Id Software is just a week away from releasing the first full new DOOM game since Doom 3 in 2004. On May 13, players will be able to get their hands on the reboot of the beloved franchise.
A retrospect of DOOM
DOOM
Released in 1993 for MS DOS, the original DOOM kinda blew everyone’cs minds. While it wasn’t true 3D, and relied on trickery to appear 3D, it looked and played like a dream. The engine it ran off, id Tech 1 (or the Doom game engine) was a revolution for games. The source code was released 4 years after the release of the game in 1997, and is still being modded to this day.
DOOM II: Hell on Earth
Released in 1994, again for MS DOS first and again with the id Tech 1 engine. It didn’t do anything with the original game’s formula, and had no massive improvements in many areas. The biggest improvement was having more intricate and larger arenas, possible due to hardware improvements.
DOOM 3
The first game in the series to come to console, it ran off the vastly improved id Tech 4 engine, and was released in 2004. This game took a turn towards horror. While also being an action game, it had moments of terror. This was in part due to the id Tech 4 engine, and a new real-time lighting system. Where most games had pre-rendered lightmaps, DOOM 3 ran all the lighting in real-time, allowing shadows to be cast by any non-static object, like enemies, or cans. This wasn’t fully featured in id Tech 5.
It also was one of the first games to do away with a “use key.” Instead, the crosshair acted as a mouse for any computer screens in-game, a feature you can see in the upcoming DOOM.
Doom 3: BFG Edition
Released in 2012 for PS3 and Xbox 360, as well as Windows, and Linux. With the engine released as open source the same year. This isn’t a new game, but an upgraded version of all the previous DOOM games, with better lighting, sound, and a checkpoint save system for DOOM 3. (Yes, at one point these did not exist…imagine that.)
A big part of DOOM was also the multiplayer. Along with the likes of Unreal Tournament and Quake, it revolutionized the multiplayer arena shooter — this being a large part of the series’ longevity.
DOOM 2016
Companies need to stop this whole naming the reboot the same as the first game thing, it’s confusing.
This reboot aims to capture the spirit of the single player and multiplayer of its predecessors, while bringing the series up to modern shooter standards. So far, the closed and open betas receiving very mixed reactions from gamers. The main issues people have are with the color palette, and bland-looking enemy and map design. DOOM was always about over-the-top enemies and fast-paced action, the latter of which can be found in the reboot. It’s running off a brand new engine, the id Tech 6, which is taking advantage low level GPU programming with Vulcan API — the OpenGL equivalent of DirectX 12 (what AMD’s Mantle API has become). Id Tech 6 is also bringing back full real-time lighting as was seen in id Tech 4, with DOOM 3.
DOOM 2016 releases worldwide in exactly a week, on May 13, for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows.
