Could Doom be VR's breakthrough title? Bethesda

Bethesda took players by surprise earlier this year when it announced virtual reality outings for two of its key titles, Fallout 4 and Doom.

These are big, established entries in two of gaming's biggest franchises, a far cry from the early, often experimental VR games than the nascent industry has so far produced. With brand recognition and Bethesda's standing – and financial clout – as a major publisher, could they revolutionise the field?


Having tested (very) early builds of both game on HTC Vive out at Gamescom, revolution seems like a distinct possibility. Both feel as though they have the potential to significantly evolve the virtual reality gaming market, bringing in players looking for familiarity and proven high-quality experience within a new field. How successful they are in this will depend greatly on how they shape up before release though.

Of the two, Doom feels closest to breaking out as a finished, playable game rather than a tech demo. With the Gamescom build split into four sections – an orienting viewer mode where you can get to grips with movement and interacting with objects, a shoot-out of escalating intensity in a darkened corridor, an arena mode in one of Doom's colossal hell levels, and a boss fight against a terrifyingly large enemy – it feels closer to being a full piece of software too.

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The Offering map from the upcoming 'Unto the Evil' DLC pack for DOOM Bethesda

Those familiar with the Vive hardware will immediately find themselves at home with Doom's mixture of actual physical human movement, thanks the Vive's room-scale VR tech, and point-and-warp mechanics to cover larger distances outside the scale of your actual boundaries. Excitingly, this is the first game WIRED has played in VR where that movement system becomes an asset to gameplay.


While the right controller is used to fire weapons, with your loud-out of sci-fi guns swapped by clicking in on the four cardinal directions of the tracker pad, the left governs warping. The mix is intuitive, and soon we were using the technique to dart behind enemies after luring them in, then lobbing a grenade in their direction. It works incredibly well in larger spaces too, rather than Doom's claustrophobic, abandoned bases, allowing us to dodge and evade while also positioning to higher or lower vantage points. Being face-to-face with the Doom demons in an immersive, accurately scaled environment is a stark reminder of the sheer size of the monsters, too – the Spider Mastermind is nightmarish when it's jumping down on top of you.

Conversely, Fallout 4's VR outing isn't as polished yet, but shows definite potential. We started on the outskirts of the Red Rocket gas station, loyal canine companion Dogmeat at our side, with a desk of weapons to choose from. Waves of enemies, from human raiders to zombies to deathclaws attack, with you shooting them down. Wasteland Boston, the post-apocalyptic game's setting, looks great in VR, but the build didn't allow us to proceed past the gas station to explore.

Bethesda

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Showcasing only the shooter mechanics left us with little idea how Fallout 4's RPG side works, although using the Vive controllers did allow us to pick up and inspect items. It's easy to imagine how they might extend to the minutiae though – accessing the Pip-boy (worn on your wrist) could bring up an essentially point-and-click interface, allowing you to control aspects like inventory management, character development, and quest logs in a similar fashion to the non-VR version of the game.

The simple fact is that the first-person shooter genre itself – particularly Doom's brand of hellishly fast action that requires lightning-quick reactions – works better in VR, relying on your own reactions to attack or run. The fact that Fallout 4 only had this element running highlights this further.

We already know that 'vanilla' Fallout 4 is a great game though. If its exploration and base-building mechanics can be transferred well to VR (on the latter, Bethesda could learn a lot from Fantastic Contraption on manipulating and building objects in a 3D VR space), along with its subtler elements such as conversations and stealth, then it could easily become an even greater experience.


Bethesda

VR developers large and small are still collectively defining the language and limitations of VR gaming, and it's here that Fallout 4 and Doom feel almost limited, as though they they want to do more, but their ambitions are straining against technological limits. As long as headsets remain physically tethered to computers, movement is going to be a problem, and neither yet looks as good as console or PC versions – the sacrifice made by having 1080p screens mere centimetres from your eyes.

Yet both, even at this early stage in their development, are engaging, impressive experiences that could prove breakthrough titles for gamers waiting for something to convince them on VR as a format. There's huge potential – it's now up to Bethesda to realise it.