id: how Rage improves on Doom 3
Bigger and deeper, says Hollenshead.
id Software has explained why Rage, its upcoming first-person shooter, is better than Doom 3.
Sci-fi horror Doom 3 divided opinion upon its 2004 release and drew criticism for perceived repetition and monsters jumping out of cupboards.
Rage, due out in October, trumps it because, according to id CEO Todd Hollenshead, it's bigger, has more depth and seamlessly teaches players how it works.
"Rage is a huge game," Hollenshead told Eurogamer at QuakeCon last week. "It's the deepest game we've ever made. If I was as smart as John [Carmack] I could figure out the math of why it's bigger than everything else.
"I compare it to Doom 3. Doom 3 was great when it came out. I loved that game. But I think about the single-player experience for Doom 3 compared to Rage…
"There are elements that are the same. You still have guns. You still have bad guys you're shooting and areas you're shooting them in. I still think Doom 3 looks good.
"It doesn't look anything like Rage."
Despite some not warming to Doom 3, it set tills alight. id shifted more than 3.5 million copies of the game. It remains the most successful game by the famed developer.
Eurogamer's 2004 Doom 3 review of the single-player portion of the game fragged a 9/10.
"It may not feel like it's taking gaming forward to any appreciable degree in terms of astounding new ideas, but when it's as all round immersive and entertaining, who cares?" wrote Kristan Reed.
"The thrill of Doom III is simply that id has not only created something genuinely stand-out impressive on a technical level, but has gone on to create a beautifully unpretentious game that feels at home with itself in that it's not trying to be something it isn't."
Another area Rage improves upon Doom 3, according to Hollenshead, is in how it teaches the player how it works at the beginning of the game.
"I could take you over and say, sit down and play, and have complete confidence you'll know everything to do," he said.
"But with Doom 3, when you boot up the game on the PC, there's no, like OK, your control is WASD. We had some very simplistic stuff, like, walk around behind a robot, in the opening level before the invasion happened, but that was our version of a tutorial.
"I love the way we've done it in Rage. We teach you how to do everything that's integrated completely into the game so it's completely seamless to the player. Honestly, that's been one of my pet peeves with the company for years.
"I was like, we are not teaching people how to play deathmatch in Quake 3. This is not enough."