WWDC: Hands On with Upcoming 'Doom Resurrection'
posted June 11th, 2009 1:56 PM EDT by arn in Upcoming Games, WWDC 2009
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.
Very, very nice.
Looks like an FPS should to me
But will it outsell Pocket Alan? (don't ask if you're not in the UK…)
Wow. So much for me buying this game. Thanks for ruining a good game Id with an on rails experience. Are developers just lazy and want to make a quick buck? I mean, there's already other FPS's on the iphone that you can actually control the character's movement. What a shame. And I was looking forward to picking this up. Hopefully, their sales won't be that good and they'll realize they made a mistake. Lame…..
I stopped reading at "on rails"…. Sorry guys we already have a hundred "on rails" shooters… putting a different name on it still makes it feel the same…. I want to be able to control my character like doom was meant to be played… I really hope Carmack will do a Doom I or II port, as for this I already have Time Crisis, Metal gear Solid, and Iron Man. I need another Iphone on rails shooter like a need a hole in the head….
This game is on fails.
I knew it was on rails. Or I had a feeling it was anyway, when Eli's last write up about the game stated the controls for movement AND aiming were accelerometer based. I wondered how such a thing was possible in an FPS, and then I realized "it must be on rails".
Suspicion confirmed.
Ah well.
There aren't many on rail shooters for the iTouch/Phone anyway. The last one was, what…Time Crisis?
And Metal Gear Solid Touch is really a gallery shooter, brian, not an on rails shooter.
Agreed… Just deflated that Carmack's "Secret Project" has been an on rails shooter this whole time, … I was soo hoping for some type of multiplayer FPS….
For multiplayer FPS, wait for Doom Classic. For just plain fun and shooting, will it be on rails or whatever, play this.
It would be great for losing a few minutes during workbreaks and stuff. Although the On-rails part is a bit of a letdown, I still look foreward to this, plain for the recognizability and timekilling.
Oh c'mon there's good fun to be had on rails, it's one less thing to worry about. FPS games are so hard to play while smoking.
Rails?…. Come on really? Really? Really? This is all very disappointing. The whole fun part of playing Doom was that you could actually move around in a 3D enviroment and going back to other rooms and discover things.
I'd would of payed 10-20 bucks on this if it was real first person shooter. Now $2-3.
I'm very disappointed it's not an FPS. However, if it's something ELSE and still fun, I'll certainly be interested. It looks great, and people who've tried it like it, so I won't simply dismiss it.
Question: do you control WHEN to move forward and when to wait?
4-6 hours? That's perhaps okay for $.99.
So how do they supose they are gonna get this thin approved? The character chainsaw'd a zombie's head off until his blood was spurting out where his head was…
Well, I guess I'll be saving some money here. Maybe for a buck
Jesus everyone hates Rail shooters that much? I think they are f*ckin fun as HELL. Yeah it's not the classic doom, but you know what? I have that on my PC and my GBA. This looks like fun, and rail shooters are in short supply on the iDevices. Time Crisis is the only one I know. If anyone knows of any others, let me know please cause I actually enjoy them. I think they would be fun for the touch. Yeah actual FPS games are so much more fun, but Doom + Rail shooter = awesome to me. Unless its like over 4.99, I am going to pick this up.
The rails fails, but I gave up yesterday when I saw the graphics.
Just give us original doom.
Rails aren't the DOOM I was looking for.
If it's on rails as in Panzer Dragoon then it will be good. You would have alot of control of the character, but have to follow a certain path.
Oh no!! Why?! please say it's a joke… Carmack you should know better than this. Why Rail? Why build a engine for this if it's going to be rail action you can just make an interaktiv movie.
Seems like I will stick to the DooM I port, it's going to be legendary!
ON RAILS!!! no interested, i was the other doom carmacks working on.
Buy it! Not because you like the game, but so you have reason to keep whining after it comes out!
I guess this is like the time when id thought it best to think of a different way to implement Doom on a constrained device like a mobile phone, and came up with the Doom RPG mechanic. We didn't see a full FPS there, basically because we have to live with the compromises. Maybe, just maybe, that same principle is what's going on here. True, the iPhone can pull off a decent FPS, but maybe id is trying to take off a bit of the control from the user and put a bit more emphasis on other matters that would make it more fun. (As to what those other matters are, admittedly, I can't tell much from the video).
But I agree – id, scrapping a full FPS when it could easily have been pulled off decently by them – is disappointing. At this stage, at least.
really makes you depresed when you see something like that.
I agree that "on rails" is a dirty word, but its not like the iPhone has a mouse, and keyboard.
Actually, I'm really looking foward to this. I just watched the trailer and it's going to be really impressive when it comes out. I was playing Time Crisis today and rememberred how fun on rails shooters were on the iPhone. Just as long as it has more stuff than Time Crisis, which was a really short game in comparison just made longer by the hard difficulty (which I still can't beat on Easy). I see the price being about 1-3 bucks, which I'm hoping for as I'm waiting for Capcom to announce a couple more games and I want to have the money when they get around to making Phoenix Wright (if they do).
But either way, stop killing the game just because it's an on-rails shooter, which are alot more fun than a shooting gallery like MGST which everyone loved. I'm sure we'll all be surprised how well this comes out.
Jeeze! Is rails really such a bad thing? News flash guys: The iPhone doesn't have that many input methods available to it without soft-buttons plastered all over the screen. Wolf did okay, but that didn't need any vertical aiming, and the fire button still felt a little like one button too many.
At least give it a go before you declare ID dead to you. Every single FPS game I've tried on the iPhone I gave up on coz they tried to squeeze in too many controls ..except Wolf 3D. So I trust that the decision they've made with keeping the controls simple could be a good one. ..I'll *try* it at least, before I whine like a four year old who just had his security blanket taken away. :p
well, having played it a bit, I prefer it greatly to Time Crisis. I think people are overreacting a bit.
arn
At the end of the day…. unless you're a die-hard FPS and won't live with anything less, surely what matters is… is it fun?
Arn & Eli seem to think so. I think it looks fun…wait for Doom Classic as someone else said, if you want geniune FPS action.
You guys are stupid. ID software knows what they're doing. The graphichs looks insane and it will be a great thrill to play this game. Even when it's on-rails, what does it matter? If it provides a great experience it doesn't really matter does it?
cool trailer music. De graphics looks bad (in a gd way). I'm not sure bout the on-rail thingy but damn it if i can shoot at something I'll buy it!
One of my favorite games of all time is House of the Dead. they could make House of the Dead 'cartoon lollipops' edition and id probably still play it. Similar to Time Crisis, but it just feels different. Maybe HOTD has more shooting on the way to each pitstop, or it moved forward more often due to shorter battles at each pitstop. If its along those lines it should be fun.