Canceled Doom 4 Footage Emerges Online

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Within the last four years especially, Doom has made what is easily one of the best comebacks in video game history. After a twelve year hiatus, id Software, alongside Bethesda Softworks, returned Doom to its former glory in a tremendous way. Although, before the arrival of Doom (2016) there was apparently a fourth mainline installment in the works that ultimately got scrapped in favor of the 2016 title.

Doom 3 was the last game in the series to release before Doom was revitalized in 2016. The game came out in 2004 and featured horror elements on top of the action-based gameplay that Doom was previously known for. It would later take developers a full twelve years before a new game was released, but according to newly emerged gameplay segments and screenshots, not only could a new game have released earlier, but it would have looked much different from the final version of Doom (2016).

The test footage, animations, and screenshots were shown off in a small video posted by Crispies on YouTube. In a lot of ways, what's shown in the video, although very rough compared to the final product, share a lot of similarities to the newer games. The enemy and weapon designs resemble those used in the actual game. In fact, some of the environment designs are extremely similar to the ones that later appear in Doom Eternal, such as the apocalyptic city areas.

It makes one wonder what kind of game this would have been if things were done differently. The first enemy shown in the video, the one wearing a sweatshirt, looks practically nothing like any of the enemies that appear in the final version. It's strange to consider that this could have been just a fourth installment, rather than a reboot. Then again, there's already a lot of things about the Doom franchise that make no sense at all.

A lot of people were extremely happy with the way Doom turned out in later years, and there are a lot of components featured in this video that made their way into the final version of the game, but it still would have been interesting to see what could have been done differently. Over the years, Doom has taken on a cacophony of different forms, with one talented user transforming Doom into an 80s style pixel shooter, but it's clear that this game was looking to do things somewhat differently.

While Doom 3 was not received as favorably compared to other Doom titles, it did attempt to do things differently, and while the newer games have brought the franchise into the modern age, its structure is somewhat static in some regards. Then again, a new DLC campaign could do a lot to change this. With the success of The Ancient Gods, perhaps another DLC campaign is right around the corner.