Gamescom’s opening night has wrapped up, and while the hype was not high all night, there were some big announcements made. One of the biggest announcements from Gamescom’s opening night was more concrete news about Doom Eternal‘s DLC, specifically its release date. The DLC, titled The Ancient Gods, is set to release its first half on October 20, and it’s a big one.
Doom Eternal was praised by critics upon release. As a followup to the remake of Doom released in 2016, it improved and expanded on almost everything from the original. While the story was fleshed out and made slightly harder to follow, the gameplay was smooth as silk, and the visuals were satisfying in all the goriest, most destructive ways.
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With all this going for Doom Eternal, it is understandable why The Ancient Gods has players riled up. There is a lot to know about The Ancient Gods, but here are the basics. Promising an expansion on everything players loved about Doom Eternal, it continues the story from where the initial game left off.
The first part of The Ancient Gods has several new enemy types to battle, as well as several new levels to battle them in. However, what might be the most shocking aspect of The Ancient Gods was announced even more recently. According to executive producer Marty Stratton, players don’t actually need to own Doom Eternal to purchase The Ancient Gods part 1, or part 2 when it comes out.
The DLC is, according to Stratton, very expansive. It has its own story and its own self-contained levels, so it was decided to make it available even to players who don’t own Doom Eternal. The main reason was apparently to let the DLC reach the widest audience possible, which is a good call. Not everyone has money to spend on Doom Eternal just to get the full DLC experience just now, especially with the next console generation on the horizon. When The Ancient Gods drops in October, it may very well bring a whole new crowd to Doom with a smaller, more affordable sample of what the main games have.
Then again, based on what Stratton has said, it might not be foolish to think of both parts of the DLC, taken together, as their own game. Apparently, The Ancient Gods is so expansive that it may as well be its own piece, rather than just an add-on. Considering The Ancient Gods part 2 may release as early as March, this could mean an almost completely new Doom game much sooner than many anticipated.
Obviously, it will not be a fully new Doom game since it was built on the back of Doom Eternal, and thus has several restrictions. There will be no new weapons, and odds are there will be fewer jaw-dropping new assets in levels or even the new enemies. Still, if the game runs as smoothly as Doom Eternal, players will have few reasons to complain. After all, when Doom Eternal is cool enough, it can run at 1,000 FPS.
Doom Eternal is available for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia, with Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions in development. The Ancient Gods: Part 1 will be available on October 20, 2020.
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Source: PCGamesN
