Its ideas defined a genre. Its technology powers most of the best action shooters around. Its games have been the center of public attention and even misguided spite. And now, it's going to blow the lid off of everything. Oh yes, id is back, and so are the space marines that started it all (I still love you B.J. Blazkowicz).
Officially announced some two years ago and first publicly demonstrated to boast the enormous power of the then brand new GeForce 3 on, of all things, a Macintosh, DOOM III has long been in development, enthralling gamers with nothing more than a glimpse of impressively lit video and a whole lot of promise. "It's gonna be more of a story-driven singleplayer experience," id claimed. "It will be darker and scarier," the company asserted... And now I've seen it. John Carmack and Tim Willigs' magnum opus has arrived. Will the FPS genre forever be changed? Does the underlying technology promise greatness for future Raven, Ritual, Rogue, 2015, Gray Matter, and Nerve efforts? Read on and find out sweet friend...
This game is terrifying in more ways than one. But, it's also different from the DOOM we were raised on.
What made the original DOOM so terrifying was content and the delivery. Hell beasts augmented with cyber technology in a freakish science fiction setting is a scary prospect, but facing down hundreds of these creatures at the same time is downright terrifying. Serious Sam recently built off of the original concept of DOOM by advancing these encounters with hundreds of enemies at one time into the world of 3D. But id thinks differently. From the beginning, the company has made a clear and concise attempt to deliver a different kind of scary, a kind of scary that would make even the staunchest of Aliens vs. Predator marine campaign players cringe and cower like babies.
- "We're more than just a game."
I figured those words out of Todd Hollenshead's mouth were just the standard gloating and boasting that comes with every development team... That was until I saw the game. DOOM III is all about the experience. Every single aspect of the title, from the fundamentally awesome technology designed for the game and not the other way around, to the professionally written storyline, to the puzzles and beastly adversaries are all designed from the beginning to create a sense of believability, a sense of believability so strong that it will terrify anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.
- "We emphasize fear"
Hollenshead continued.
The version 0.01 build of DOOM III we were shown may not be that far along -- it's still got a good year of development left behind it ("when it's done" applies, but the team is shooting for a 2003 release) -- but it was damn impressive (regardless of whether or not a $15,000 workstation was powering it).
After braving the intense heat and sickening moisture of the "DOOM Room," which Jason Bates surmised, ight perhaps symbolize the real gates to hell, the demo began.
By the year 2145 mankind will have facilities erected on other worlds. The game, like its predecessors, has a decidedly Martian influence. The military is doing experiments, the kind that could potentially have serious repercussions. As we look to science for answers, we realize it may be just that which eventually kills us all. Here's an important thing to note: If you're a shifty looking bald guy with a robotic arm and you work at an installation where some kind of inter-dimensional experiments are taking place, don't listen to an ominous and anonymous voice that commands you to do things and then orders you not to worry about what the consequences will be. See, this happens in DOOM III and the results were beautiful, but not pretty, at least not for the folks getting their innards eaten.
Let's talk graphics. It's what you all want to hear, what will keep you awake at night, what will keep you wondering what other companies will deliver (thinking of a perfectly realized Stroggos gives me brain happiness). This game is graphically astounding. Everything from the models, to the environments, to the texture mapping, to the lighting, to the special effects are amazing in both an artistic and technical sense. A very realistic look indeed. This is not the high gloss or "gamey" kind of aesthetics we've seen before. The visuals of DOOM are there to foster an air of believability (you'll hear that word a lot in this write-up). Metal walls look like metal walls and characters have a smoothed over, almost pre-rendered appearance to them.
But DOOM III is not a slideshow. Anything can look good in a still, and honestly, before I had seen the game in motion I seriously questioned, perhaps even doubted its ability to impress moving. Suffice to say I am an idiot. DOOM III is incredibly fluid, so much so in fact, that it's plain eerie at times. Characters move with so many animations that it's startling. Even the little things, like the way a man's head bends and his double chin stretches as his cranium gently smacks against the ground while a monster rips his stretchy entrails out is coolness. Terrifying coolness.
Surprisingly, there will be no over the top Soldier of Fortune II death animations and dismemberment (Quake IV, anyone), but the game still has all kinds of carnage and disturbing imagery. Thankfully, where there is not head chunking, there is pixel perfect pain decals and rag doll physics that allow characters to conform to the environment by appropriately bending their limbs when they die (no clipping here).
You can tell from the screenshots just how detailed the worlds and "people" are, now I can only assure you that seeing them move is even more impressive. I can also assure you that the lighting is not what you think... It's better.
The world of DOOM III is alive. Little interactive objects are everywhere and everything moves. Fans turn, shadows of different shapes, sizes, and intensities cast on everything from everything, and it all feels very tangible, very thick and solid.
But graphics aren't the only thing that DOOM III will change up. This time around the space marine is an actual guy with an actual face, but you only see him in the beginning and few choice instances throughout. For most of it the newly designed helmet stays on round the clock. Think of Half-Life... Gordon Freeman is seen in the load screens and a couple of other places, but he's supposed to be you, the player. Also similar Half-Life is the great amount of emphasis being placed on scripting, Obviously another method to instill fear, forward the story, and ensure that the world is there and happening while you do things.
The last Half-Life connection (believe me, I hate using that pass¿ comparison more than you hate reading it) is that the world of DOOM III will be one continuous trek. No level ends with stat screens will appear. Instead, load times will separate large portions of the greater map, because there simply is not enough RAM to remember it all.
And that's not the end of the changes. Believe it or not, enemies this time around will have incredibly advanced AI routines based on sight, sound and more.
Tim Willigs, the game's lead designer:
- "They'll do whatever we want."
What I saw makes me believe there is no reason to doubt this. In one situation, the space marine found himself overwhelmed by a single hell infected marine gone badder than bad. DOOM boy was overwhelmed because this single creature from below had a chain gun the size of a Buick and stood about nine feet tall. He "smelled fear." After unsuccessfully spraying bullets around the place, he pursued our hero, who bravely hid behind and a wall and watched his aggressor stupidly stumble by unaware that he was going to get waylaid once he reached the doorway. It's impossible to tell how developed the AI will ultimately be or if can compete with the likes of Halo, but what was there was intriguing, especially for this, a monster type of game.
Believe it when I say more information about all things DOOM III will be forthcoming. Yes, I have a ton more to write, and we even have videotaped interviews to throw up, but the time restraints of this hectic exposition prohibit that much focus be put on just one game. Until you see the new stuff, please enjoy the in-game screenshots assembled below.
