Doom 4 has been announced, and with it comes hope of chain-saw-wielding greatness. Here are some things I'd like to see from my favorite hell-spawn slaying shooter...



Dune Buggies!?- One of the major knocks on Doom 3 was its repetitive level design. The claustrophobic settings worked for a while, but some variety would be welcome. Taking a page from Quake Wars and employing MexaTexture techniques could create some spacious Martian environments. Imagine blasting down a Martian canyon on your Martian rover. Or fleeing to a shuttle across a broken bridge overrun with hell spawn. I don't know about you, but I always imagined Hell to be a pretty open environment.

Big-Boy-Toy Guns- Some of the guns in Doom 3 handled like something Mattel would make. In the sequel, let's hope they trade in the green plastic for something heavier with an alternative firing mode. The Doom franchise used to be synonymous with innovation. Instead of merely catching up to quality games like Half-Life 2 and Call of Duty 4, perhaps Doom can push the genre and its arsenal in new directions.


Above: He doesn't find your dead baby jokes very funny

Decent AI- The Doom 3 enemy AI didn't have to be intelligent; if hell knights had been discussing Nietzsche when you lobbed a grenade at them, the game wouldn't have felt as scary. But the "run at you" tactic felt awfully dated compared to other shooters of the time, and downright laughable if there were crates in front of you. Aww, look at the little demon. Demon want to get out from behind crates?

Removal of the "flashlight-focused combat"- It made the game creepy, but it also served as a crutch the designers could use to prop up a game that suffered from poor level design, redundant combat, and sub-par story telling. You mean to tell me that in this science fiction setting, they've mastered teleportation but can't fix a flashlight onto a rifle?

An experienced development team- We should all hope that John Carmack will be involved with the project on some level. In addition to being one of the masterminds behind the Doom and Quake franchises, Carmack has pioneered many important computer graphic techniques, and his engines have been licensed to games like Half-Life, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor. Recently he's been working on the Quake Live and Rage projects. Rumor has it that id Software is currently hiring, and if I had any technical skill, I'd gladly take a rocket to the chest to have an opportunity to work with this guy.

A time-traveling sword named "Daikatana."- Just kidding.

May 27, 2008