nicked on 2/8/2008 at 08:31

---

ok, 1 - Doom is never going to have, or need, a story more complex than "Baddies - kill them."

2. I can see horror coming intrinsically from a game that is an update of Doom 2. Remember, Doom 2 is set on Earth. The very concept of having hell demons ripping people apart in an environment we're at least partially familiar with (its the future of course) is going to add an element of fear - "What if this was my quiet suburban neighbourhood, and my mum and dad getting their faces chewed off?"
Consider Quake 4 (or 2) - it's a pure, straight out action game, but the very nature of the strogg adds a strong element of horror. You're not just fighting some alien aggressors, you're fighting to stop yourself and everyone you know being butchered and turned into mindless cyborg terrors.

I think if they can let the setting itself handle the horror side of things and focus on making a stonking great action game, they'll be onto a real winner.

sNeaksieGarrett on 10/3/2009 at 06:06

---

@nicked: I disagree, sorry. You either need to have a game that is for action, or a game that is made for horror. An action game like the old doom was not scary at all (unless you're like 10 years old). All you do is go around shooting monsters and it's very predictable. Where's the suspense or scary factor in that? The setting doesn't necessarily make a game scary in my opinion. However, if you make a game like penumbra or Doom 3 where shit comes out of nowhere and you have dark shadows, now that's a horror game. I think you're only kidding yourself when you look at quake as in your example and say it's horror. Yeah, maybe if you think deeply about the story, but not everyone does that. Most people probably just play quake and don't think deeply about "what if this was real?"




I guess if you go into Doom 4 expecting that ID software make it more like doom 1 or doom 2 then this is well and good. Though, if you're like me, and you're actually hoping for a good scary game that breaks from the "hey look at me I am a pointless shooter game," then the 'stonking action game' is not too appealing. The potential nowadays for good story and good art direction is almost expected in my opinion (though, it seems that consumers and companies alike are in this mindset of making a graphically awesome game, but a rather generic game in everything else which is why it is actually expected to have yet another FPS that doesn't have too much to offer) Not that random zombie killings isn't fun (I love left 4 dead actually) but there's a space for that, and then there's a space for a good horror game. Maybe that's just the problem with the doom IP, everyone expects that it will be an action-oriented story-less (well, nearly) frag fest and that's all they want and that's why so many hardcore doom fans hated doom 3.
---

Cool, thanks for the link clearing.

sNeaksieGarrett on 10/3/2009 at 15:09

---

Nice article, though I didn't read it all. I've heard of doom 64, in fact i've played a mod for one of the original PC doom's source ports that recreates doom 64.

nicked on 11/3/2009 at 13:41

---

Doom 3 isn't especially scary, but neither was Doom 1. They are both horror-themed action games. And in that respect, I think both succeeded admirably. I can't comment on Doom 64 as I've never played it, but the article seems to suggest it was a different feel of game altogether.
I guess the level of fear Doom games will generate depends on how involved the individual player wants to get. Yes, when you boil it down, you're just shooting monsters, yawn. But if you let yourself get dragged into the story and immerse yourself in the feeling of being the one person who can stop Hell, it becomes a lot more engaging.

Doom 3 was basically a post-half-life Doom 1 (Half-Life being itself a story-driven Doom 1). What I'd like to see with Doom 4 is a more OTT, hell-themed Half-Life 2 - i.e. recognisable Earth environments, a story told more through passive means like level progression, and lots of horrifying monsters.

Wormrat on 11/3/2009 at 20:29

---

That article's spot on about the lighting and soundtrack. Nothing like industrial drones and grinding metal to let you know you're in a bad, bad place. The author didn't explicitly mention the darker palette, but it should be obvious from the screenshots. Everywhere you go, you're running into chain-link and grime.

I feel the levels are about as abstract as the original Doom's, though. Not that it's a bad thing; the abstractness adds to the disorientation and general feeling that you are in a strange, unfriendly world. In more incompetent hands it might've ended up like some kind of disco funhouse, but Midway nailed it.

Frankly, all I hope for in Doom 4 is level design that's not so repetitive. For half of Doom 3 I felt like I was looking at different pieces of the same semi-shiny, teched-out cube.