Doom can claim the honor of being one of the most famous first-person shooter franchises that can be found out there. After all, while the first Doom wasn’t the first title to come out in its particular niche of the video game market, it was one of the pioneers that carved out a path for subsequent titles to follow. Examples of its innovations ranged from 3D graphics to built-in support for mods. On the whole, Doom proved to be very, very popular. In fact, it was so popular that institutions such as Intel and Carnegie Mellon University had to put in place new policies that prohibited people from playing Doom during their work-hours, both because of the time and the computing resources that it was eating up. Moreover, Doom proved to be very, very controversial because of its hellish setting as well as its high level of graphic violence, which combined to ensure that it would become one of the first titles to receive a “M” rating from the ESRB. In particular, it is worth noting that Doom became the subject of a second wave of controversy in the late 1990s when it came out that the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre had been enthusiastic Doom players.
Regardless, Doom is interesting in that it is one of those rare franchises that have managed to secure success on a consistent basis. In short, Doom II was a hit; Doom 3 was a hit; Doom 3’s expansion pack called Resurrection of Evil was a hit; and the very recent Doom reboot in 2016 was a hit as well. On top of this, it should be mentioned that while the first Doom paved the path for its successors, it wasn’t the peak of the franchise as a whole. Instead, that would be Doom 3, which managed to sell more than 3.5 million copies from its release in August of 2004 to the start of 2007. As such, it should be clear that while the Doom franchise has seen both ups and downs, it isn’t what anyone would call a franchise on its way down.
Have You Seen the New Trailer For the New Doom Movie?
Naturally, the success of the Doom franchise has resulted in a lot of related merchandise. For example, there have been a number of spinoff titles such as Doom Resurrection and Doom Pinball. Likewise, there have been books, comic books, and other products. However, what is most relevant now would be the Doom movie that came out in 2005, which is set to receive a reboot called Doom: Annihilation in 2019. Those who are curious about the upcoming Doom: Annihilation can check out a recent trailer (above) that was released for it. Said trailer is neither particularly long nor particularly informative, but it should nonetheless tell interested individuals much about what they want to know. Here are some of the things that we know about Doom: Annihilation based on this as well as other sources:
The Story Is Pretty Much What One Would Expect
The story for the upcoming movie seems to be pretty much what one would expect when it comes to the broad strokes. In short, some people with no sense whatsoever have opened up a literal portal to hell in a Martian moon base. As a result, some space marines are now responsible for stopping them before they can spread to other places where humans live.
No Doom Guy
Unfortunately, it seems that Doom: Annihilation won’t be featuring the Doomguy, who might be better-known as the Doom Slayer for those who are most familiar with the rebooted titles. For those who are unfamiliar, the Doomguy would be the space marine who serves as the player character for the Doom franchise, meaning that he is one of the most iconic video game characters that can be found out there. Generally speaking, the Doomguy isn’t characterized much because he is meant to serve as a sort of player surrogate, but that hasn’t stopped interested individuals from latching on to the various bits of information that have come out. For example, visual cues make it clear that the character is someone who holds up surprisingly well while being attacked by wave after waves of actual demons, though not so much so that he can’t show fear, shock, and happiness under certain circumstances. Likewise, it is amusing to note that some players think that the Doomguy is descended from Wolfenstein’s B.J. Blazkowicz, which is based on a single line from the latter’s run-in with the Doom Cyberdemon. This process has intensified in recent times with the Doom reboot because it has made more of an effort with the lore, meaning that the notable lack of Doomguy in the upcoming Doom: Annihilation is a serious mistake.
Pretty Low-Budget
Those who have seen the trailer should have realized that this movie is much lower-budget than its predecessor, which was made on a budget of $60 million. This is reflected in the cast, who are lower-profile than the first Doom movie’s cast, which included Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike.
Immediate Release on Home Media
The smaller amount of resources put into Doom: Annihilation is even more evident in the fact that it is being released right to home media rather than to movie theaters, which says a lot about the expectations for the movie. Combined with the fact that the upcoming movie has received very little marketing, one can’t help but wonder whether it was meant to enable Universal Pictures to hold on to the movie rights rather than make a profit.
No id Software Involvement
On a final note, the reaction to Doom: Annihilation has been pretty bad, so much so that id Software has outright stated that it isn’t involved with the making of the movie in an effort to distance itself from the fan backlash. This makes perfect sense because it has an upcoming Doom title called Doom Eternal set to come out on November of 2019, thus creating particularly strong incentive for it to avoid being tarred with the same brush. Speaking bluntly, this is further evidence that Doom fans might want to stay away from Doom: Annihilation, lest they end up becoming disgruntled by what they see.
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