Doom

Doom (sometimes written DOOM){{ref|title}} is a computer game developed by id Software in 1993, and is one of the seminal titles in the first-person shooter genre. Combining immersive 3D graphics with graphic violence{{ref|ESRB}}, it became both controversial and immensely popular, with a shareware release version that is estimated to have been played by 15 million people. Beyond defining many gameplay elements of first-person shooters, Doom established a subculture by popularizing networked gaming and allowing player-created expansions called WADs. The game's success influenced the mid-1990s boom of first-person shooters to the degree that these games are sometimes known as "Doom clones".

Game features

Story

Doom has a science-fiction-horror-theme, and a simple plot. The background is only given in the game's manual, and the in-game story is mainly advanced with short messages displayed between the game's episodes.

Related Topics:
Science-fiction - Horror - Plot

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The player takes the role of a nameless space marine, "one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action", who has been deported to Mars for assaulting a senior officer when ordered to kill unarmed civilians. He is forced to work for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a military-industrial conglomerate that is performing secret experiments with teleportation between the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Suddenly, something goes wrong and creatures from Hell come out of the teleportation gates. A defensive reponse from base security fails to halt the invasion, and the bases quickly get overrun by demons, all personnel getting killed or turned into zombies. At the same time, Deimos vanishes entirely. A UAC team from Mars is sent to Phobos to investigate the incident, but soon radio contact ceases and only one human is left alive — the player, whose task is to make it out alive.{{ref|story}}

Related Topics:
Space marine - Mars - Union Aerospace Corporation - Teleportation - Phobos - Deimos - Hell - Demon - Zombie - Radio

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In order to beat the game, the player must fight through three episodes containing nine levels each (see Episodes and levels of Doom). Knee-Deep in the Dead, the first episode and the only one in the shareware version, is set in the high-tech military bases on Phobos. It ends with the player fighting the Barons of Hell and afterwards entering the teleporter leading to Deimos, there getting overwhelmed by monsters and seemingly killed. In the second episode, Shores of Hell, the player journeys through the Deimos installation, whose areas are interwoven with beastly architecture. After encountering the Cyberdemon, the truth about the vanished moon is discovered: it is floating above Hell. The player climbs down to the surface, and the final episode, Inferno, begins. After destroying the final boss, the Spider Mastermind, a hidden doorway opens for the hero who has "proven too tough for Hell to contain", leading back home to Earth. The expansion pack Ultimate Doom adds a fourth episode, chronicling the marine's return to Earth.

Related Topics:
Level - Episodes and levels of ''Doom'' - Shareware - Barons of Hell - Cyberdemon - Boss - Spider Mastermind - Ultimate Doom

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Gameplay

Main article: Gameplay of Doom

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Being a first-person shooter, Doom is experienced through the eyes of the main character. The objective of each level is simply to locate the exit room that leads to the next area (invitingly labeled with a red EXIT sign), while surviving all hazards on the way. Among the obstacles are monsters, pits of radioactive slime, ceilings that come down and crush the player, and locked doors for which a keycard or remote switch need to be located. The levels are sometimes labyrinthine (the automap is a crucial aid in navigating them), and feature plenty of hidden secret areas that hold power-ups as a reward for players who explore.

Related Topics:
First-person shooter - Radioactive slime - Crush - Keycard - Automap - Power-up

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Doom is notable for the weapons arsenal available to the player, which became prototypical for first-person shooters. The player starts armed only with a pistol, and brass-knuckled fists in case the ammunition runs out, but larger weapons can be picked up: these are a chainsaw, a shotgun, a chaingun, a rocket launcher, a plasma gun, and finally the immensely powerful BFG 9000. There is a wide array of power-ups, such as a backpack that increases the player's ammunition-carrying capacity, armor, first aid kits to restore health, and blue demonic orbs that boost the player's health percentage beyond 100%, up to a maximum of 200%.

Related Topics:
Weapon - Pistol - Brass-knuckled - Fist - Ammunition - Chainsaw - Shotgun - Chaingun - Rocket launcher - Plasma gun - BFG 9000 - Backpack - Armor - First aid kit

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The enemy monsters in Doom make up the central gameplay element. The player faces them in large numbers, on the higher of the game's five difficulty levels often encountering a dozen or more in the same room. There are 10 types of monster (Doom II doubles this figure), including possessed humans as well as demons of different strength, ranging from weak but ubiquitous imps and red, floating cacodemons, to the bosses which survive multiple strikes even from the player's strongest weapons. The monsters have very simple behavior, consisting of either walking toward the player or attacking by throwing fireballs, biting, and scratching (though they can also fight each other).

Related Topics:
Difficulty level - Doom II - Demon - Imp - Cacodemon - Bosses - Fight each other

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Aside from the single-player game mode, Doom features two multiplayer modes playable over a network: "co-operative", in which two to four players team up against the legions of Hell, and "deathmatch", in which two to four players fight each other.

Related Topics:
Single-player - Multiplayer - Network - Deathmatch

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