Doom is a 2016 first-person shooter game created 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 the start of a new version of the franchise. The game was available on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2016. A version for Nintendo Switch was made with help from Panic Button and released in November 2017. A version for Stadia came out in August 2020. In the game, players control a space marine known as the Doom Slayer, who fights demons in an energy-mining facility on Mars and in Hell.
Doom was first announced as Doom 4 in 2008. This version went through many changes in design and development before being restarted in 2011 and renamed simply Doom in 2014. The game was tested by people who pre-ordered the 2014 game Wolfenstein: The New Order and by the general public. Mick Gordon created 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 feedback from critics and players. The single-player story, graphics, music, and gameplay were praised, but 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. By the end of May 2016, over 500,000 copies were sold for PCs. 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 game. Players move quickly and fight in fast-paced battles against enemies that are strong and hard to catch. They can explore the game’s environments by jumping twice and climbing on edges. To advance, players use weapons from the original Doom game and its sequel, Doom II, such as a chainsaw and BFG 9000, to fight undead and demonic enemies. These weapons do not need to be reloaded and can be improved with special upgrades found during the game.
To restore health or supplies, players must collect items or defeat enemies. Health can be recovered by using the "Glory Kill" feature, where injured enemies become stunned and can be killed quickly with a short melee action. Ammunition can be refilled by using the chainsaw on an enemy, which kills them instantly if the chainsaw has enough fuel.
The single-player story has 13 levels, each with multiple paths and open spaces to explore. Players can find collectibles, secrets, and upgrades to their equipment. Other items include Doomguy figurines and data files that explain the game’s setting and story. Hidden references to other games, such as Commander Keen, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, Terminator 2, and earlier Doom games, are included. Each level has a hidden lever that opens an area inspired by classic levels 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 by teammates), Soul Harvest (where players collect souls from fallen enemies), Warpath (a moving hill capture game), Clan Arena (a team-based survival 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" that show useful information or "runes" that temporarily turn them into demons. Playable demons include Revenant, Baron of Hell, Mancubus (also from the single-player story), and Prowler and Harvester (not seen in the single-player campaign).
Doom includes a map creation tool called SnapMap. Players can use in-game assets to build single-player levels or multiplayer maps for co-operative or competitive play. They can place enemies (except campaign bosses) in their maps and change their behavior and abilities. The AI conductor feature can automatically generate enemies for player-made maps. Completed maps can be shared with others, who can rate them or create new versions.
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, an alternate dimension where dangerous creatures called demons live. To solve an energy shortage on Earth, the UAC built the Argent Tower to collect and process raw Hell energy into a type of energy called Argent energy. This energy harms the health of the people working at the facility and allows travel between Mars and Hell. When scientists discovered that Argent energy did not match what they knew about physics, the UAC began secret research about Hell and the demons. Some staff members began to worship the demons and modified their bodies with machines.
The facility is led 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, and he organizes trips into Hell to capture demons and study artifacts. One of these artifacts is a sarcophagus containing the player character, a powerful being called the Doom Slayer, along with his armor, the Praetor Suit. VEGA, a self-aware artificial intelligence, controls and monitors the facility. Olivia Pierce, a scientist working under Hayden, developed severe scoliosis while working on Mars. She made a deal with the demons to open a portal between Mars and Hell, allowing the demons to conquer Earth.
At an unknown time, Pierce opened the portal, and the demons took over the facility, killing most of the staff. To stop the demons, Hayden awakened the Slayer, who retrieved his armor but at first refused to help Hayden. Hayden would not share information unless the Slayer agreed to work together, so the Slayer agreed and was guided by VEGA. After clearing the facility’s core and preventing a meltdown in the foundry, the Slayer followed Pierce to the top of the tower. Along the way, the Slayer destroyed parts of the facility that were important for refining Argent energy, despite Hayden’s warnings. At the tower’s top, Pierce used a device called an Argent accumulator to create a large explosion, destroying the tower and sending the Slayer back to Hell.
In Hell, the Slayer fought through the area where he was imprisoned and found a teleporter back to Mars. He went to Hayden’s office, where Hayden installed a teleporting device in the Praetor Suit for more reliable travel. Hayden also told the Slayer about the Helix Stone, an artifact used to study Argent energy, which was kept in Olivia Pierce’s office at Lazarus Labs. The Slayer entered Lazarus Labs, observed the Helix Stone, and learned about the Well, the source of the portal’s power, and the Crucible, a magical weapon. To reach the Well, the Slayer traveled to Hell again with the Argent accumulator inside a large, machine-modified demon called a Cyberdemon. After defeating the Cyberdemon, the Slayer fought through a maze-like path and two other powerful demons to retrieve the Crucible.
Hayden teleported the Slayer to a facility in the frozen north of Mars, where VEGA’s core was stored. 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 backup copy of VEGA before the explosion. Entering the Well, the Slayer used the Crucible to destroy the portal’s power source and faced Pierce, who had been transformed by the demons into a creature called the Spider Mastermind. After defeating the Spider Mastermind, the Slayer was teleported back to Mars by Hayden, who told him he had stopped the invasion. Hayden took the Crucible for further research into Argent energy and sent the Slayer to an unknown location to prevent him from interfering with his plans.
Development
After releasing Doom 3 in 2004, id Software started working on a new game called Rage. The company tried to let another developer take over the Doom franchise, as it had done with Wolfenstein. In 2007, id began making Doom 4. At the time of Doom 3’s release, id had only 19 employees, and they faced challenges trying to develop both Rage and Doom 4 at the same time. In 2008, id posted job listings for a project called Doom 4. In 2009, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, bought id and said it would publish their future games. Tim Willits, id’s creative director, said this partnership allowed the company to work on two projects at once. In 2009, Todd Hollenshead, id’s CEO, 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 writer Graham Joyce. The game was set on Earth and described as a fresh version of Doom II (also called Hell on Earth). In a 2016 video, Hugo Martin, Doom’s creative director, said the game would focus on how a demonic invasion affects the world, comparing it to the 1997 movie Contact. The game borrowed ideas from the Call of Duty series, such as health that slowly returns without needing to find items, using cover during fights, and pre-made movie scenes. Some people called the project “Call of Doom.” In 2011, Rage was released and received mixed reviews. id and Bethesda felt Doom 4 was not connected to the original games and decided to restart its development.
In 2013, Kotaku published an article saying Doom 4 was stuck in “development hell” and poorly managed. Bethesda’s marketing vice president, Pete Hines, admitted the game had development problems. In 2013, Tim Willits said the early version of Doom 4 had “schizophrenia” and an unclear direction. John Carmack, one of id’s co-founders, and others left the company during this time. Willits said there was no public timeline for updates on Doom 4 during this period.
In 2014, Bethesda showed a teaser trailer for Doom 4 at E3 2014 and later renamed the game Doom, saying it would be a new start for the series. Tiago Sousa, a graphics engineer from Crytek, helped create the id Tech 6 engine for Doom. The game’s design was based on the original Doom games, and the slower, horror-themed style of Doom 3 was changed. The team wanted to honor the original Doom’s style and tone. Willits said the game was built around the emotional core of the original Doom.
The game focused on improving combat, called “push forward combat.” The Glory Kill mechanic, which started as a “sync melee” system for Doom 4, became a key part of Doom’s design. Players were rewarded for using Glory Kills and chainsaws, and levels were designed to encourage movement during fights. Enemies looked similar to those in the original Doom games to remind players of the series’ roots.
The story, written by Adam Gascoine, was one of the last parts of the game to be completed. Martin, the creative director, said the story was lighter and self-aware, beginning with a quote from a 1996 Doom comic. Martin was inspired by action movies like RoboCop and Evil Dead 2 and paintings by Frank Frazetta.
Doom’s multiplayer was made with Certain Affinity, but id later worked alone on features like private matches and cheat detection. BattleCry Studios helped with updates after the game launched. SnapMap, a level editor, was made with Escalation Studios. After release, updates added a photo mode, a way to hold weapons in the center of the screen like in the original games, and support for the Vulkan API. The Vulkan patch improved performance on older computers, especially AMD graphics cards.
The game’s soundtrack was composed by Mick Gordon, with help from Richard Devine. Gordon met with id in 2014 and was told not to use guitars or metal music, even though the original Doom had a metal soundtrack. Gordon used synthesizers to create sounds for the game’s energy weapons. After months of work, he convinced id to use guitars, combining a nine-string guitar with a chainsaw sound from the original Doom for the main menu track. Gordon made different music for Mars and Hell, with Hell’s music being more chaotic. Some tracks, like “At Doom’s Gate,” honored Bobby Prince’s work on the original Doom. Gordon added hidden messages, like pentagrams and the number “666,” in the track “Cyberdemon.” In 2017, Gordon revealed a reversed message, “Jesus loves you,” in an unknown track. In 2019, Gordon confirmed the final hidden message on Twitter.
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 Doom franchise to be released without censorship in Germany. A Nintendo Switch version, developed by Panic Button, was released on November 10, 2017, but it did not include the SnapMap feature due to storage limits on the Game Card. Review copies of the game were not made available before its release, which led to comments from several gaming outlets. Bethesda, the game’s publisher, partnered with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for a promotion in which driver Mikhail Aleshin raced a Doom-themed car at the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The car crashed during the race and was removed from competition.
At E3 2016 on June 12, Bethesda announced a virtual reality (VR) version of Doom with a demo. The VR version received mixed reviews from critics. A virtual pinball version of Doom was released on December 6, 2016, as part of the Bethesda Pinball collection for Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, and Pinball FX 3. It was also released as a free-to-play app for iOS and Android devices. A VR spinoff called Doom VFR was announced at E3 2017 and 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 strong praise from fans. At E3 2015 on June 14, Bethesda showed gameplay from the singleplayer campaign and multiplayer modes. The gameplay was both praised and criticized for its graphic violence. The game’s lead designer, Hines, said, "If you are not into violent, bloody games, Doom may not be for you." A live-action trailer directed by filmmaker Joe Kosinski was released on March 31, 2016.
On February 4, 2016, Bethesda revealed the official box art for Doom, which was quickly criticized as "painfully boring and dull." From March 3 to March 7, 2016, Bethesda held a Twitter poll to choose an alternate cover for the box art. The winning design, chosen by 68% of voters, was inspired by the original Doom and showed the Doom Slayer fighting demons in Hell.
Bethesda announced on February 19, 2014, that a beta version of Doom (then called Doom 4) would be available to players who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014). These players also received exclusive access to an alpha test of Doom’s multiplayer mode, which ran from October 23 to 25, 2015. A second alpha test of the multiplayer mode took place from December 3 to 6, 2015. Information from these tests revealed details about the singleplayer campaign, such as the existence of the Spider Mastermind.
A closed beta test of the multiplayer mode ran from March 31 to April 3, 2016, followed by an open beta from April 15 to 18, 2016. PC Games criticized the weapons and weapon loadouts in the closed beta but praised the character movement. Nathan Lawrence of IGN and Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also criticized the weapon loadouts and compared the open beta unfavorably to other shooters like Halo, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, and Call of Duty. Players on Steam also gave the beta negative feedback.
Doom supported downloadable content (DLC) packs. Three of these DLCs required purchase and added three new maps and a demon. The multiplayer DLCs were Unto the Evil (August 4, 2016), Hell Followed (October 27, 2016), and Bloodfall (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 got scores of 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 PC version of the game got very positive reviews from Steam users. The Nintendo Switch version was also praised in a review by Nintendo Life.
The game's single-player mode was highly praised and compared favorably to other shooter games. Mike Henriquez of GameRevolution said the visual and artistic design was "very high quality." Sam White of The Daily Telegraph praised Doom for its performance on all platforms, weapon design, and score. Peter Brown of GameSpot said the single-player mode was strong because it captured the feel of older games while adding modern elements. He also noted the soundtrack was "impactful." Jordan Pearson of Vice also praised the soundtrack. James Davenport of PC Gamer in December 2016 called the soundtrack "one of the best" of 2016.
Arthur Gies of Polygon said the game's exploration for collectibles 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 gameplay. Brad Shoemaker of Giant Bomb said the mechanic was "an essential part" of the fast combat. However, Kyle Orland of Ars Technica said the mechanic could confuse players by taking control away briefly.
SnapMap was praised for being simple 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 mod communities.
The multiplayer mode received mixed reviews. IGN's Joab Gilory said Doom was "two very different shooters," noting that multiplayer did not match the quality of the single-player mode. Matt Buchholtz of Electronic Gaming Monthly criticized the network's handling of latency. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer said the "Warpath" multiplayer mode was the most interesting, calling it "memorable," but said other modes were underdeveloped. Julian Benson of Kotaku said the multiplayer was similar to other 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 number one in the UK charts, surpassing Uncharted 4 and Overwatch, and stayed number one for a second week. Sales for Doom on PC 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 for the Switch, it was the fourth-best-selling title in 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 the tracks "Rip and Tear," "BFG Division," and Quake II's "Descent Into Cerberon" at the event. The soundtrack was also nominated for the 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, id Software and players noticed that many players used the Super Shotgun more than other weapons. To help players use more weapons, id reduced the amount of ammo players could carry in Doom Eternal. They also changed other weapons, weapon upgrades, and enemies. They added weaknesses for certain weapons against specific enemies. id did not include team deathmatch in Doom Eternal’s multiplayer mode. Instead, they created a new mode called Battlemode, where AI-controlled and player-controlled demons fight against the player-controlled Doom Slayer. SnapMap was not included in Doom Eternal.
A prequel to Doom, called Doom: The Dark Ages, was released in 2025.