Doom Eternal and the Artistic Value of Cheat Codes

I guess spoiler warning is that a thing for doom games I I guess it is now doom eternal is a fun game it's also an annoying game when that Marauder shows up with his Ghost Dog and then I kill it and he immediately spawns it again and like can you just stop for a second no nope nope nope Marauder aside this game has some fun new mechanics like the meathook it's got some incredible level design with gorgeous new locations it has a story god huge guts kill them must kill them all for some reason but one of my favorite additions is the collectable cheat codes now cheat codes get a bad rap but I believe that doom eternal not only demonstrates the gameplay value of cheat codes but the artistic value as well [Music] now right off the bat I want to clarify I'm going to talk about developer added cheat codes if you use an aimbot software to win a game like overwatch you're kind of trash that sucks don't do it and maybe someday I'll do something about mods which I think can be a form of cheating I would argue perhaps that things like the game shark and the game genie were early forms of game mods but what I'm specifically talking about are cheats included by developers as part of the game that ships to players and every game that has them does them a bit differently in doom eternal cheat codes work like this throughout the level you can find collectibles like toys or lore dumps but this game adds cheat codes that you can find in the form of floppy disks these unlock optional cheats you can access to replay levels that you've already completed some of them are named after codes that would be familiar to players of the classic doom like iddqd or idk if a while iddqd turned on god mode in the classic games here it permanently activates the temporary armor that you get when you suck at the game too much idk if a meanwhile unlocks all of your weapons and the mods for those weapons and then there's your basic infinite ammo and infinite lives cheat now most modern games those that include cheats anyway tend to disable any kind of progress or achievements if you use cheats you shouldn't get credit the game says for killing 50 headcrabs with a pistol if you were invincible when you did it do eternal on the other hand doesn't do this you can still earn progression by playing the game with cheats on a loading screen even calls this out the only thing that's disabled when sheets are on is the Slayer gate but all other progression including various upgrade points for completing challenges can be earned while cheating but why does the game allow this isn't that unfair well no it's just a different way of playing the game and the developers very clearly intended for the game to be played this way in a way it's not all that different from dropping the difficulty level but by building the game around cheats the developers can craft new and different experiences that aren't limited to making the game easier for example one of the last cheat codes you unlock and doom eternal is called party mode with this cheat enable killing demons in a certain way will cause them to burst into confetti which is hilarious but an unlisted feature of party mode is the addition of sound effects like it's a damn Looney tune and this changes the feel of the entire game for example here's a fight in exult eeeh with the normal music and no cheats now compare that to roughly the same scene but with party mode on and crucially the doom music turned off [Music] the combat mechanics aren't actually different at all this party mode is the only cheetah turned on for this segment but it feels like another game entirely it's not even just that it's funny it makes me play the game differently with party mode on I found the demons less threatening and was more incentivized to play a sillier play style rather than rushing in to shoot demons as aggressively as possible I was playing with them like their actors at a haunted house it's worth pointing out that this isn't just an after-the-fact edition the comedic slapstick of doom is baked into the game's design in an interview with Hollywood Reporter doom eternals game director Hugo Martin has specifically cited movies like Evil Dead 2 as inspiration for the goofy horror style they wanted to go for saying that was a big touchstone for us when you look at something like that referring to Evil Dead 2 there's the perfect balance between gore and slapstick humor it's not really taking itself too seriously following Hugo's instructions I turned on infinite ammo and almost god mode along with party mode to have even more fun with the game during one of the later levels I started playing around with this adorable squishy make you busboy no no I'm done here no I'm come on no nope nope nope nope now I'm back up here good one that is the face of a man cubist defeated this is the kind of experience I can't get from the normal game mode I'll waste ammo or health that I might need later especially on higher difficulty levels and mostly I'm just not in the mood for this slapstick goofy mode makes me feel more playful the game is using a different combination of sights sounds and motion to invoke a unique feeling in me which is what art is but hold on now I hear you say that's not really cheating that's just a different game mode to which I would say yeah exactly all cheat codes are effectively a variant mode of the game that allows for an alternative gameplay style Goldeneye for the n64 famously had basic that could make you invulnerable but it also had just for fun mechanics like DK mode which made enemies heads gigantic this seems like it's purely a silly game mode and not really a cheat right except that there's a lot more room for error when going for a headshot on a head that takes up a third of your screen it was literally easier to win in a game mode that was ostensibly just a goof by including cheat codes in the game at all whether hidden entirely like the text codes you had to type in the original doom or discoverable like the quote-unquote cheat codes in doom eternal developers are intentionally allowing players to modify their game to create a new experience side note folding ideas has a great video that goes more in depth into this idea of intended play and how if the content exists it must by definition be something the developer expects players to do I'll link that into the description it's really good in the purest cheating sense of a cheat code they can allow players to craft a game experience without certain stressors that they're maybe not a fan of Starcraft for example has cheat codes that make production of units faster but keeps the cost the same or you can get more money by using a certain code but play the game at a normal pace maybe you enjoy the story of Starcraft but strategy isn't your thing and you'd like to make it a little easier it's sort of like putting up the guardrails while bowling but Starcraft also includes a cheat that wins a level for you automatically if all you wanted to do was win without doing anything this would be the most effective way to do it but then why do things like invincibility or infinite resources continue to exist there is a version of the gameplay that can still be fun if less challenging by playing with cheats enabled and it's a version that can't be gained by playing through the game is normal for me that version of the game is constructing as many carriers as the game allows and targeting every single one of them on a single zergling named Steve halfway across the map because he pissed me off this emotionally gratifying moment of using disproportionate force to end Steve's life is an experience that is utterly unique to game modes with cheats enabled meanwhile saints row the third a game whose entire philosophy seems to boil down to GTA but make it fashion allows you to upgrade your character to the point of hood you can run forever get infinite ammo and even reduce the damage you take to zero but here's a twist these aren't actually cheat codes they're just options you unlock if you play enough does that even count as a cheat or is jumping off a skyscraper belly flopping onto the concrete below then dusting yourself off and shooting cops with the murica gun for 10 minutes straight somehow the normal way to play the game the answer is yes by the way the Saints Row franchise embraces free gameplay that lets players feel powerful and create chaos without ever specifically labeling it as a cheat even though it clearly is all challenge is gone from the game by this point but do you really care is the point of saints for the third to be hard or is it to make things blow up in new and exciting ways in some cases even cheats can make a game harder one of new materials cheats is famine mode which stops demons from dropping armor or health when they die which in this game is a bit like working at a standing desk while standing on a mat made of Lego bricks it's going to hurt and for a very long time and you have no one to blame but yourself but this is also an entirely new experience created by modifying the rules of the game the emotion it invokes and the player might be unfathomable rage but isn't that what doom is all about if you want to more authentically feel the righteous fury the drives doom guy to barge straight into heaven and punch God then try playing without health drops now doom Eternals cheats are built-in and very obviously discoverable they even show where to find them on the map for crying out loud but the more traditional definition of cheat codes where there's a secret command that's technically built into the game but you have to find it somewhere else and enter it manually and it was probably there as a debugging tool for developers that has morphed over time and now more frequently takes the form of developer console commands games like quake and half-life popularized this method of entering cheat codes and games tend to turn off progress tracking if you use them but aside from basics like god mode or infinite ammo these allow even more creativity by allowing players to dive into the parameters of the game itself and create their own experiences with more control than they would normally one of my favorite youtubers Doug Doug uses console commands in games like Skyrim to create entirely new experiences like seeing how many bears each city and Skyrim can fight off okay everywhere this bear was going after the child now there's no way in hell anyone at Bethesda designed their game with the expectation that someone would eventually use it specifically to create bear city invasions but they did intend for it to be possible you don't even have to modify the game in any way to enable console commands they're just there if you hit the tilde key in this way Skyrim's console commands aren't that dissimilar to mario maker in that game players are able to create comedic entertaining or sadistic levels with the tools that are available to them how are these tools presented in a clean user friendly UI all that different from Skyrim's more jargony console commands well the only difference is in presentation both are essentially palettes allowing players to paint their own gaming experiences she codes in whatever form they take offer players a choice of how they would like to experience a game unlike most other forms of media video games are uniquely positioned to adapt to player choices you can choose whether to use the shotgun or the plasma rifle you can choose whether you want to play on I'm too young to die or nightmare and you can choose whether you want to complete level challenges the first time around the hard way or come back and do it with cheat codes on now is there joy to be found in playing a game the default way honing your skill and overcoming the challenges that a game presents to you absolutely but is there also joy to be found and forcing a marauder to permanently hide behind his shield because you have infinite ammo with the unmake ER and all that he has is that King Ghost Dog also yes there is more to glean from video games than accomplishment alone she codes whether hidden or discoverable are in games because the developers chose to include them and by avoiding them or looking down on them as cheap or lesser than you lose some of the comedy some of the thrill you miss out on some of the art so this wasn't the video I actually plan to make this month um I have something with a little more research behind it coming next month and this just happened to be something I could do to fill the time I think I I don't like making content that's that has like a shelf life but I will say right now things are not normal for most people most people are quarantine or isolating or social distancing and pretty much everybody's routine has been disrupted and if you're not operating at 100% right now I want you to know that that's okay that's normal that is okay and by the way if you are in one of those positions where you have to go out and work or you're in the healthcare industry Godspeed to you please stay safe I know this is this is a difficult situation for everybody and we're kind of all in this together apart but I think it's it's gonna be a little while before things are back to normal but it's okay if you have a hard time adapting to the temporary normal just text the people you care about call them video chat you know live stream whatever you do to connect with people we've been doing jack box games with video chatting with our friends it's it's not what we'd normally do but it's still very like find ways to connect with people find people talk to them tell people you love them and try to stay safe oh and here's my kitty this is mrs. Harley she's an anger kitten and she will scream if you touch her so we're not touching her staying apart stay important

Channel: Lord Ravenscraft

Views: 14,088

Keywords: doom eternal, doom, video games, cheat codes, art, bethesda, id, video essay

Id: Rs0vxxF012w

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020