What should we expect with Doom 4?

So I've talked about Wolfenstein a good bit. I've been trying to put together a review of it, but at the same time I wonder what's the point? I'm biased as hell towards that kind of shooter, loved it to the point of beating it 100% and making it my 2nd platinum ever, and I've given a lot of my thoughts on it. Its not perfect, but no single flaw is so big that its worth dedicating a review for to warn people. I just can't imagine it'd do anything but waste my time and keep me from playing games or making better articles. Still I'll see what I can do to make a proper review for it, maybe it'll still happen. However one thing lingers on my mind: that little bonus imprinted annoyingly over the entire corner of the boxart that says "Doom 4 beta access". Oh yeah, that's a thing that's happening. Its so weird to see that, and I look onto it with a mixture of curiosity, hope, and fear. Unfortunately I think its mostly about the concerns that I linger over. I can say with great enthusiasm that I hope it turns out great, I hope the action and mechanics are great, and I hope the game brings us a true exciting and thrilling ride with the enthusiasm the original holds to this day. However a quick look at the leaked record of the game is troubling and given past records of similar things surrounding the situation it just doesn't look good. Finally we got a good teaser, and more news is soon to come, but is it really going to be good?

What we know so far is that there seems to be multiple points poking at the idea that instead of Mars we are fighting demons on earth. We also see the cyber demon in the teaser, pretty much confirming that industrial and sci-fi style fusing with monsters. I believe there was also confirmed art renders somewhere of a main character that looked sort of like a rugged soldier. However it also matches the idea that maybe it was still with that Call of Doom format as rumored. Is that good or bad? Honestly, if it has a turret section its not the end of the world. If it has scripted events and set pieces, that's to be expected to some extent otherwise you're just being stubborn. Its about how much of it happens though, how it influences the pacing, and whether or not there are core solid mechanics to found a good FPS on in the first place. How do the guns feel, how is the AI, what types of monsters are there for good diversity, is there a reason to explore, are the level designs good enough to do that anyways, and how is the general challenge? Of course above all, the question also is how much do you get to shoot? If its really "Call of Doom" that sounds to me like scripted sequence, QTE style events, and gimmicky toys pop in every 5 minutes because the game is afraid you might figure out its core is too shallow and effortless to be fun. If that really is what the new Doom has in store, then I'm afraid. If it actually lets me shoot a lot, has good mechanics that make it enjoyable, and it sticks to some roots while also giving my some pleasant next-gen set pieces occasionally withing using its creative cheesy setting, I'll be a very happy FPS fan.

Sadly it seems a lot like when older game companies aim to put a new shooter out in the market it flops and fails horribly. Duke Nukem Forever, and Rage were two examples too many of this. The same guys and focus that made these games a high adrenaline blast just aren't really there anymore, and the guys in now instead conflict with each other on what they want to do and how to follow the new trends. The games became murky, overstaffed, and overly ambitious while backtracking, all ultimately leading to games that not only were just bad and often failing because of more modern influences done wrong. Thankfully this was a bit more acknowledged with Rage, as old time FPS veterans or fans at heart made some incredibly good comparisons between Doom and Rage while pointing out Rage's failings in its design. So maybe some of the criticism and specific complaints got around, and they'll know to fix this. Maybe they know better than to nerf the game, and take after Wolfenstein's influence that whether on console or PC you can make a fantastic fast paced old school shooter and also innovate on it.

Leaked concept art...possibly no longer legit

Now of course personally I'd like to see Doom done a little more old school than Wolfenstein. Less narrative and character driven story, less hub levels, less bullet based weapons, and more off the walls fast paced silly action. Again please learn from rage and don't do the slow and dumb pot shot cover style gunplay. My biggest concern with Doom just might be the health system. Don't make everything one big bullet sponge, instead give the player some form of health management responsibilities giving you a solid statistic of survival. My 2nd wish is that it learns from one of the most popular mods of all time: Brutal Doom. Brutal Doom took the insane canvas of doom and turned it up to 11, introduced better gunplay, new animations and combat moves, and increased both the minions and their gore/gib factor so that it was all to the extreme. I don't want this doom to show up missing its own aesthetics, I want it to embrace the over the top ultra-violent world it really is. I want to be able to actually feel some sense of shock over what the virtual unleashed hell on earth looks like, but I also want to be able to enjoy it in the fictional context of having a satisfying shotgun on flesh effect that gibs it to bits. These are my main two wishes... well in addition to the obvious desire of a fun general game of course. Whether or not this will actually happen, I have no idea. Maybe it'll go for the boogy man horror route again like Doom 3. Maybe... maybe they didn't learn and we'll be looking at another Rage situation. After all, it sounds like Bethesda was pressured to group a team that was messing up Doom in the first place with the rage team that already released an unorganized mess of a game. Can they really pull together and produce a truly compelling Doom game? I can hope... but honestly I'm just not sure what to expect. At least in the end we already have a timeless classic with a game like Doom and Doom 2, and Brutal Doom came along and did most of the upgrades to it we could have asked for. So ultimately we can't really lose out on anything with this new game... we still have a genius old FPS game out there from the ID team that we appreciate.