[Daedolon]

Wasn't the game shipped with it? Wow.

[MusicallyInspired]

Only a week? Why only a week? Whatever happened to game demos anyway? Publishers sure quietly swept that practice under the rug didn't they?

[----]

Much more important to me is the ability to create full campaigns with full arsenal after the next SnapMap update (and it has outdoor areas).

[MetHy]

That Doom demo is a great thing! I was able to test the game and it ran decently at 1600*900 with medium settings (around 60 FPS with occasional drops).

Played the demo twice and I want to keep playing! Still missing a secret from the first level...

However people said the game would be fast and I don't find it THAT fast. But it seems tons of fun anyway.

[Micky C]

MusicallyInspired, on 12 June 2016 - 09:26 PM, said:

Only a week? Why only a week? Whatever happened to game demos anyway? Publishers sure quietly swept that practice under the rug didn't they?

Lunick, on 12 June 2016 - 06:44 PM, said:

Later today, the first level of DOOM will be available free to play for a week on consoles and Steam.

Because after the week you're going to have to pay for it

Nah developers are probably relying on selling lots of units during big sales, where people tend to buy games "to see how it goes" and/or because of reputation, and then usually don't end up finishing. If there's a demo up, then people won't buy the full thing out of curiosity.

[MetHy]

I woudln't have spent 60 bucks knowing that I was a bit below minimum specs requirement, but now that thanks to the Demo I know I can play it at 60FPS I'll get it.

[Micky C]

I just gave the demo a shot. I knew it was going to be bad when the logo screens that terrible stuttering, along with the menu. It must have taken more than 10 minutes to actually get to the menu itself. I ended up with 5 fps in the game itself on minimal settings. I don't understand how the logo screens and menu could perform so poorly, they don't really show anything.

On the plus side, the game seems to have bullet time.

[MetHy]

It took me 5mins to get past the logo on first launch, but 2 other times I launched it was regular speed. Must be a "first launch load" thing.

[Striker]

Micky C, on 13 June 2016 - 03:52 AM, said:

I just gave the demo a shot. I knew it was going to be bad when the logo screens that terrible stuttering, along with the menu. It must have taken more than 10 minutes to actually get to the menu itself. I ended up with 5 fps in the game itself on minimal settings. I don't understand how the logo screens and menu could perform so poorly, they don't really show anything.

On the plus side, the game seems to have bullet time.

That's because during the intro cinematics, stuff is loading. Also, when you run for the first time, the game has to build a shader and texture cache.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Micky C, on 13 June 2016 - 03:52 AM, said:

On the plus side, the game seems to have bullet time.

Yeah, there were some instances during the game where it was actually beneficial to have the framerate slowdown so that you could perceive everything going on in combat.

But then I got to the first Hell level, chopped down to 3 FPS, and said "Screw it, I'm buying a GTX 970 (this one)."

And I did, and it's working like a dream. So that is definitely the benchmark card for the game. You can run everything on Ultra at 1080p with the 970.

[MusicallyInspired]

I tried the DOOM demo and lo and behold performance was very smooth on my rig!! (....on the lowest graphics settings, of course) I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I could have picked it up when GreenManGaming had that 20% off coupon...oh well. Can't believe it ran so well. When I first ran it the game was dropping massive frames AND moving in slow motion. The second time I booted up later tonight was like a dream. So much better of an experience than the beta.

My setup, for those who may be worried about their own rig's performance:

i7 2600k 3.4GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM
EVGA nVidia GTX 460 1GB (PCI-e 2.0)
1920x1080 60Hz Monitor

I was getting an unwavering 60fps (it seemed like, anyway), on lowest graphics settings. I could probably even stand to up it a little.

[Bloodshot]

I made some broken friendly AI and found the right flags to let dudes jump down from ledges

[MetHy]

MusicallyInspired, on 13 June 2016 - 06:32 PM, said:

I guess I could have picked it up when GreenManGaming had that 20% off coupon...oh well.

Thanks for the tip Just got it that way. Still works by the way (you used the past tense)

[Daedolon]

Those are some wimpy Blood Angels.

[MetHy]

Played 2 levels and a half of new Doom. I have to play at lowest res with settings at medium to keep 60FPS in all situations

Gameplay is very much like Hard Reset/Shadow Warrior/Wolfenstein, based on arenas and waves of enemies. Level design is miles a head though.

Some secrets and challenges are hard. Found only 1 secret out of 8 in level 2! I'll make sure to unlock that upgrade which beeps near secrets.
Level 3 now and I've been trying to do that "do 3 glory kills from above" on the basic demon, but no matter how I try it I can't seem to pull it off.

[Jblade]

MetHy, on 14 June 2016 - 10:14 AM, said:

Played 2 levels and a half of new Doom. I have to play at lowest res with settings at medium to keep 60FPS in all situations

Gameplay is very much like Hard Reset/Shadow Warrior/Wolfenstein, based on arenas and waves of enemies. Level design is miles a head though.

Some secrets and challenges are hard. Found only 1 secret out of 8 in level 2! I'll make sure to unlock that upgrade which beeps near secrets.
Level 3 now and I've been trying to do that "do 3 glory kills from above" on the basic demon, but no matter how I try it I can't seem to pull it off.

It's a bit tricky, but try and do it at the very apex of the jump - it IS tricky but eventually you get a knack for when the above anim triggers and when the others do instead.

[Malgon]

Yeah, it is a little tricky until you get the hang of it. It certainly becomes easier with the double-jump ability later on.

[MetHy]

This new Doom is too good. Level design is very engaging and rewarding, and encourages movement during fights. Combat areas are often on several levels and there is no better pleasure than to kill a Hell Knight with a 3 rockets lock up when in the middle of a double jump down to the next lower area, all while avoiding Reveant's rockets and the music is rocking to its maximum to underline the awesomeness. Holy shit.

I'm playing on UV so I'm often on the edge and have to pick up the right item or do the right glory kill at the right time, it's pretty exciting.

I'm a little overwhelved by all the upgradable stuff and all the mini challenges. Most of the times I equip something than completely forget about it and later on realize I could have helped upgraded easily against a dozen of possessed.. while instead I "wasted" that opportunity with a single rocket just to get to watch a big SPLAT.

Then again at least I play how I feel it: if you really wanted to do all those small upgrade-challenges on a first play, there are so many that you'd be forcing yourself to play a certain way all the time which may not be how you'd normally go at it. I guess it can be good for replay value though, but I still think there is too much upgrade shit for a Doom game, I've seen RPGs with less than that.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

I think at least you can bypass most of the upgrades if you don't want to deal with the RPG-style mechanics, although I've found there are some weapon upgrades you absolutely cannot live without (Explosive Shot for Shotgun, Missile Lock for Rocket Launcher).

And if you're used to hunting around for secrets as most classic DooM players tend to be, upgrades become ubiquitous.

[PsychoGoatee]

Inspector Lagomorf, on 15 June 2016 - 08:32 AM, said:

I think at least you can bypass most of the upgrades if you don't want to deal with the RPG-style mechanics, although I've found there are some weapon upgrades you absolutely cannot live without (Explosive Shot for Shotgun, Missile Lock for Rocket Launcher).

And if you're used to hunting around for secrets as most classic DooM players tend to be, upgrades become ubiquitous.

For the record, I never got Missile Lock for rocket launcher (did get detonate), so you can technically live without it. It seems very good, but loading up lock-on volleys of rockets didn't seem in-line with my vision of ass kickery. I super shotgun demons in the face as much as possible, everything else is optional.

I'll give that a try on my next playthrough though. For me I'd say the most useful upgrade is the plasma stun bomb.

[HulkNukem]

I always go detonate for rocket launcher, whether singleplayer or multiplayer.
It makes dealing with pinkies really easy, simply shoot to the left or right if one is facing you, detonate it when near the tail. Usually takes 2-3 rockets before they even reach you

[Bloodshot]

If you upgrade the rocket launcher lockon with the quick lock on, hold the lockon, let go and tap the primary fire a bunch it'll glitch out and fire 3 full-sized rockets in a rapid burst

[MetHy]

Bloodshot, on 15 June 2016 - 07:48 PM, said:

If you upgrade the rocket launcher lockon with the quick lock on, hold the lockon, let go and tap the primary fire a bunch it'll glitch out and fire 3 full-sized rockets in a rapid burst

Yeah this happened to me a few times but I can't seem to get it to happen on purpose, apparently you need to release the lock-on just before it activates...

Anyway I've reached the end boss (I think anyway). And while I think this is a great game, maybe even the best modern FPS, people who claim it's a "retro FPS throwback" are out of the loop.
Everything about the gameplay, and about 80% of the level design, is pure modern FPS in the style of Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior, Wolfenstein TNO/TOB, etc.
You go from one combat arena to the next, with sometimes a couple of enemies in between, secret to finds, objectives and upgrades to make. Only about a fourth of the levels layouts are a little more interconnected than the usual modern style, but even then it's nothing like classic Doom. It's also obvious that, when they try to go for the interconnected design, they fail at doing it as well as in the original, as they are forced to resort to teleporters to connect everything.....

They've been trying to make us believe these games have "retro gameplay" for years now, so perhaps people have finally started to believe that.

This game has some great arenas though. Most of the times you are forced to jump in the arena one way or another, and can't just safely stay in the distance and have to constantly be on the move. It takes a lot of planning to make arenas that work so well.
Only the first hell level fails in that regard and you can clean entire areas without stepping in their chore.
The irony for a SP game, is that they must have been inspired by games like Q3A or UT. I haven't played Doom's multiplayer yet, so I don't know if it's the case, but honestly most of the arenas of the game would work well in deathmatch, although I doubt you'd find any SP segment in MP considering they were made by two different teams.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

MetHy, on 16 June 2016 - 10:39 PM, said:

Anyway I've reached the end boss (I think anyway). And while I think this is a great game, maybe even the best modern FPS, people who claim it's a "retro FPS throwback" are out of the loop.
Everything about the gameplay, and about 80% of the level design, is pure modern FPS in the style of Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior, Wolfenstein TNO/TOB, etc.
You go from one combat arena to the next, with sometimes a couple of enemies in between, secret to finds, objectives and upgrades to make. Only about a fourth of the levels layouts are a little more interconnected than the usual modern style, but even then it's nothing like classic Doom. It's also obvious that, when they try to go for the interconnected design, they fail at doing it as well as in the original, as they are forced to resort to teleporters to connect everything.....

They've been trying to make us believe these games have "retro gameplay" for years now, so perhaps people have finally started to believe that.

Here I have to disagree. DooM is as close to a retro FPS as you can get with modern game mechanics, while also innovating upon the original game formula. Certainly in comparison to CoD/Halo, this game has the same frenetic gunplay and secret-hunting aspects of the original DooM that those games lack. You have ammo and health pickups, there's no regeneration, there's no limit to the number of guns you can carry... I think the only thing they screwed up was making the chainsaw an auto glory-kill weapon with a limited number of hits.

Much of the reason it's difficult to have a maze-style FPS with a modern engine is due to the heavy graphic and CPU requirements that the game imposes. We saw this with Rise Of The Triad; although the game was at that time the closest a modern FPS came to having a retro style, they still had a checkpoint-style system and areas where you would be locked away from the rest of the level, prevented from backtracking.

Is it the exact same style as the original DooM? No. Does it take the original DooM formula and change some things? Yes. Is it an overall improvement? I think it is. We can't have everything.

I do wish we had an updated HUD with the Doomguy's face though.

[MetHy]

No, the game has little to do with classic Doom both in terms of gameplay and level design. I'll generalize but in classic Doom you have interconnected or hub like design, and you open up the level little by little while going back&forth inside it. Enemies are placed according to their abilities and to the level design, respawns (or closets) are used when going through an area several times.
In the new one, it's a linear progression where you go from one combat area to the next with respawns used to make "waves of enemies" inside those areas (you may have a couple of enemies in between combat areas but these hardly matters, they're like 5% of enemies total).

The new one is a linear SP arena shooter where you go from a combat zone to the next, while in classic Doom, the entire level is the "combat zone" and gives you more freedom. This linear style where you go from one "combat zone" to the next is classic of the new style. Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior, Wolfenstein, etc they all do it. This is what they try to pass up as "retro" even though it has little to do with it. Of course, if you compare it to CoD, then yes new Doom is closer to classic Doom.

As for "they couldn't have done it classic", I think the game proves otherwise, that it COULD have done 100% classic if it wanted to. There are 2 or 3 levels which give a little more freedom, which have a more interconnected design and which use keycards. These, while far from classic, show that it would have been possible, had they wanted to (they are huge levels too). Gameplay, too, using the same enemies and weapons, could have been classic, as show those 5% of enemies I mentioned that we meet outside of combat zones, and as show the "classic maps" in which gameplay flows surpringsly well.

I think they kind of tried to go for something that looks more classic for these couple of levels I just mentionned, but didn't dare go far enough. I think they were scared, not only to get the player lost, as prove those silly teleporters which avoid backtracking, or those even more silly malfunctioning doors or jump boosters that magically work and create a shortcut once the maps need it; but also scared simply to drift from the modern norm of "arena based combat" which they used for most of the game instead. New Doom is not a daring game. It cost way too much money to make a game, only to take the risk to create something truely retro style with no idea if people nowadays would like it or buy it, because nobody else has done it (except from indie FPS which don't cost as much money, and which aren't shining by their sales number) so they sticked to the modern norm instead, which they know work and sell.

New Doom is exactly like Hard Reset, it doesn't do anything new nor does it go further back in time, but as far as this new standard of FPS style is concerned, it does it exceptionally well.
It has a few attempts to remind people of classic Doom gameplay, but it's like they didn't really dare to fullfill those attemps, they are there, but barely exciting and frail.

Also, I didn't mention it because it's obviously a consequence of the rest: gunplay, the way you the player fights against the enemies, has nothing to do with classic Doom either. New Doom plays like Hard Reset or new Shadow Warrior, and I don't play those like I play classic Doom or classic SW at all...

[Jblade]

Yeah some levels like the Foundry, Argent Facility and Kadingir Sanctum are much more intricate and open than other levels, many of which ARE relatively linear designs. I think it's a typical case of the levels they demo being worked over far more than others. If they had shown the Lazarus facility or such I think impressions of the game would of been more negative. Hopefully if they go TNO and make an Old Blood style expansion/standalone demo the level design will be more like those 2 than the other levels.

I do really love this game though, and I give them huge credit for not making the arena fights drag on like other arena games I've played have been guilty of.

[MusicallyInspired]

There's also no reloading. Yes, I lament the absence of labyrinthine-style maps. One day we'll see it again I know. But in absence of that, DOOM is as close as it gets. It's certainly retro enough, though. Some would argue that even the area-style Wolfenstein: TNO, Shadow Warrior, Painkiller, and to a certain degree Serious Sam, are retro. Not quite as retro, but still older than modern.

[icecoldduke]

MusicallyInspired, on 17 June 2016 - 05:17 AM, said:

There's also no reloading. Yes, I lament the absence of labyrinthine-style maps. One day we'll see it again I know. But in absence of that, DOOM is as close as it gets. It's certainly retro enough, though. Some would argue that even the area-style Wolfenstein: TNO, Shadow Warrior, Painkiller, and to a certain degree Serious Sam, are retro. Not quite as retro, but still older than modern.

I'm actually curious, what do you guys think makes a good modern "retro" game.

[MetHy]

I wouldn't even qualify those games are retro at all. They have become a new standard now, they are the modern FPS. It's just that one point in time devs realized that FPS had become terrible so they took some loose inspiration from a time when they were not, and that's how they claim to be "retro", so they gave back to the player freedom of movement during combat, got rid of health regen, and the weapon limit; but that's about the only link these games have with the Doom era.

I'm loving this new genre of FPS honestly, although if they keep making them it might get state fast.

Also turns out I was at least 2-3 levels away from the end boss

[Inspector Lagomorf]

icecoldduke, on 17 June 2016 - 05:44 AM, said:

I'm actually curious, what do you guys think makes a good modern "retro" game.

You can list off all the qualities that retro first person shooters have and pull from there, but I don't think it does Doom justice. Doom is greater than the sum of its parts. It just feels retro.