This week should have been a celebration for Doom developer id Software. The studio just launched Revelations, a meaty expansion for Doom: The Dark Ages that adds a powerful new weapon and more demonic levels to blast through. Even though I hadn’t picked up The Dark Ages for more than a year, it only took moments before I fell right back into the familiar loop from id’s modern Doom games. Each plays differently, but they all have a similar foundation built around fast-paced shooter action that makes them feel iconically Doom — and unlike pretty much anything else.
But instead the launch has been overshadowed. As part of Xbox’s mass layoffs and strategy “reset,” id was gutted. The specific figures vary, but reports all paint a grim picture. GamesBeat reports that “at least” 92 of the 185 full-time id employees, or about 50 percent of the studio, were laid off. Game Developer obtained a Texas WARN notice saying that 96 employees were cut from id’s Richardson, Texas, office, and 40 remote workers reporting to that location were laid off, too. Sources speaking to Kotaku believe that the team working on the studio’s proprietary id Tech game engine has just one employee left.
Whichever way you count it, it appears the id of today is a shell of the studio that it was at the beginning of the week. And just as that is happening, Revelations shows exactly what made the studio special.
The Dark Ages expanded the Doom formula, especially with a new shield that doubled as a throwable buzzsaw, but in the process added some unnecessary features. Revelations wisely focuses more on the core Doom formula of taking down wave after wave of bad guys and significantly cuts down on the rest.
Revelations also takes things up a notch by giving The Slayer a new spear. You can swing it like a sword to hit nearby enemies, toss it like a grappling hook to zip forward, or, with upgrades, stab bad guys or throw it like a javelin. With the shield, I usually got up close and personal with demons, taking a spray and pray and parry approach. With the spear, I’d stay more at a distance, dodging foes and coming in for a punishing blow when the time was right. The game became more of a dance than an exercise in brute force.
If you like modern Doom, you’ll probably like everything else Revelations includes. Familiar enemies are back, such as the spider-like Arachnotron, the flying Revenant, and the lumbering Mancubus. Battles take place in big arenas, and in fights, I almost always feel like I’m just about to run out of ammo, armor, or health until I get a thrilling kill that gives me more resources to survive. It’s all backed by a pulsing metal soundtrack that makes the action that much more awesome.
If what I just described sounds like it could have been said about Doom 2016 or Doom Eternal, you’re right. id knows what a Doom game is and what it wants a Doom game to be, and Revelations is one of the best examples yet of what modern Doom can be. Despite pioneering the FPS genre, Doom remains distinct from its contemporaries by focusing on brutal, unrelenting action. It’s something the studio was able to explore and refine over literally decades; the original Doom launched in 1993, and its sequels all updated or expanded the concept in some form. And that’s not even including the studio’s other genre-defining games, like Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, and Rage.
It’s unclear what id’s future is; GamesBeat says the studio had been trying out ideas like a multiplayer or co-op version of Doom, a John Wick-style game, and even a new Perfect Dark. But like other cut-down Xbox studios, if id is going to make another Doom, it’s going to be chasing a difficult goal in a deteriorated state.