• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

god damn this DOOM box art is bad

J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
Remove the DOOM logo and you'd hardly guess it's the cover of a Doom game.

I agree with this. Without the logo in addition to the over-designed armor, if you told me this was a Crysis 4 cover I would have believed you.

4pKCwXb.jpg
 

megalowho

Member
Aside from the iconic logo that's about as generic as box art gets, looks ready for the bargain bin. Thanks marketing teams and focus groups for being predictably dull and conservative. Agree that just the logo on black makes a more striking impression.
 

Stiler

Member
The original Doom boxart was iconic.

This just looks about as "Generic" as you can get, there is absolutely nothing to pull peoples attention to the box or make it stand out.
 
I don't get the obsession over the 90's art design. I don't want that. Any of that.

I'm not crazy over the new Doom's box art, but I surely don't hate it as much as you folks. It could be better, but the thing I absolutely don't want is 90's styled box art.
See, when you say "90s art design", I think "commissioned a known fantasy or science-fiction artist to do a hand-drawn cover with personality" - that is, what id did with Doom and Doom 2, hiring the late Don Ivan Punchatz and the not-late Gerald Brom, respectively, or those hand-drawn film posters for, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark or similar. That shit's great; why wouldn't I want that?

Unless you mean things like that weird, impish Mega Man design Capcom was fond of using up until Mega Man 8. 90s box arts did have their downsides, admittedly.
 

pigmemonkey

Neo Member
Wrong. I've been a fan since playing the first episode on shareware and I want Doom artwork and design to go back to being heavy metal-as-fuck. Doom3 was an interesting detour for the series but just that, and if they were ever serious about trying to bridge the classic doom gameplay with modern niceties...well, it certainly doesn't show.

This looks like the shooter version of an elder scrolls game. No doubt that means the easily led plebs will eat up this garbage while the rest of us are scratching our heads wondering why anyone would enjoy something so bland and uninteresting.

I respect your opinion even though you don't respect mine. Just because I don't mind the box art doesn't mean I am a "easily led pleb."
 

SomTervo

Member
I like it because it rings of the OG DOOM box art.

Even if, by any normal and modern standards, it's weak af. The DOOM-style pulpiness carries it for me.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
But the cover art is not the PS4 game tile.

Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not? I was hoping to see the Deluxe for Battlefront, but it was the pic without the fonts of the regular edition.

Hopefully it just says DOOM, and that is it.
 

10k

Banned
Marketing Manager: Hey guys, so the Internet has really been ragging on the trend of cover arts featuring blue and orange and white male soldiers on the cover. We need to be edgy and different! Any ideas?

Lee: Yeah what about we do a cover like the original doom with a soldier on a hill shooting monsters, capturing the feel and atmosphere of the game? Maybe a red background time to represent blood, anger and demons.

Marketing Manager: God dammit Lee, get out. Just get the fuck out. That's fucking terrible. Nobody wants to see that artistic shit.

Chad: How about we keep the orange but instead of using blue we use piss yellow? You know, golden shower that shit. Gold is good right? And we put a generic space marine on the cover with a helmet so he isn't just some white guy like other covers.

Marketing Manager: That's fucken brilliant! Well done. This is why we pay you the big bucks, Chad. You see Lee, that's a good idea. Take notes.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
I like it because it rings of the OG DOOM box art.

Even if, by any normal and modern standards, it's weak af. The DOOM-style pulpiness carries it for me.

I don't think this is true at all...it just rings of generic ass FPS cover. Where are the exposed arms? Where are the ripped abs? Why is he not blasting an enemy in the face with that shotgun?
 

jelly

Member
I don't understand this kind of marketing, surely you want it to stand out and look cool, not dull, boring and like others.
 

Breads

Banned
It's without taste or depth but the art isn't bad.

Nor is Doom guy brooding.

Or walking away from anything.

(how did you divine this anyway?)

I think it's on par with most box arts really.

Did Bloodborne have as bad a negative reaction? Because the doom design looks better than that.

e:

I'd rather just have the logo and a black background.

That's what I was thinking. Simple and effective.
 
Yup that's the DOOM that we know and love. Show this cover to someone in the 90s and will immediately think of DOOM.


Is making a box art really hard? This lazy trend started back in the late 00s.
 

Kinyou

Member
Guy with big gun is perfectly fine for doom. The armor design is what it makes it weird. What happened to the neck?
 

sgjackson

Member
i think it's boring other than the juxtaposition of the space marine and the double-barreled shotgun, but box art generally isn't targeted at the kind of person who is connected enough to games as a hobby to post on gaf anyway so i don't get too beat up about it.
 
Normally I hate box arts like this (I actually stayed away from Dark Souls for a while despite the praise because the box made it look just so terribly uninteresting) but I think it kind of works for a game that says DOOM on the front. Like you know what I mean? It's not really a nuanced series, and this works well in like a self aware kind of way.

My big problem with it, and with the games visuals in general, is that yellow color. Let's see some red on that box. Actually even that color I'm liking the more I look at it. The white title is a nice touch. Just fix that weird helmet. Have the guy be screaming.

Guy with big gun is perfectly fine for doom. The armor design is what it makes it weird. What happened to the neck?
Gotta agree with this too though.
 

Bulbasaur

Banned
In 20 years this prolific and generic "man with weapon" cover art style is going to be as cringeworthy as early 90's cover art.
 
It really is the worst I've seen in a LONG time.

I can't imagine what they were thinking. It's so boring and dull. Your eyes would just skip right over it at a store.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
They need to get rid of the chin down, eyes up thing. It sorta nose dives into the DOOM font. They should give one the impression that this isn't another generic shooter with pretentious overtones. Who wants to always reference the fall-back guy every single time a video game publisher creates their cover art?
 
Top Bottom