An ordinary level in the game, but later remixed as a Master Level, this is the perfect challenge for every Doom: Eternal player who wants to develop a palate of superior demon hunting in their play-style.
I worked on creating a cinematic of the entire Master Level that captured the full essence and thrill of the hunt, starting from the beginning all the way to the final francid timebomb-esque escape.
The tone
Far in the future, on a dark, and gloomy Earth drenched in red all around, lies the Super Gore Nest. This is in varying contrast to most other levels of the game (overrun by nature at worst, or utterly a heavenly kingdom at best).
I’ve tried to capture and reflect both the darkness and the unsettling aura prevalent in a demon-infested world by compressing the entire hour long level into a 5 minute video. This also meant cutting up and remixing various sections of the accompanying game OST to further outline the danger, haste, and rage expressed within.
Through space and time
The Slayer doesn’t care where the demons are, he’s only poised to bring about an end to them and restore humanity.
In order to explain this crucial point, I leaned on the usage of “match cuts” to make a quick montage at the start highlighting the size, variety, lethality, and ugliness of the demons that fall at the hands of the Slayer.
The Slayer’s nemesis
Of course, it wouldn’t really be a good story if there wasn’t an antagonist that opposed our character at every stage, would it?
This is where the Slayer’s nemesis, the Marauder comes into play. I’ve used the concept of time-hopping throughout the Marauder montage to denote that the fight with him is as eternal and recurring as the Slayer himself.
Level progression
I had to use visual cues, such as classic Doom colored keys (yellow, red & blue), to signify the progression of the full hour-long story of Super Gore Nest. This was loosely done in a way to make new and old players experience how the level naturally plays out, but without all the boring platforming and puzzle bits.
Hell on Earth
In a demon-possessed world, hope is frugal but not completely out. To express this emotion, I chose to show the fights where the demons severely outnumber the Slayer, or are twice as big as him, but they went down regardless, owing to his sheer resolve (and also firepower LUL).
Outro
To lean focus on the race against time in the end of the level, I lined up a frantic portion of the game OST with flashing footage of hell throwing all it has on the Slayer to make sure he doesn’t escape the overloading core.
Thumbnail design
This arena is the central place of action in the entire level, and this is also where the final big fight happens. Safe to say it is pretty much the “face” of the level, and it only makes sense to incorporate that in the thumbnail.
To visualize this, I chose to go for an environmental lettering style to include the giant floating ball of Argent energy as the main point of action.
