Last night we had the opportunity to spend a brief amount of hands-on time with the upcoming Doom Resurrection. The iPhone game was developed by Escalation Studios in conjunction with id Software’s John Carmack and has been a secret project for the past 6 months.
The gameplay itself is best described as an “on rails" experience where the player is moved through the levels automatically while aiming their targeting reticule with the accelerometer and tapping a button to fire. The game also offers a dodging button to avoid enemy fire as well.
The game is set in an impressive 3D environment and across 8 brand new levels. Like with their PC titles, the Doom Resurrection engine is pushing the boundaries of what has been thought possible on the iPhone. Gameplay time is estimated at 4-6 hours.
While some are going to pass early judgement due to the “on rails" aspect of the game, we think that’s premature as both Eli and I had a lot of fun with our time with the game. The tilt controls to target felt good. The game would auto calibrate to your natural position when the game started. Almost needless to say, the graphics and sound were very well done and immersive (the game borrows the assets from Doom 3 which cost millions to make). Dodging with a button and aiming with the accelerometer provided a good amount of Doom feel even though your forward movements were scripted.
Escalation Studio’s Tom Mustaine told us that a lot of work went into finding the right gameplay mechanic and that before they came across this latest incarnation, they were ready to scrap the entire project if it wasn’t going to be fun enough to play.
Mustaine has a long history in game development and has been involved a laundry list of projects including several using the Doom and Quake engines.
