GOOD OLD CLASSIC VIDEO GAME ACTION HEROES
Contents
- Intro
- Pray
- Cut
- Sin
- Hex
- Magnetize
- Mash-up
Change Log
- 16.05.24 - added Hexen/Heretic to the list after reading Romero's autobiography
Intro
Having read another post on upcoming Quake's champions with tries to think outside the box, recalling those old and not so old classic ​action heroes, like Serious Sam, Duke Nukem, Lo Wang etc, I thought about several games that were very close to Id Software core games.
PRAY
The first one is Prey. I really feel very sad that there is/were that conflict of Human Head Studios and Bethesda, that lead to denying the heritage of the title, born in torment of development hell, actually initiated by ex-member of idSoftware, Tom Hall that had this idea since Doom; and building something completely new, I'm not questioning the quality of the new product by Arcane - but still it's Prey In the Name Only, something that was pushed from top, from Bethesda to Arcane.
Old Prey was kinda cool, kinda very close to the Quake 4, Doom 3 - well, yes, including it was using idTech4, and Human Head Studios was born out of Raven Software, that was kind of id-satellite studio (well, at least in some it's life moments), and the game relied heavily on slipgates, I mean, portals! And now original title is abandoned.
Well, I'm thinking that current IdSoftware, that revives her old and new titles in a better quality, could use its partnership with Bethesda that now completely owns HHS - OK, the title (Prey) is kinda lost now, but, like Gearbox did with Homeworld: Cataclysm rereleasing it as Homeworld: Emergence (due to strange title copyright problems), old 'Prey' could be renamed somehow - well, I don't know, for example, 'Victim', 'Bounty', 'Remnant' or another cool one-word name, maybe, even with some American aborigine reference, like myths and legends. And that would lead for players to have old game in Gog and Steam, and for Id Software that would mean new possibilities in developing new games, not being stuck to old IPs, and of course, new champions. Like these two guys:
The Indian Guy could have secret Icon of Sin skin with cry "Domasi Tawodi about to make you his bitch!". And Active ability to have shift gravity or open portals… And The Bounty Hunter guy could use some of his trailer arsenal.
CUT
John Romero's Daikatana had been born on the ashes of idSoftware DnD games. While being a surprizingly bad game despite the famous name, probably because of great ambitions and failed management, it has an interesting potential if reboot right (probably everything has a potential if redone right, probably I just don't like to waste franchises). Classic cyberpunk yakuza's and mega-corporations for the beginning and a little bit of time travel… Or no time-travel to keep it more serious, just an homage with a level in the history museum, so that a hero could use some of the old-times weapons in historic museums. Or otherwise it could be a story of Xaero-like guy, traveling through remarkable Id-verse epochs in the Dreamland, like Ranger fighting lesser Gods… Initial idea of having a group of characters in-game is a fine basis for a cooperative shooter game, fighting through the different historical levels, with all those different weapons, it could be the base for some class-based game or even rogue-lite.
On the other hand, they would mashup nicely with Lo "Shadow Warrior" Wang, another one faceless franchise, IMHO, especially after Flying Wild Hog has somewhat mashed it up with their Hard Reset, but - they even have God Realm there!
Anyway, the IP is a property of Square Enix (or Embracer Group now?), so anyone would have to deal with them first.
SIN
And Ritual Entertainment's 'Sin' could share charismatic hero for championship: John R. Blade. As I recall, there was even demo of Sin II done on idTech4.
Ritual Entertainment has gone bankrupt, and as Sin Episodes: Emergence was mediocre, I don't think it makes sense to release a direct sequel, even with the current IP holder, Nightdive Studios releasing Sin:Reloaded remaster. IMHO, it's better to reimagine the game story completely, leaving only the most essential features, like Demolition Man hero, mutants, hacking, sexy villain and so on.
Cyberpunk style is popular nowadays, well, you know why - and Sin was somewhat of a slum cyberpunk or biopunk story, especially, if we take in account that anime and similarity to Judge Dredd. A lone cop with a trusty pistol goes detective into noir places finding corruption on a higher level…
I believe that Flying Wild Hog studios would be good for this task as they were quite creative with Shadow Warrior IP and had the same slum cyberpunk Hard Reset. Of course, the latter games are more like the ‘shoot-em-all' genre, while Sin had action, horror and stealth elements, but that will be the chance to show that Flying Wild Hog can into other subgenres. The other option for Nightdive Studios is to develop it themselves especially, as they already have an experience with System Shock remake.
HEX
Well, I hardly know what's there, this title has passed me by, but I know that it was ordered by John Romero and done by Raven Software. And it even seems that Galena is a reference to this game. But what if current idSoftware can take more from it?
Magnetize
Also, there was the game "Magrunner: The Dark Pulse", which told us about the distant future, where some corporation under the hood of portal-like TV-show was planning to open portal to Cthulhu worlds. And this guy, Dax Ward, was one of the survivors of this successful attempt.
As QC is now strongly set in a world of Cthulhu, and this guys is somewhat of the same dimension as Slash/Anarki, it would be fun to meet him once in the planes of Elder God's twisted reality.
Mash-up
I believe, since upmentioned titles are not really used, being consumed by FPS veteran Id Software for potential development would be better than nothing. And have some champs from these.
Of course, IP holders might not agree on this :)
