While we could have instantly written about Romero’s game an hour after the announcement, we wanted to wait. Wait to see how the community reacts during the first day. The results are mixed; John Romero‘s name is not a guarantee to be a success.
Yesterday, as promised, the announcement happened: Night Work Games unveiled Blackroom, which has an almost colossal task to achieve: it wants to recreate the gameplay and ambiance that Doom and Quake had two decades ago. In Blackroom, we control Santiago Sonora, the chief engineer of Hoxar Inc. We must get through simulations as Blackroom is the name of a holographic simulation technology. Of course, it isn’t perfect, so there will be bugs and glitches here and there.
The gameplay will feature traditional Doom / Quake elements, such as rocket jumping, strafe jumping, and circle strafing. Blackroom will also try to focus on the narrative. As Romero says, „In my stuff, I always have pauses and then lots of combat and then pauses and suspense and all that stuff. The parts where there are pauses and suspense might be these narrative sections that are tying the story together, but they won’t be long pieces. I know the player is smart, so I’m going to assume they know what’s going on half the time.”
The 10-hour single player campaign will also have a Challenge mode, as well as co-op, 1v1 deathmatch, plus free-for-all Arena on the six built-in maps. The community can also create custom maps, so it is mostly up to them to see if Blackroom will have longevity with the multiplayer or not.
Blackroom is spearheaded by John Romero and Adrian Carmack. The two guys have worked at id Software together, so they reignite their working relationship; the latter will be the art director. However, they need our help as well as our money to create the game. On Kickstarter, their target is $700K, which is still not as much as Mighty No. 9’s $900K, which is still not out yet. A little less than a day, they have $82K – if they succeed, the game will be out throughout the winter of 2018. (It would not be surprising if there were a console port as a stretch goal.)
You can visit the Kickstarter campaign here.
