So, what did you REALLY expect of Doom 4?

[Maes]

In a bygone era, I had made a poll asking Doomworlders how their "ideal" Doom remake would be, with options ranging from being essentially what Doom 4 turned out to be (which, BTW, received one of the highest votes), to being little more than a dusting of the old linuxdoom source code, plus everything in-between.

So, time to blow the dust off this old gem and re-examine the issue after the deed.

Was Doom 4 exactly what you expected? Do you think it's too much like Doom 3? Did you really expect a sort of official super-GZDoom or Eternity engine, using the old resources? Did you expect an "anniversary" special release of some kind of officially-made Boom-like extended port, maybe with a new"official" IWAD a-la "No rest for the living"? Did you expect a complete remake which would break with both Doom 3 AND the classic games?

Multiple answers possible, but use with judgment ;-)

The first two votes are mine: it WAS exactly what I expected, and since I liked Doom 3 for what it was, hey, more of the same, only better cannot be a bad thing, right? If I want classic Doom, I'll play one of the many available source ports and PWADs.

[Captain Red]

I honestly had no idea. I didn't expect it to look as much like doom 3 as it does though.

[Maes]

That's reasonable, on the one hand, because 10+ years after the very first Doom 3, one would think that they could have come up with a new art direction/something to set it apart from Doom 3, especially since they had already re-released Doom 3 and called it BFG edition, so that came out as somewhat lazy.

On the other hand, Doom 3 was the first "realistic enough" Doom, and like it or not, it set a precedent and a new recognizable, marketable look (even the Doom movie did so), so it could be too much of a risky move to try and move away from it. Also, too many sunk costs that went into developing the Doom 3 resources, so perhaps it was too tempting to reuse them.

Then again.... maybe what we were all expecting was something like this?



Or this?

Ironically, the new engine does appear to have enough detail to actually display real-time moving models and environments of that quality...the question is who'll make them ;-)

[Captain Red]

I think I may have thought it was going to have a sort of a modernized doom 64 aesthetic based on some of the things people where saying about the private screening (coloured lighting and no reloading) but I think that was just my inner fanboy messing with my expectations.

[Phml]

Expected RAGE++, instead to me it looks like FEAR 3 or Medal of Honor. That same fake video game universe vibe due to weird level dimensions, possibly low FOV, piss filter, scripted encounters, unrealistically slow animations taking you out of the experience.

I don't feel bad about the game because I didn't expect anything good either way, but the gaming community disappoints me as always. Being an optimist I eventually forget how much people like to eat shit as long as it's wrapped up in references and hype, so being brought back to reality is always a shock.

This goes beyond "stop liking what I dislike" and well into "I can't stop arguing! people are saying wrong things on the Internet" territory. So many comments praise the speed of this absurdly slow game, go into full denialist mode with claims the original Doom didn't have more than half a dozen enemies in a room ever or miss the distinction between a game that you can choose to play slowly and a game that you are forced to play slowly.

Then you have other idiots hovering a bit further from the conversation going "hmm this trailer isn't doing anything for me, this shows 90s shooter design is outdated". About a game built like your average modern shooter released in the last decade, with a Doom reskin. Ugh.

[MFG38]

There was really nothing specific I expected out of it. I just went into it with the hope of seeing something satisfying - and luckily for myself, I did.

[Ichor]

I voted 'all of the above'.

[DoomUK]

Other.

I didn't expect to be blown away like it's 1993 again, and I'm not. I didn't know what to expect really. But I'm really happy with what I'm seeing, and I'm totally looking forward to Doom 4. Know what I'm sayin'?

[Obsidian]

I didn't expect anything, which is about as low an expectation as you can get, I suppose. I don't care if it flops and I'll be happy if it excels, either way I lose nothing.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I guess I'm going to go with "other" since I wouldn't say it looks exactly like what I expected. I expected something that looks like Doom 3 and plays like Painkiller.

Looks like Doom 3 - Sort of, mainly in the environments. Not too keen on them.
Plays like Painkiller - Probably not, judging from what little one can tell about the map layouts, since the videos don't really indicate if tactical retreat to cleared areas is an option. Double jumping, ledge grabbing could lead to something interesting. Fatalities look annoying, item drop looks annoying and doesn't bode well for there being exploring for supplies. If the maps aren't just trivial layouts tarted up with fancy graphics the way Shadow Warrior 2013's were, it could even end up being kind of good.

Snap map looks like a great idea, though.

[lazygecko]

I certainly expected it to be less brown as I feel we are several years into AAA developers being less scared of adding more color to their games now.

[SavageCorona]

I expected something similar to ROTT2013 but then again we are talking about a faceless corporation not a smaller company that cares about its customers. I'll bet they used BFG edition's sales to determine if people wanted more Doom 3 or not and since it did sell fairly decently, Bethesda said right guys make something that's kind of like Doom 3 ok because BFG edition sold well so another Doom 3 looking game is gonna sell well too.

Capcom did this with Street Fighter by rereleasing one of the old Street Fighter games and then making SF4 and I'm betting they're doing the same by rereleasing Resident Evil games. I wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda's plan was the same.

[Jaxxoon R]

People are surprised a Triple-AAA game made in the New Tens looks like a Triple-AAA game made in the New Tens.

Meh, alright. Doom 2 was kind of the same as every shooter out at the time, only difference being Doom came first.

[Linguica]

I can't say I was "expecting" anything, but after the orgasmic QuakeCon descriptions I was waiting for something that made me think, "wow, this looks really groundbreaking / impressive." Instead it looks like... a pretty normal AAA FPS. Which isn't bad, but I don't understand what people saw that made them lose their minds.

[40oz]

It might be important for everyone in this thread to make the distinction between what they expected and what they wanted.

Speaking as someone who long ago came to terms with the idea that having doom and doom 2 gives me no real reason to ever buy a new game again. I have all I could ever want with Doom. That said, I'm not totally sold yet, but Doom 4 is the closest game I've ever seen to make me consider breaking that shell.

I don't really know if what people wanted to happen with Doom, whether they wanted a new retro reboot or a thing that looked like it was miles ahead of the competition, I'm not sure what they visualized was really as clear as they act like it is. A retro remake obviously wouldn't have warranted multi-year development time and would be the opposite of the innovative, artistic and advanced graphics engine makers that id software has a reputation of, and likewise I don't really know what's missing that would make this game far superior to other shooters.

I guess if I could comment on anything, id probably say that I expected it to be a more challenging game. Going by the looks of it, it doesn't look like the player has to work very hard to dispose of all the monsters pretty quick. However, it was a demonstration video and it could have been nerfed just so the player could get far enough to show everything that needed to be seen.

[DooM_RO]

DoomUK said:

Other.

I didn't expect to be blown away like it's 1993 again, and I'm not.

Is that even possible anymore?

[printz]

Just what I expected: a brighter Doom 3 with less atmosphere and more monsters and faster flow. Also with "brutal Doom" influences.

[Blastfrog]

Linguica said:

Which isn't bad, but I don't understand what people saw that made them lose their minds.

For me, it simply looks fun and stylish. I really like what I see, but I'm not blown away, nor did I expect to be.

In fact, I saw almost exactly what I was expecting to see, based on Goatlord's description.

[Sokoro]

I expected it to take place on Earth!

[Phobus]

I'd been led to believe it was going to be a Hell on Earth thing. From what I've gathered, my expectation was for the cancelled one that even the dev team ended up derisively calling "Call of Doom", so to get a not-crap Doom 3 was a pleasant surprise. Well, I guess I can't know for certain that it's not crap until I've played it myself, but I like what I saw and will happily spend money on it when it's out.

[joe-ilya]

I want hordes! But there aren't, which is dissapointing.

[geo]

I expected Strafe but more AAA.

[Zed]

Option 8.

I think it's too close to Doom 3, which isn't necessarily bad, but I honestly expected something different.

I didn't really dislike it, but not a big fan either.

[Clonehunter]

Other; I don't know what I was expecting, other than what GoatLord said, but I liked what I saw. Again, I'm mostly interested in where SnapMap will lead.

[gaspe]

I wasn't expecting anything, except for having something more of that generic AAA style. What I care about the most it's to have fun in this game, and I can say I am optimistic on this after seeing the videos. I'm not hyped but I am very glad to see that we are getting another game.

[Deleted_Account]

It was exactly what I expected, and glad about it.

[Doomkid]

What I really wanted, but knew was not going to happen, was a remake of Doom(2) in a modern engine, like the screenshot Maes posted.

What we got was closer to what I expected, but I also didn't expect it to look so much like Doom3. What they've done here is smart, they're trying to appeal to both Doom3 and Classic fans and I think it looks really damn fun, very much looking forward to it.

[Annunakitty]

It's pretty close to what I expected. My main complaints is that it still didn't quite look fast-paced enough, and the colors were disgusting brown on brown.

Saw this color "corrected" screenie from the Hell footage and it immediately looked cooler:




Hopefully the game will be mod friendly enough that we can do our own color correcting mod. Snapmap looks nice and simple but I'm not convinced it means the game itself will be very moddable.

[RUSH]

Yeah the color choices and lack of satisfying weaponry are my only real complaints with Doom 4 at the moment. The weapons lacked satisfying punch (especially the plasma rifle) although they were still a big step up from Doom 3's. I agree that the second recolored picture looks far better. No idea why they didn't aim for that art style in the first place. The new cacodemon model looks fantastic but with the added red it's even better.

[Sharessa]

Wasn't expecting anything because I hadn't heard anything about it up until the video came out. Saw a modern shooter that was slightly more Doomy than Doom 3.