Doom Eternal’s Super Shotgun
There is no weapon in DOOM as memorable, iconic, or as satisfying to use as the shotgun. I’ll die on that hill. And, clearly, so will Id Software.
I played DOOM(2016) for the first time in 2020, and as soon as I found the Super Shotgun I became obsessed with killing every demon I could with it. When Doom Eternal was released, and I discovered they had added a grappling chain to it that could launch the Doom Slayer straight towards enemy npcs and also set them on fire, I achieved what can only be described a cosmic orgasm that allowed me to transcend this mortal plane. And, it should be noted, so did everyone else who played Doom Eternal.
The Super Shotgun is, like most of the DOOM Franchise, a beautiful joke that’s as much self-parody as it is an unapologetic fist bump to the player. The first time I encounter it in Doom Eternal I don’t unlock it, or stumble across it. Instead, I’m informed by the AI Vega that the weapon is being held by the Hell Cult and guarded by demons. This itself would be enough of a beautiful reintroduction to the weapon, but when I arrive at the location having already fought through numerous hordes of enemies, and navigating the jumping platform puzzles that make-up the non-combat sections of Doom Eternal, I discover that the only way to get my weapon back is to literally control a Revenant drone and use it to fight and destroy a courtyard full of demons.
Gotta be honest, this scene was frustrating the first time I played it. I wanted my shotgun back, and the controls weren’t fun.
That was my impression the first time I played.
Having played level Cultist Base at least six times by now, I can now say with full honesty, I freaking love this section. And it’s due in no small part because of the way Doom Eternal was designed as an ever escalating tide of energy.
Any longtime player of DOOM understands the satisfaction of wielding the shotgun, and it’s not just because the Doom-Guy avatar makes a satisfied evil grin when he picks up the weapon. In Classic DOOM the player begins with nothing but a pistol and their fist, both of which are technically capable of killing the various Imps and possessed soldiers that can be found in Episode 1 Mission 1, otherwise known as E1M1. I’ve written about that level twice now, once to understand how Imps play a role in the level design, and before that I wrote a short general analysis of the level. What I never got around to was writing about how the shotgun was carefully designed as a way to increase player agency. That’s a fancy-pants way of saying, shotguns make it easier to fight and kill demons better.
And this observation isn’t anything new when I consider the genre of first person shooters (or FPS for short).
Having played through the first few hours of Resident Evil 7, I understand painfully well how armaments can play a role in one’s ability to move freely through a space. If my reader has never played the aforementioned game I’ll give a bit of context. The protagonist Ethan Winters is a man looking for his fiance Mia who went missing two years ago until an email arrives from her giving Ethan an address to find her. Of course, because it’s a Resident Evil game we discover the house is filled with victims of some bioweapon, the Baker family specifically. The first real hours of the game involve Ethan mostly running and hiding from the father Jack who is seemingly immune from any sort of real damage, and in fact the only way to explore the house for healing items, or clues to finding Mia, is either avoiding him by hiding, or else pumping him full of bullets until he drops for a few minutes. The latter option is fine, but since Resident Evil 7 is also a survival horror game, it means that ammo is scarce, and shooting Jack with handgun ammo means less for all the various monsters Ethan will encounter later on.
When Ethan eventually acquires a shotgun, it’s not that the game becomes easy, but rather moving through the house becomes easier. If I turn a corner and a Molded appears ready to eat me, a quick shotgun blast is usually enough to take it down.
Doom Eternal isn’t a survival horror videogame by any means; it has the aesthetic of a horror game. Regardless, what the Doom-Slayer and Ethan Winters have in common is that once they acquire the shotgun their ability to move about the spaces of their respective worlds increase. The weapon becomes a tool for agency of movement. And in a game like Doom Eternal, movement is everything.
Speaking of which, I have a small aside.
This’ll just take a moment. (Hopefully).
I distinctly remember the year 2020. I was just going through the process of divorce, and at a time when I was not supposed to be isolating myself from other people, literally every authority in the immediate universe told me to remain inside and not interact with other people. You see there was something called the Coronavirus, sometimes referred to as Covid-19. It had previously appeared as small whispers in various news articles from around the world, but I, like many people, didn’t pay too much attention because as long as it was only affecting people in China, Europe, Australia, and Africa, there wasn’t reason to pay it too much attention. Besides, my marriage was crumbling and I was preoccupied with that. Not too long after my ex-wife moved out, and I began learning how isolating divorce can make someone, the first few cases of Covid-19 hit the United States. Again, I still didn’t think too much about it because I was realizing how my finances were about to change dramatically. Groceries ain’t cheap. By the time the virus began infecting people in Texas, and words like “working from home” became less and less an abstract concept I recognised how being able to move freely in the world was a cherished good I should have appreciated while I had it.
In the midst of all this change I had begun talking to a woman (who would later become my girlfriend) and she was talking to me about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This led me to discover the Doom-Guy-Isabel meme and I realized soon enough that I wanted to play DOOM (2016) and then not long thereafter, Doom Eternal. I borrowed my Father’s Playstation 4, bought DOOM(2016) off eBay, and got to ripping and tearing.
Apart from my intellectual response, DOOM(2016) and Doom Eternal were an emotional balm at a time when I was probably at my lowest. The world was fucked. I was alone in my house. And I couldn’t move freely anywhere, except for the ARC facility on Mars, and later in the various dimensional planes of Doom Eternal.
It’s absurd, but the Super-Shotgun managed to preserve my sanity and emotional well being.
When talking about any videogame that falls within the genre of first-person-shooter, it has to be understood that guns are, simply put, the tools of interaction within the software. It’s difficult to think of a firearm this way, at least if you live in the United States where mass-shootings are a daily occurrence as of this writing. But any and all videogames that allow players to control avatars have to approach the game with this mindset. Stripping everything down, the first person shooter usually amounts to an obstacle course, and firearms then are the tools which make navigating this space easier. Eliminating enemy npcs(non playable characters) is the way to move forward, and the gun is the means of removing the obstacles which impede movement.
It stands to reason then that the better the gun, the easier it is to move.
Doom Eternal is a game that gives the player plenty of guns to use, and while there is a rocket launcher, a chain gun, a plasma rifle, and even the BFG (Big Freaking Gun), none of these tools/weapons are as satisfying to use as the Super Shotgun. Part of this is simply due to nostalgia and legacy. The shotgun was the first “upgraded” weapon in Classic DOOM, and even Doom(2016) started the player with a simple pistol before providing them the combat shotgun. In Doom Eternal the combat shotgun is the first weapon the player will have access to until the third level when they are given the chance to reclaim their weapon from the demonic cult. The act of liberating the gun gives the player a heightened sense of purpose. It’s not just a gun, it’s a gun I earned.
And then, of course, it’s really really fun to shoot.
DOOM has always set a standard when it comes to FPS videogames because the weapons in DOOM are visually and auditorily beautiful. The design elements of each of the weapons of Doom Eternal reveal the depth of thought that went into making the game, and each weapon looks like a distilled and polished gem of a firearm, so much so that trying to play other first-person-shooters can’t compare. It doesn’t matter that I can pick up hundreds of different assault rifles in Modern Warfare, none of them look as pretty as the plasma rifle or even the basic combat shotgun.
The Super-shotgun looks like it emerged from a barrel of finely aged whiskey.
The Super-shotgun looks like it’s metallurgic splendor was cooled with smoke from expertly crafted cigars.
The Super Shotgun looks like the relief carved into its barrel was executed by a renaissance sculptor rivaling Michelangelo.
The Super-Shotgun is the pure boiled essence of Doom Eternal.
The Super-shotgun owns.
And mercy, it sounds beautiful.
DOOM has always been an auditorily splendid game from the first cock of the first shotgun. Literally three decades after the first player cocked the shotgun in their hands, DOOM ‘s audio has been about the shrieking of demons being perforated with lead, and the satisfying “cha-chunk” of the Doom-Slayer reloading. Doom Eternal symbolically poured gasoline over an already sumptuous fire when someone in the design committee said, “Hey, what if we add a chain?” To which I can only assume some beautiful human responded, “What if we added a hook-shot to that chain?”
Firing the Super-Shotgun alone is delightful to listen to, but the sound of its chain pulling me towards a Demon is practically a symphony that ultimately ends in the familiar tone of the shotgun’s blast.
Doom Eternal perfected a design which was, already, the most enjoyable and iconic element of their videogame franchise. It’s design, it’s sound, it’s interface all coallesses into one of the best tools in any videogame to date.
A tool is, ultimately, an extension of a human being’s capacity to interact with their world. Hammers drive nails into wood. Cars transport us from place to place. Computers calculate and collate data at speeds that surpass human beings, thus allowing engineers and scientists faster tracks to improve and expand knowledge.
The Super-shotgun obliterates demons, and it does so spectacularly.
Again, the design of a tool should consider, above all things, how best to expand the user’s agency, and impact their ability to alter the world. Stepping out onto a field of Cacodemons, Imps, possessed soldiers, Marauders, and Barons of Hell I have total faith that the Super-Shotgun will see me through this, because, much like the Doom Slayer, it exists to Rip and Tear, until it is done.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
6.10.2024
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