Doom 4 1.0

Doom 4 1.0, not to be confused with id Software's eventual successful release of Doom (2016), is a cancelled first-person shooter that was originally intended as a reboot of the Doom franchise. After being initially announced in August 2007, it suffered repeated delays and development setbacks until, in 2011, id Software staff invited input from publisher Bethesda Softworks and parent company ZeniMax Media on the prospects of restarting the project. It then entered a period of "rolling reboot" which would last until the new concept which became the final "DOOM" solidified in 2013.

History
Early development began in, according to comments made at that time by John Carmack. This was followed with an official announcement by id Software on May 7, 2008. It was begun shortly after the abandoning of an early concept project called "Darkness," which was to be a survival horror game based on the horror aspects of Doom 3, and while id Software's then-upcoming title Rage was still in development, seeing id Software internally split into two development teams for the first time.

Several years would go by without any subsequent information being offered by id Software, with growing frustration by gamers and the gaming press when inquiries at the yearly convention were met with event cancellations; statements such as, "we can't talk about that;" or with apologies by Todd Hollenshead for the continuing lack of information.

Finally, in April 2013, citing anonymous sources who had left the company in the wake of internal reorganization, published an article describing Doom 4 as trapped in "." The article claimed that the game had suffered under mismanagement, and that development was completely restarted in 2011, a detail which was later officially confirmed.

Producer Marty Stratton, former project creative director Kevin Cloud, and new project creative director Hugo Martin later described the period between 2011 and 2013 as a "rolling reboot," beginning with an invitation from Marty extended to the staff at publisher Bethesda to discuss restarting work on the game. An anonymous third party remembered a quote from a frustrated John Carmack during one of the meetings leading up to this intervetion: "Doom means two things: demons and shotguns."

According to Kevin, the id Software staff were concerned that the existing project had become something that "wasn't really capturing what we felt like was DOOM, and what the fans would want from it." Marty reiterated the common Call of Doom sentiment, and described the project as cinematic and story-heavy, with characters around and interacting with the player throughout. He mentioned that it took a long time for the game to get into the phase where the player could fight demons, starting out with exposition and then progressing into battles against zombified humans. Hugo referenced the 1997 film  with regard to how he felt about the project, saying that, unlike the original Doom, which had "one guy involved in big things," it was more about the "big things," and that in this respect, it sacrificed the character of the Doom Slayer. He called it a realistic depiction of the impact of a global hellish invasion.

Many staff members would not survive the project transition, including Todd Hollenshead, John Carmack, and most of the id Tech programming team. Carmack's growing aggravation with ZeniMax with regard to his ambitions in virtual reality technology had seen him reduce his role from lead developer to technology advisor, and would eventually lead him to depart id Software in 2013 to work as Chief Technical Officer for Oculus VR. Fallout from this departure would lead to a lawsuit between the two companies which was concluded in 2016.

According to Marty, though it would be tempting for people to think that id Software "looked at this game and then scrapped it," there were actually many aspects of the project which continued to inform the later game's design. These include various basic elements such as locations and weapons, and in particular, the "sync melee" system which later became glory kills. During this rolling reboot process, numerous prototypes were produced, many still using the older game's assets until they had been replaced with new material.

Technology
Doom 4 was to be built on the engine, and according to John Carmack as of July 16, 2008, would be targeted at 30 frames per second in order to achieve better graphics performance than Rage. Though no release platforms had been set in stone at that point, Rage had already been targeted at the then-current generation of consoles (the and ), as well as the PC, so it was widely assumed at that time, and later confirmed by Todd Hollenshead, that Doom 4 would follow suit.

Story
The game was to feature the player joining a rag-tag band of militants who formed an impromptu resistance against an apocalyptic invasion of Earth by the forces of Hell, making the game a modern remake of Doom II. This was first hinted at publicly by Todd Hollenshead, who made a statement which supported what was up until then fan speculation, stating that, "Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth".

Later, portfolio concept art by an ex-employee, which was released unofficially onto the web in February 2012, seemed to confirm this, displaying dramatic, post-apocalyptic cityscapes. These images were discredited at the time by id Software's creative director Matthew Hooper via Twitter, with him saying, "Those images have nothing to do with what you're gonna see in Doom 4. When we officially show things, you'll see awesome." These were later confirmed, however, by officially approved releases in late 2016 and early 2017.

A vertical slice trailer of the game was additionally leaked in May 2015, displaying some of the same locations featured in the concept art, use of tactical combat mechanics, and extensive scenes of cinematics and player interaction with non-player characters. Parent company ZeniMax met most instances of the video with take-down notices, but would later approve its partial inclusion into the noclip DOOM Resurrected documentary.

Mechanics
Rather than re-imagining the fast-paced gameplay of the original games, Doom 4 was to take a cinematic and linear approach driven by a war-drama-like plot featuring two-way dialogue between the player and characters, many elements of which can be seen in the vertical slice trailer. Movement was meant to be realistically slow and tactical, with cover mechanics, hurdling and mantling over obstacles, and use of iron-sight aiming. This was a large part of what led to the game being referred to as Call of Doom by id Software staff.

One element which survived, in a transformed state, was a unique system for "sync melee" combat, wherein the player would be attached to an enemy to carry out animated close-up attacks culminating in a fatal final blow. This was retained and transformed into the final game's glory kill system, albeit with a much faster pace to avoid disruption of the flow of game play.

Characters
Numerous characters appear in the vertical slice trailer, but almost nothing is known about them aside from the identity of the protagonist.

Settings
A significant number of locations were created for the game, including many destroyed city locations, a sewer tunnels level, and a warehouse. These levels were in various stages of completion, from work-in-progress concepts to playable demos. Of all of the locations known to be a part of the original game, only one is currently known to have survived, in a form, into the final game. According to Marty Stratton, the Foundry began as a much simpler level intended for Doom 4.