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Blackroom is the Star Wars Episode VIII compared to The Return‘s Star Wars Episode VII… well, you’ll know what I mean from that hilarious spoof of the closing scene in JJ Abrams latest epsiode in the Star Wars canon.
Seriously, though, Blackroom is a new first-person-shooter from John Romero and artist Adrian Carmack – who brought together us Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II and Quake, to name but four – that harkens back to classic shooter gameplay, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this!
The game is set in the near-future at one of the leading tech companies, Hoxar. They’ve developed a technology that allows you to be anywhere at any time, creating fully-realised holographic worlds that are indistinguishable from reality, all taking place inside a giant black room.
You take the role of Dr Santiago Sonora (below), Chief hNode Engineer at Hoxar. While going about your business, there’s a glitch that nearly kills you, and only you can put things right as you go from one location to another, the environments varying from sci-fi to western towns and haunted houses. The weapons even include tools that allow you to hack your environment.
Mr Romero states in the Kickstarter video that key aspects of this new title are exploration, speed and intense weaponised combat. There’s fast, skilful movement, the ability to circle-strafe your enemies and, of course, rocket-jumping. It will be “visceral, varied and violent” and you can create your own maps and run your own dedicated servers.
And since Romero Games set up in Galway, Ireland, they’ll be using the inspiring landscapes of this beautiful country in the game, a country that also inspired the aforementioned latest Star Wars entry to film its final scene at Skellig Michael island.
John Romero is creating every level, there’ll be full support for modding and mapping, just like in the days of Doom, and since the heart of the game lies in building it around the support of a community, that is why the Doom community are still around today.
And if the thought of classic hardcore FPS gameplay with both a 10-hour single-player campaign plus leaderboard challenge modes is already wetting your whistle, then you’ll satiated with the knowledge that Blackroom is metal! Yes, there’s a brand new soundtrack with compositions from acclaimed metal guitarist George Lynch, who is frequently cited as one of the best metal guitarists in the world.
As always with a Kickstarter, the more you pledge, the greater the rewards.
A mere $5 will get you a backer forum badge and stream access, plus participating in game design polls, while going up to $100 will not only get you the game in digital form and on a physical custom-built thumb drive, but also a user manual with signed bookplate and a poster.
If you have $10,000 to spare, then in addition to helping design an entertainment HoloSim and taking part in a level design Skype session with Mr Romero, you can also attend the launch party!
The game drops in December 2018, so there’s a bit of time to wait, during which you might choose to have a listen to Cream’s classic track White Room, but more importantly, in two years, my mortgage will be a bit closer to being paid off, so it’s time to splash out – alas, not the top level perk, but I’ll see what funds can allow 😉
Blackroom in bitesize form:
- Platform: PC and Mac (DRM Free + Steam)
Release Date: Winter 2018
Genre: FPS
Single-Player Campaign: 10 Hours, Leaderboard Challenge Modes
Multiplayer: Co-op, 1-on-1 Deathmatch, Arena
Multiplayer Maps: 6 Built In + Community Maps
Fully Moddable, Run Dedicated Servers, Create Maps
New Soundtrack by acclaimed metal guitarist George Lynch
UPDATE: In order to work on a demo for this game, and since the Kickstarter couldn’t be postponed while they work on it, it has had to be cancelled in the meantime.
As of Friday April 29th, their Kickstarter page now states:
- “You asked for it, and you’re getting it: a gameplay demo of BLACKROOM.
The team is at work on a demo which demonstrates the kind of gameplay, look and innovative, cool features that make BLACKROOM truly unique — the things we’ve waited years to put into an FPS and which make us incredibly excited about this game.
There’s a hitch here, a hitch that’s making us do something that’s right for the game, the team, and the community: we’re pressing “PAUSE” on the fundraising campaign for BLACKROOM to complete this gameplay demo. Simply put, this will take more time than the Kickstarter has left, so we’ve decided to suspend the campaign and launch a new one when the gameplay demo is ready. We believe, however, it is the right choice. We know you do, too. Thanks to your feedback, we know we should have included it at launch.
To all of our backers: your support has been incredible and valuable. We will, of course, honor backer achievements in the next campaign (and an extra something for those of you who continue to support us in the next campaign).”
Check out the video below, head to the Kickstarter page, and click on all the concept artwork images for the full-size versions:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.