A skate park is probably one of the last things you’d think of when trying to compare DOOM to something else entertaining, but that’s exactly what Marty Stratton – the game’s executive producer – has been doing. Speaking in an interview with Metro, Stratton said that DOOM is first and foremost a shooter, but not in the traditional sense of mowing down enemies contained within a linear corridor.
You do have to get into these expansive tracts, these big spaces, to really let the player have that level of fun. And even there we’ve kind of added a level of verticality to our game. We’ve added double jump mechanics and mantling that gets you up really, really fast.
Parkour, in a DOOM game? That’s right folks, don’t expect this re-imagining to be a retro throwback to the 90s original. Stratton is very keen to emphasize that the newest entry in the series encourages players to be as innovative in terms of their approach to slaying demons as possible.
You can play that very differently, you can actually use some of the verticality to get height on the demons and fire down, and wait for them to traverse and try and catch you – and then jump back down. We refer to these arenas almost like skate parks, where you’re just going in and you’re improvising your way through this combat dance with the enemies. You can go back and play it over and over.
If Stratton’s words hold true, we could have a very special game on our hands – replayability in FPS titles is generally light to non-existent. Either way, we’ll just have to wait until DOOM releases next year for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Stay tuned for more news, and you haven’t already seen the adrenaline-fuelled trailer shown off by Bethesda at this year’s E3 – you can watch it here.