Welcome to DOOM: VFR, the most unnecessary colon in a game title yet. But if you're familiar with what the "F" in the BFG acronym stands for in DOOM, then I'm guessing you can figure out what VFR stands for when it comes to VR.
This game is just a bloody mess. Not because of the programming—which is stellar—but because of the bits and pieces of demons "scattered from Hell to breakfast," as my wise and eloquent father used to say. In VR, you get to experience just a little bit more firsthand this hellscape of devils, shotguns, and those floaty eyeball things that Bethesda keeps trying to cute-ify in its marketing materials, though I ain't buyin' it.
You've got a pair of disembodied hands, you've got the hellmouth to deal with, and you've got those adorable little statuettes to collect. This isn't snap-to teleportation VR. You're very much running and gunning your way through the place. So hopefully Bethesda has put their best engineers on the job to keep as few people as possible hurling their breakfast cereal onto the floor, adding to the viscera splattered all over the screen.
Read Sean Colleli's review of DOOM if you want to get schooled about the DOOM series, while also learning why DOOM is already a fantastic 9 out of 10.
No solid date yet, but Bethesda's Vice President of PR and Marketing, Pete Hines, assures us that everything they've shown at this 2017 Bethesda E3 Conference is coming out sometime this year. DOOM: VFR is built for PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive.
Prepare for Virtual Carnage with DOOM: VFR
If you flinched the first time you saw a ravenous Pinky Demon charging at you in last year’s critically acclaimed DOOM, wait till you get up close and even more personal with rampaging demons in DOOM: VFR. Featured at Bethesda’s E3 2017 Showcase, DOOM: VFR is a new virtual reality game from legendary developer id Software, coming this year to PlayStation VR and VIVE platforms.
In DOOM: VFR, the demons from Hell have wiped out everyone inside the UAC’s Martian research facility – except you. As the last known human survivor, you have to restore operational stability and stop the demonic invasion. There’s only one catch: you’re about to be slaughtered yourself. But thanks to a top-secret UAC research program, your consciousness has been transferred to an artificial intelligence matrix. Along with all kinds classic DOOM weaponry, you’ll be armed with the ability to Teleport and Jet-Strafe so you can move fast in combat and quickly close the distance between you and the demons, then blow them to bloody bits with your Tele-frag ability. As an A.I. operative, you can also transfer your consciousness to UAC devices and robots to solve puzzles and gain access to new areas (including two never-before-seen sections of the UAC Martian Research Facility).
“Developing a DOOM game specifically for virtual reality has provided an exciting opportunity to not only surround players with the world of DOOM like never before, but also let them experience and explore the UAC and Hell in new ways, playing as new characters with totally unique tools and abilities,” says Robert Duffy, CTO at id Software.
“Since the hallmark of any DOOM game is combat, we’ve made it our top priority to ensure moving, shooting and killing demons with overwhelming force in virtual reality is as brutal and rewarding as it is in the DOOM experience that fans have been enjoying for the past year,” adds DOOM Game Director Marty Stratton.
With brutal combat from the studio that pioneered the first-person shooter genre as well as modern VR, DOOM: VFR brings id Software’s trademark carnage to a standalone VR game. See Mars and Hell from a new perspective, and lay waste to an army of demonic foes in a definitive adventure custom built for PlayStation VR and VIVE.
