New Doom unveiled at QuakeCon, features gore-aplenty and old school mechanics

Doom 4 is Doom, plain and simple, as the teams at iD Software and Bethesda bring the franchise back to its roots with a straight-up reboot.

Shown off at QuakeCon in a non-streamed video presentation, the new Doom is a melding of both new and old genre conventions. It’s also not a sequel to Doom 3 (and its twin expansion packs), which was something of a surprise to me. I know that Doom 3 wasn’t universally loved, but the game did do fairly well at retail and got its fare share of critical acclaim. Personally, I loved it since it brought the franchise into the modern age of shooters with a storyline and actual characters instead of just running around and shooting everything. Not that that’s a bad things either since the original Doom is my favorite game of all time.

Doom (the new one) though, might be the perfect halfway point for fans both new and old and the logical evolution of the series. Restarting the story from day one, Doom starts off outside the UAC facility on Mars (where the portal to ‘hell’ was opened). Players will have to fight their way through waves of demons via ‘fast-paced combat’ that’s surprisingly focused on melee action.

According to gaming mega-site Polygon, who was in attendance for the demo, there’s an abundance of melee options at your disposal in Doom that we haven’t see before in the history of the game. Not only can you wield the iconic chainsaw, but you’ll also be able to actually beat on the demonic forces from beyond and tear them in half with your bare hands.

And lest you think there’s no hardware to wield in this one, think again. Polygon says that the trusty shotgun is included for use, rocket launchers can actually split demons in half, and there are a bunch of “inventive” weapons included. You’ll also be able to carry all of them as you play, in a nod to classic FPS’ of yore.

As for new stuff, context-sensitive actions like finishing moves are included, as are interesting twists to traditional conventions like finding a key for a door (you need to tear a corpse’s hand off to open it). As a Doom fan, this all sounds almost too good to be true to be honest. It’s Doom alright, but evolved. And it sounds great.

Click through to the Polygon description of the demo to see even more about what’ll be awaiting you on the shores of Mars when Doom launches on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 some time in the future.