It’s the year of 2024, and gamers could potentially see a brand new high budget title from the folks who made Doom and Quake. However, the real question is, which one should be announced for this year? Quake is certainly another series that’s been asking for a reboot treatment because both Doom and Wolfenstein has gotten theirs. Recently, there have been rumors that a new Quake could potentially happen, so Doom can possibly be on the backburner. It might be obvious that Quake certainly deserves the attention to be the next big shooter id Software should put all their focus on.
However, shifting the focus to Quake may seem like is not the right move for id Software especially the modern Doom titles have been a massive hit since the reboot version of Doom. According to Wikipedia, Doom 2016 has sold over 2 million copies on PC over a year since its inception. Its sequel, Doom Eternal, has also made over $450 million in revenue, and it has also sold more than 2016 during its first month of sales. There’s no doubt that the modern Doom titles are a commercial success and both 2016 and Eternal are in the high 80s when it comes to Metacritic scores.
Do We Really Need A Quake Reboot?
This is why having a reboot version of Quake feels unnecessary. Why slow down Doom’s success? A new Doom should be the next big project that id Software should focus on. Also, the Doom series always had a long gap until its next major installment. For example, Doom 2016 was made 12 years after Doom 3’s inception. Making a Quake reboot could potentially put Doom in that similar cycle again which it shouldn’t. Doom is such an iconic series and it should have a new title released at least 3 years.
Why shoot bullets when you can shoot nails?
It was definitely nice that when Doom 2016 was released, fans didn’t have to wait another 12 years until a sequel to 2016 happened. The gap between 2016 and Eternal was only 4 years which was good. It seemed like id Software could potentially keep the Doom series on that direction, or the fans might have to wait longer if there is a Quake reboot that does happen.
Now, having a Quake reboot is certainly an exciting thing to do at first, but in practice, it is simply better to make a new Doom game. As great the Quake games are, they are basically similar to the Doom games. It’s a power fantasy driven first-person shooter that have you fighting hordes of monsters. You try to find the exit in these complex levels and a lot of the objectives are just similar to Doom.
Doom Is The Bigger Name
The only difference between Quake and Doom is Doom is simply the bigger series. The series overall has sold a lot more than Quake and it had many console ports throughout its lifespan which also made the series have more exposure to the console market. Not only that, the massive influence that Doom has made towards the gaming world is simply unmatched compared to Quake.
Quake has had an interesting and eccentric history. The thing is its sequels or other games I’d like to call them, don’t feel necessarily similar to the original game. Quake II takes place in a sci-fi universe rather than a Lovecraftian setting. Quake III was sort of a hybrid of the first two games and is more focused on being a multiplayer experience. It’s hard to figure out which Quake games should be the one that gets the reboot treatment because in reality, all these games have their own entity due to their creative direction.
So you have to ask yourself, do we really need a new Quake in the year of 2024 when a new Doom is very much going to give you what you’d expect from a Quake title? I’m going to say no, and it’s much better for id Software to continue the journey of the Doom Slayer. Also, the modern Doom games are adapting certain traits that the Quake games are known for like the Quad Damage power up or having a Railgun like weapon. For example, in both 2016 and Eternal, that weapon is the Gauss Cannon and Ballista.
The Slayer’s Time Is Now
Doom is simply too big of a series to let go. With that mentioned, I totally understand the need of wanting a new Quake title. I would definitely like to see a Shambler in today’s technology or being able to use the Railgun again. I personally believe if there should be a new Quake being made alongside with Doom, it should be outsourced similar to Wolfenstein. But MachineGames seem to be too heavily occupied with so many projects that a new Quake made by them is unlikely.
Giving the demons some plasma treatment.
At the end of the day, Doom is simply the game that should lead this whole fast-paced power fantasy driven first-person shooter experience. It was the series that simply popularized that sub genre, so it makes sense that Doom should be the series that deserves all the focus from id Software.
When id Software finally releases information or gameplay videos of the new Doom, it’ll be interesting to see whether it’ll play more like 2016, Eternal, or maybe it could go off to another path where it’ll carve its own identity in terms of its mechanics. Time will tell in 2024, and it’s going to be great to see where the Slayer’s journey will progress after the events from the Ancient Gods expansions.
