Game Informer: First off, what sort of challenges have you encountered in bringing Doom 3 from the PC to the Xbox?

Tim Willits: When John Carmack was developing the Doom 3 technology, he looked at the Xbox and considered that console to be a full-featured platform.  The Xbox has a pretty good video card in it; it’s like a GeForce 4 1/2.  And, of course, the CPU is pretty good, too.  But the biggest challenge we ran into was the system’s 64MB of memory.  To address that issue, we had to shrink some of the areas a bit.  Players may see that they have to load up levels more often, but those load times are pretty fast.  The length of the gameplay is still pretty much the same, but there are now more areas to travel through.  That’s really the biggest difference that you’ll see.  Another difference that people might notice is that on the PC you get those high-res textures, but on the Xbox you’ll be getting standard textures.  But, all the dynamic lights, shadows, physics, 5.1 channel sound, and all the gameplay and media that existed in the PC version, is included in the Xbox version. 

GI: Touching on your comment, how much has actually been taken out of the Xbox version compared to the PC?

TW: Actually, it kind of worked out in the game’s favor that we had to chop up some of the areas.  It gave us the opportunity to really re-evaluate the gameplay experience in the PC version, and so we got the chance to sort of trim out the fat; you know, cut out some of the boring parts and make the Xbox version tighter.  And from some of the feedback we’ve gotten so far, a lot of people seem to like the retuned areas better.  So, we really just took out the parts that we didn’t need. 

GI: So, there are going to be some new areas in the game then?

TW: Not really new areas, but modified areas.  The newest thing that you’ll see in the Xbox version if the cooperative play and it’s sort of like a director’s cut of the single player game.  There are some heavily modified areas in cooperative to make them more enjoyable to play in that manner.  That’s really the big new feature. 

GI: Any challenges in migrating the control scheme from the PC to the Xbox?

TW: No, not really.  We basically used the Halo 2 control scheme.  I’m a big believer that every first person shooter that comes out should use the same control scheme, so people don’t have to learn something new in terms of control.  The Xbox controller is really a nice and solid controller and its one that seems to work well with first person shooters.  If you are familiar with the control schemes from other Xbox first person shooters, you shouldn’t have any problem with Doom 3. 

GI: If you were to put a percentage on it, how faithful is the Xbox version to the PC?

TW: Well you know, the word “port” is always like a bad word around here.  We actually like to think of it as the Xbox version.  It’s basically the same game, just more fun and a bit tighter in some areas.  We’ve brightened it up for play on televisions, too.  It’s very similar, but it’s also very improved.  It’s impossible to give a concrete number, since it’s been massaged, tweaked, and touched in so many different ways. 

GI: What sort of approach did you take in regards to implementing the new cooperative mode?

TW: When we looked at constructing the cooperative campaign, we wanted to focus on the areas that were the most fun to play.  The cooperative campaign is about half as long as the single player campaign.  We went through the game and found all the areas that we thought would be work with two players.  For instance, in the single player campaign, you run across this scientist in a lab that has a flashlight and ends up leading your around for a bit through the dark.  In the cooperative campaign, that guy isn’t there.  So, player one ends up using the flashlight while player two shoots all the bad guys.  Ultimately, you really have to end up working together to survive.  We also adjusted some of the areas and levels to make it easier to get two players in them at the same time.  AI, scripting, and item placement were also tweaked for cooperative play.  For example, when you die, you drop your backpack on the ground, which contains all of your weapons.  When you respawn, you’ll only have your pistol, so you’ll need to go and track down your backpack, while your buddy sorts of protects you until you can do so.  We also have some places in the game where two people must work together in order to progress. 

GI: Like two-player puzzles?

TW: Well, sort of like checkpoints.  You need to make sure that you both stay together. 

GI: Cooperative can be played via Xbox Live, right?

TW: Yeah, you’ll be able to play both cooperative and multiplayer Deathmatch via Xbox Live and System Link.  But, you can’t play via split-screen.  Also, Xbox Live supports all the features that Microsoft requires for Xbox Live enabled titles, such as friend lists and the like.

GI: What happens when a player you’re with disconnects? 

TW: Well, as long as you initiated the game, someone else could jump join in and jump into your game. 

GI: So you could conceivably play through a hefty chunk of cooperative mode by yourself until someone joins your game?

TW: Yeah, you can play until someone joins your server and plays with you.  Or, at least until you get to a spot where you have to have two players to advance further.

GI: Do you have anything new planned for multiplayer outside of what we’ve seen in the PC version?

TW: Basically, our Xbox multiplayer experience is right along the same lines as the PC version.  It supports four players and the game types include Free For All, Last Man Standing, Team Play, and Tournament Play.  It’s basically the same levels that you saw in the PC version, but we’re also planning on having downloadable content, which we’ll be making available in the future, as well.

GI: Why the decision to keep the multiplayer cap at four players?

TW: Well, we felt that it really added that Doom feel.  The levels are smaller and you’re not going to find these mammoth Deathmatch maps where you can never find anybody.  And, we felt that the four-player Deathmatch lent itself to the level of fun that we wanted to create. 

GI: So what kinds of goodies are going to be part of the Limited Edition version of the game?

TW: The Limited Edition is really a great product and we’re really proud of it.  Basically, you get some video interviews with the creators here at id, some concept art that we rarely show the public, and you get my favorite feature in the entire version of Doom and Doom 2.  Those are the old PC classics games and you can play both of those games with up to four players via split-screen.  You can’t play those classic titles over Xbox Live, but you can get some buddies over and play it that way.  It’s really cool to play those, since it sort of brings you back in time and it’s so fast and furious.  Hopefully those people who have fond memories of Doom will pick up the Limited Edition, and those people new to the franchise will fall in love with those classic titles like we did.

GI: In regards to the original PC version of Doom 3, why didn’t you guys include the classic titles in that version, too?

TW: We felt that we offered a lot of gameplay and that Doom 3 was a very solid title.  When we evaluate new products, there are always those new ideas that come to the table and we though that getting those classic games on the Xbox version would be awesome.

GI: Let’s switch gears to the Resurrection of Evil expansion pack.  What’s the storyline and when does it take place in relation to Doom 3?

Matt Hooper: At the end of Doom 3, you defeat the Cyberdemon and you seal the hole down to Hell.  The expansion pack takes place two years after the end of Doom 3 and what happens in the meantime is the UAC back on Earth plays the whole thing off as an accident and shuts down everything.  But, they still have satellites orbiting Mars.  One of cool things about the expansion is that we had about 9 months of parallel development time with Doom 3, so we were able to work in a lot of little story hooks for those who paid attention to the original Doom 3 storyline.  One of those hooks was Dr. Elizabeth McNeil.  In the original story you run across her office and she played a key role in that game.  She was the whistleblower in that game and called in Swan and his men and appealed to them to shut down Betruger and what he was doing.  Betruger, though didn’t like that, and sent her back to Earth.  So, she was gone during the initial invasion.  So in the expansion, the UAC start picking up a faint signal coming from Mars and they’re extremely interested in what it is.  So, they start up their operations again and get a team together and choose Dr. McNeil to lead this new team of scientists.  In the game you play the role of a combat engineer and you’re leading a small team.  You’re getting really close to the source of the signal and Dr. McNeil is monitoring your progress from a remote location.  So basically that’s what’s happened between the end of the first game and the beginning of the expansion. 

GI: Any plans for new weapons or items this time around?

Brandon James:  There are actually a handful of new weapons in the expansion pack, as well as new monsters and those sorts of things.  But, I’ll touch on the weapons.  One of the big weapons that has made a reappearance from the Doom franchise is the double-barreled shotgun, which is from Doom 2.  You pick up the shotgun relatively quickly in the expansion, and in fact, it’s Sarge’s old weapon and you find it locked up in his office.  It really becomes the ultimate boomstick to go up against the old and new demons.  It’s sort of an old rustic meets new technology kind of shotgun.  There’s also the ionized plasma levitator, which we all call the “grabber.”  You can use it, thanks to the great physics in the game, to manipulate objects around you like rocks and exploding barrels.  You can pick them up and throw them at demons, and even use it to grab items like medpacks that may be just out of reach.  But the coolest feature of its use is tied to the enemies in the game.  A lot of demons throw projectiles at you, but you can use the grabber to catch their projectiles and throw them back at them.  It’s great to get into a room with a Hellknight and few Imps and have the Hellknight throw a big projectile at you, while you just grab the projectile and use it to take out some of the Imps.  And, of course, you can pick up bodies and toss them around if you want.  Also, some of the smaller monsters that attack you in packs can be picked up with the grabber and then you can just toss them aside to kill them.

GI: What about this Artifact that we’ve heard about before?  What’s the story behind that?

BJ: The Artifact is really our most unique weapon.  The Artifact is a weapon of evil and is actually what’s emanating the signal that the UAC has been attracted to.  When you first get the Artifact, it’s in a sort of petrified state.  There are these Hunters that are unleashed once you take it and when you come up against one of them and defeat it, you absorb its power into the Artifact.  It’s an extremely grotesque metal/organic hybrid demon heart with glowing runes that signifies the powers you can get.  And, it just sort of sits there and beats in your hands and your hands become all demonized and weird looking.  So, you absorb these powers from defeating the Hunters and each Hunter defeated gives you a new power to use while playing the game.  The first one is what we call Hell Time.  Once absorbed, you can slow down time all round you.  The player stays at the same speed, so you can zip around slowed down demons and just around behind them and pop them in the head.  And, it also makes it easier to grab some enemy projectiles when you slow down time.  Along the way, you’ll also run across a few challenges that require you to slow down time to get past them.

GI: So the abilities aren’t just tuned for combat, but also for puzzle solving?

BJ: Yes.  As you defeat the other Hunters, more powers are absorbed into the Artifact, which then stack on top of each other.  So once you get all of the powers towards the end of the expansion, you just become the ultimate fighting machine.

GI: How many Hunters/powers are there?

BJ: There are three.  And, the Artifact itself is powered off of souls that you’ll find scattered about in the game.  Some souls are trapped in limbo, and you’ll see souls around fallen engineers and mechanics.  Once you have the Artifact, you’ll be able to absorb these souls to use the powers you’ve obtained. 

GI: So we won’t be seeing the return of the Soulcube weapon?

BJ: The Soulcube does not make an appearance in the expansion. 

GI: How long is the expansion in terms of overall gameplay?

BJ: We had a bunch of testers in the office to figure this out.  But, I think it’s really going to come down to your play style and whether you’re really going to try and get into every nook and cranny or if you’re just going to blast your way through it.  It probably averages out to nine or ten hours, but like I said, it really depends on your play style.  There was this one tester in the office and they sat down at 10 in the morning and at midnight she had gotten to this one part in the Hell level of the expansion that is pretty intense.  She was having so much fun in there that she kept replaying the area over and over again and kept trying it out with very specific weapons.  After about an hour, I heard this scream and it was this girl shouting out in glee because she had finally beaten it.

GI: When we think of the early Doom titles, we think of run and gun action.  Why the shift to the slower and more atmospheric experience?

TW: When developing the technology, John Carmack looked at the potential of what it could to. He looked back at what he wanted to do with Doom and Doom 2 with that type of gameplay that had stuff scaring you or jumping out at you, and really felt that the current technology could bring that initial vision to life.  So that was the overall direction that we had when we started the project and we felt that making it a more paced out game was the game that we wanted to make and play ourselves.  That was basically the reason behind it. 

GI: If Resurrection of Evil does well, any plans on porting that to the Xbox?

TW: We always look at our products and look at the different systems out there and base our decisions on each one of those ideas as we go.  We’ve definitely looked at it, but we don’t have any current announcements or plans for something different that we’ve already talked about.

GI: What about next-gen?  What sorts of things excite you about the next generation of consoles and what could that hold for the Doom franchise?

TW: Well, we have some information on the Xbox 2 and the PlayStation 3, and those types of systems.  We’re very happy with how those are shaping up, and the Xbox 2 is shaping up to be a great console.  Hopefully Microsoft will tell us more about it at E3. But definitely id is looking at consoles as well as PCs and we’ll continually try to make the best games we can and see what platforms we can play those on.

GI: What are you guys playing right now?

TW: Too much World of Warcraft!  We’ve got two level 60 guys here at id.  And actually, we’ve been playing quite a bit of Quake 4.  Raven is making that game and we’ll have more info on that game soon.  We’ve got some really fun multiplayer modes we’ve been trying out.

GI: What do you think about the PSP?  Any chance that we could be seeing games from you guys on it sometime soon?

TW: Personally I don’t have one yet, but everyone else does, so I feel like I need to get one, too.  It’s quite a cool little device.  We’ll examine all the consoles and our franchise and see what fits right, but we definitely think it’s a cool little device. 

Be sure to check out a brand new trailer for the Xbox version of Doom 3 by clicking the Media tab at the top of this page.