The new Doom, being developed in Richardson by Id Software, looks pretty good so far. But one part of it that doesn't look so hot is the game's cover art. I mean, it's fine ... I guess. It's just really boring. Far more boring than the bloody, fast-paced and explosive game it's marketing.
I mean, just look at it.
That's just a dude in armor holding a shotgun. And do you know how many video games have "dude with gun" as their cover centerpiece? A lot.
Like, a whole lot. Going back years and years.
I'm sure there's some data that publishers like Bethesda have paid big many to research that says covers like this sell a lot of copies, but the fact of the matter is that they're just bland. Especially when you look at some of the great box art in gaming's history.
For example, look at the cover of the original Doom, which came out in 1993:
There's so much going on! Yeah, you've still got a dude with a gun, but he's fighting off tons and tons of demons. And there's another dude in the back shouting, "Hey! Dude! There are a lot of demons in front of you! You should, like, run, maybe!" And you've also got the hellish landscape of ... well, Hell. The whole thing is very evocative of the game itself. Unlike the new Doom's art.
So when the official Doom Twitter account launched a poll for fans to choose the game's reverse sleeve art (art printed on the opposite side of the cover for you to display on your own shelf after buying the game), it was a chance for at least a bit of redemption.
Frankly, both options were far better than the official cover:
id Software has been working on some #DOOM reverse sleeves. Here’s Option A (Poll Incoming) pic.twitter.com/LGZ4Xb4em6
— DOOM (@DOOM) March 3, 2016
Here’s Option B (Poll incoming) #DOOM pic.twitter.com/XyTsq9ENQ1
— DOOM (@DOOM) March 3, 2016
But one is clearly better than the other: Option B, which throws back to the 1993 Doom art in all the best ways. I'm not a marketing savant, but I can't fathom why this isn't simply the cover people will see when they go to buy the game on a shelf at their local retailer.
In any case, Option B won the poll by a healthy margin, getting 68 percent of the vote. So it's the cover that you should all use if you buy the game when it releases on May 13.
