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Don’t Judge DOOM by Its Awful Cover

Don’t Judge DOOM by Its Awful Cover

One of the interesting things about DOOM is that it was originally DOOM 4 – a sequel that suddenly transformed into a reboot. This incarnation of DOOM is not a new concept, and, unlike its highly revered ancestor, is not going to revolutionize the FPS genre. In my impression piece for the preview build shown off at last year’s QuakeCon, I described how impressed I was with the game for feeling retro without looking retro; I love the push-forward gameplay that sacrifices the questionable realism of modern shooters. I can’t wait to play it when it comes out, and in the meantime I try to excitedly explain to my friends at lunch why they should check it out.

And what artwork did id Software commission in order to elicit raw excitement for such quick-paced, visceral gameplay from its legion of fans? Well, take a look at the feature image if, for some reason, you haven’t already; I won’t blame you if you require a few moments to shake your head in disappointment before you continue reading.

DOOM is not the only victim to such a boring art style: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, and most other popular franchises seem intent on just slapping their lead, probably male protagonist on a non-descript grey or brown background. Although the artist for DOOM at least used used warmer colors for the background, I don’t immediately associate the aura with anything hellish. The main character, as is traditional for the series, is supposed to be a space marine, and I won’t fault it for that; however, because the scene depicted in the artwork is so inactive, I wouldn’t be too surprised if he were confused for a soldier from any franchise starring space marines: Halo , Warhammer – take your pick.

In comparison, the boxart for the original DOOM also featured a non-descript space marine, but at least the picture depicts some action. The character is clearly in Hell, and fighting for his life against the many demons he’ll encounter. What has happened since then, and why aren’t modern games displaying dynamic, colorful works of art on their boxes?

Don’t Judge DOOM by Its Awful Cover

Focus testing, apparently; gotta appeal to the 18-34 male demographic, I guess. According to Erik Kain of Forbes, who compiled a list of quotes from writers of websites who share the same opinion as me, DOOM ’s unimpressive artwork reflects what Ken Levine said about Bioshock Infinite ’s box art, which featured only one of the two main characters (and it wasn’t Elizabeth).

“I looked at the cover art for BioShock 1 , which I was heavily involved with and love, I adored. And I tried to step back and say, if I’m just some guy, some frat guy, I love games but don’t pay attention to them… if I saw the cover of that box, what would I think? And I would think, this is a game about a robot and a little girl. That’s what I would think. I was trying to be honest with myself. Trust me, I was heavily involved with the creation of those characters and I love them.”

I think that’s a poor reason to exclude Elizabeth, who is of equal importance to the story, but for the sake of argument, I’ll entertain the idea of appealing to the male demographic who may or may not be familiar with Cheat Code Central, let alone IGN, to keep up with their gaming news – that the only way to appeal to the “bros” is to plaster pictures of men on the covers of video games. Irrational Software and id Software did their marketing homework, so they know their terrible box art contributes to the maximization of profits. This just makes me wonder why a lone male character, posing for a photo before brutally murdering everyone in his way, is appealing to those who only play games on occasion? I would think that having every box art conforming to a single style would only make the product less visible, less catchy to consumers, but maybe it’s intended to denote similar quality to the most respected franchises?

If that’s the reason, then fair enough. I suppose we have many more years of cloying box art to look forward to. It’s just a shame that, as in DOOM ’s case, this type of art style will always fail to communicate what makes the games so special, let alone what they’re about.

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