id Software Unleashes DOOM Upon Its Fans

QuakeCon 2014 is currently underway in Dallas, and amidst the tournaments and panel discussions, id Software dropped a major bombshell on their fans: a full reveal of the new game in the Doom series, bearing the controversial title of DOOM.

Unfortunately and infuriatingly for anyone who couldn't make it (or who just can't stand Dallas), the bombshell of DOOM was dropped exclusively on convention attendees, which means I can't show you anything from the game. Neither can anyone else, at least until id deigns to offer a glimpse of DOOM to the public. Information has dribbled out from gaming press around the Internet, but since apart from the murky E3 trailer, I haven't seen any footage, I don't trust it. There's talk of gun violence and melee violence; Hell violence and Mars violence; and a scene of violence wherein the player, fresh off a spree of murdering demons with their own torn-off limbs, gets murdered with their own torn-off limbs. But this might as well be conjecture. Without concrete evidence in front of my eyeballs, I'm forced to believe the word of strangers, which my mother taught me long ago not to do.

Assuming these reports aren't some sort of organised games-press conspiracy, is this the right way to go? Adding fast-paced, ridiculous melee combat to fast-paced, ridiculous shooting may seem like a minor addition, but handled right, it could be a terrific modern twist on classic Doom gameplay. I'm reminded of the sadistic glee of playing Bulletstorm, which augmented its shooting with a whip, a boot, and anti-gravity. I'd rather my Cyberdemon violence be cartoonish than realistic, so I'm for this development.

The new iteration of DOOM, which may exist only in a shared hallucination, will come out in The Future for PC and next current-gen consoles, and will run on idTech 6, a graphics engine so powerful that God Herself could not create a more volumetric light ray.