On August 10th, 2018, the first gameplay footage for id software’s upcoming sequel to 2016’s reboot of the DOOM franchise was unleashed at Quakecon. The preview began with Hugo Martin (creative director) and Marty Stratton (game director) describing what they were about to reveal as “the best thing ever,” taken literally by this writer; they jumped straight into it and described exactly what fans of the DOOM franchise wanted: “killing badass demons with big guns in unbelievable places”, as the Doom Slayer, “feeling unleashed like nothing is holding you back, to have a pure unfiltered action FPS experience,” proceeding into showing the creative changes made to the Doom Slayer’s appearance (he’s now bigger and has his muscular forearms exposed for some reason and a blade on his left hand), and some of the new weapons and enemies we’ll be able to use and kill when DOOM ETERNAL is released next year. Where everyone got what they wanted, however, was in the actual gameplay footage; a gory heavy metal spectacle of precisely choreographed demon killing on an Earth that looks like it’s been devoured by exactly what you would imagine an invasion from Hell to look like. However, as much as I would like to gush and indulge in explaining my favorite video game franchise of all time, there were a few points where it felt like politics was now entering into the franchise, and now I get to combine three passions: storytelling, politics, and DOOM.

A hologram of a woman appears (or is heard) during various parts of the gameplay footage that takes place on this overrun Hell on Earth, speaking pre-recorded messages to the citizens of Earth presumably as the demons began to arrive:

“Please remain calm: you may notice a slight change in the environment; fear not, it’s all part of the plan”

“My brothers and sisters! Let’s help to make our friend’s transition into their new world a comfortable one!”

“Remember: Demon can be an offensive term, refer to them as ‘mortally challenged’”

And finally…

“Earth is the melting pot of the universe!”

All the while, you, acting as the Doom Slayer, are brutally ripping and tearing through every single living thing that comes in your path.

A raging shitstorm is about to begin as DOOM ETERNAL appears to directly challenge political correctness and open borders immigration against the backdrop of fighting ultimate evil on Earth as an infinitely-stronger-than-the-player-in-every-aspect silent alpha male hero archetype; this silent commanding and imposing presence is reinforced as the Phobos gameplay is shown: a room full of scientists and UAC workers scramble to get out of the Doom Slayer’s way as the forces of Hell are invading the martian moon, one character saying “oh my god it’s him” in a shocked voice, the Doom Slayer then walks up to a man who hasn’t noticed him yet; as he does, the man suddenly has no words to speak as the Doom Slayer approaches, backing up in his chair with a frightened expression on his face until his chair can’t move anymore; the camera pans down and the Doom Slayer grabs a red keycard hanging around the man’s neck, causing the man to shivver, close his eyes, and have an appearance of absolute terror on his face as the Doom Slayer drags him across a computer console and swipes the keycard against a screen, opening a door, and then letting go of the man, continuing on into another room; two heavily armed and imposing guards see you and one begins to shout: “Hey! Who are you? You can’t… be… here…” His commanding show of dominance and strength failing him as the Doom Slayer continues towards them, backing out of his way like the unarmed scientists previously, lowering their weapons; the Doom Slayer walks up to the one who spoke, assumingly making eye contact, before his focus is shifted on the gun in the guard’s hands, which he just takes with no resistance nor another word from either guard. And then the actual gameplay begins, where a voice warns the demons on the base of your arrival and your threat to them as you proceed to kill everything.

DOOM is not to be taken seriously, yet as the “violence in video games” fervor following the Columbine Massacre showed, and the subject’s recent resurgence as a political talking point following school shootings that occurred during the previous year, DOOM ETERNAL has positioned itself in the middle of an entirely hostile environment as the antithesis of all things politically correct in modern gaming, taking a step further and challenging additional political talking points before the game has actually been released.

Martin and Stratton know who DOOM’s audience is and what they want, and they’ve made a game that specifically caters to it, but the question is: how soon until the progressive left catches wind and decides to demonize it’s storytelling and fans? Seriously, watch the gameplay footage and ask yourself objectively: is there anything in this footage that the progressive left can’t turn into an issue? Combine that with the unconscious connection that DOOM has to Columbine, and suddenly being a fan of DOOM is going to do to you what the HRC campaign (and all of it’s cronies) did to fans of Matt Furie’s Boy’s Club. Hell, it could go the other way around, with the ”alt-right” claiming the Doom Slayer as an identity or turning it into a meme (or worse, the regular-right turning the game’s logo or the Doom Slayer’s mark into the video game equivalent of the Punisher logo), completely missing the point of the character and of the reboot: this plot is ridiculous, you know it’s ridiculous, let’s just have fun and kill some demons.

Maybe I’ll be wrong. Maybe they’ll leave DOOM alone, like they did the 2016 reboot; granted, that game really had no direct or overt political message (aside from the fact that energy scarcity on Earth lead to having to literally harvest energy from Hell), and considering how it wasn’t expected to be as big of a hit as it was because it was a reboot (meaning it had to exceed the expectations of old fans first and then bring in new players through word of mouth, a similar strategy employed with the original shareware version of DOOM back in 1993), there wouldn’t have been any reason for someone to have a political dislike of it aside from the gore, violence, and extremely overt satanic imagery (which the religious right did have when it was discovered that one of Mick Gordon’s tracks for the game contained a hidden spectrogram of pentagrams and ‘666’). This time around, however, the brand has to show it’s staying power and improvement to the same core mechanic that made the first game popular, and ultimately has to make more sales than the reboot did; perhaps this is the reason the game has come out ripping and tearing at it’s potential detractors before it’s been released, choosing instead to dive right in and start the controversy to head everything off before it’s gone on sale. God help us if consumer choice has gone so low to where companies and content creators can rely on making overt political statements to sell a product.

Regardless if such a frightening thought occurs and yet another thing I enjoy becomes an all-encompassing symbol of hate like Pepe the Frog, you have to hand it to id software for this one: provided they don’t falter against an onslaught of politically correct twitter users, bloggers, or YouTube Talking Heads boycotting the game (which they probably wouldn’t have even played in the first place), they undoubtedly captured the spirit of the Doom Slayer, made a statement in regards to the current state of gaming and people’s unrelenting fight over Sarkeesian concerns and the minutiae, and the forever unsatisfied and politicized culture of gaming, and subsequently said…

Absolutely nothing, shoving it away, and charging the hordes head-on. Exactly as it should be. Politics be damned.