Doom revealed at QuakeCon 2014, and here's what we saw

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Doom revealed at QuakeCon 2014, and here's what we saw

Ian Birnbaum at  

02:02 on 18 July 2014

 

 

In the ten years since Doom 3 was released, Doom 4 has been fabled, rumored, delayed, and scrapped and started over at least once. Id finally pulled back the curtain on Thursday during an exclusive reveal at QuakeCon 2014. In front of a packed auditorium at the 19th annual LAN party/PC game convention, id played a pair of live gameplay demos (running on PC) showing very different parts of the game. As a thanks to fans here in Dallas, the reveal wasn?t streamed online and was for attendees only.

 

The game, for one thing, will not be called Doom 4, but simply Doom, and it will take place on Mars. According to Executive Producer Marty Stratton, the game will be going back to what made the original great: fast action, run-and-gun, inventive and creative combat. He also dropped the news that Doom will be running on id Tech 6, a much-needed update to the years-old technology that has run previous games from id (and struggled with texture pop-in and other technical problems).

 

 

There was a lot of combat on display, and all of it was vicious and full of strafing. The game shows off the verticality we?ve seen in a lot of titles, like Crysis 3, with double-jumps and jetpacks allowing the player to cross gaps and find high ground. Large crates and gaps can be climbed to reach new areas or just to escape from attacking enemies.

 

The mechanic that everyone?s going to be talking about for the rest of QuakeCon, though, is the hand-to-hand finishing moves. After significantly damaging an enemy, they?ll flash and highlight. By stepping close, the player is able to start a variety of combat moves that would be more at home in Mortal Kombat than most shooters. We saw lower jaws pulled off, skulls stomped on, and hearts torn out with the level of detail usually reserved for those slow-mo bullet cams in the Sniper Elite series. Unfortunately, in the ten minutes of gameplay I saw a few repetitions. Given the fullness of time, will we get tired of repetitive killing moves? Maybe, but the first few times will probably be a lot of fun.

 

Also making a triumphant return are massive weapons. We never saw the fabled BFG, but id is taking a lesson from Wolfenstein: The New Order?s jumbo-sized arsenal. All of the guns are huge and clanking. The plasma rifle, in particular, took a few seconds to boot up and engage its various fans and heatsinks. It was a bit showy, but the weapon had a visible knock-back that made it valuable when rooms got crowded with enemies.

 

 

Speaking of the enemies, there were a ton of them on display. Small demons made themselves annoying while the larger beasts and Hell Knights stomped in to finish the job. All in all it was a fast, chaotic experience that played out with the same stomping, crashing gore that I remember from the glory days of Doom 2.

 

Id showed off two gameplay demos, and it made me think that the game is much further along than we?d previously guessed. This is just speculation, but I wouldn?t be surprised if we see the game released in the same late-spring window that Wolfenstein just enjoyed.

 

Tonight?s reveal was tantalizing, but we don?t know everything about the game yet. Like all fans we do have a wishlist?a few of which we saw tonight. For the others, though, here?s everything we want out of Doom 4.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/18/doom-revealed-at-quakecon-2014-and-heres-what-we-saw/

[REM2000]

Annoying that they are not putting it up on YouTube or streaming, i don't have the money or time to fly to the US to see it.

[McKay]

Please don't use megatextures.

 

Please don't use megatextures.

 

Please don't use megatextures.

 

Please don't use megatextures.

 

[spacer]

In the ten years since Doom 3 was released...

Holy crap, it's been 10 years since Doom 3 was released?

 

The mechanic that everyone?s going to be talking about for the rest of QuakeCon, though, is the hand-to-hand finishing moves. After significantly damaging an enemy, they?ll flash and highlight. By stepping close, the player is able to start a variety of combat moves that would be more at home in Mortal Kombat than most shooters.

This sounds awful. Particularly the bold part. That does NOT belong in a Doom game in my opinion.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i want to see that 20-min gameplay demo.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Holy crap, it's been 10 years since Doom 3 was released?

Makes ya feel a bit older doesnt it? Shoot, i remember getting my hands on the leaked Doom 3 alpha code back in 2001/2002. Pretty amazing at the time. It ran on my shiny new Geforce 3 :D

[Crisp]

This sounds awful. Particularly the bold part. That does NOT belong in a Doom game in my opinion.

 

Totally agree, and I hope this doesn't turn out to be a game engine demo to show off tech 6. Like the way most games are going these days.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Not impressed. id Software used to push the boundaries when it came to PC games but that all changed with RAGE, when PC gamers were thrown under the bus. Even Doom 3 was a disappointment in comparison to Far Cry, which was released months earlier. This is going to have to be spectacular for me to even consider it, as id Software never did get round to adding the ending to RAGE. The early concept art for the new Doom was terrible.

[xrobwx71]

Holy crap, it's been 10 years since Doom 3 was released?

 

This sounds awful. Particularly the bold part. That does NOT belong in a Doom game in my opinion.

John Carmack please come back.

[theyarecomingforyou]

John Carmack please come back.

To be fair I'd rather have him pushing the limits of VR tech at Oculus than wasting his time on another mediocre game at id Software.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

we need to remember that id is basically a graphics engine company that licenses their tech, but occasionally makes a game that shows off the engine's capabilities. 1. graphics engines 2. games.

[theyarecomingforyou]

we need to remember that id is basically a graphics engine company that licenses their tech, but occasionally makes a game that shows off the engine's capabilities. 1. graphics engines 2. games.

The last time id Software majorly licensed engines was back in the days of Quake 3 and id Tech 3. The Doom 3 engine (id Tech 4) was only licensed for a handful of third-party games (Prey, Quake Wars and Brink) and it was stated that they weren't interested in licensing the id Tech 5 engine.

[xrobwx71]

Run-and-Gun

Doom 3 was dark and moody like a teenager?s Evanescence-themed bedroom, and that was fun for a little while. After a bit, though, enough is enough. Having to creep around, choosing between a flashlight and a shotgun is anathema to what Doom should be all about. We?re not in a Ridley Scott movie here?we?re battling the forces of hell on earth. Put a shotgun in our hands and let us sprint through clouds of demon blood! We don?t want to hide in a closet, we want to strap a nuke to our foreheads and headbutt Satan into orbit.

Source

[spacer]

 

Run-and-Gun

Doom 3 was dark and moody like a teenager?s Evanescence-themed bedroom, and that was fun for a little while. After a bit, though, enough is enough. Having to creep around, choosing between a flashlight and a shotgun is anathema to what Doom should be all about. We?re not in a Ridley Scott movie here?we?re battling the forces of hell on earth. Put a shotgun in our hands and let us sprint through clouds of demon blood! We don?t want to hide in a closet, we want to strap a nuke to our foreheads and headbutt Satan into orbit.

Source

That last sentence. LOL. epic.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

Makes ya feel a bit older doesnt it? Shoot, i remember getting my hands on the leaked Doom 3 alpha code back in 2001/2002. Pretty amazing at the time. It ran on my shiny new Geforce 3 :D

 

A bit older?   A bit?      I played original Doom same year it came out.   Original Wolfenstein 3D too!   :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

 

 

Can't wait to play this one,  however MK style finishing moves and flashing dying enemies sound wrong for this type of game.

[Max Norris]

A bit older?   A bit?      I played original doom same year it came out.   Original Wolfenstien too!    :cry: :cry: :cry:

Can't wait to play this one,  however MK style finishing moves and flashing dying enemies sound wrong for this type of game.

Agreed, doesn't belong in a shooter.  (And I still got my original Wolfenstein disks around somewhere heh)

 

Hopefully this time around they remember that duct tape exists too.

[Knife Party]

can't say im excited for Doom, but we will have to see it it goes.

[LaP]

A bit older?   A bit?      I played original doom same year it came out.   Original Wolfenstien too!    :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

 

 

Can't wait to play this one,  however MK style finishing moves and flashing dying enemies sound wrong for this type of game.

 

Eh! i played ET on Atari 2600 the day it came out XD

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

Eh! i played ET on Atari 2600 the day it came out XD

 

LOL.   So I am young then :)       Thanks!

 

 

Seriously though,  Doom 3 was a bit of a disappointment, and I am not getting my hopes up for new one too much...

[xrobwx71]

A bit older?   A bit?      I played original Doom same year it came out.   Original Wolfenstein 3D too!   :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

 

 

Can't wait to play this one,  however MK style finishing moves and flashing dying enemies sound wrong for this type of game.

Me too cough cough. How old were you then?  :shifty:

[theyarecomingforyou]

@xrobwx - Yeah, Doom 3 was pretty annoying. It tried to do a story but failed; it tried for tension but resorted to cheap tricks, like limiting flashlight use and monsters jumping out of closets; it tried to push graphics but everything ended up looking plasticy with over-the-top shadows, unlike Far Cry. It was thoroughly mediocre, which was disappointing for a company like id Software.

 

I don't have a problem with id Software going down the survival-horror route rather than action-shooter but it has to do it well. If you want to see how tension should be done then you only have to look at games like Amnesia or STALKER. Based on the information released so far I'm concerned that they're going in completely the wrong direction.

[xrobwx71]

Eh! i played ET on Atari 2600 the day it came out XD

Sigh, same here.... :)  :shifty:

[LaP]

LOL.   So I am young then :)       Thanks!

 

 

Seriously though,  Doom 3 was a bit of a disappointment, and I am not getting my hopes up for new one too much...

 

Doom 3 was not a bad game (not great either). But it was not Doom. I'll never understand why companies don't start a new ip instead of milking an old ip when they want to make something new.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

I don't have a problem with id Software going down the survival-horror route rather than action-shooter but it has to do it well. If you want to see how tension should be done then you only have to look at games like Amnesia or STALKER. Based on the information released so far I'm concerned that they're going in completely the wrong direction.

 

Actually,   Dead Space are more like it for a space marine horror, and, unlike Doom 3, they do it better. 

[Xerino]

is that Linda Hamilton narrating?