Without spoiling too much, there’s plenty for fans of the Doom series to see here. Your everyday hell-possessed soldier and Cacodemon (the morbid flying heads) can be seen in the various vistas. And there’s a good sense of pacing, as Hardcastle skips through the later areas to save time, fast-forwarding to a very special encounter.
Claymation is essentially stop-motion with clay figures. Individual photographs are sequenced to make for either short or long movies. This time around, however, there’s a ton of violence included as well. Just like you’d expect from a claymation short featuring a feline soldier on Mars, all of your favorite monsters are included. Baddies that appear from the games include the hell-possessed soldiers and the Revenant that first appeared in Doom II.
The video has been recorded with the support of Bethesda Softworks, and we’re sure it doesn’t mind a little extra visibility in preparation for the impending release of the next installment in the franchise. Titled Doom, the developer is looking to reboot the franchise, with an aesthetic and pace that more closely resembles the original game, rather than the Doom 3 horror flop. Hardcastle’s claymation seems to take inspiration from the preview footage of the game, with close-ups of monster brains blown to bits and brutal melee executions.
But the dedication and attention to detail in this movie is impressive. Everything from the lighting and special effects to the buckets of blood seem to reflect a particular love for the series. Small details like adding an actual voice for the cat (“nyaaa”) never sounded so badass, and the joy of finding new weapons to obliterate your enemies with do a wonderful job of portraying a similar atmosphere to that of the upcoming game.
Doom is scheduled for a release on May 13, 2016. Launching platforms include Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
