With the recent announcement that id Software has begun work on Doom 4, the latest installment in the franchise that basically made first-person shooters what they are today, our mouths reflexively started slavering. We've been with Doom from the beginning, battling our way through Carmack and Romero's early masterpiece before going online at LAN parties and discovering the joy of deathmatch for the first time. Several sequels followed, for a variety of platforms (including the Super NES, Atari Jaguar and more) as well as a series of novels and a big-budget movie starring The Rock. However, it's fair to say that the first next-gen installment, Doom 3, was sort of a disappointment, replacing the balls-out adrenaline of the early games with a slower-paced survival horror experience. With the sequel looming, we took some time to tell id exactly want we want to see - so get cracking, Carmack!
Light It Up
The real-time lighting systems of the Doom 3 engine are a technological marvel, letting programmers and artists accurately re-create environments illuminated by only a few light sources. Swinging bulbs, flickering fluorescents, and shadowy corners all look so real that it's hard to tell where the screen ends and your darkened game room begins. Unfortunately, all that darkness makes it really hard to see what you're shooting at. Couple that with the bizarre decision to not let the player use a flashlight and a gun at the same time (seriously, has this space marine never heard of duct tape) and you got a dimly-lit slog that was more eye straining than scary. For Doom 4, they should bring the lights up and let us come face to face with the horror in all of its glory before we blow it to smithereens.
