Is the Boomer Shooter back, or is it merely persisting? While Id Software’s DOOM 2016 propelled the adored retro-FPS style of shooting back into the spotlight, Painkiller creator Adrian Chmielarz believes that the genre really isn’t as prominent as it appears to be.
While there have been a collection of indie successes in the genre—including Amid Evil, Dusk, Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, and more—Chmielarz believes that the genre will never be truly big again because there’s just no beating DOOM.
Chmielarz, who is currently working on the phenomenal early access shooter Witchfire, argued that Boomer Shooters are not widely popular any more, although the genre does have a diehard niche that shows up for new games.
“As for why boomer shooters are popular, I think that, you [mean] there’s only one that’s really popular: Doom,” he said. “But the rest of them, I think they are in the sort of indie zone that it’s in a sort of like a niche, it’s a very niche genre, like it’s super [niche, but] there’s like about a thousand boomer shooters released last year, I think, like a lot of these, because they are fairly cheap to make, and some people love them. But I don’t think it’s a big market as such.”
“They’re not really popular any more, but they’re still being made every single day.”
Painkiller creator Adrian Chmielarz
The iconic FPS designer explained that “because there is no competitor to DOOM”, the genre isn’t really as hot as it appears. While there are a lot of new games in the genre in the indie space, it requires true big-budget competition for a genre to truly be back. For example, superhero movies never disappeared, but the genre was popular again when DC and MCU films started going head-to-head.
“I’ve played Dusk, it’s a very well-done boomer shooter, but maybe that’s the second example [of a popular one]. Maybe we will find the third, but that’s it,” Chmielarz said. “And I think that, I mean, it’s sort of like point-and-click adventures. They’re not really popular any more, but they’re still being made every single day.”
Chmielarz explained that “there’s enough people” that buy boomer shooters to keep the genre alive “despite the fact that they’re not mainstream any more”, but the evidence as to why there’s not really a genre revival as much as it may seem is because “nobody’s making any game that’s in direct competition to DOOM”.
“It’s not enough today, basically, to make a game like that,” the developer continued. “I actually replayed DOOM 2, the original one, like a year ago. I was very surprised how it steel feels, man. It’s still fun, it’s still like, ‘I just want to test a level’ [and] then you’re three levels later. But it wouldn’t work, like, people demand more these days.”
Even when it comes to DOOM, Id Software has massively evolved its gameplay style. Classic Boomer Shooters don’t really have much of a focus on story, something which DOOM: The Dark Ages has lots of, and there’s upgrades and other additions that modernise the genre in new, interesting ways.
While many have likened Chmielarz’ latest game, Witchfire, to the Boomer Shooter genre, largely due to its incredibly frenetic gunplay, the game director doesn’t believe it fits. There’s no coloured key cards, no stage-by-stage level design, and there’s a lot more freedom in its levels versus the maze-like staging of DOOM, Quake, Shadow Warrior, Blood and others.
“I actually don’t think that Witchfire has almost like any boomer shooter elements,” the developer explained. “One thing that I wanted to make was a game where sort of chaos and tension constantly dance together, and then And your sort of combat is way more deliberate.”
“So you can play Witchfire as a boomer shooter because we allow that with certain weapons,” he continued. “You take your short-range weapon and boost your stamina and you can dash around and be absolute liquid gold, liquid silver. But you can also play very slowly, deliberately.”
Witchfire is available now on PC in early access with the game’s 0.8 update now available. At the time of writing, the game’s long-awaited 1.0 build is scheduled to launch next year.
