During Bethesda’s E3 2016 press conference, Pete Hines announces that gamers can play the first level ofDoomfor free on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for one week.
E3 press conferences are usually spent looking towards the future, but Bethesda spent a good deal of its E3 2016 press conference discussing games that have already released. One such game wasDoom, the reboot that launched last month to strong reviews and sales. As announced by Bethesda during its E3 press conference, those that want to see what all the fuss is about will be able to try the newDoomfree for a limited time.
For this next week, gamers can test out the first level ofDoomas a free demo. Bethesda’s vice president of marketing Pete Hines billed this demo as a throwback to the days of shareware on PC, but that doesn’t mean console gamers are excluded. Anyone with a PS4, Xbox One, or PC can download theDoomdemo right now and play it for one week.
While many critics took issue with the execution ofDoom’smultiplayer mode, the single player campaign earned high marks. In our ownDoomreview, we praised the campaign for its exploration elements, as well as its chaotic, fast-paced gameplay. Since it seems like people have enjoyed the game’ssingle player campaignmore than its multiplayer, it makes sense for Bethesda to have the demo focus on the campaign.
Having said that, talk ofDoomatBethesda’s E3 2016 press conferenceseemed to focus more on multiplayer than anything else. It was at the event that the first major multiplayer expansion pack forDoom’s multiplayer was announced, so perhaps Bethesda should instead have had the demo focus on multiplayer, despite the criticisms the mode has received since launch.
To that end, if Bethesda wanted to give players a real taste of what to expect fromDoom, it could have been a good idea to also include someSnapMapfunctionality in the demo. If such a comprehensive demo were announced during Bethesda’s press conference, it could have generated even more buzz forDoom, possibly helping it stay near thetop of the sales charts.
Game demos used to be fairly common, but they seem to be rarity nowadays. While some may be disappointed that Bethesda is only making the demo available for a single week, it’s still better than noDoomdemo at all, and could convince on-the-fence gamers to pick it up. If thisDoomdemo proves popular enough, it may result in Bethesda creating similar demos for its other projects moving forward, so it will be interesting to see how fans respond to it.
Doomis available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
