Before Doom, there was Dangerous Dave, and John Romero's 8-bit hero is getting a spiritual successor next week

A Frankenstein's monster attacks the player in Haunted Lands. — (Image credit: alevgor)

There is an almost fractal quality to the history of id Software, in that the closer you look at it, the more games seem to appear. The studio's first official game is Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons, but prior to that is a weird transition period where the creators of Doom were still partly tied to its previous employer, Softdisk.

It was during this period that id Software's four founders developed Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, a side-scrolling shooter released in late 1990. Sequel to 1988's Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout, which was created exclusively by John Romero, it's generally regarded as the best in the series, notable for how it let you blast zombies into chunky gibs with your shotgun—a shocking display of violence that would soon be massively eclipsed by id Software's first-person shooters.

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Haunted Lands - Official Demo Trailer - YouTube

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And he really does rip them apart. I took the demo of Haunted Lands for a quick spin, and while it nails the look and feel of the Dave games, it's also significantly gnarlier than Romero & co's original design. The initial level sees you splitting cultists in half, eviscerating goblins, and tearing floating cat-blobs with snake-tongues to shreds.

It's a level of reactivity that I wasn't expecting from an 8-bit-style game, and it certainly helps, er, lubricate an era of game design that I otherwise find difficult to return to. The Steam page also promises a significant power curve for its playable characters, with you able to acquire artefacts that will "change your character's skills entirely."

Haunted Lands releases in full on March 10. This isn't the only example of id Software's early history being dredged up recently, either. To celebrate Wolfenstein 3-D's 35^th anniversary, Romero brought together the studio's four founders to discuss the making of Wolf 3-D's predecessor, Catacomb 3-D. Incredibly, Catacomb wasn't id Software's first FPS either—itself preceded by Hovertank One. Like I said, fractal game company.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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