Genre: First Person Shooter
Year: 1993
Developed by: id Software
Published by: id Software
Platforms: Almost everything electronic
#218
Feeling Like: Knee-Deep in the Dead
This isn’t Doom’s fault, but it drives me nuts how the 2016 version is also called Doom. So most people just now say Doom 2016. Awesome title, not confusing at all. I know they wanted to reboot after Doom 3 and it had been ages, but improper naming conventions really piss me off.
That’s about my only complaint with the series. Every iteration I’ve played is incredible.
It’s hard to overstate how influential Doom was, or is. Any multiplayer shooter that requires an internet connection can thank Doom. Any single player first person shooter from Doom’s release in 1993 onward was likely influenced it by some way. At one point, it was estimated that Doom was installed on more personal computers than Microsoft Windows. If you were trying to gauge how good your PC was back in the day, the first question was typically “can it run Doom?”
Masters of Doom is one of my all time favorite books. Business books are hit and miss for me, but this one felt like I was watching history unfold right before my eyes. John Carmack and John Romero and the rest of their team built something truly revolutionary, right on the edge of when video games were evolving well beyond just a hobby for kids. It ignited attention from the masses, and naturally, the pearl-clutching horror of parents and newscasters everywhere.
I couldn’t get enough of it, even if we didn’t have a pc that could run it.
Any opportunity I could get at a friends place, I would watch or play it. It was creepy. It was dark. Enemies were terrifying. You didn’t have any help or buddies at your side. It’s you, guns and demons. Shoot your way out of hell or die trying.
It seems so basic now, but you wouldn’t believe the tricks the developers had to pull off to make this a reality 30 years ago. I loved the tidbits in Masters of Doom about how Carmack and Romero met, or how Carmack was addicted to Diet Coke. Or how much a giant monitor cost them (hint – a lot more than it costs now). To test out some programming, they emulated Super Mario Bros. on the PC, impressing Nintendo executives though they sadly couldn’t allow them to follow through. Since fully 3d games weren’t technically possible at the time, they had to draw their own roadmap on how to make it work. It is a stunning tale, and Carmack & Romero are rightfully deified among the industry’s all-time greats.
The weapons really were the star of the show. There’s a reason so many of them translated over to the 2016 edition; they’re ridiculously powerful, diverse and fun to shoot. The BFG is legendary, naturally, but I think Doom is one of the rare games where I didn’t hate any of the guns. The pistol may be weak, but it doesn’t feel weak in the first few levels.
There’s not much else I can dig up. It’s a landmark title, and the future Dooms are some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game (both 2016 and Doom Eternal are on a Top 10 list). They retained the core reason why it was fun to play Doom; fast action, overly violent, a soundtrack that will keep you from blinking and waves of disgusting enemies that ensure you’re always on your toes.
I got lost a few times hunting for the right keycode and I was never very good at finding secret areas, but that didn’t stop me from being absolutely enraptured with this gory shooter that my parents absolutely would not have let me played if they knew I was playing it.
The 500 