It's been so long since Doom first snuck into floppy drives around the world that there's a whole generation of console and PC gamers who haven't even heard of Doom, let alone there. And yet, despite its age, this dusty old relic lives on in every successful shooter since. All the first-person shooters that have taken over the world, or failed miserably, can put an end to Id Software's flagship software. Few games can call themselves true milestones, but Doom can confidently claim that title. For TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019, we're taking a look at how Doom has helped change PC gaming forever.
Bloody plane
There are so many elements that programmers John Romero and John Carmack helped popularize in 1993, concepts that set a foundational blueprint for not only shooters, but Western video games in general for decades to come. Using immersive 3D graphics in an era where games were still resigned to flat 2-bit 16D sprites. It helped lay the foundation for network multiplayer games. He encouraged the use of mods (or "WADs" as they were called at the time). Even the way it deftly juggled everything from realistic weapon physics to complex level design. There's a reason so many of the games that followed were called "Doom clones." Doom was a breath of fresh air in many ways. Rather than bury the player in unnecessary storytelling and the overwhelming presence of lore, id Software let the levels themselves tell the story for them. Sharp angles and narrow corridors that have turned into open arenas. Secret rooms full of treasures and death. It was both a nightmare and a playground, offering an alternative to the repetitive tunnels of, say, Wolfenstein 3D. From the use of disorienting means, teleportations would take you to a new part of the map, or how some rooms would be near-dark while others were lit by daylight. It featured a maze-like approach that fostered a sense of chaos, long before the random concept of procedural generation. But by learning where each turn would take you, where each secret was hidden, and where each shotgun could be found, Doom empowered you in a way few other games did back then.History of violence
Of course, once you've created your own gaming subculture and established a flash point in the development scene, you'll always get imitators. However, among all those forgettable installments, you may finally see the developers adopt the principles that Doom implemented and take them even further. Marathon, for example, which came a good year later in 1994, made a much smoother, more user-friendly approach to network multiplayer (a concept Bungie would take to countless milestones with Halo: Combat Evolved seven years later). It would take Deathmatch another five years to fund its feet online in 1999, but Doom's influence was already spreading its roots. That same year, System Shock, the precursor to BioShock and its own copier group, was also discontinued, also drawing heavily from Id's seminal hallway shooter. It took the sense of dread that Doom captured so well and it made you even more vulnerable, with more emphasis on puzzle solving and story. The result was a game that was way ahead of its time in the early 90s, especially when it came to its physics engine and 3D visuals. Right away, Doom's DNA formula continued to thrive in the burgeoning "corridor shooter" scene. Who would have thought that it would be this genre that would help rejuvenate the Star Wars license? Not only that, but those core tenants would evolve accordingly. So when LucasArts released Star Wars: Dark Forces, it was a huge step forward for the genre.
Previously, shooters were mostly stuck with using an XY axis for movement (where you could look left and right, but not up or down). Thanks in part to the internal Jedi moteur, the players of Dark Forces could regard autour d'eux en 3D, ce qui, associé à l'utilisation innovante du jeu de niveaux à plusieurs niveaux, a créé l'un des tireurs les plus immersifs à this day. In the three years since Doom's first release in December 1993, 3D graphics have evolved by leaps and bounds, and studios have begun to find new ways to innovate in terms of aesthetics and design ideas. Duke Nukem 3D was less of a trailblazer and more of a pastiche, but it still took countless features from Doom and tweaked them. The levels were littered with secret rooms and shortcuts, the weapons were over the top in their sheer violence, and no one has ever managed to make a shooter as fun as the one featuring the titular Duke. It was satire, but the legacy of Doom was there for all to see. That same year, Bethesda Softworks released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall to the world, finally freeing the hallway shooter from its traditional linear environments. Embracing more of a traditional RPG setting, Daggerfall was a revelation in its approach to "open world" level design (an entirely new term at the time) and grander storytelling. To be fair, it was a world away from The Elder Scrolls Arena apartment back in 1994, but even as antithetical to the speed and mechanical purity of Doom (especially with its heavy emphasis on story and world-building), it still he owed a lot to the pioneers of Doom. presence.
Mod scene
Of course, another great game was released in 1996, and it just so happens to come from the makers of Doom. Quake has been a giant leap in all directions for the genre, taking myriad elements that made Doom so quintessentially addictive and making it even more compelling. While Doom used flat sprites in a 3D environment, Quake's new engine used fully rendered 3D assets, and the difference was night and day. It created more complex levels, much more detailed enemies, and set the stage for some of the best online multiplayer arenas of the decade, including the always brilliant Quake 3 Arena. In the late '90s, Doom's popularity continued to grow, despite its age. Because? Because of how its developer embraced the huge modding community. The programmers of tomorrow were building their own levels, tinkering with the game engine, and finding inventive new ways to play online. John Cormack even went so far as to publish the source code for Doom in 1997. This set a precedent for fan-created content and informed everything about the rise of Counter-Strike in Half-Life and the sheer volume of mods for The Elder. Scrolls V: Skyrim years later.
Just before the millennium, the networked multiplayer model had evolved further, and online matchmaking had become an affordable and technically proficient way to connect shooter fans. In a month in 1999, the PC gaming community saw the deathmatch reach new heights with Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. Inspired by both the deep creativity of the modding community and the innovative work of Id, these two games have made online multiplayer fast, fun, and endlessly replayable. The advent of online multiplayer played directly into one of Doom's most misunderstood traits: that movement, momentum, and positioning are far more important than firepower alone.
For Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena, speed was everything. Jumping platforms, teleporters, and collecting health / shield bonuses directly contributed to Doom's emphasis on tactical movements. Doom has always been about survival - learning to use all the resources at your disposal to go from desperate survivor to untouchable god.