“Rip and tear until it is done!” With those words, Doom Eternal kicked off one of the best games of 2020 and a proper sequel to a much-beloved franchise. Through the hordes of hell and beyond, did players guide the Slayer’s carnage before saving Earth in the climactic showdown between two titans.
Yet the journey is not over as two single-player expansions are still slated for release. Eternal’s narration left room for the expansions to both advance or fill in the details of what occurred when the Slayer first arrived back on Earth following the conclusion of Doom 2016. Building hype for the first expansion id has posted two out of context screenshots. Though the potential remains that the expansion could feature prequel content, the context of one of the screenshots points to the first expansion picking up where the main campaign left off.
sneak peak screenshots from our first upcoming campaign DLC pic.twitter.com/9cOovcZ1Dt
— DOOM (@DOOM) May 8, 2020
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—Spoiler Warning—
Neither screenshot presents a slew of information, but through what we know about the main game and the environmental details show much can be surmised.
In the first, we see the realm of Urdak crumbling with homages to it being swept away by cosmic winds. During the main campaign, the Slayer slew the Khan Maykr, who had led the Maykr civilization for untold millennia.
Degeneration is something all Maykr desire to avoid and the reason why Maykr Khan made a pact with the Dark Lord of Hell to harvest a portion of the ardent energy created by the invasion of worlds by the soulless forces of hell. Despite their best efforts before this agreement was made the process eventually occurs, and they die. When this happens to the Khan, the Father, or what is left of the father’s psyche in their neural matrix, creates a new Khan. This process was interrupted by the Seraphim stealing the Father, resulting in an inability of the Maykrs to create a new Khan. Without a successor and a steady supply of ardent energy, the realm of Urdak was forewarned to fall into ruin.
This destruction can be seen occurring in the first screenshot. Beyond the ruination of Urdak and the ramifications of the collapse of the Maykr civilization, will be the conclusion to whether VEGA was indeed the Father. Along with whether Samuel Hayden is, in fact, Samur Maykr, aka the Seraphim as hinted at strongly during the main campaign.
Where the first screenshot hints at much, the second doesn’t. We see a human facility in the middle of the ocean, but without context, we cannot even begin to guess why we are heading to this location.
Maybe it is to wipe out the remnant of the cult that brought hell’s invasion to Earth? Perhaps it is to retrieve a McGuffin? Who knows, but we can see some functional human technology, which at the very least will be splendid eye candy for world-building.
