You could say DOOM Eternal is built on the original Quake engine given those caveats.
Part of the appeal for me is the atmosphere of Quake 1. Though how you play couldn’t be more different, the dark fantasy world and sinister, industrial ambient soundtrack feels like the original Thief. Of the early fully 3D first-person games, they’re the only two I’ve frequently returned to over the years. Half-Life’s innovations with scripted sequences have been incorporated into most singleplayer shooters so I can only return for nostalgia’s sake, but Thief and Quake get so many things right about their respective genres that they’ve never lost their luster for me.
Here’s some gameplay. It apparently started as a Hexen style game, so it has a hub world and light puzzles
Everything looks great to me but the low monster density. But I guess it’s not the type of game I first expected. Certainly something I’ll keep my eye on.
I agree with you but… most enemies were basic, weak zombies. It made me think maybe this is the first level so maybe that’s why the amount was low, because they were trying to create a bit of atmosphere here.
Yea, I’ll be watching for future footage.
Variety has a nice profile on the developers behind Wrath and the history of the project:
“I looked at all of these games and picked the best art,” Fox said. “It draws heavily from the combat of ‘Doom,’ the interactivity of ‘Duke Nukem 3D,’ the spatial awareness of ‘Quake,’ and the darker theme of ‘Hexen.’
During PAX, a 3D Realms rep said Wrath will hit early access this August:
Regarding the release date, 3D Realms’ Vice President Frederik Schreiber told me that they are planning for August with episode one. Despite having the “early access” moniker (which I was told was due to Steam policy), episode one will be a finalish build of the game. 3D Realms is likening this to the old shareware model, just with a price tag. Schreiber stressed that nothing from that build would feel incomplete or sloppy.
A longer video form PAX, it’s starting to look better
Just got a notification:
An item on your Steam Wishlist has just released in Steam Early Access!
FAQ:
Why Early Access?Summary
“Because we want to engage the community and get player feedback as soon as possible. We believe this will help us make WRATH the best game it can be. The community has always been the back-bone of 3D Realms titles such as Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, and will continue to be so!”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
Summary
“Our goal is to have WRATH ready for release during summer 2020. However, we also want the game to be in a perfect state before releasing it out of Early Access, which means that in this case we might prolong the development for a while longer.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
Summary
“The Early Access version of WRATH will contain the first Hub world and the first 5 levels (2 at launch and the remaining 3 will be added with each content update). It will also have 11 of the 15+ enemy roster, over half of the weapon arsenal, and half of the suite of Artifacts. Story and plot-specific elements, including characters, dialogue and starting area, are withheld from the Early Access version that it can be experienced as intended in the full release.
The full game will have 3 unique Hub worlds, each with 5 levels, several Bosses, 15+ enemies, 9 weapons, 10 artifacts and multiplayer. The final game is many times larger and content rich than the Early Access release.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
Summary
“We are planning to increase the price at least once as we get closer to the full release of the game. We will be informing everyone through the Steam news, Steam Discussion forums and our social media channels before any price change that might occur, so you can plan ahead.””
The devils in the details, but 2 worlds and a hub doesn’t sound like very much at all, with or without the context of the proposed full version. I want to play this but I’ll hold off until I get a feel for how the pacing of development is going, and whether this is as sparse as an offering as it sounds.
Wait, if they’re doing the Quake engine, shouldn’t the game look better than that? I played Quake in 2018, and used one of the modern renderers to do so, and it looked much better, I think.
I think it’s using the Darkplaces engines which is the most advanced Q1 sourceport.
Oh good. That’s the engine I used last year. Carry on. :)
They are not using texture filtering, so you can see the chunky pixel art. But that’s an aesthetic choice.
As far as I know the best Quake engine currently is Quakespasm.
AFAIK Quakespam is the one recommended for being the most faithful to the original engine (while still being totally compatible with new computers and modern maps). I think DP has some new visual flairs on top of it.
I got the notification that this was on sale again on Steam.
Unfortunately, it looks like it’s still in Early Access. So nevermind.
Today 3DR announced the game will leave Early Access in Feb next year, so it’s still very much a long ways off. In addition to the release date, there’s been a decent update and a revised roadmap.
So I just streamed this for an hour or so and had to stop because it’s so intense I knew I’d be exhausted if I kept playing. It’s SO GOOD. Might be the best of the retro shooters I’ve played.
I wonder if they’re still on that roadmap posted two posts above mine, with the game coming out on February 25th. I’m interested, just not interested in Early Access.