Doom fans "will be happy" with Doom 4

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 19 April, 2011

Won't be a "re-skinned" Rage, id says.

id Software has told Doom fans that in-development Doom 4 will be right up their street.

Little is known about the game, but the legendary first-person shooter studio told Eurogamer is will be "distinct" from its other shooters – including the id Tech 5-fuelled Rage.

"It's going great. It's awesome," id's design director Matt Hooper told Eurogamer.

"We have so many talented people, and as a company we've grown so much. But we've been able to keep them [the Doom 4 and Rage development teams] separate.

"With Rage we're concentrating on making our game as good as it can be. Those guys support us in whatever way they can. And we'll do the same for them."

Doom 4, due out simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, was expected to show up at last year's QuakeCon. Explaining its no-show, id CEO Todd Hollenshead said the development team was not ready to demo the game. It is still without a release window.

Doom 4 is, according to comments made by Hollenshead in 2009, "not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either".

"Doom 3 was sort of a reboot. It's a little bit different than those, and if I told you why, I would get my ass kicked when I got back. So I'll just have to leave it at that.

"It's very much deep in development. But everything I've seen on it is classic Doom, so I don't really have worries that people aren't going to like it and start talking about it," he said.

"They're [the Doom 4 team] going in their own direction," Hooper added. "They're doing something Doom fans will be happy with.

"I try to support them as much as possible. It's a good thing. We're separated enough to be able to go our own ways, but still connected where we can help facilitate both those directions.

"It is distinct enough. It would be dangerous... We don't want to make a re-skinned Doom [with Rage] and then Doom 4 be a re-skinned Rage. That would be bad.

"It's worked out really nicely where we have enough connection to take advantage of things like technology and talent, but enough separation to be able to go in a unique direction."

id's next game, post-apocalyptic shooter Rage, launches this September. Doom 3 released in 2004. Eurogamer turned up a 9/10 in our Doom 3 review.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MojoDex #1 10 months ago

    doom 3 was to dark, turn the lights on in 4.

  • sonicyoda #2 10 months ago

    Stop being such cockteases and give us a teaser, screens, ANYTHING! My guess is they're planning for an E3 reveal now.

  • Tomo #3 10 months ago

    Doom 3 was awesome. And Doom 4 will most likely be too. id4lifethugz.

    Er...

  • Architect_z #4 10 months ago

    I like how they say we "will be happy". But then again, its Doom.
    Whats not to like?
    Give me a Plasma Rifle and i'll be happy. Or a BFG. ^_^
    Edited by 1 at 19/04/11 @ 11:44

  • Rens11 #5 10 months ago

    Fuck the rifle and give me the BFG!

  • justsomeone #6 10 months ago

    doom 3 wasn't a reboot. even at the time, it was largely derided for being a formulaic, by the numbers, generic FPS that did nothing to move the genre forward. it had monster cupboards for christsakes.

    but what the hell. there's no way a doom game, in 2011/12, isn't going to polarise opinion. it would be nice if they could innovate in *some* fashion though. personally, bulletstorm was, for me, the natural successor to doom.

    finally, who exactly *are* these "doom fans" now? we've all gotten old and cynical and are busy playing portal 2, what on earth can id do now to impress us?

  • altitude2k #7 10 months ago

    iddqd

  • SimonM7 #8 10 months ago

    What is a Doom fan? Mindless blaster fan whose main source of sustinence in the last 15 has been Serious Sam and Painkiller, or pseudo survival horror/action game fans of Dead Space duct taped to a semi arcadey FPS of choice?

    "Doom fans" seems like a pretty vague generalisation at this point. That statement could effectively mean.. just about anything.

  • sickpuppysoftware #9 10 months ago

    Loved Doom 1 & 2 but didn't get on with Doom 3 at all.

  • evild_edd #10 10 months ago

    I enjoyed Doom 3 (on Xbox). I even didn't mind the switching between flashlight and gun thing as it was clearly a design and gameplay choice. Just something you got used to. That said, 9/10 was probably a little generous.

    Would look forward to a Doom 4 if there's something new on offer.

    I half expect them to get Rage out of the way before showcasing Doom 4, but perhaps we will get a teaser at E3...

  • Subdominator #11 10 months ago

    Give me a remake of Ultimate Doom and I'll be happy.

  • Tonne #12 10 months ago

    Playing doom 3 alone in the dark home alone.... i was scared shitless in the beginning

  • LHH #13 10 months ago

    Loved all the Doom games but what I'm looking forward to is a solid engine which just works exceptionally well (hello texture pop up) and amazingly accurate and smooth controls (now you know where CoDs tactile smoothness comes from)

  • digitalash #14 10 months ago

    Doom 4 should drop all the survival horror stuff and go with a super fast, fair skilful shooter with the vibe of the originals.

  • Softie2k #15 10 months ago

    Doom 3 was definately not 9/10...

  • sweatyBallacks #16 10 months ago

    I agree - Doom 3 was most definitely not a 9/10 game. Maybe 7/10 or 8/10. I did enjoy it but it was very formulaic but saved by its great atmosphere. But to me, it didn't feel like the Doom games of old. It had its own good atmosphere but it didn't seem to be set in the same amazing world as the older games.

  • mkreku #17 10 months ago

    I loved the original Doom games and played them to death, but I didn't like Doom 3 at all. It felt cramped, unnecessarily scripted and that thing with the flashlight was an annoyance more than anything. Oh, and I hated how I could no longer make huge mountains of monster bodies (because monsters blew up like balloons when they died) :p

  • DozyKipper #18 10 months ago

    I'll be happy as long as the soul cube is back. :D

  • FogHeart #19 10 months ago

    I think they need to combine the best of the the previous games, but I'm undecided as to whether that means hundreds of enemies charging at you in a cramped, dark corridor or a couple of enemies that spawn some distance away in a big open area as soon as you pick up a large health pack.

  • charming_fox #20 10 months ago

    It might sound ridiculous as DooM's original music on PC was fantastic but the Playstation version had much more ambient music that scaed the hell out of me, babies crying in the background was so unnerving to hear.... to me, Doom was both fast paced, puzzling, complex in it's level design and sometimes very very tense... face to face with a suprise cacodemon was always good for pant-browning as well! I hope they do a good job on this.,

  • coolbritannia #21 10 months ago

    Doom 3 was awesome at the time, 9/10.

  • woodnotes #22 10 months ago

    Doom 3 didn't have walls that magically became sliding doors with secret rooms when you walked in to them and pressed space bar. So it wasn't even as good as Wolfenstein in 1994.

  • teabagger #23 10 months ago

    Well that's good to hear, because let's face it; Doom 3 was shit.

  • drxym #24 10 months ago

    Doom 3 never deserved a 9/10. Graphics were nice but the game was horrible. It was just a poorly designed corridor shooter where typical game play consisted of advancing a bit, stepping on trigger, lights out, flashlight, shoot zombies appearing from hitherto hidden panel, lights on, save, repeat. The saddest part is that Far Cry appeared just before it from an unknown crowd called Crytek and was superior in virtually every regard.
    Edited by 1 at 19/04/11 @ 14:54

  • nafter #25 10 months ago

    "Doom 4 is, according to comments made by Hollenshead in 2009, "not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either". "

    Why's it called Doom 4 then?

  • dirtysteve #26 10 months ago

    Well, if the talk on Rage was anything to go by, there's no point getting excited about Doom 4, as it may not be out for another 3 years.

  • retr0gamer #27 10 months ago

    Less Doom 3, more Doom 2. Despite FPS games comingon so much no other game has been able to match Doom and Doom 2 and they remain a unique experience. You can mention serious sam and it's ilk but there's a big difference between well crafted levels filled with insane amounts of enemies and going from arena to arean fighting respawning enemies added in willy nilly. I want something that gives the same visceral energy of Doom 2 and not a me too shooter like Doom 3 was.

  • Stymphalius #28 10 months ago

    Please bring back Arch-viles and Cyberdemons. Those things were creepy as f**k!
    Edited by 1 at 19/04/11 @ 21:47

  • TexMurphy01 #29 10 months ago

    Hail to the king, baby! Oh no wait a minute...

  • TackyCheeba #30 10 months ago

    I played them all on release and to be honest it seems like i am in the minority here, i thought Doom 3 was shit, poor story and frankly, really lame shock tactic gameplay...*Dark corridor...Boo".

    Here's hoping for better.