Ready to take down the demons of hell once more? At Quakecon, the folks of id Software and Bethesda had a special trailer ready for their fans. The new gameplay footage gives us a first look at DOOM Eternal, the direct sequel to the award-winning and best-selling DOOM (2016).
Like its predecessor, DOOM Eternal shows little care for modern shooter mechanics like iron sights and sprinting. Instead, it capitalises on the old-school style of the first DOOM for the MS-DOS, with hordes of enemies to mow down and intricate levels to explore.
As the DOOM Slayer, players fought against the forces of Hell on the planet of Mars. However, the demons hordes are now making their way to our home planet. It’s once again up to the DOOM Slayer to fend them off, with a host of classic and new weapons, a new dash movement, extendable blade, as well as a Super Shotgun Meat hook mod.
The gameplay also shows a new ‘destructible demons‘ system. It’s a cosmetic feature that allows you shoot off bits and pieces of a demon, which wasn’t in the 2016 game. This new mechanic should give more impactful and wholesome feel to weapons and abilities. That’s not all, though. Shooting off the right parts might also give you a strategic edge and change the behaviours of some enemies.
Another new system making its way into the game is the ability to invade. How invasion works in DOOM Eternal is that players can invade the single-player campaigns of other players as demons. You may remember a similar mechanic in Resident Evil 6, called Agent H.U.N.T.. Unfortunately, Resident Evil 6’s implementation fell flat since the zombies you controlled were always too weak. Considering the DOOM Slayer is virtually an unstoppable one-man army, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
The 2016 release of DOOM was a huge hit, and also represented a return to its 1993 roots, both movement and design-wise. In 2017, Bethesda even brought DOOM to the Nintendo Switch, a console which it continues support with the sequel.
DOOM Eternal launches sometime in 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
