An analysis of the three-second Doom teaser

Sing the Doom song

Ian saw last year's Doom reveal at QuakeCon, and related the experience to those of us not in the room, but now we have our own first-hand account. Today, Bethesda released a lengthy 11 second teaser which features about three full seconds of game footage. Grab a single piece of popcorn and join us for an in-depth analysis of this revealing look at the new Doom.

Shot of a shotgun

We open on a close-up of a break-action shotgun, lingering on the mechanism for a leisurely fraction of a second. Our eyes explore the wear in the breech—this gun hasn't been well-maintained, perhaps found after a long, dusty sleep—and then a pair of ejected shells sail toward the camera for a cool 50 milliseconds. What is this, Boyhood? Get to the action!

The shotgun was loaded by a hand

Bam! Did you catch it? This new pair of shells didn't just teleport into the gun's barrels, nor did an eagle swoop by, depositing them with its claws. By observing a single frame of animation, we can clearly see that they're placed there by a hand before the hinge pin snaps shut. It's amazing what you can miss even when it's right there in front of you for 80 or so milliseconds.

Hell demons confirmed

It wouldn't be Doom without hell demons! Don't worry any longer: as you can clearly see in this frame from the teaser, hell demons are back. This particular monster looks like a Revenant. You can tell by the lack of musculature on his face, and because someone has inexplicably fit armor and weapons onto him. Who made the armor? Why did they put it on this demon and how did they get him to sit still long enough? These are some of Doom's greatest mysteries.

A rocket?

Milliseconds ago, our hero—who we're currently guessing is an 18-year-old named Pegi—was loading a shotgun, but here comes a rocket, oddly streaking past the Revenant after a trail of smoke. Doesn't the rocket usually come before the trail of smoke? And what happened to the shotgun? Was the person loading a shotgun somewhere else? Is that person even in the game? Even the most bounteous teasers leave some questions unanswered.

Return fire

Looks like this demon isn't interested in being target practice! Fans can finally rest easy: enemies in Doom are going to fight back. It's nice to know for sure, and with that question answered, the forums will probably turn toward a new question: why isn't everything red? Doom takes place on Mars, and we know because of science that everything on Mars is bright red. For now, we can only speculate!

Whoa there, buddy!

This guy is really pissed, as you can see from his face. But do you notice something else about this still? There are now two rocket streaks. We were mistaken before: a rocket had already been fired. It's this kind of detail that hardcore Doom fans will never miss, but might go right over the heads of casual observers.

Wood for thought

What are those stakes in the background made of? You might think that they're metal or some otherworldly stone, but have you considered that if you flip the word 'DOOM' vertically and horizontally it spells 'WOOD'?

What could it mean?

Did Bethesda really think we wouldn't notice that "Worldwide" is an anagram of "Wow, riddle"? The teaser's final message is cryptic to say the least, but we're up for the challenge.

Looking further, we find that "Bethesda E3 Showcase" decodes to "These Bad E3 Cash Woes," which suggests they've spent a lot of money on something that'll happen at E3 next month. We're betting it's a reference to Bethesda's E3 press conference. If you still need to see more Doom, there's a good chance that's where you'll see it.