Ever since the Doom franchise was rebooted in 2016, there’s been a renewed interest in the influential FPS. Of course, things continued at that pace with the release of Doom Eternal in 2020, which some even describe as being superior to its predecessor.
Then there’s the canceled Doom 4 project. Many are perhaps already aware that the reboot was redone, which eventually gave us the beloved finished product, but there’s been some footage from the scrapped game that has emerged.
The YouTube channel NoClip, which specializes in behind-the-scenes content and preserving gaming in general, has uploaded some footage that showcases some early aspects and gameplay from the canceled Doom 4 game.
The video demonstrates the direction the project was originally taking during its development cycle.
Initially, it was conceived as more of a Call Of Duty-style game, perhaps cashing in on the enormous success of the long-running war simulator. Given this, the early footage shows a somewhat grittier game with slower, more purposeful movements from the player.
However, some later aspects in the video do show some things which would eventually make it into the reboot. One of these is the famous “glory kills,” which allows the Doomslayer to off a stunned enemy in a brutal and bloody fashion.
There’s also an animatic, which is essentially halfway between a storyboard and an animation, that shows what the opening moments of Doom 4 were going to be. Fans will recognize that this is pretty much how Doom 2016 starts, so it’s interesting to see that this made it into the final product.
We’ll never know what could have been had this game been the one to make it to publishing. Most will agree, though, that what was released was the best thing to happen to the franchise in years.
With one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time, and its fast-paced and high-octane action, id Software has shown that it’s more than capable of reviving an old classic.
