones not designed by him are very linear and have a slow pace. We know that Hugo did not have full creative control over the base game, but he had almost full control over the DLCs, the green light combat and the enemies that can only be killed with one or two specific weapons are what he thinks the gameplay should be like. There's also the part when he tries to turn Doom into a knock off Warhammer, just because of that I would say he doesn't really understand the franchise.

[Antkibo]

Former Legendary Composer?

[Astar]

No, he is not. He is definitely a person who sincerely loves Doom and his brainchild, but not all of his decisions can be called at least somewhat brilliant

[omniscientOverlady]

He's definitely one of the better people in the industry right now, but I wouldn't call him a genius.

[whatup876]

He has some cool ideas but there's also been ideas i disagree with and even lead to me coming up with ideas that i would go with instead.

Though the mere fact that i even come up with some of those is something that obviously can trace back to him.

For example, for me to come up with that one "Deconstructing the Dark Lord" post, it's all because of the Dark Lord being the way he is.

[Consistent-Money-990]

1 hour ago, whatup876 said:

He has some cool ideas but there's also been ideas i disagree with and even lead to me coming up with ideas that i would go with instead.

Though the mere fact that i even come up with some of those is something that obviously can trace back to him.

For example, for me to come up with that one "Deconstructing the Dark Lord" post, it's all because of the Dark Lord being the way he is.

I have a feeling HUGO will double down on his ideas he has for the DOOM games with TDA's. I am still not sure if I am a fan of Doomguy having a wife and a kid being killed by Demons, having it also being his motive to kill his way through saving humanity. I liked it when it was as simple as his pet rabbit making him has his revenge on the demons. He has great ideas for this series sure, but I feel he'll prob double down on the other aspects of eternals lore and story I was not a fan of with TDA's.

 

This thread may end up aging now that I think about it. We will just have to see with TDA's

[Consistent-Money-990]

On 8/11/2024 at 1:25 PM, Antkibo said:

Former Legendary Composer?

4 years later and it still hurts. a part of the many reasons why I can never be fully hyped for TDA's, after "the incident". And instead, just cautiously optimistic. We lost a part of DOOM that we will NEVER see again. And for what? 

 

 

Spoiler

All I can say is, FUCK Marty Stratton 🖕🖕 IDC what good he has done for the doom community

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

You dont have to be a genious to be great, you have to be around them and managed them correctly. Just look at Romero and Daikatana (between many others devs that where genious but failed to managed its resources and people correctly).

 

I dont think the guy is a genious, but he certainly know its craft, we still hace to see TDA, but my hopes are high

[Consistent-Money-990]

On 8/20/2024 at 1:22 PM, KenaiPhoenix said:

You dont have to be a genious to be great, you have to be around them and managed them correctly. Just look at Romero and Daikatana (between many others devs that where genious but failed to managed its resources and people correctly).

 

I dont think the guy is a genious, but he certainly know its craft, we still hace to see TDA, but my hopes are high

I think, it was more so Doom fans saw the creative director as this down to earth, chill guy who seemed really passionate of what he was creating. He was like, the new John Romero in a sense. And while some fans weren't too found of some of the directions Hugo took with doom, with both its story and lore specifically. At the very least Hugo somewhat had an understanding of what makes doom, DOOM. From fan favorites like the meat hook, the crucible,  and saw shield, Hugo and his team were really just able to create these insane, out there concepts that just made the DOOM franchise (in my opinion) so much cooler. The Doom eternal praetor suit is just chef's kiss

 

But now, after Mick came forward about his mistreatment over the Doom soundtrack from one person in particular. I, personally, just don't know how to feel about things. Now, let me be clear, Mick Gordon never at any point mentioned the creative director as being problematic with him when creating the soundtrack. But it just leaves you questioning "was he complacent behind the scenes?". Now, maybe he didn't have no strong feelings towards Mick. And just had to put up with the bs that other guy was pulling towards the former composer. But, it still makes you question. 

 

Also someone anonymous on Reddit who (allegedly) worked for ID claimed that the creative director wasn't a good person either. And would (allegedly) bully and belittle the people working within ID. Only one person came out with this claim and YouTuber Allstin had a chance to spoke with devs who actually worked with ID, and none of them ever mentioned issues regarding the creative director being problematic, and were more so surprised that the one other guy who was an issue towards former composer Mick Gordon, seemed to be very harsh towards him to put things lightly. 

 

It more so comes down to, having to separate the art from the artist in some cases. And whether Hugo has some skeletons behind his closet Is something we don't entirely know. But its genuinely hard not to believe that when the other guy who was problematic towards Mick, never seemed to be like the two-faced scum he actually was bts when being on camera. It's crazy how some people put on an act to come across as genuine as possible, but bts they are  far from that. And I can only hope the same can't be said for the creative director of doom.

 

The reason why I say all this, is because fans (like myself) somewhat yearn for the days of old with ID. The days where talented people within the studio from the likes of John Carmack, John Romero, Bobby Prince, Sandy Petersen, and many others within ID at that time, where all just their in a collaborative effort to break the mold within the gaming industry. When everyone at ID were just genuine passionate nerds. No corporate, toxic, narcissistic snakes who only care about the bottom line in sight. It's that type of ID people miss. But, while there is still talented, passionate devs working within ID who are no doubt trying the best they can to offer us an experience like no other for Doom. But after the lose of former Legendary Composer Mick Gordon, and the person who screwed him over still working with ID. I just couldn't look past things, and this new era of ID just doesn't feel the same compared to the days of old. WE had a good thing going with Mick Gordon creating the new DOOM OST. But ID fumbled so hard it was honestly baffling to say the least. 

 

[whatup876]

I mean, old id also had their own arguements and issues, specially if we go with what happened during D2 and Quake.

I think even with D3, they ended up dropping Trent Reznor's sounds for the game and he even made the comment "i guess they got Tool to make the theme song".

 

I'd say the main difference is the size of the studio.

 

id back then being smaller makes the studio feel more "personal" because we didn't have too many names attached, so we could get an idea of each person and what they did in the game.

With modern id, we'll always talk about a few people and then there's those whose names are barely mentioned.

Maybe it's because they had a smaller role in a game's development but they're still id.

 

In general, modern game studios having too many people could have downsides.

One reason could be "too many cooks" but the one i bring up here is comparable to a mountain being surrounded by rising water: You'll still see its highest peaks but not the rest.

 

This makes me think indie games can be more comparable to older games and not just because of limited graphics.

They don't need AAA sized studios, so you can feel that each member has their own role, in a way.

Specially with the rise of "boomer shooters".

(there's also that comment someone made about whether or not id was jealous that Mick became "the face of Doom" and it reminded me of how often games are still associated with "directors" and made me think it's probably more common with Japanese games)

(Modern Doom could be an exception, specially in a positive sense because people liked Hugo, as opposed to someone like Neill Druckmann being controversial for how he treated ND with TLOU2 or Randy Pitchford being a laughing stock)

 

It's why it is kinda interesting that some from modern id and even Mick Gordon ended up with EmptyVessel and the game Defect.

So even if Mick will never return to id, he at least is working with a studio that still had id related members.

(also, the game's Judge Dredd inspired... again, goes back to what i talked about DE being "comic book" influenced)

[Agent Strange]

"Genuis" is a little flowery, but I do think he's an excellent game director.