What’s the Opposite of a Glow Up?
All you kids with Chatsnaps and your Insantgrams and your TickTocks! You put filters on your pictures that make them look a certain way. Pah! In my day, we didn’t have a “Retro” look! Retro WAS the look! I’m actually not that old, but I do remember when games looked bad by accident. Doom Eternal is bringing back a visual setting from Doom (2016), the Render Modes. This mode allows players to put different filters on the game in real time, most of which are throwbacks to older visual styles in gaming.
In the Render Modes trailer, we see the different rendering functions that Doom Eternal now has to offer. There is “Retro Handheld”, which is totally not a GameBoy filter, except it is. It’s crazy to think we used to see anything in green and black. There is Black and White, which is pretty self-explanatory. Next is VHS, which I am embarrassed to say I have no idea what about it is different. There is also a Dots filter, which makes the game a bit more pixelated. The Classic filter makes the game A LOT more pixelated, like the classic Doom games. A Retro Console filter gives the screen some distinguished lines across your game, like CRT TV. The Cinematic mode makes your game a bit prettier. Lastly, the Gritty look brings Doom Eternal back to that point in gaming where everything looked “realistic” with just shades of brown and grey.
This mode has actually been out for a little while now, at least on PC, but Bethesda has finally put it into a trailer, maybe to show what others are missing out on. Some of these modes actually make your game run better. I guess that is why they are called Render Modes. Doom Eternal is out now for PC, Stadia, Xbox One, and PS4. It will be coming out for Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X at a later date.
Which of these Render Modes looks best to you? Let us know in the comments below.