Early Access - Anatomy of a DOOM Eternal Fight

Really enjoyed this kind of deep-dive video with its very tight focus. I'd love to see more of this kind of thing :)

Matt Glanville

Yep, Design Icons shall return soon-...ish :P

Game Maker's Toolkit

Gears 5 is a really bad example for a game in which positioning doesn't matter. It has cover, sure, but the question then becomes which piece of cover you should use, and when you should move, and you're forced to consider that every few seconds in a firefight. Play the game on a harder difficulty and positioning becomes your biggest priority, because you won't last even a few seconds if you've left yourself exposed through poor positioning.

Shea Driscoll

Hey, are you going to continue design icons? I thoroughly enjoyed that series.

I could have also done without the (much too) deep upgrade systems in eternal. I rarely understood what real effect the upgrades had and there were so. Many. Systems.

Cheers! I'm actually going to post a behind-the-scenes article on this video later today which will explain all :D

Game Maker's Toolkit

Where did you get all the assets for the video? The character one shots and the empty level flyovers? They look great.

Edward Earl Newton

I always like the videos that do a very detailed breakdown of a certain aspect of a game, and this video was no exception to that rule! In fact, it makes me want to look up Doom Eternal levels to see how all the other combat encounters are structured phase-wise too, because it's not exactly easy to appreciate the specifics of those design elements when you are actually playing it because the whole system is meant to be a flowing one. I feel like I need a game guide like back in the old days where it tells you exactly what enemies are in what area in what quantities so I can just break down all that interesting design into digestable chunks like you did. :D

Calliope Rannis

I might accept the argument on the Marauders, if they didn't throw so much crap at you. You can't stand too close and you can't stand too far, so their projectiles are hard to dodge, the vulnerable window is extremely tight, and you can bury the bloody wolves in the deepest pit of hell as far as I'm concerned.

I would like to stick up for the Buff Totems/Archviles, and Marauders. 1. BUFF TOTEMS/ARCHVILES: The fact that they force you to chase them is not bad, it's a good thing! First off, they appear very sparingly. Second, running them down forces you out of combat autopilot, makes you engage an ordinary fight in a fun new way. If they were there every fight they would suck, but using them from time to time really mixes up the flow of combat and makes sure you've mastered the fundamentals instead of just sticking to a groove. 2. MARAUDERS--The Marauders rule. This is not a "get gud" argument, I really think they're not appreciated. The Marauder brings an amazing change-of-pace combat element to DE. They force you to clear the floor before dealing with them, which is fun, and then you have to face them down in a one-on-one duel, which is amazing and totally unlike any other enemy in the game. They're the only demon that forces YOU to react to THEM. You have to be on THEIR schedule, instead of them on yours. If they were there all the time, yes that would suck, but id smartly deployed them, and I loved every encounter with them.

I definitely agree that some of the changes made from 2016 to Eternal aren't for the better, and make me yearn for the more simplistic (and, in my opinion, more balanced) stylings of Doom 2016. It's very weird though, because although the gameplay is superior in Eternal, it's also overwhelming and so punishing. In Eternal, I tend to find it hard to fall into that slipstream of pure play, where you don't have to think about what you're doing... I'm constantly having to think consciously about my next move, but you only have microseconds to make those decisions, so it feels like the core gameplay is constantly fighting itself. As a result, there are gameplay features that I have to keep reminding myself to use... I've almost never used the grappling hook on the double-barrel shotgun, I forget about grenades, and swapping weapon mods feels like a massive waste of valuable seconds. I want to love Doom Eternal so much, but I haven't done so much rage-quitting since giving up Call of Duty multiplayer!

Tom Hauville

Yay! I knew you would do a DOOM Eternal video; the games design in it is too loud and overt to ignore. It's a fascinating case study in the extremes of "bop-it"/lock+key/toolbox style engagement and designers strongly incentivising (née forcing) a "correct" playstyle - no doubt it makes for an incredible ride, but it's also alienated its fair share of people too. Though I love how the weakness mechanics let every gun have its chance to be the strong gun (and imo are vital cerebral anchors for making quick choices amidst the chaos), I'm also really glad you pointed out the issue that the 1 solution gameplay is pushed REALLY hard by the tutorials, when actually every demon has multiple solutions - it buries the lead that actually you can find individual playstyles and there is a lot of discovery/experimentation available - which leads to people feeling unnecessarily trapped.

Steven Thornton

Great job with this video, Mark, I think it came out very well. I definitely agree with your assessments. DOOM Eternal has sparked the resurgence of a lot of similar conversations I had in my fellow gamedev circles about DOOM 2016 when it came out, which really echo a talk I did last year (and just redid for my UNLV students the other month) about Pacing & Flow in game design, where as an example I touched on how DOOM 2016 is a GREAT game with a TON of fantastic design decisions and everyone I've spoken to that's played it agrees it's super fun... but not one of those people I've spoken to about DOOM 2016 has beaten it! Everyone likes it and agrees it's fun... but everyone gets bored of it and never beats it, only going about halfway. I mainly attribute this to overly flat pacing, and not enough horizontal changes in its gameplay (changes in kind). A really great game to study for both effective and ineffective design. One of my favorites to cite in my design research for my job at the university.

Gunnar Clovis

Yeah, it's a lot to keep track of - turns into a management sim at times! I'll have a fiddle with the transition, cheers

Game Maker's Toolkit

Felt the same way re: differences between 2016 and Eternal. The "right way" to kill certain enemies and the more aggressive resource management tipped the scales towards making a lot of encounters too much for me. Between chainsaw, dash, fire, grenade, swapping grenades, guns, swapping mods, blood punch...I'm sure I'm missing a few. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but found myself frustrated more often than I did with 2016. Great vid! At the end of your open, can you get that shotgun pump to linger after the cut to black? It would really help ease that transition!