The new Doom recaptures a good bit of that in its own design, although the organic creepiness doesn't pop the same way in today's photorealistic visual style. As Doom Guy, you were antibody: panacea with a shotgun. Hell emerged as a type of organism, an infection blurring the line between a cold world of machines and a hot world of flesh. Hell itself seeped in in the form of flesh-pink walls and increasingly unreal level layouts, culminating in an unsettlingly techno-organic portrait of hell itself in the game's third episode. First came cold, industrial spaces slowly, though, those began to change. It's dire without being serious, a heavy metal album cover come to life-which is exactly what it's trying to be.ĭespite its lack of a complex plot, the original Doom was rich in environmental story, the kind that unfolded as you passed through its levels. It's simply the currency of the world of Doom, a surreal blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and the occult that refuses to take itself very seriously.
It's still violent, still a chance to revel in gruesome juvenile aggression, but the violence doesn't exist for its own sake.
