DOOM (1994) is Still One of The Best Shooters of All Time
DOOM originally came out in 1994. It’s THE original shooter, the first game that said “You can kill stuff, but now kill it in a way that feels like you, personally, are killing it.” It’s a simple concept, but look at what it spawned. The FPS genre is now one of the biggest genres in video games, probably just as big, if not bigger than action games themselves. DOOM didn’t just give us the FPS, it gave us the First Person Viewpoint, which has now taken over almost every genre, from horror games, to survival games, to even racing games. The footprint DOOM left is dinosaur sized and it’s impact is felt to this day. But how did the game itself age? How does this masterpiece of the 90s fare today, in an era when we have the bestest graphics and the bestest tech? Well….still pretty brilliant.
So, for context, I played my most recent run of DOOM on PS5, where they recently released a remaster. It’s an excellent remaster, probably the definitive one. It uses KEX Doom, which is a form of Chocolate Doom, which is more portable and versatile version of Vanilla Doom. That’s a fancy way of saying that this DOOM leverages the best new technology to replicate the authentic old technology. This version looks and feels like the original games as they released in the 90s. It’s got all the bells and whistles (or lack thereof) of the original.
DOOM is a hugely innovative game. Besides just being the first major FPS, it also brought concepts like secret levels, weapon swapping (an early precursor of what would become the weapon wheel), various enemy types and powerups into the gaming forefront in a new way. What’s crazy is that even as DOOM did all this, it’s spin on these things still feels fresh. One of the struggles of innovation in art is that if you’re groundbreaking, innovative art piece is successful, it becomes emulated and then becomes common. It’s impossible to listen to The Beatles or The Velvet Underground the same way as people did in the 60s because we already know the evolutions they spawned. It’s impact is lessened. But with DOOM, not so much. Even as you see all these gaming concepts present, they are robust and interesting enough to still feel unique and it’s easy to why they were so groundbreaking.
DOOM also, for better or worse, was crucial for stories in gaming. It told enough of a story without telling much of one at all and let it’s environment do most of the talking. The plot and context itself is very simple: You’re Doomguy and you kill demons and wherever you are, it’s because there’s demons there. It’s through the level design that you see more of where you are and what’s going on. Oh, you’re in the refinery. Lot’s of bodies means there was a bloody battle here. Look at that- weird Satanic ritual shit. This means you’re in Hell. Less is more with DOOM and this approach let’s it stick to the shooting and visceral violence.
CHAPTER 1: KNEE DEEP IN THE DEAD
Knee Deep In The Dead is the first Chapter of DOOM and it’s also the most iconic, despite lacking several weapons and enemies that are also super iconic. It was the first episode released and was released for free in the form of share ware. It was basically like an extended demo. It’s 8 maps long and has a beautifully structured difficulty and mechanics curve. In Map 1-Hangar, you learn the basics and you acquire the shotgun, which is your go-to for the whole game. You figure out that though you can’t look up, shooting in the direction of the enemy will auto-adjust the verticality of your shots. You learn the zombie soldiers are a minor concern compared to the imps who throw fireballs. You also learn that things move fast…very fast.
So, in Chapter 1, the Doom Guy is basically a glorified security guard who has been sent to investigate a disturbance on the UAC Base on the Phobos moon. You sit outside until it’s clear something’s gone horribly wrong. There’s no evacuation plan so your options are to wait outside or fight your way out. It’s pretty obvious which one you chose, as when you load into E1:M1 Hangar (the intro map), you’re already inside the base. That’s the whole plot of this Chapter. You’re fighting a way through to hopefully find a way out.
Chapter 1 of DOOM is interesting because it’s not very hard at all and a lot of the coolest weapons are not present but it’s the most famous group of DOOM levels out there. From a sheer quality perspective, it’s also probably the best. This Chapter was mostly designed by John Romero, who is sort of considered THE guy behind DOOM, or at least the chief personality. His madcap creativity was the spark and his level design is legendary. He famously had a strict set of rules for making the maps and it shows. “Knee Deep In The Dead” is a lot more cohesive and sensible than some of the other maps in DOOM. It’s not my favorite Chapter of DOOM but I can recognize that it’s easily the one of the highest quality in terms of level design and theme cohesion,
It isn’t just aesthetics that makes this Chapter a pinnacle of game design, it’s also the pacing and difficulty curve. DOOM introduces you to it’s enemies, weapons and concepts in a very organic and timely manner that keeps you engaged without overwhelming you. Weapons and enemies are introduced alongside each other in many cases and other times, situations hint at optimal weapon use by giving you ammo for certain weapons. I mean this sounds old hat because most good games do this, but this really did start with DOOM, specifically Chapter 1. Pinky Demons that melee you? Here’s a chainsaw. 10 enemies just jumped out of that wall, but that’s okay because the trigger for that event was me picking up hundreds of rounds of chaingun ammo. Got to fight something really beefy? Here’s a missile launcher. It’s fundamental game design stuff that was made fundamental here.
And even though it’s pretty easy and definitely not as hectic or unhinged as later DOOM levels became, it’s still the standard. When people think of “classic DOOM”, this chapter is exactly what they think of. It’s level design, difficulty curve and game loop were huge inspirations to a lot of the shooters you see today.
CHAPTER 2: THE SHORES OF HELL
The Shores of Hell follows Doom Guy’s continued adventures on the moons of Mars. At the end of “Knee Deep In The Dead,” you enter a portal into a dark room and (A.) die or (B.) the screen cuts before you die, but either way, you’re in a bad spot. This chapter sort of disregards that ending and opens you up with another level. This time, you’re on Deimos, another moon of Mars.
And unlike Chapter 1, this one kind of opens with a bang. I mean, no disrespect to the classic level that is E1:M1: Hangar, but E2:M1: The Phobos Anomaly kicks things off much faster and more DOOM-like. You’re fighting shotgunners right out the gate and running through portals and hitting switches. It’s just a different level of intensity and clearly one that expects you to have already played the first Chapter.
From there, you’re on to some fine levels like “Containment Area” and “Refinery”, both of which show DOOM raising the difficulty ceiling. Admittedly, the level design is not as consistent in this chapter all the way through as Chapter 1, but the added difficulty and monsters make it more fun in my opinion. Iconic monsters like the Cacodemon and Lost Soul show up, as well as plasma weapons like the Plasma Rifle and BFG. There’s a sense that you’re finally “in it” per se. There’s no training wheels. A lot more fat, but it’s juicy fat. More secret areas, mini-bosses, environmental hazards and powerups make for a more engaging and diverse experience, even if some of the level design is less strong.
Yes. It’s time to talk about Sandy Peterson. He was basically the workhorse of Id Software, despite being the worst level designer of the core group and as such he’s designed a shit ton of levels. They’re fun- mostly, but they look some of the cohesive and creative elements of John Romero’s (and later, American McGee’s) level design. I enjoy these levels, even with their flaws but some people hate them. They have a tendency to feel inconsistent or when consistent, consistently bad. They are often ugly and don’t feel coherent. The enemy choice can feel both forced and random. He’s not a great level designer and he’s not great in a couple of ways. So it goes I guess.
Most of these levels sit around an A-/B+ type territory but E2:M6: Halls of The Damned is a fucking masterpiece that is also brutal and cruel. It’s got these really dark hallways with sliding doors full of enemies and you can’t see shit. They actually introduce a night vision type power-up to help you out. It’s that crazy it created the need for it’s own power-up. But it’s pure art and pure DOOM. From the long tech style hallways that branch into darked wooden mazes and the death trap arenas at the end- it’s beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.
The last level of this chapter, E2:M8: The Tower of Babel, introduces the classic DOOM boss The Cyberdemon. He’s like 25 feet tall and just sprays rockets at you in bursts of 3. He’s not crazy difficult but takes a lot of rockets to grind down. Luckily, they give you so much ammo and you should figure out pretty quick that you have to circle strafe to have a shot. But, once you figure it out, it’s really satisfying.
And that’s “The Shores of Hell.” It’s not my favorite, but it’s pretty awesome and does reflect a master of working a difficulty curve before difficulty curve. It’s kind of like a mid-tier Beatles album. Maybe not the best work but pretty damn good and wildly influential.
CHAPTER 3: INFERNO
I alway had a soft spot for this chapter because it’s the first ever appearance of Hell in the DOOM franchise. And it’s honestly a really fun level set. Once again, it’s not the most cohesive, similar to Chapter 2, but it’s an step up in difficulty and introduces some cool new areas and concepts that would go on to be staples of the Doom franchise. For example, the use of skull keys as opposed to key cards, the red volcanic backdrops, the wide open spaces, the fleshy, body horror aesthetic are all things that reoccur in the other depictions of Hell in the franchise. “Inferno” broke ground for the franchise and established it as more than just a space station shooter.
This is another Sandy Peterson dominated chapter. His levels here range from good to mediocre and some of them are half and half. It’s what it is. I love the aesthetics here, so I would say as a body of work it’s better than Chapter 2, even though nothing is as good as “Halls of the Damned.” Sandy Peterson kind of masters his style here, for better or worse. Dumb redundancies, going overboard with gimmicks, but also some fun game core gameplay really cool and novel ideas that hold up to this day. For better or worse, Sandy Peterson was one of the earliest level designers working in a conceptual 3-dimensional space so even if you want to be hard on him, he technically did cook harder than many that before him. He also didn’t fuck up the game loop. He understand that it’s about shooting demons and finding secrets and moving fast.
The level design in this chapter is definitely a progression, whether you like it or not. For example, “E3:M2: Slough of Despair” is shaped like a hand. “E3:M6: Mt. Erubus” (pictured above) is one of the first open levels in the franchise. You can see the hell landscape, the enemies fly through the air unconstricted by vertical elements. It’s awesome. And it has a fluid mix of puzzle/platforming type shit and guns blazing combat. It also leads to the secret level of this chapter, “E3:M9: Warrens.” “Warrens” is a neat map that mirrors the first map of the chapter, “Hell Keep”, right up until the end and then it expands into a new level. Very cool stuff.
Unfortunately, it can’t all be high points and some levels, like “E:3:M:7:Limbo” are very mediocre. This particular level just over relies on poison floors and shallow key based puzzles, forcing you to take damage to navigate the level. I mean, when used sparingly, it’s an interesting element, but as a central gimmick, it’s not fun. Similarly, “E:3:M:8:Dis”, is a kind of whiff of a boss level. The Spider Mastermind, while iconic in it’s own way, strikes a bad balance of too tanky to be deployed with many supporting enemies and too weak to offer much of challenge. They just throw a few Cacodemons and say “finished.”
Overall, I like this chapter a lot but it definitely feels like it’s defined by my expectations each time. If I come in expecting it to suck, it’s better than I remember, but it’s also never as cool as it feels like it should be. Especially since the modern Doom games have awesome Hell levels. Even some of the newer DOOM expansions, like SIGIL have better Hell levels. Still, this chapter does deserve some credit for establishing the template for Hell that would go on to influence all the others that followed.
Chapter 4: Thy Flesh Consumed
Chapter 4: Thy Flesh Consumed is an expansion chapter that has basically become folded into the main game, so that’s why we’re covering it here. This is the first “try hard” DOOM expansion and yeah, it’s fucking tough. It also is arguably kind of mediocre. The level design is actually pretty good in my opinion but the ordering and plot makes no sense. I enjoy this chapter a lot but I can profess that I don’t think it flows very well or really works with the rest of the game.
See, Thy Flesh Consumed was made after DOOM II: Hell On Earth, which means they had basically mastered working in the engine and so they were able to make a bunch of levels that, in comparison to the rest of the game, will kick your ass. Part of DOOM’s charm is that it has a lot of simplistic but also very esoteric mechanisms that were just part of the experience. Like “telefragging" “Telefragging”, which, I guess could be argued to have a somewhat practical basis, is when you kill an enemy by teleporting to an exact position they are already in, overriding their location in their gameworld and deleting them from existence in gory fashion. It’s awesome but much cruder than a game mechanic you might encounter today. It takes a hard reality of working with 90s computers and leverages it into a game mechanic.
It’s most famously used in “E4:M2: Perfect Hatred”, where a Cyberdemon is guarding the exit to the level and you have to teleporter to it’s location to…replace it. It’s really clever and badass but also really unintuitive, especially for modern gamers who might consider such a mechanic to be more in line with a bug than a feature. This level in general is just a vicious bastard. As soon as you spawn in there’s a whole row of enemies “in-fighting” (battling each other) and the proper solution is to let them battle it out for a while. In fact, this is a strategy that is surprisingly common in the list of “weird solutions Doom has to hard problems a 21st century dev would never create.” It’s one of the most famous levels too, because it’s so unforgiving and hard.
The very first level, “E4:M1: Hell Beneath” is ridiculous. Made by American McGee, who later made the Alice games and is kind of a tragic Zappa-esque figure in American game development. Genuinely one of the most interesting people involved in a saga full of interesting people, American McGee’s contribution to this chapter is a fascinating subplot. And this level is absurdly hard and brilliant designed, mixing simple yet brutal spatial concepts and shooter box enemy layouts that provide little cover and force you to be efficient and fast in your shooting. But the thing that makes it weird is that while this level is super hard and somewhat advanced, the other level he contributed, “E4:M4:Unruly Evil”, is pretty easy and would be a perfect starter level. Yet it’s placed near the middle, after some absolute grinders.
This is a very interesting expansion because it doesn’t really fit. It’s too hard, too meta and too ethereal in it’s storyline. It doesn’t really subscribe to the same format and as such, it feels way less coherent than the other Chapters. It’s also less famous overall and a much more obscure part of Doom. No one can really where this factors into the already convoluted Doom storyline or if it does at all. But I enjoy it. It just bears noting that is a very different piece of content to the other chapters.
Conclusions
That was a long and somewhat detailed breakdown of the OG, the iconic, the unforgettable DOOM. It’s a game that every shooter fan should try once, maybe twice and it is one of my favorites. You don’t get where we are today in gaming without DOOM and as much as any other pioneering art piece, it’s a testament to mankind’s stubbornness and ingenuity.
There’s a lot of arguments as to whether old games hold up today. Some people go their whole lives never playing games older than when they started gaming. Some love retro games. Regardless, DOOM is a different animal. People make DOOM mods and levels to this day. It holds up and it gets better with age. Because the lessons it taught developers only become fundamental as the industry grows into middle age. Opinions are opinions and everyone has one. But to me there’s no question- DOOM is one of the best shooters of all time. It was. But it also is too.
