It’s been almost two years since Bethesda told us id Software had scrapped an earlier version of Doom so the team could start fresh on what would eventually become the game we were treated to just last week. They didn’t go into much detail, just that the decision had been made because the game “did not have a soul.”
That’s not a particularly revealing statement, but in an industry that’s become obsessed with cramming all the polygons into their games in a silly pursuit of photorealism, it’s good to know Bethesda is looking for that sort of thing in their games.
“We weren’t happy with the game that was being made,” Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines told Polygon. “We decided that it wasn’t Doom enough and needed to be thrown out and started over. Some folks left and some faces changed at the studio. Out of that change—which was not easy for those guys to go through—some amazing things happened.”
When they realized the Doom they had might’ve been too heavily inspired by modern shooters like Call of Duty — if you need an idea of how much it had strayed, taking cover was a thing — the decision was made to start fresh.
Sometimes, a seemingly disastrous setback can be a very good thing.
