Things have worked out pretty well for those who put their faith in Wolfenstein: The New Order early. First, they got an FPS that professional games critics called Steve Hogarty dubbed a “very good shooting game”, about “shooting all the men so that all their blood comes out”. And secondly, they got a distant promise of early access to a build of the new Doom multiplayer.
The latter’s closing on us like a player-controlled revenant.
id and their corporate advocates at Bethesda will start pulling PC players from the New Order pre-order pool “in the coming months”, the pair revealed at QuakeCon.
Steam pre-orderers will already be registered – but if you bought your copy from elsewhere, here’s your reminder to redeem the Doom code that came with Wolfenstein.
For the rest of us, there’ll be another alpha “relatively soon” with participants drawn at random – and a wider-scale multiplayer beta next year before Doom’s release.
Reports from QuakeCon describe 4v4 combat that doesn’t need no run toggle – because it’s breakneck by default. That momentum can be combined with double-jumps to take advantage of the verticality in the maps – which are littered with health and armour pick-ups.
There’s no cover to be found – just dodging, shooting, and those jaw-snapping melee takedowns that elicited woops, grins and groans at E3. Each player gets a loadout of two weapons and a special item, which range from frag grenades to personal teleporters.
And you can play as a revenant. From time to time, a pentagram will appear on the map, with its position telegraphed to every player. The winner of the inevitable shootout will enjoy a spell as the rocket-wielding skeleton, and battlelines will shift accordingly.
Goodness me, Doom in multiplayer. And nobody has to drill holes for cables in their dorm walls this time. Think you’ll partake?