John Romero Making PC Shooter

Doom and Quake designer John Romero finally revealed some details about the shooter project he was teasing last month. The unnamed shooter is being developed for the PC and will have an "MMO-ish" feel.

"It's a persistent game, it has persistent player data, the character grows and gets better over time. I think most gamers expect that now anyway, but this was a design I'd done a while ago. I think it's pretty valid," Romero told Eurogamer. "You will be playing the game as you would expect a shooter to feel, but the specifics of your situation, narrative wrapper and reward system are all unique. I wouldn't want to give out any specifics until I'm close to shipping it. I've learned my lesson about talking too soon about specific game features and release dates"

That last sentence about "talking to soon" is no doubt a reference to Daikatana. Daikatana, if you're too young to remember, was the much-hyped shooter that Romero designed in the late nineties. It was supposed to be the flagship game of his new studio Ion Storm. The company took out a full page ad stating that John Romero was going to make you his bitch. The game suffered a string of delays, though, and turned out to be kind of a mess.

While Romero didn't offer concrete details on the game, he suggests it'll be more fast-paced than modern-day shooters. In other words, it'll be more like Quake than Gears of War.

"I love twitch 180s, fast targeting, fast firing, fast movement. So anything that's not like that - like current shooters that are basically a track going through a level to the exit and everything is closed off - is not interesting to me. I like to explore my levels, y'know? So I'm not a fan of on-rail shooting or slow-moving cover systems. That's not to say that Gears isn't a great game but as a player I'm more interested in speed and fast movement."

Though the design of the game is nailed down, Romero hasn't officially starting building it yet. It could be awhile before we see it, then.