Yesterday we had a brief Doom 4 E3 teaser lasting seconds, today a previously canned version of the game has resurfaced. This time with video showing a post-apocalyptic take on the idea, with a human resistance fighting back against the forces of hell.
It looks like this:
It's actually been edited out of the showreel of writer/director Mark Bristol where it appears in bits, scattered amongst all his other work. How can we be sure it's an earlier attempt at a Doom sequel? Well Mark has it all over his Linkedin page with credits as "Art Director on Doom 4" with responsibility to "develop and write the story of Doom 4" and as "Lead Writer/Cinematic Director on Doom 4". Those date between 2008 and 2012. It also matches exactly previously leaked artwork from 2012. That came from Thao Le, who's currently a senior environmental artist at id Software and has been since 2008.
From Le's leaked art asset names we know that the character with the back pack is called Ancira, while the worried looking bearded man with the hat is called Augustus. There's also characters called Stove and Holmes. Two files with the prefix 'ny' suggest New York as a setting, while two street shots are labelled 'before Hell Wave'. That, presumably, is the red wave seen bursting out in the video, and was previously taken to suggest the game was a remake of, or set before, Doom 2. Elsewhere the guns, locations and more all match with the video.
Talk at the time from people like John Romero and actors involved in mo-cap pitched this 2012 version of Doom as war drama, and a more cinematic experience. In comparison the new footage, as brief as it is, suggests a more stylised take on the original's hellish overtones - there's a brief glimpse of a body/head on a stick for example, and while the buildings are blurred in background they lack that 'modern day New York' vibe, and have more of Bloodborne's Yarnham feel to them.
