The upcoming beta for DOOM starts on April 15 and some new details have emerged on what gamers can expect to experience when they get their hands on the beta in the next couple of days. The game will feature a buffet of weapons across the limited inclusion of only two maps.
IGN rolled out the details of the beta along with id Software's newest trailer for the upcoming first-person shooter, as well as revealing that pre-loading the beta starts on April 12th, the beta itself will open on April 15th and it will run through April 17th. You can check out the trailer below.
As mentioned, only two of the maps from the game's bevy of map options will be present. The two maps are medium sized deathmatch arenas Heatwave and Infernal. If you've been watching the YouTube videos of the limited closed alpha test of DOOM then you've likely already seen the two maps a good bit from the thorough gameplay sessions up and available for public viewing.
The two maps are only accessible in two modes, Team Deathmatch and Warpath. The first mode is fairly self-explanatory. The second mode, Warpath, sees a randomized zone that moves around the map that requires players to follow the trail and get to the zone in order to earn points. It's identical to the moving King of the Hill mode in Halo.
While the modes and maps are fairly limited for data acquisition and monitoring purposes, id Software has opened up the weapons quite a bit, giving gamers a nice range of different weapons to get in their fill of ultra-violence.
The weapons made available in DOOM includes the Rocket Launcher, Plasma Rifle, Super Shotgun, Vortex Rifle, Static Rifle, Heavy Assault Rifle, and the Lightning Gun. Special weapons like the Gauss Cannon is also available along with the Revenant demon power-up.
Equipment will be limited to the frag grenade, teleporter and the siphon grenade. I'm not entirely sure what the siphon grenade does but I'm sure once the beta gets underway we'll get a better idea of the weapon's potential.
Strangely id Software has been keeping a lot of the features and gameplay of DOOM somewhat under wraps. They haven't been flaunting it around all over the place. So far the only major criticism is that the game isn't fast enough, but I think it's fast enough. Not everything has to be sped up like Brutal DOOM,which is so fast and so hard that it almost becomes tedious to play at times and strips some of the fast-paced enjoyment out of the standard DOOM experience.
Nevertheless, the gore, the gunplay, the levels (from what's been on display) and the graphics and animations all look pretty good so far. I'm definitely interested in seeing more of DOOM leading up to its May 13th release on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The multiplayer beta will run from April 15 to April 17 on home consoles and PC.
