you will certainly get more glimpses
of the Slayer and learn more about
him. We’ll get the answers to a lot of
juicy questions that we pose during
the first game, like is it the same
Doomguy, fictionally, from the original
games? Where is he from? Why does
he hate the demons? Who are the
Sentinels? You know, all this stuff. It’s
going to be really fun.” There are lots
of new places to explore, too. “It’s just
bigger in scope and scale,” Stratton
continues. “Doom (2016) pretty much
centred on Mars and this game takes
you to some really varied locations.
Everything from Phobos to Hell on
Earth, to the Sentinel Homeworld, to
Hell itself and even more. Just the
size of the spaces, the kind of epic
grandeur of the places you go. I think
everything feels bigger and bolder.”
Slay and prey
Having played the previous game a lot,
we went into our hands-on session
brimming with confidence... only for
it to drain away as we died over and
over again. All of the new weapons
and abilities require you to rethink
how you play. Thankfully, we rapidly
improved as time went on, and by the
time the demo was over we were dying
to go back and apply our knowledge
and experience for a better run. “That
was the key,” says Martin. “We have to
be willing to allow people to fail and
we teach you by killing you. So you
learn and do by dying.” At first that
sounds incredibly frustrating, but our
experience was quite the opposite.
“The difference is, when I’m in a
game that’s not properly balanced,
and it’s just hard for the sake of being
hard, with hitscan enemies that are
totally accurate and stuff I can’t
see, then when I die I feel like it’s the
game that screwed me over,” explains
Martin. “When I’m in a well-balanced
game, I don’t mind dying. Because
when I die, I know it’s something that I
did wrong. So every time you die, we’re
teaching you something. Every time
you’re sitting there with a shotgun
that’s out of ammo, and you died
because of it, you know, ‘Holy s**t, I
should have chainsawed someone.’Every time you’re low on health, you’re
like, ‘Damn it, I forgot I can burn guys
to get shield. If I burn big enemies
and chainsaw them, I get everything.’
That’s when you really feel like you’ve
mastered something.”
On the face of it Doom Eternal
may look like a mindless shooter,
however it’s anything but. Behind its
violence and gore hides many layers
of sophistication that reveals itself
moments after playing and requires
you to adapt and think tactically. All
of the changes and improvements
are honed in on increasing player
engagement and just improving on the
previous game, giving you something
that’s worth your time to master.
2016’s Doom seemed like a perfect
game at the time, making it hard to
imagine that it could be improved in
any meaningful way, but id Software
have proved that it can. Q“Behind its violence and
gore hides many layers
of sophistication”
BELOW This demon
seems to be
observing this
multiplayer map
like its his own
model village.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 055Doom Eternal’s multiplayer
mixes things up a littleMULTI
SLAYERid Software hasn’t forgotten
about multiplayer, and it’s
reworking its modes from
2016’s Doom. Doom Eternal’s
multiplayer offering will come in
the form of a 2v1 Battle Mode.
Taking place on one of six
maps, one player will assume
the role of the Doom Slayer and
try to survive while two others
will hunt the space marine
down as a couple of demons.
You’ll be able to choose one of
five Hellspawn that all have
their own unique moves and
set of abilities: Mancubus,
Revenant, Arch-vile, Marauder
and Pain Elemental.έ^ OFFI
CIAL
XBOX^ MAGAZINE
έ