Recent reports claim that id Software is set to unveil a brand-new Doom in the next couple of weeks. Known as The Dark Ages, it appears the titular slayer will be heading back in time to the mediaeval era, perhaps seeking to quell the demonic hordes during their inception. It has an obvious Army of Darkness flavour to it, and feels like a brilliant way to mix up a series that has already been to Mars and back with its depiction of a demonic invasion.
But part of me wants id Software to take this vision even further, and if this new title truly is a real thing, for it not to remain confined to a single moment in history. Give our protagonist the keys to a time machine and let him go wild as they rip and tear across history. Basically, I’m asking id Software to make a way, way more violent TimeSplitters.
Doctor Doom + Doctor Who = Doctor Whom?
Ever since it was first rebooted in 2016 and subverted all of our lukewarm expectations with a modern shooter masterpiece, Doom has never taken itself very seriously. Speaking to the folks over at NoClip, id Software’s
Hugo Martin said that the narrative side of the game came in very late in development, and the core focus was on making it play, look, and feel as rad as humanly possible. But even so, fans developed a soft spot for how it approached storytelling with such relentless vigour. Doom Guy is just a very angry dude who loves killing demons, and is awfully miffed to wake up and find they are swarming all over the place.
The opening moments of Doom (2016) will forever be some of the coolest in any game I’ve ever played. You wake up as naked as the day you were born, killing a few demons before rocking into a room where your iconic armour awaits. A monitor nearby flashes red, warning us that a ‘demonic invasion is in progress’ which is utterly hilarious and undeniably cool.
After equipping our armour and fighting through a handful of rooms filled with some cookie cutter enemies, we pick up a shotgun and grab an elevator down to the surface. But it’s this elevator ride and the narration by Samuel Hayden interspersed with the title card that gets my blood pumping the most.
Right after cocking his shotgun, Doom punches the screen as the logo appears, accompanied by a face-melting Mick Gordon riff as we arrive on the red planet ready to rip hellspawn a new one.
Ripping And Tearing Through Space And Time
Now imagine this sort of badassery unconfined to a destroyed Earth and the fringes of space, but with the entire space-time continuum to play with. An introduction which could see our anti-hero go into a time machine for the first time only for it to suddenly malfunction as it throws us across history, taking you on a rollercoaster ride of all the levels and time periods you will eventually liberate that are now being filled with the spawn of satan. Demons with the ability to travel in time could dismantle humanity in so many different ways, not to mention how it would shape the past, present, and future you are constantly jumping between throughout the campaign.
It sounds like a ridiculous concept, but if The Dark Ages is already rumoured to go medieval on our behinds, why would exploring a different era be any less ridiculous. You could earn a unique weapon or skill in each time period, not to mention bespoke enemy designs and boss battles which draw from and potentially satirise the moment in time you happen to occupy.
I have to mention a medieval setting is being entertained not only for this, but to pay homage to classics of the fantasy genre and the fish-out-of-water brilliance that would come from this buff, no-nonsense character being thrust into such a different environment. But I kinda worry that just a single time period will grow old over the course of an entire game, and time travel could be the perfect way to shake things up a little bit. With any luck, idSoftware is one step ahead of me and this will already be a core part of the experience.
DOOM Eternal
Doom Eternal sees you take on the role of the Doom Slayer, this time to rid earth of the demonic threat. The familiar arsenal of weapons returns, from the Super Shotgun to the chainsaw, and huge boss fights require strategy and cunning.