The new Doom teaser is called “Multiplayer Maps Explored,” but I think that's overstating it a bit. After all, it's hard to get much exploration done when you've got 43 seconds to cover nine different maps. Over at Bethesda.net, however, there's a slightly more detailed breakdown of Doom's deadly delves, as well as a few notes about some of the surprises they'll contain.
First of all, the maps:
- Excavation: A modest-sized UAC mining outpost. Watch out for the rock grinder!
- Infernal: A mid-sized Hell map with both interior and exterior elements. Lots of platforms and chasms, along with teleporters.
- Chasm: This massive map takes you deep below the polar ice caps of Mars. A great place to play Freeze Tag.
- Disposal: This smaller map is the main waste processing facility for the UAC research and residential complexes. Unsurprisingly, it’s full of radioactive slime.
- Helix: This is where they experiment on demons and develop advanced weaponry. Which, naturally, makes it perfect for a quick round of Clan Arena.
- Perdition: Disjointed and sadistic, this ancient arena is populated by the agonized moans of unfortunate souls who have suffered within its realm.
- Sacrilegious: Set within a fracture of Hell, this map offers clear lines of sight. Move fast… or die faster.
- Heatwave: An industrial UAC facility with glistening halls that will soon be slicked with human (and demon) blood.
- Beneath: Before being beamed to Earth, the energies of Hell are harnessed in this symmetrical and cavernous location.
Some maps will contain teleporters and/or bounce pads, which will be usable by both humans and demons. There will be explosive barrels, as you'd expect from a Doom game, and also “hazard canisters,” which explode but also leave behind a glowing green slime that does damage to anyone unlucky enough to step in it. Radioactive slime, fire, and energy/plasma hazards will do damage to humans, but demons will be immune; lava and “pits of death,” on the other hand, are insta-kills for everyone.
“You’ll need to stay in constant motion to stay alive; every map is constructed to keep the action brutally fast-paced,” Bethesda wrote. “These multi-tiered combat arenas are littered with hazards, and packed with items that can turn the tide of combat at a moment’s notice. And while they all have secrets for you to uncover, none of them are built to allow for easy sniping or hiding points.”
The Doom closed beta, accessible to people who preordered Wolfenstein: The New Order, will kick off at 10 pm ET on March 31 and run until 11:59 pm ET on April 3. The full game is set to come out on May 13.
