PCAction October 2005 
German Game Magazine
Article translation by :: Jacob Shreckengost

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Nothing bad can come out of it, when a level designer from Call of Duty 2 puts together a single-player mission for Doom 3.

Article ::

Thirty minutes can go buy fast. Especially when you’re having 30 minutes of hardcore fun. The Doom 3 mode Executive Quarters (EQ) offers a half hour of exactly this type of extreme good time. This short pleasure is packed full of copious cool incursions (?) [problem with this word; might be better understood in context of the game; i.e. invasions, incursions, incidences], awesome shock-effects, and a more than terrifying boss. EQ was developed by Jason McCord – and because it was so well received in the community, he was immediately employed as a level designer by Treyarch, the makers of Call of Duty 2. It would have been stupid, to leave such talent to the competition, right? But enough of the foreplay, let us attend to game.

In the end, EQ can be seen as a type of subplot of Doom 3. When the main character busts through the UAC staging post, he runs into a door with the inscription Executive Quarters. His PDA inquiry reveals that the UAC vice president was to be at Mars, when the demon invasion broke loose. Of course, the group must be rescued. This is where you enter the game. You alter ego interrupts the main mission, in order to rescue the family and send the safely back to Earth. Lucky for you, just as you begin, you stumble over the corpse of the vice president, which somewhat diminishes the group of people that need rescuing. By rummaging through his PDA, you’re able to find out that his wife and daughter are possibly still alive, and that they’ve hidden themselves somewhere in the Executive Quarters. A housewife together with her little daughter doesn’t exactly have a lot to set against the demonic superiority, so you have to hurry. So, that’s about all of the storyline that we’re going to give away. Sounds good, right? On top of that, the talented Sonic Clang delivers the soundtrack and audio output for Executive Quarters. His pieces have found their way into various Q3 cards and he’s currently working hard on the audio for Classic Doom.

When going through the different portions of the level, it’s the richness of detail that really catches your eye. It doesn’t merely throw together layout themes from Doom 3, but rather, it’s an excellently well worked out and surprisingly believable environment. There’s always something standing or lying around. Naturally, completely new objects were also developed, in order to accommodate the need for variety. There are even people, who would argue that Executive Quarters offers a better level design that the original game. We wouldn’t go quite so far, but with some of the definitive creations in the level, EQ is definitely a contender. The game layout is well-balanced. As you’re traipsing through the Executive Quarters, you find interesting PDA tips, which mixes it up a little from the running and gunning. The diversification can also be accredited to well scripted events, that promise adrenaline rushes and heart attacks. The only thing that stuck us as negative was the lack of continuity of the difficulty levels. On “normal” the usual confrontations don’t really appear to hard, but once you get to the boss, it gets hardcore immediately. No joke. In comparison to final scene, the rest of the level is about as challenging as searching for nose-gold. A much more graded difficulty classification would have done wonders. Regardless, this is one of the best single player missions for Doom 3, if not the very best. It almost hurts, that it’s already over after around 30 minutes. Nevertheless, it’s so good that it demands to be played repeatedly. Additionally there are 2 possible ending sequences that flash across the screen, depending on the outcome of the mission. A sad note on the side: the creator of the half hour orgasm let out that no direct continuation or sequel is planned for Executive Quarters. He next Doom 3 mode is more of a straight-ahead nonstop action trip that follows a completely different storyline.

Because EQ maker Jason McCord is a rather humble fellow, he mentions constantly that EQ is the product of many creative minds. This is where the well-known monster from the Quake universe by the name of Shambler comes from. Shambler is a creation of Henk Bernhardt, now living in South Africa. Also, as we already mentioned, the voice-overs and the music are the work of Sonic Clang, and several pretty objects were developed by Chris Buck. We can once again thank SnoopJedi for the energy bars in the final fight. Together these boys created a thrilling single player campaign with fat graphics, great sound, tons of action, and high repeat playability. Executive Quarters earned our rating honestly, and we would willingly trade some of our women for new material out of the house of McCord. Mark our works, this guy has a big future in front of him.

Interview ::

Jason McCord – Creator of Executive Quarters

PC Action: How would you describe your baby?

JM: It’s a sort of side mission that’s imbedded in the Doom 3 story. The player finds out that the vice president and his family were on Mars, when the demon invasion broke out, and now it’s his job to rescue the politician’s family. Everything’s padded/filled with surprises.

PC Action: EQ offers around 30 minutes of play time. Because the piece is so hot, we’ve played it through about 50 times. When are we going to see more of it?

JM: EQ is a self-contained story, and as such, there’s no direct sequel. My next single player card is going to be more about raw action with less horror parts/elements. And this time, no little girl. (laughs)

PC Action: Let’s talk about the boss: Shambler from Quake! He was put together by the extremely talented Obi-Wan (Henk Bernhardt; see interview on the following page), and you used him. Why? Is it because you thought that the brute was that cool, or because you were too lazy to create your own boss?

JM: It’s a little bit of both. If I would have modelled, textured and animated my own boss, I would have never gotten finished. Obi-Wan’s Shambler is already well known in the community and he fit perfectly [German phrase: “like a fist in the eye”]. Regardless of what I do next, it has to start out with Obi-Wans creatures again.

PC Action: In EQ, there are places, where we nearly fell off of our chairs in fright. How do you design scenes like that?

JM: When I started, I already had some specific ideas in mind, but a lot of it came about, after I kept playing the level to test it. There are also lots of ideas from other people in it. When someone was watching me and said, “Man, wouldn’t it be cool if this or that happened??” I really tried to incorporate all the good ideas.

PC Action: How long did you actually work on EQ? Is there now pressure to succeed? In the end, the next card has to be better!

JM: It seemed to me like the project took forever. I needed about a year, although in between I had to take a break to move. I’ll probably just do a Doom 3 story still, and then I’ll be taking care of a much more important game: Quake 4. We’ll just have to see what happens!

PC Action: Have you ever tried to get a hold of a job in the gaming industry?

JM: If you believe it or not: EQ presented me with a great Level Design job in LA. With Treyarch, to be exact, as a level designer for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. I only work and sleep now; there isn’t time for anything else. (laughs) The industry is brutal, but appreciative.

PC Action: What does the perfect game look like for you?

JM: The perfect game? An id shooter with the fattest graphics, a decent story, and a man-pile/shitload of action. I’m a hardcore multiplayer type of guy, so it would sort of be like Quake 4 in the end. (rubs his hands together)

PC Action: What do you think of the filming of Doom, that’s coming out in theaters soon? Is the whole thing going to be as terrible as the previous gaming-movies?

JM: I think Doom will be better than everyone expects. The monsters seem simply awesome, and they let tons of ideas from the Doom community flow into the making of the film. Sure enough, there’s going to be some garbage in this “gaming movie”, but it can’t, in any case, be any worse than Street Fighter: The Movie! (laughs)