he 2016 Doom
reboot raised the
bar pretty high for
both the franchise
and first-person
shooters as a whole.
Its ‘push-forward’ combat was such
a revelation and made the demon-
slaying exhilarating. But where do
you go from there? Well, for its sequel
id Software has no choice but to
increase the stakes.
“If we don’t raise the bar, and you
come back and it’s like when you
watch a sequel to a movie that just
does the same thing as the first one,
then it won’t have the
same engagement,” says
creative director Hugo
Martin. “Push-forward
combat was new
in 2016. It’s
not going to
be new when
we come out
this time.”MAIN Doom’s
arcade-y combat
makes it stand
out from the
shooter crowd.
T
Of course that push-forward combat
is still at the core of the experience,
there’s just a lot more going on this
time. You’ll still need to stay on your
toes to survive, but resources like
health, shield and ammo are at a
premium and you’ll need to rely on
killing enemies in specific ways to
replenish them. Raining flames down
on demons using the new shoulder-
mounted launcher weapon will give you
shield pickups; Glory Kills, which are
even gorier thanks to a new retractable
blade, will net you health, while carving
beasts apart with the chainsaw will
shower you with ammo. You’ll find
yourself dancing around the enemy
and thinking about what you require
at any given moment. Which, is about
as ‘Doom’ a concept as you can get:
taking what you need by slaughtering
your enemies.Hell Walker
You’ll need to master your new
weapons and abilities if you planTHE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 053έ^ OFFI
CIAL
XBOX^ MAGAZINE
έ“That push-forward
combat is still at the
core of the experience”