John Romero's new shooter is all about VR without actually using VR

Night Work Games

The creators of Doom and Quake John Romero and Adrian Carmack are teaming up again to create a new first person shooter called Blackroom.

Night Work Games, the developer studio behind Blackroom, calls it a return to classic FPS gameplay circle strafing, clever maneuvering and intense, weaponized combat. However instead of diving into hell, the Doom creators' new game inserts you into the virtual world.

Blackroom is set in a world in which the leading tech company named Hoxar has fully-realized holographic worlds that are almost as real as reality itself inside a giant black box. The in-game world will both shift around you and by your command thanks to Boxel device, which also lets you modify your weapons and even enemies.

In the single-player campaign, you take on the role of Dr. Santiago Sonora, Chief Node Engineer at Hoxar, while testing a new piece of Predictive Memory technology. Of course things go awry and you're forced to go through a series of dangerous simulations and before long the game will tap into the character's deepest memories and fears.

Despite being based in a virtual world, there's no mention of virtual reality integration at all. Instead, Blackroom is designed with user customizability in mind. Night Work Games promises full mod support, dedicated servers and no additional DLC or subscriptions to worry about.

Blackroom was announced today in tandem with a Kickstarter campaign and if you want to get in on the action now, a $29 (about £20, AU$38) pledge nets you a digital copy of the game.

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.