The original Doom is about to be 30 years old. Without a doubt, the series is certainly old, and it might be older than some of you people who are currently reading this article. But no matter how old this dinosaur of a game becomes, it will always be a timeless game to play. This article will tell you why the first Doom is such a fantastic game to play in this day and age despite being close to being 30 years old. I have 10 reasons to list and these reasons will let you understand how ahead of the times this was back in its inception. It’s time to go back to the ‘90s and learn why the original Doom is easily one of the greatest video games to ever be made by the human race.
Intense Action
I believe most people who played the original Doom back in the day will remember how intense the game is. You control a lone space marine and you’re just fighting all sorts of evil looking monsters to survive. A concept like that will certainly make gamers remember that Doom is all about giving the player an intense and satisfying experience.
On top of that, you’ll be going through different locations from tech bases to hellish environments. Of course, you get to use a plentiful amount of weapons from the iconic shotgun to the high risk and reward rocket launcher. There will always be plenty of blood and violence when you play Doom, and it wants you to embrace it fully!
The BFG-9000
Since I briefly talked about the weapons, it’s only right I put in the most iconic and powerful weapon in the game as one of the reasons why the original Doom was so awesome. This weapon is designed to be the ultimate crowd control to eliminate hordes of demons right in front of your face. Since this weapon was so praised by many gamers and designers alike back in the day, many first-person shooters ended up creating their own BFG styled weapon.
A real life BFG!
In the original Unreal Tournament, you had the Redeemer which is basically a missile launcher that does a massive amount of damage to anything nearby it hits. In Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the Fusion Cannon will instantly reminds Doom fans of the BFG-9000 when they first fire it. It’s safe to say that the BFG-9000 is certainly one of the coolest design aspects of the original Doom. We will always remember it how big it looked when we first carried it.
Sophisticated Level Design
While Doom is amazing when it comes to nailing down how fun it is to kill its cool looking demons and using a wide range of weapons, the level design is also something that needs to be mentioned. Doom likes to make the player be aware of the environments they’re navigating and that means there will be moments where players will get lost due to its non-linear level layouts. That means the levels will feel interesting to play one after the other because. It’s true getting lost in games can be cumbersome at times, but it does mean the level designer is putting effort to make a quality level that isn’t so predictable and linear.
I’ll never forget the moment I found the secret level on E1M3: Toxin Refinery while I was just exploring for the many secrets on the map. That secret level was very cool and has always left an impression on me because I didn’t expect it. It also taught me that it’s important to make levels that encourage exploration because players can end up finding something cool like that.
Iconic Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Doom has always been memorable for delivering heavy metal sampled driven tracks, but it also was able to deliver the more mood oriented tracks too. Bobby Prince, the composer, was certainly one of those who made a video game soundtrack that would define the ‘90s gaming generation. The soundtrack was so iconic that even in the new versions of Doom decided to sample some of the bits from the original game. Former newfangled Doom composer Mick Gordon knew the soundtrack was near and dear towards many Doom fans, so he decided to show respect to the classics. This basically means the soundtrack to this day truly stands the test of time, and it’s always nice to listen to it while you are killing demons!
User Generated Content Galore
If you ever want to play a game where you feel like there’s always something to do when you load up a game, the original Doom is actually that game. Sure, once you beat the main campaign, it may feel like there’s nothing else to do, but throughout the years, the diehard fans has made countless of user generated add-ons to keep Doom alive for the most hardcore players. There is much content that will remind you of the official content or completely change the game entirely.
SIGIL was made by one of the former Doom developers: John Romero.
You will never see the light of the day if you ever dare to play every single piece of content that was made by the community. That’s how much content this 30 year old game can offer. Another thing to mention is while there are many maps that a user can play; they are also quality maps too. Throughout the years, the community has learned how to make levels that can definitely rival the official maps in terms of how good they play. You might as well consider some of the community content to be almost like downloadable content for how good they are made.
Awesome Sequel (Doom II)
Not only the original Doom was awesome, but the same can be said for its sequel. Nowadays, Doom II might be considered to be more of an expansion pack because it is technically the same game with some new content being thrown in the mix. However, Doom II is still a wonderful sequel and it should be mentioned in this list.
Doom II’s existence happened because the original Doom was just that good and id Software wanted to expand what the original game did. The game also came out one year after the original game. Gamers will always remember how powerful the sawed-off shotgun once they used it for the first time!
Memorable Enemy Design
Whether it’s the plentiful amount of Imps that shoot fireball at you or the horrifying Spider Mastermind, Doom has so many enemies that are fun to kill, but also just cool to watch. It’s these design principles that id Software nails down to make these enemies so iconic throughout the years and they will forever be remembered among many gamers.
Another thing that Doom has always done a great job at is making the different roles that monsters can have. For example, the three types of monsters you tend to fight in Doom are generally hitscan, projectile, or melee types of monsters.
Its Massive Influence
It’s safe to say that Doom is so important to the first-person shooters genre that many games that came out after its inception definitely owes it for its existence. Even military styled first-person shooters like Counter-Strike which are mechanically different than Doom still have some of its DNA traced back to this 1993 classic. With boomer shooters becoming more populated nowadays in the indie gaming scene, it’s very evident that the original Doom’s influence is still alive, and it will probably never go away. That is also a good thing by the way!
Doom clones like Hellbound are certainly everywhere!
What that means is if you ever want to learn how first-person shooters have evolved throughout the years, Doom is a fantastic game to play for that sense of knowledge. There are so many mechanical things that other first-person shooters have adapted from Doom like having health and armor pick ups, weapons that serve a role or purpose, and of course, the excellent level design to make the game truly shine. Many first-person shooters that came out after Doom, are all inspired by it in some ways and there’s a reason why when Doom was a phenomenon, there were many Doom clones.
Beautiful Simplicity
Doom has always been a game that one can easily pick up and play. It doesn’t take much to understand the objective of the game, and it is a game that will easily grab your attention and keep you engaged within its much excellent design. It is also not a game where one has to be patient and play it enough to understand its appeal like some other video games require. With that mentioned, Doom will always be a game that newcomers can easily get into and not feel like it’s too late to understand the fuss behind the series.
From there, you can dive in deeper and try out the many of its other games to custom add-ons if finishing the main campaign left you wanting more. Doom has always proved that video games don’t need to be complex to be engaging or delivering a quality experience to gamers. Sometimes, just having an idea of being a lone space marine, shooting bad looking demons, and looking for the exit is already a compelling enough idea.
The Ultimate Power Fantasy
For the final reason, it should be mentioned that if there’s one thing that Doom does an excellent job at, it is making the player feeling like a one man army. You move fast, you have a wide range of weapons you can use, and you’re killing lots of threatening demons. Doom feels like it was designed to be the game that is for people who want to feel like an unstoppable killing machine. Doom’s power fantasy concept has inspired many first-person shooters to give the player that sense of power fantasy because the game knew how to make the player feel powerful unlike other games during its time.
Hopefully all of these reasons are convincing enough to make you understand why Doom will forever be one of the greatest games of all time. Now, it’s a good time to replay the original Doom again to commemorate its 30th anniversary. If you also haven’t played the game or never played any Doom games, the first one is simply the perfect game to start with!
