Errant Signal - DOOM 2016 

I know this is a pedantic point, but nobody seems to understand the Doomguy's motivation. He doesn't hate the other characters because he's just there to kill demons, he's disgusted in them for releasing the demons from hell. Along with the clip in the video where he destroys the energy receptors, during the intro as Hayden is saying "for the betterment of mankind", he looks *directly* at a corpse but apparently everyone missed that. In fact I theorized he saved the Vega chip to put into Hayden because he thinks Vega wouldn't put people at risk. It could still turn out that he's just a psycho that kills everything but if they're keeping with the original games, the only characterization we know of Doomguy is that he won't shoot civillians and he loves his pet rabbit Daisy.

ok, so this is perhaps the best case I've seen AGAINST day one reviews. Nuanced, human critique completely free from hype. This is the piece on Doom I've been waiting for since its release - I've grown to really enjoy the game in short bursts, but there were so many issues for me with repetition that I was surprised and even angry that more people weren't picking up on that. This does a really good job articulating why the combat is repetitive and why it perhaps lacks an identity of its own, whilst also acknowledging just how fun it is. Really great job man, thanks for this.

After finishing the campaign, I struggle to think of a game that I'll have more fun jumping into to wreak havoc and let off steam for a couple hours than this. In that way, it's exactly like what the old Dooms were when I was a kid, and that's really welcome.

I strongly disagree with the idea that every weapon is worth the same, weapons are more or less effective vs some enemies and it's up to you to use them in a smart way. This is even more true for the bosses, where some weapons are way better than others to counter their attacks and deal maximum damage. The fact that every weapon is good doesn't mean they are all optimized for every situation.

lets steal from hell. who thought any part of this sentence was a good idea?

"Once the nostalgia buzz runs out, what's left?" Easy. This game functions as proof to the modern AAA industry that in 2016, a fast paced shooter can still work, even if it's a bit too samey. While the modern industry relies a lot on trends and sales charts, it often forgets to look at what the actual fans want, and the developers and publishers of doom smartly realized this. They've capitalized on a hole in the market that indie games and serious sam just couldn't fill. What this means is that while this particular shooter is just a retread, fast paced first person shooters are now back on the idea table when it comes to making AAA games, and that could lead to a resurgence of this particular subset of this genre, and some creative people might be given a chance that they otherwise wouldn't have.

"Some of the best tearing I've had in ages" You clearly haven't had Taco Bell in a while.

In response to the Cover song analogy, almost every great band/artist began doing covers. It was their way of establishing not so much an identity, but a frame of reference for themselves and their audience. The greatest works of art are a mish-mash of influences, and embracing that is key to evolving. This is the first DOOM game made without John Carmack or really any of the original crew, so in a way it really is a brand new game for Id. I imagine there'll be sequels, and I'd like to think that they'll continue to try and combine the best aspects of 90s DOOM with the best aspects of modern-day. Was it a 100% success the first time around? No, and because this wasn't a passion-child of only 15 members, there was no way that everything worthwhile could have been considered. It will be tough, because this sort of clash of ideologies always is, but I think this game is a good first step and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to successfully update things like the level design and editors the next time around.

FINALLY! Finally a review addressing some of the issues I see. Everyone's just gushing over it and how it managed to recapture the "Doom" feel. I posit that while not a bad game, it has captured nothing more of the old Doom than any other shooter. The old Doom is an action puzzler that happens to be in first person. The new Doom is a game of aiming. If you remove the theme, there's almost nothing liking the two games. And I couldn't see anyone agreeing with that, so this review is highly cathartic. Thank you.

14:34 "pick your poison... then upgrade it to be even more poison...ier" I always find your love of messing with the english language funny.

Before playing on nightmare ive never even had a need in a plasma rifle, but once I did, it found it's place in specific situations, just like every other gun. They are not all equal, there is a clear effectiveness difference between guns when it comes to countering different enemies.

4:46- That's actually one of, if not THE funniest moments in the game.

The Cyberdemon wasn't necissarily scripted. As evident by it's presence in one of the classic maps, where it roams around freely, and you can take it on at your own pace, and strategy.

Feel much of the criticism about the combat/level design "variations of a theme" and the like is fixed in Doom 2016 by cranking up the difficulty. This "weapon selection is a personal preference" thing isn't the case when you essentially instantly die to most attacks. On the top two difficulties, you _must_ use heavy weaponry on the hardest enemies, you _must_ be careful about your chainsaw usage; in this way, the survival-horror aspect of old Doom is melded into Doom 2016, just through more Quake-esque Arena shooter gameplay and to that effect, the _best_ shooter Id has made (on "hard" mode). So all in all, I think that criticism is incredibly unfair, as the old school Doom played on a difficulty too easy for you will indeed play as if "weapon selection is a personal preference", just like too-easy-for-you Doom 2016. However, I suppose if you do play the game with easier combat, at the very least, the sparse, scattered resources of old-school Doom can still be compelling at a lower difficulty. Also, I've seen a few reviews where incredibly specific nostalgia cries or otherwise nit-picky points are made. Here "it felt so good when sprite's corpses remained" making it feel "cleansed" ... Completely not mentioning that Doom 2016 literally changes the atmosphere of rooms when they've been "cleansed," so they clearly did have that concept in mind, but debatably did it _better_ this way, as you rip the core/heart thing out of those statues, all hell breaks lose, you kill everything then the area is literally "cleared" including the air, which I think indeed does let you "bask in the results of your battles" it just does it in a more general gameified way of "the lights turned back on cuz you won!" rather than the early 90s fascination with brutally disfigured corpses (not that there isn't a lot of that in Doom 2016 anyway, they just don't 'linger' on the floor). "Once the nostolgia buzz wears off, what's left?" Well for 1, they could make an awesome multiplayer, rather than "Modern Halo/CoD shooter via Doom Skin" but really, I think it's unfair to hold such high standards for the game. Doom's designers' goal wasn't to redefine gaming (or maybe it was, but there was no way to know how successful they'd be _beforehand_) they just made a bad ass game. That's what Doom 2016 is to me; but whereas original Doom was a catalyst to an era, Doom 2016 is relighting that fire when most games don't play this way or this well anymore and that's all it needs to do for me to be great.

"It would've been easy for Doom (2016) to present itself as a serious story [....] but it could've easily overcorrected into self-parody" ** Cries in Doom Eternal **

disagree with this review. this is the mad max fury road of 2016. the purest form of what it aims to be.

I wonder how much your last point fails to take into account the perspective of people who don't have any nostalgia for teh old games and/or have never played them. What's left? A fun energetic romp. And personally, I am interested in seeing where a DOOM 2016 Part II would carry the story. One specific point I disagree on in the proposed same-ness of the weapons. As the game increased in difficulty and intensity, I found the super shotgun, chaingun, and railgun (whatever they're called) much for effective than the default shotgun, or either of the machine guns/rifles. I hardly ever was suing the plasma rifle by the end, because I found it too weak for all the bigger enemies being thrown at me.

Wonderful stuff as usual. Thanks for making this, was really hoping you would.

Yes! I've been super excited for this since seeing on Twitter how much work you've been putting into it, haha.

I love how nearly every issue he had with the game was fixed in Doom: Eternal

You're a talented and smart dude. Not enough people on RU-vid like you.

The game was in a development hell, so it's still amazing it came out that way. Now, when they learned how to nail this new formula, and if they decide to make a sequel, I'm hoping for including more varied encounter design. They can go much deeper and spend time on including more interesting scenarios and a more developed story (its tone was changed very far into production, so it had to be rushed). Basically, I believe that can build a lot on top of this reboot.

As much as I loved deum, as much as the samey level design didn't bother me, I still agree with what's being said. Let us hope deum 2 can take this opportunity for bigger badder, more complex, more veritable levels and run home with it.

At the end of these videos I can never seem to put together what admiration I have for this channel. the thoughtful analysis of systems that feel like the furthest thing the games industry could produce, the apt humour and the understanding of the games ecosystem that could only come from love. I feel it could almost be a disservice to call errant signals videos game reviews. ten outa ten

"...so when the nostalgia runs off.. what's left..?" .... THE FUCKING HEAVY METAL TRACKS!!! TURN THAT SHIT UP!!

The best demonstration of tone is as the game begins and doom guy smashes a computer that's trying to exposition at him

you are now my favourite reviewer. you actually go to the trouble of researching and playing the games. keep up dude :D

"Once the nostalgia buzz wears out... what's left?" Replaying the game for fun. Duh.

You say it's not a cohesive whole, but neither your video or the hours of LPs I watched of it showed me anything supporting that.

Dude bro I been watching your channel for like a couple hours and I'm addicted keep up the great work!

Now that's the level of analysis I actually remember your channel for! Great job man! Details over 9000.

Just finished Matthewmitosis' latest video and now this comes along. Sweet!

I really appreciate these well thought out, reasoned looks at games. Thanks for doing it and keep up the good work 👍

Weirdly, what got stuck in my head when you were going into how Doom 2016's level design, weapon usage and enemy placement were restricted compared to the original was how good the first few Halo games were at that. Certainly not Doom levels, but the guns have a basic hierarchy, and the enemies all capable of being thrown together in different configurations. What I'm saying is I think Doom/Doom 2 and the original Halo games are the only shooters I know (maybe Half-Life?) that have people making youtube videos of NPC fighting tournaments.

I've been following this channel since your Dues Ex: Human Revolution episode and this has to be one of your best video. Well written, well edited, and good pacing on the narration.

One more note, since I am a few bottles deep into my night, your videos are excellent, well researched, and spoken in a very professional voice. Keep up the good work mate.

And also, there's nothing like the feeling of being in the archvile labyrinth in Doom 2 Plutonia and having been reduced to nothing but a chainsaw. New Doom has nothing on that.

"It's some of the best tearing I've had in ages" -Errant 2016

Awesome video, you raise some incredibly interesting points I'd never thought of. I really hope you'll cover Eternal someday!

Well, to me, the way to answer the question of "What's left" is by pointing at the new Star Wars movies: First you make sure your new formula is workable and well received, then you go crazy with it. At least, that's the intention I gleaned from Star Wars VII, despite only having that one episode.

I liked the little shift in movement control. The projectile dodging is still there, but because the enemies are generally faster in every aspect than before, you also have to use the cover to minimized the amount of enemies you have to encounter at once in an arena. You have to constantly think where will be the next position I want to take a fight on. A clear weapon hierarchy would have been nice to have, because that usually creates a player specific difficulty curve: in a game where ammunition is at least virtually scarce, it encourages the player to cope with as little as possible while saving the items he has for a moment he really needs them. For example in Alan Wake, flashlight batteries are very valuable because boosting your light source is the only way to defeat tougher enemies, but even tho the batteries were even too plentiful in the game, I kept hoarding them just because I was thinking that they were very valuable and I didn't want to waste them.

I really appreciate this review. It's smart. comprehensive, and you clearly took your time with it. It seems to take into account all of my favorite bits and concerns, and makes me aware of some I hadn't even thought of. Thank you for making this.

This game's soundtrack is amazing and probably the heaviest shit I've ever heard

I disagree with your criticisms and all the differences you pointed out between new and old Doom I love instead of seeing as negatives. I feel like the arenas and levels are so well designed and varied I never get tired of it. I agree about the linear levels and backtrack blocking but thats about it. The game does not have an identity crisis at all. The intention is to modernize Doom and it does that gracefully. There is no "nostalgia buzz" and I have to say after agreeing the gameplay is great that has to be the stupidest thing in your entire video that you said. "What's left" is compelling gameplay, there doesn't need to be more than that because its a video game. Also snapmap is being fixed, you probably worked on this video for a long time and didn't see it but just yesterday at E3 Id announced they are adding a lot to it such as open outdoor areas, more than two weapons, and using the singleplayer engine instead of the multiplayer.

Doom 2016 tried its best to give us an update on everything that we love from the originals, and the result is definitely a mixed bag. Despite that, it's an incredible experience.

Having worked in a few factories, the "this is the history of our company" videos that played on the TVs in DOOM 3 are very very commonplace in orientation / onboarding for different departments. Sometimes those videos are made for visiting shareholders / stakeholders too.

Man I'm glad i fin found a channel like yours

This is the best analysis of Doom I've seen, something that finally address the problems. I love the game to bits, but I had to hear this.

You just put my feelings in words. Thank you!

I also wanted to add that you're samey comment is semi-false. What I mean by that, is when you're talking about how you can basically choose whatever weapons you wish for a fight, that's only true depending on the difficulty level you play it on. If you played the game on Ultra-Violence or below I could agree with that, since it's far less important to use the ideal weapons for the situation, but crank the difficulty up to Nightmare and Ultra-nightmare and using the proper weapons for the monsters or settings is a necessity.

Great review. Your understanding of the original DOOM really shows in this video.

The thing I'm happiest about with the new doom is how well Glory Kills were implemented. They last just long enough to give you a breath before jumping back into combat, but don't tie you up or require more button presses than necessary. They feel like the sort of thing that Doomguy would naturally do in combat to any demon that got too close.

This analysis is much better than I thought, especially in the whole combat/level design/player speed domain. Some of the things, I was thinking about, like the fact that in the old Doom you felt like a king moving faster than your rocket and avoiding hundreds of slow projectile, while in the new Doom you move slower (even if faster than other FPS) and the projectiles are really fast and the have an angle arc that can sometimes hit your strafe, the monsters climb on walls/ceiling (which is cool, more clever than classic Doom monsters) but the whole affair makes you struggle all the time and force you to glorykill which is also dangerous, since during the glorykill animation maybe a projectile was coming at you, yes you are invincible during the animation but not just right after, where you might need 0.5 sec to regain your perception and where your player and enemies and projectile currently are, which is even chaotic on it's own the way the battles happen with arena and teleportations. And there are much more said, very well explained, it's exactly how I feel. I do like new Doom but not enough to replace old Doom which I still enjoy playing user levels and making my own maps. And yes, just plugging tiles of rooms is not interesting to me anymore, no more designing a room line by line (which I agree would be far more complex in a real 3d game than Doom with it's mostly 2d map data) . Also,. not mentioned, there is a monster limit of 64 in Snapmap, and that's ok compared to another limit of no more than 12 active monsters. And that doesn't mean 12 on your view, but 12 currently alive on the map, so if you have closed doors with more than 12 monsters, some will no appear unless you kill others, you have to design your level linearly so that the first 12 monsters in priority will be killed before you get a key to open the other door with new monsters (and there doesn't appear to be a way to affect this priority with an id or something, it depends on which rooms or monsters you added first in an invisible list). This is even apparent in the classic Doom easter egg levels (which you can't design in snapmap of course but they still have the limitations). In E1M5 remake, you could go up the stairs and shoot zombie soldiers from the window. But in the new Doom, I go up there and there is nobody outside and I am like WTF? Only when I kill other enemies in the vicinity and open the door to that room I see them teleport. That's why they never made E1M6 or E1M7, too many enemies in open spaces and windows to be active at the same time.

I thought your opinion and the video production method was really great! Huge thumbs up, seriously. I was also pretty impressed with the aim of the person who made the source video, and it inspired me to go create a RU-vid channel video game source video. So I'mma go start that.

ended the doom review on a low note.. ended no man's sky review on a high note................ yeah that sounds about right lol

Man, I just finished Doom1 Doom2 and Doom3, it's good to see some of the levels again in the vid.

Well put as always.

I might disagree with you on many topics Errant Signal, but my god do you make interesting and intriguing content. You are an inspiration to me. This was epic and well worth the time.

Very well thought out points! I had been considering picking this up during the Steam Summer Sale, but while it sounds fun it doesn't strike me as worth quite as much as it costs yet, at least to me. Thanks for this, I hadn't really seen any of this covered in any videos about it.

God I’d love to see you make a vid about Doom Eternal now

thank you so much for putting into words what i felt about this game

Chris, all those Serious Sams, Painkillers, and Hard Resets are like 10 years old.

Yeah!!! Love your Errant Signal

Was really excited to watch your review when I first heard doom was getting a reboot. Anyway great video and breakdown!

Awesome vid, Campster. You think these things through better than most RU-vidrs.

You see, I didn't play any of the other games in the franchise, but I loved this one. You say this is pure nostalgia, but, that's not possible in my case. So, what is it that I love about it then?

The sprawling, labyrinthine hunt and conquest is such a good core mechanic that it's a shame AAA studios are unable to design their modern shooters that way.

Nice review! I'm curious what difficulty level you played the game at the first time. I played on Hurt Me Plenty and I have to say it makes the game quite challenging and kinda mixes up the combat more. Makes it much more interesting. I also feel you have to put more conscious thought in what weapons to use at what time. The action got so intense that the relief after surviving another encounter (because that's what it starts to feel like sometimes), becomes addicting. In that way I never got tired of the action.

Love how many contrapoints this video raises! Very refreshing to see, considering the game covered.

Great perspective as usual.

To be fair, it probably woulda been nice to have an option to keep monster corpses on the screen, for folks who have enough memory in their screaming metal machine-beasts.

Your complaint about the bodies disappearing is valid, but the reason why we don't have that in Doom 2016 might be a simple consequence of how the game engine was built. Leaving bodies around, means that you need to have decent physics simulations for them, then you need to figure out how the player is going to be affected by it in terms of gameplay and finally figure out how the NPCs are going to navigate in such a a dynamic environment. It's not a hugely difficult problem, but it might take compute resources which could be better used somewhere else. No one really wants a choppy game.

I love this series!

STOP LOOKING AT THE FLOOR WHEN PLAYING !

Coming back to this years after the fact, years after Doom Eternal, I find myself still caught up on how it feels like Doom 2016 did something unintentionally great with story themes and Doom Eternal just didn't land it well, although I don't know how it could. Obviously its both serious and campy and weird and fun in its tone, but Doom 2016 really feels like a duel between two extremely human, determined, and talented people, with fundamental disagreements on what is best. Samuel Hayden viewing things in the near and the now with an energy crisis looming and a source of energy ripe for the picking, needing a relatively small amount of sacrifice to solve a worldwide issue, and supercedes his own body and death to realize this solution. And Doomguy is more forward thinking, and almost bizarrely sympathetic to the human cost of this solution, seeing Hell for what it is: Hell, a horrific end point of life that should not be quartered with by anyone but the damned, and no problem is worth working with demons for the pain they cause. And while they need to work together, to a degree, to stop the immediate threat, these two HATE one another, and no amount of working together or seeing what the other is doing with their perspective will change their minds. It's a beautiful, human conflict, if you engage with it that way. Then Doom Eternal made it a profoundly unhuman topic, with the changing of Samuel and the dialogue shift of Doomguy, and I just feel like its a mistake. A misstep. They had something really fun with just two opposed, extraordinary humans, who were posed to butt heads, and it became something much less human. IDK how they could have continued 2016s narrative thread, though, without mucking up this part of it. But still, feels like something was lost.

The only point that you got wrong, is that I do think the Doom guy cares about the World. As a silent protagonist it can be projection, but his disdain for Samuel and Olivia is because they're using Hell energy ,which he KNOWS will always fuck things up.

Fantastic video. It always pleases me to see people who realize that there IS more to glean from Doom's design and style than what is on the surface. Due to the game being viewed as "simple" (Understandably so, yes, but still...) a lot of people tend to overlook all the minute aspects and the fact that even a simple game can be examined deeply.

I really like your videos! It's so refreshing to have even negative comments about a game coming from a place of love, instead of the far too typical "lol this game is so baaaaaaad." type of videos. I watch your videos whenever you publish one!

I really appreciate that you willing to be critical of the new Doom. I haven't played it yet but all I've heard is constant praise. Even if something is really good it's important to be critical of it so it can grow and improve.

Great analysis. Thought pretty much the same, although I wouldn't have been able to phrase it as well as you did. :P

I agree with your points on all of this. And in some cases like the gun variety I have to say I really like Doom 3 in. You said Doom 3 went far away from its roots, but the enemy placement, ammo variety and gun efficiency is still there. In the old dooms I used different weapons to kill different enemies for maximum efficiency and I feel that is still there in Doom 3. Doom 3 is given a lot of flack, like its serious story. Why do you need your protagonist to shove it aside to make an example of the story like in Doom 2016? You can just ignore whatever story goes on in Doom 3. It has a gritty atmosphere and tries to give some slight realism in how people behave in the game, whilst you gun down enemies. It doesn't force much story down your throat or tries to be super serious with it, it just shows a story and you can do whatever you want with it. If you prefer to immerse yourself with the datalogs and whatnot you are fully able to do so, but you can also skip all of it, with just a few plot points you are fed throughout the game just like in the remake. There were Doom games like the PSX Final Doom and Doom 64 that went with atmosphere and ambience instead of metal and gunning. I loved these games too, and Doom 3 is very much alike those. So I don't see the whole "It's not like the original" when it really is a lot like Doom. Doom 2016 is samey, play the first level and you've pretty much played it all. There's nothing more to it, all the samey weapons with tacked on upgrade systems and samey enemies that are so slightly varied that the way of killing them feels the same. There's no threat to them as you slaughter through them every time and it feels more like a massacre than you fighting the hordes of hell. It's boring, there's no stakes, you're overpowered. Just look at how feeble the enemies look like. They don't feel threatening at all. The imp is tinier than you, the shambling skeletons look puny. The hell knights are almost the size of a normal imp now, and the enemies look more cartoon-y than hellish. Not once did I feel like I did in the old Doom games. It felt like a mindless romp of spamming all your guns and pressing melee a lot on the same enemy. Sure, it's fun, but like you said it's hugely repetitive and that's all there is to the game.

One thing I've realized listening to a few people talking about Doom 2016 is how hard it is to talk about the game positively without sounding a little unhinged with all the praise for the ripping and tearing

The Shadow warrior reboot suffered from that same repetitive arena battle stuff that you mentioned And I'm happy someone acknowledged the issue. I hope someday the genre can go back to those crazy level designs.. I miss those moments in doom 2 where you enter a room and see a health on a pedestal, just chilling and you prepared for the trap that room was gonna u leash on your ass as soon as you touched it. I remember some maps in doom were more like big ass puzzles I guess I just miss monster closets and triggers. Also, I miss the massive enemy count old school shooters had as well. Bahh one day.. Till them, brutal doom will fill the void

COUGH "cover album" COUGH. Great video by the way.

Your point about the game's "saminess" and devaluing different approaches to personal preference reminded me of "Resistance: Fall of Man", an often forgotten but good-ass game that managed to avoid this pretty nicely in my opinion. I still remember several very different levels very fondly, sometimes even find myself launching the game on occasion for want of "that Cheddar Gorge moment".

Chris, you really ought to write a book laying out your understanding of game design and critique. You're light years ahead of other games journalists. Thanks as always for the video

I feel super validated by your opening statements. My first thought when I saw your new video was, "there's a Doom reboot? That's like redoing PacMan."

You are so articulate and smart that I hope Id listens to this and does something with it.

What you consistently call "goofy" I call "FUCKING AWESOME!"

There's nothing like an awesome singleplayer FPS with awesome gunplay to sink your teeth into for a few days.

Oh wow this video is super good. Glad I clicked on by chance. Subbed :)

That "what's left?" closing note is really strange to me. It's a super fun game that as you say hasn't nailed its design 100%, but it's pretty close and by your own admission a lot of fun. The fact that it all kind of runs together doesn't change how much fun I had. I don't know what else you're looking for from Doom. A statement?

Holy Shit. I was getting some serious simulation sickness during those Original doom clips. Wow. Way to feel old.

Does anyone have a link to that article Campster mentions around 6:20? I can't find anything with casual searching.

"The best tearing I've had in ages" I nearly died from laughing ! lol

Really cool to hear such a breakdown of both the original and new Dooms. Kinda makes me want to go back and play through Doom2 again, though also makes the 2016 one sound really dull and unappealing. I wonder if there has been a general industry shift away from mechanically varied level design?

Christopher Franklin.. your Errant Signal series is THE BEST from other similar things in web Seriously.. im kind of modder ovice indie game dev which play\seen\tried all game genre's and tons of game since 90s and i look ead a lot of game-dev related thing.. (More and more appear today) but your series always stand out for me! it always more than just a "fair" analysis of game \\ today many people try to create game-analysis videos\text \\ but most of them not even understand mechanics or story of game creation "Errant Signal" felt more like a book or TV series and i like it i like long format without cutting all little meaningful details and overall solidity But also "Errant Signal" analysis have real depth with personal opinion and emotions and this is what i really love in this series! its a pearl in modern world of polished consumption products : ] i will save and keep it for years - sometimes going back and revising Thank you - thank you for creation of this series and desire to continue it

I just finished playing the game, and what you said echoes pretty much all my thoughts on it! I think one other thing that contributes to the combat encounters lacking personality a little, is how mobile the enemies are. Almost every enemy moves around too much, and have no restriction on how much they can move. Some move around on their own, some just stay up in your grill. This makes battles chaotic in a way that cripples the designers' ability to craft specific combat situations with enemy placement. A few rooms in the game have monsters appear on little pedestals they shoot you from, but they quickly enough walk off of em and just join the rest of the fray. No matter what the designers prepare, after 30 seconds all battles blend together into a similar smoothie. Its a pretty good smoothie tho.

ID will giving new tools sometime this year, along with new themes, you can snap hell style maps together, it looks really cool

I think this is actually a great start to rebooting the franchise. While the total package isn't cohesive, they've effectively resurrected the individual components such that a sequel can spend much more time on fusing those elements together rather than just modernizing them. Not to mention it was a critical hit, so it's gotten people's attention back on Doom. We'll have to see how they handle the next one though.