RIP & TEAR
Official Xbox Magazine|March 2020
ID'S LATEST ENTRY IN THE ICONIC OLD-SCHOOL SHOOTER SERIES IS IN A DIFFERENT CLASS. OXM GETS HANDS-ON WITH THE GAME, TO LEARN SOME VALUABLE LESSONS FROM THE FPS MASTERS.
MARTY STRATTON
RIP & TEAR

Software is taking us to school. Doom School. The Dallas studio is accepted master of the FPS, of course, having given the world Wolfenstein and Quake, but even 27 years after the release of 1993’s iconic demon-slaying Doom, the team is still teaching us how to play shooters.

Doom Eternal is the latest game in the iconic franchise, but it’s much more than just a sequel to the reboot that blasted its way onto Xbox One in 2016. id has packed Eternal with a ton of new systems and ways of playing that are not merely iterative, they almost form their own language, one that you need to be fluent in, in order to play the game as its creators intend.

“When you look back at Doom 2016,” executive producer Marty Stratton says, “that was a great game and we were very proud of it, and there were people that were playing the right way – switching weapons and using movement as a defence and offense, and all of that kind of stuff – but we didn’t always require players to play that way. You could beat Doom 2016 with just the Super Shotgun. That’s not intended. That’s an exploit, that creates a frankly abhorrent experience, and a repetitive experience, that’s not what we want.”

What Stratton also definitely doesn’t want is people just shooting demons in a corridor. That’s so 1993. id’s shooter could potentially suffer from an image problem in 2020, with Doom still thought of as that gloriously gory guns’n’demons corridor shooter – but Stratton and game director Hugo Martin are determined that we should get all we can eat from Doom’s buffet of supercharged demon-splattering.

This story is from the March 2020 edition of Official Xbox Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the March 2020 edition of Official Xbox Magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINEView All
Why I love... Roaming the post-apocalypse
Official Xbox Magazine

Why I love... Roaming the post-apocalypse

How modern releases are continuing to find creativity and beauty within gaming’s most prevalent setting: the end of the world

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2020
10 Best Multiplayer Games
Official Xbox Magazine

10 Best Multiplayer Games

From shooters to kitchen chaos, these titles are best played with friends

time-read
6 mins  |
April 2020
Revved up and ready to go
Official Xbox Magazine

Revved up and ready to go

EA hands the wheel of Need For Speed back over to Criterion Games

time-read
2 mins  |
April 2020
The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor
Official Xbox Magazine

The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor

Return to Tamriel’s frigid North this summer Chris Burke

time-read
3 mins  |
April 2020
Remothered: Broken Porcelain
Official Xbox Magazine

Remothered: Broken Porcelain

We’re going potty for this cult classic survival horror sequel

time-read
2 mins  |
April 2020
Yakuza 0 Yakuza Kiwami Yakuza Kiwami 2
Official Xbox Magazine

Yakuza 0 Yakuza Kiwami Yakuza Kiwami 2

Triple trouble: Sega’s crime drama trio brings glorious thug‑thumping action to Xbox

time-read
3 mins  |
April 2020
Mosaic
Official Xbox Magazine

Mosaic

ALL AROUND ME ARE FAMILIAR OFFICE SPACES

time-read
4 mins  |
April 2020
The Falconeer
Official Xbox Magazine

The Falconeer

Savouring the joys of flight with an indie that’s living on a (gigantic) wing and a prayer

time-read
2 mins  |
April 2020
10 Best Examples Of Great Architecture On Xbox
Official Xbox Magazine

10 Best Examples Of Great Architecture On Xbox

Games are crammed full of gorgeously crafted designs and architecture. From gables to gargoyles, we look at the best building designs on Xbox One

time-read
5 mins  |
March 2020
THE PROMISED 'LANDS
Official Xbox Magazine

THE PROMISED 'LANDS

With so many great games competing for our time, how do you keep gamers locking and loading? Gearbox’s looter-shooter, Borderlands 3, knows how…

time-read
6 mins  |
March 2020