Doom is a 2016 first-person shooter game made by id Software and released by Bethesda Softworks. It is the first major game in the Doom series since 2004's Doom 3 and marks a restart of the series. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2016. A version for Nintendo Switch was developed with Panic Button and released in November 2017, and a version for Stadia was released in August 2020. Players control a space marine, commonly known as the Doom Slayer, as he fights demonic forces in an energy-mining facility on Mars and in Hell.
The game was first announced as Doom 4 in 2008. It went through many changes in design and development before being restarted in 2011 and renamed simply Doom in 2014. It was tested by people who pre-ordered the 2014 game Wolfenstein: The New Order and by the general public. Mick Gordon composed the music, with help from Richard Devine. The game includes an online multiplayer mode and a level editor called "SnapMap," developed with Certain Affinity and Escalation Studios.
Doom received positive reviews from critics and players. The single-player story, graphics, music, and gameplay were widely praised, while the multiplayer mode faced criticism. It was the second best-selling video game in North America and the United Kingdom during its first week of release and sold over 500,000 copies for PCs by the end of May 2016. A sequel, Doom Eternal, was released in March 2020. A prequel, Doom: The Dark Ages, was released in May 2025.
Gameplay
Doom is a first-person shooter video game. Players move quickly and fight in fast-paced battles against strong enemies. They can explore the game world by jumping high and climbing ledges. To advance, players use weapons inspired by those from the original Doom games and its sequel, Doom II, such as a chainsaw and BFG 9000. These weapons are used to fight undead and demonic enemies also inspired by the original games. Weapons do not need to be reloaded and can be improved with special upgrades found during the game.
To restore health or resources, players collect items or defeat enemies. A feature called "Glory Kill" allows players to recover health by finishing off enemies that are badly hurt, causing them to become stunned. Ammunition can be refilled by using the chainsaw on enemies, which kills them instantly if the chainsaw has enough fuel.
The single-player campaign includes 13 levels, each with multiple paths and open areas for exploration. Players can find collectibles, secrets, and upgrades to their equipment. Other items include Doomguy figurines and data files that provide more details about the game’s story and setting. The campaign includes references to other games, such as Commander Keen, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, Terminator 2, and previous Doom games. Each level has a hidden lever that unlocks an area inspired by a classic level from the original games. An arcade mode, where all upgrades are available from the start, was added on October 20, 2016.
Doom includes an online multiplayer mode with several game types. These include Team Deathmatch, Freeze Tag (where defeated players are frozen and can be revived), Soul Harvest (where players collect "souls" from defeated enemies), Warpath (a moving King of the Hill variation), Clan Arena (a team-based last-man-standing mode), and Domination (where teams capture and hold three locations). Players choose two weapons from a variety of options, including some exclusive to multiplayer. During matches, players can collect "hack modules," which provide useful information, or "runes," which temporarily transform players into demons. Playable demons include Revenant, Baron of Hell, and Mancubus (also from the single-player campaign), as well as Prowler and Harvester, which are new to multiplayer.
Doom includes a level creation tool called SnapMap. Players can use in-game assets to design single-player levels or multiplayer maps for co-operative or competitive play. They can place enemies (except campaign bosses) in their maps and adjust their behavior and abilities. Alternatively, SnapMap can automatically generate enemies using the AI conductor feature. Completed maps can be shared with others, who can rate them or create new versions based on them.
Synopsis
The game Doom takes place on Mars in the year 2149. The Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) operates a facility on Mars to use energy coming from Hell, a different world filled with dangerous creatures called demons. To solve an energy shortage on Earth, the UAC built the Argent Tower to collect and process raw Hell energy into a usable form called Argent energy. This energy harms the health of workers at the facility and allows travel between Mars and Hell. When scientists discovered that Argent energy had unusual properties, the UAC began researching it and the demons, and some staff members started to worship the demons and use technology to change their bodies.
The facility is managed by Samuel Hayden, a UAC scientist who moved his mind into an android body after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer during the construction of the Argent Tower. Hayden oversees the process of extracting and refining energy from Hell and organizes missions to capture demons and study artifacts. One of these artifacts is a sarcophagus containing the Doom Slayer, a powerful being feared by others, along with his armor, the Praetor Suit. VEGA, a self-aware artificial intelligence, helps monitor and control the facility. Olivia Pierce, a scientist working under Hayden, developed a severe back problem while on Mars and made a deal with the demons to create a portal between Mars and Hell, allowing demons to attack Earth.
At an unknown time, Pierce opened the portal, letting demons take over the facility and kill most of its workers. To stop the demons, Hayden awakened the Slayer, who retrieved his armor but initially refused to help Hayden. After being denied information, the Slayer agreed to work with VEGA. The Slayer cleared the facility’s core and prevented a meltdown in the foundry before chasing Pierce to the top of the tower. There, Pierce used a device called an Argent accumulator to create an explosion, destroying the tower and sending the Slayer back to Hell.
In Hell, the Slayer fought through obstacles to reach the teleporter that would return him to Mars. He then went to Hayden’s office, where Hayden installed a teleportation device in the Praetor Suit for better travel. Hayden also told the Slayer about the Helix Stone, an artifact used to study Argent energy, which was stored in Pierce’s office at Lazarus Labs. The Slayer visited Lazarus Labs, learned about the Well—the source of the portal—and discovered the Crucible, a magical weapon. To reach the Well, the Slayer traveled to Hell again with the Argent accumulator inside a powerful demon called a Cyberdemon. After defeating the Cyberdemon, the Slayer fought through more demons to retrieve the Crucible.
Hayden teleported the Slayer to a facility in the frozen north of Mars, where VEGA’s core was located. Hayden planned to use the core to create an explosion strong enough to send the Slayer to the Well. The Slayer caused the core to explode but made a copy of VEGA before the blast. Entering the Well, the Slayer used the Crucible to destroy the portal’s power source and faced Pierce, who had been transformed into a demon called the Spider Mastermind. After defeating the Spider Mastermind, Hayden teleported the Slayer back to Mars and declared the invasion stopped. Hayden took the Crucible for further research and sent the Slayer to an unknown location.
Development
After releasing Doom 3 in 2004, id Software started working on a new game called Rage. The company tried but failed to license the Doom franchise to another developer, as it had done with Wolfenstein. In 2007, id began developing Doom 4. At the time of Doom 3’s release, id had 19 employees, and the company faced challenges balancing the development of Rage and Doom 4. The project was first announced on May 7, 2008, through job listings on id’s website, which listed it as Doom 4. On June 23, 2009, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, bought id and announced that Bethesda would publish its future games. According to id’s creative director, Tim Willits, the partnership allowed id to work on two projects at the same time. In April 2009, id’s CEO, Todd Hollenshead, said Doom 4 would not be a sequel to Doom 3 or a complete restart of the series.
Doom 4 was planned to have a story written by British science fiction author Graham Joyce. The game was set on Earth and described as a "new take" on Doom II (also called Hell on Earth). In a 2016 documentary, id’s creative director, Hugo Martin, said Doom 4 would focus on the global effects of a Hellish invasion and compared it to the 1997 movie Contact. The game was influenced by the Call of Duty series, featuring health that regenerates automatically, a focus on using cover during combat, and pre-recorded movie scenes. Some developers and fans criticized the project as "Call of Doom." In 2011, Rage was released but received mixed reviews. id and Bethesda decided to restart Doom 4’s development because they felt it was not connected to the original Doom games.
On April 3, 2013, Kotaku published a report claiming Doom 4 was stuck in "development hell" and poorly managed. Bethesda’s marketing vice president, Pete Hines, acknowledged the challenges of developing Doom 4 that same day. In an August 2013 interview, Tim Willits said the early version of Doom 4 had "a bit of an identity crisis." Between 2011 and 2013, several id employees, including Todd Hollenshead and co-founder John Carmack, left the company. In an August 2013 interview, Willits said there was no public timeline for updates on Doom 4.
On June 10, 2014, Bethesda released a teaser trailer for Doom 4 at E3 2014, followed by another at id’s convention, QuakeCon, on July 17, 2014. The trailer revealed the game had been renamed Doom and would be a reboot of the series. id hired Marty Stratton as game director and Hugo Martin as creative director in August 2013. Tiago Sousa, a graphics engineer from Crytek, led the development of the id Tech 6 engine for Doom. Stratton, Martin, and id used the original Doom games as a model for the game’s artwork and gameplay, moving away from the slower pace and survival horror themes of Doom 3. Stratton said the team wanted to "be faithful to the legacy of the original Doom," and Willits explained that Doom was "built on the emotional core of the original game."
The development of Doom focused on improving its combat system, called "push forward combat." The Glory Kill mechanic, which started as a "sync melee" system for Doom 4, was developed early and became central to Doom’s combat. To encourage aggressive play, id rewarded players for using Glory Kill and the chainsaw by giving them resources and designing levels to promote movement during combat. Enemies in the game looked similar to those in the original Doom games and were designed to make players move.
Id placed less emphasis on the story, which was written by Adam Gascoine. Martin said the story was one of the last parts of the game to be completed and aimed for a lighter, self-aware narrative. The game began with a quote from the 1996 Doom comic book. Martin was inspired by action movies like RoboCop (1987), Evil Dead 2 (1987), and The Last Boy Scout (1991), as well as paintings by American artist Frank Frazetta.
Doom’s multiplayer was co-developed with Certain Affinity, but id ended the partnership after the game’s release to focus on Windows multiplayer features, such as private matches and custom settings. BattleCry Studios helped with post-release updates. SnapMap was developed with Escalation Studios. After release, patches added a new photo mode, a feature to hold weapons in the center of the screen like in the original games, and support for the Vulkan API. The Vulkan patch aimed to improve performance on older hardware. Benchmarks showed up to a 66% increase in frame rates on AMD graphics cards, with smaller changes on Nvidia cards.
Doom’s soundtrack was composed by Australian musician Mick Gordon, with help from American sound designer Richard Devine. Gordon met with id in 2014 to discuss the music. id asked him not to use guitars or create a metal score, even though the original Doom had a metal soundtrack by Bobby Prince. Gordon used synthesizers to create the sound of Argent energy. After six to nine months of working with synthesizers, he convinced id to use guitars. For the main menu track, he combined a nine-string guitar with a sample of the chainsaw from the original Doom.
Gordon created different music styles for Mars and Hell, saying the music for Mars needed to sound human-made, while Hell’s music was more chaotic and unusual. Some tracks, like "At Doom’s Gate," honored Bobby Prince’s work on the original Doom. Gordon included Easter eggs in the soundtrack, such as pentagrams and the number "666" hidden in the track "Cyberdemon." In 2017, Gordon revealed a reversed message,
Release and marketing
The game Doom was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on May 13, 2016, except in Japan, where it was released on May 19, 2016. It was also released for Stadia on August 19, 2020. This was the first game in the franchise to be released without censorship in Germany. A version of Doom for the Nintendo Switch was released on November 10, 2017. It was developed by Panic Button and did not include SnapMap due to storage limits on the Game Card. Review copies of the game were not sent out before the release date. This caused many gaming outlets to comment on the situation. Bethesda partnered with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for a special promotion. During this promotion, Mikhail Aleshin drove a Doom-themed car at the 2016 Indianapolis 500 racing competition. The vehicle crashed during the race and was eliminated.
On June 12, 2016, at E3 2016, Bethesda announced a virtual reality (VR) adaptation of Doom with a demo. Critics had mixed opinions about the VR version of the game. A virtual pinball adaptation of Doom was released on December 6, 2016. It was part of the Bethesda Pinball collection for Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, and Pinball FX 3. It was also released as a separate free-to-play app for iOS and Android mobile devices. A VR spinoff of Doom, called Doom VFR, was announced at E3 2017. It was released for PlayStation VR and HTC Vive headsets on December 1, 2017. The game took place after the events of Doom and was generally well received by critics.
The QuakeCon 2014 trailer received a lot of praise from fans. At E3 2015, on June 14, Bethesda showed gameplay from the singleplayer campaign and multiplayer. This was both praised and criticized for its graphic violence. Hines responded by saying, "if you're not into violent, bloody games… Doom's probably not a game for you." A live-action trailer directed by American filmmaker Joe Kosinski was released on March 31, 2016.
On February 4, 2016, Bethesda revealed Doom's official box art. Many people immediately criticized it as "painfully boring and dull." From March 3 to March 7, 2016, Bethesda held a poll on Twitter to decide an alternate cover that would be printed on the back of the official box art. The winner, with 68% of the votes cast, was a cover inspired by the original Doom, showing the Doom Slayer battling demons in Hell.
Bethesda announced on February 19, 2014, that a beta version of Doom, then called Doom 4, would be made available to those who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014). These players were also given exclusive access to an alpha test of Doom's multiplayer, which ran from October 23 to 25, 2015. A second alpha test of the multiplayer was held from December 3 to 6, 2015. A datamine of the content in the alphas revealed aspects of the singleplayer campaign, such as the existence of the Spider Mastermind.
A closed beta test of the multiplayer began on March 31, 2016, and ended on April 3. This was followed by an open beta that ran from April 15 to April 18, 2016. PC Games criticized the weapons and weapon loadouts following the closed beta but praised the mobility. Nathan Lawrence of IGN and Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also criticized the weapon loadouts and unfavorably compared the open beta to other shooters such as Halo, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, and Call of Duty. The beta was also negatively received by players on Steam.
Doom supported downloadable content (DLC) packs. Three of these DLCs required purchase and added three new maps and a demon. These multiplayer DLCs were Unto the Evil, released on August 4, 2016; Hell Followed, released on October 27, 2016; and Bloodfall, released on December 14, 2016. On July 19, 2017, Bethesda made the three paid DLCs free to all players.
Reception
When Doom was released, it received good reviews. It scored 85 out of 100 on PC and PlayStation 4, 87 out of 100 on Xbox One, and 79 out of 100 on Nintendo Switch, according to Metacritic. The final version of the game on PC received very positive feedback from users on Steam. The Nintendo Switch version was also praised in a review by Nintendo Life.
The game’s single-player mode was highly praised by critics and compared favorably to other shooter games. Mike Henriquez of GameRevolution said the game’s visual and artistic design was "very high quality." Sam White of The Daily Telegraph praised Doom’s performance on all platforms, its weapon design, and its score. Peter Brown of GameSpot said the single-player mode captured the spirit of older Doom games while adding modern features. He also praised the soundtrack, calling it "impactful." Jordan Pearson of Vice also praised the soundtrack. James Davenport of PC Gamer in December 2016 said Doom’s soundtrack was "one of the best" of 2016.
Arthur Gies of Polygon said the game’s exploration for collectables and secrets worked well with the new upgrade feature, but he criticized parts of the game that locked players out of sections without warning. Zack Furniss of Destructoid, who was initially unsure about the "Glory Kill" mechanic, later said it fit well with the game’s fast-paced combat. Brad Shoemaker of Giant Bomb said the mechanic was "an essential part" of the game’s combat. However, Kyle Orland of Ars Technica said the mechanic could confuse players by briefly taking control away from them.
SnapMap received good reviews for being simple and easy to use, but critics were disappointed that players could only use in-game assets. Matt Bertz of Game Informer said the feature was accessible but criticized the lack of diverse settings and possible limitations compared to traditional modding communities.
The multiplayer mode received mixed reviews. IGN’s Joab Gilory said Doom was "two very different shooters," noting that the multiplayer did not match the quality of the single-player mode. Matt Buchholtz of Electronic Gaming Monthly criticized the game’s handling of latency. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer said the "Warpath" multiplayer mode was the most interesting, calling it "memorable," while other modes were underdeveloped. Julian Benson of Kotaku said the multiplayer was similar to other contemporary games. David Houghton of GamesRadar+ called the multiplayer "endlessly playable, smart, and fun." Jon Denton of Eurogamer also praised the multiplayer.
Doom was the second best-selling retail game in its first week of release in the US and UK, behind Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. By late June 2016, it became the top-selling game in the UK, surpassing Uncharted 4 and Overwatch, and stayed number one for a second week. Sales for the PC version reached 500,000 copies in May 2016, 1,000,000 copies in August 2016, and 2,000,000 copies by July 2017. When Doom was released on Switch, it was the fourth-best-selling game of its debut week in the UK.
Doom was named one of the best games of 2016 by critics and media outlets, including Giant Bomb, GameSpot, GamesRadar, The Escapist, The A.V. Club, Rock Paper Shotgun, James Stephanie Sterling, VG247, Daily Mirror, and Shacknews. Doom’s soundtrack won the Best Music/Sound Design award at The Game Awards 2016. Gordon, along with Periphery drummer Matt Halpern and Quake II composer Sascha Dikiciyan, performed a short medley of "Rip and Tear," "BFG Division," and "Descent Into Cerberon" at the event. The soundtrack was also nominated for Audio Achievement and Best Music categories at the 13th British Academy Games Awards.
Continuation
A sequel to Doom, called Doom Eternal, was released on March 20, 2020. It takes place years after the original game and shows the Slayer fighting demons on Earth. The development of Doom affected Doom Eternal in several ways. After the game was released, studies by id Software and players showed that many players relied heavily on the Super Shotgun and used other weapons very little. To encourage players to use different weapons, id reduced the amount of ammunition players could carry in Doom Eternal. They also changed other weapons, weapon upgrades, and enemies in the game. Specific weapons were given weaknesses against certain enemies. For multiplayer, id stopped using team deathmatch and instead created a mode called Battlemode, where AI-controlled and player-controlled demons fight against a player-controlled Doom Slayer. SnapMap was not included in Doom Eternal.
A prequel called Doom: The Dark Ages was released in 2025.