Editorials
[#DOOM25] Have You Heard of… ‘DOOM RPG’?
Believe it or not, DOOM wasn’t always an ultra-frantic shooter with a big, clanging pair of gore-stained balls swinging to and fro alongside Vince McMahon esque strides. Indeed, there was a time when over a decade ago, id Software dipped its toes into the RPG genre by releasing DOOM RPG – a labor of love that was pretty much the most unexpected marriage of things since David Arquette and pro-wrestling.
Long before Android or iOS-powered smartphones were a thing, id Software would bring DOOM RPG to mobile devices that were powered by Java, and the now-defunct SymbianOS. However, in order to do a proper job of it, id Software would enlist the talents of mobile developer Fountainhead Entertainment, who would fill in the technical gaps that The House That DOOM Built would naturally have in dealing with such an unfamiliar platform.
The end result was that DOOM RPG was every bit the blood-soaked off-genre homage to id Software’s magnum opus that we all hoped it would be, and more importantly, it was a game which inarguably showed that DOOM could exist outside of its FPS genre comfort zone. Of course, it didn’t hurt that DOOM’s leap to the RPG genre reassuringly included all of the cornerstones of the core DOOM experience.
With the action unfolding from a familiar first-person perspective, DOOM RPG once more casts players as Doomguy who, just like in the mainline series, must blast his way through a demonic horde and close the portal that links our reality to that of Hell. Bolstering the familiarity of its setting is the fact that DOOM RPG also brings back many of the recognizable weapons and monsters from the core franchise too, including the shotgun, rocket launcher, zombie troopers, imps and even the Cyberdemon for starters.
Beyond that near and dear collection of villains and premium bang-bang, DOOM RPG strikes out into titular genre territory in earnest and this is most noticeable in how the game handles the twin cornerstones of the DOOM franchise – movement and combat.
In the case of the former, movement is no longer rooted in the free motion style of traversal that was championed in the 1993 original. but was instead replaced by a turn-based system that permitted the player to turn in 90-degree increments while they move from space to space. It’s a system that is miles away from the super frenetic shooter beats of the main series for sure, but in the case of DOOM’s new RPG digs, taming player agency in this way made a lot of sense from a pacing standpoint, too. Think traditional DOOM meets something like Dungeon Master or classic Bard’s Tale, and you get the idea.
Likewise, combat was similarly reimagined in this way. No longer permitting the player to freely put shotgun to face and pull the trigger at a split-second whim, in DOOM RPG players were instead required to face their grotesque enemies in turn-based combat scenarios where depending on the weapon and armor you were using at the time, the damage you would do to your foe and also receive from them would adjust accordingly.
Now, before you start vomiting in your mouth at the very thought of DOOM’s iconic gunplay being slowed down to an orderly plod, allow me to assuage you to the contrary – though turn-based, the execution of both movement and combat in DOOM RPG remains reassuringly rapid. Certainly, moving around the environment and vanquishing enemies with all manner of iconic DOOM weapons such as the shotgun, plasma gun, and even the mighty BFG9000 feels much swifter than you might expect, and manages to go some way to encapsulating the essence of id Software’s transformative shooter.
Other traditional elements of the core experience have also been tweaked and modified to fit this new DOOM, too. Take the enemies for example, though they’re a familiar bunch they are each color-coded to provide an indication of difficulty that scales as you press on through the game. While another neat wrinkle to the proceedings came in the form of a new mind-control dog collar, as it allows Doomguy to enthrall Hellhounds and direct them to attack his enemies with reckless abandon or defend him from incoming attack – it was almost like a not-shit, demonic Dead to Rights. Almost.
Anyhow, this being a genre effort, DOOM RPG wasn’t going to let you get away without doing RPG things and so players could expect to get stuck into a fair amount of talking to folks and using computer terminals to progress through the story. In fact, in many ways DOOM RPG’s story-driven exploratory beats somewhat mirror those seen in DOOM 3 – the difference, of course, being that when id Software released DOOM 3 in 2004, they forgot to append the ‘RPG’ bit on the end.
Ultimately a beautifully odd little curio, if anything the existence and subsequent modest success of DOOM RPG proved that there is still sufficient creative latitude in the DOOM setting to fashion games that exist outside its traditional FPS mold – so let’s try something like that again eh?
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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