Summary
The Doom engine, later renamed id Tech 1, was originally developed for thefirstDoomgame. In the years following its release, it was used to create a variety of shooters, some original and some based on id Software’s catalog. The engine was quite limited by modern standards, and yet so many developers managed to release well-received, successful games on it.
Nowadays, some of the limitations of the Doom engine sound incredibly harsh; limitations like only not being able to look up, all walls being perpendicular to the floor (which also makes stairs a problem), and simply not being able to put one room on top of the other. This is because, at its core, this is a2D engine projected into 3Donly through a first-person perspective and a lot of behind-the-scenes trickery.
According to some,Final Doomis the third installment in the originalDoomseries. Many fans and critics, now and at the time, seeFinal Doomasjust another level packwith fancy packaging. While, on some level, this is just a collection of new levels for classicDoom, it was acquired by id Software, packaged, and sold on shelves.
Final Doomplays just likeDoom 2. It uses the same guns, enemies, and even part of the soundtrack. It features two sets of levels, each composed of 32 levels. One isTNT: Evilution, which id Software acquired right before it was supposed to be published for free online. To justify a commercial release, id Software commissioned two of theTNTmodders to create a second-level pack, namedThe Plutonia Experiment.
6Strife
A Game Before Its Time
Strifeis a 1996 first-personshooter inspired by RPGsand adventure games. Mixing those genres didn’t help the game’s popularity at the time, but it’s what makes it memorable now. The developer, Rogue Entertainment, would spend the next few years working on ports and expansions until the release ofAmerican McGee’s Alicein late 2000.
Even ifStrifeis somewhat story-focused, its DoomEngine origins are hard to ignore. It’s also clear that developers weren’t sure how to deliver a story in an FPS, something that wouldn’t really change untilHalf-Life. Even then,Strifetries really hard to make the story work, with thumbnail pictures to better represent characters during dialogue and a constant (foreign) voice in the character’s head, delivering most of the story.
As the name implies,Doom 64is the Nintendo 64 version ofDoom. But it’s much more than that, too, with new levels, new music, and wildly different controls and gameplay. While it is nominally “Doomon N64”, it absolutely is a completely different game; so different in the fact that it was recently ported to PC and consoles through a NightDive remaster all of its own.
Considering how different it is from the rest of the series, it might be surprising to learn thatDoom 64was in fact developed on the Doom engine. Developer Midway Studios assumed the game would only be played on Nintendo 64, meaning players wouldn’t have access to mouse and keyboard and would be stuck with tank controls. Designing with this limitation in mind is likely what madeDoom 64so different.
Hereticis afantasy first-person shooterwith some RPG elements, something the sequel would improve on. But when it comes to engine improvement, the originalHereticgets the crown. This is one of the first shooters and the absolute first game on the Doom engine game to give players the ability to look up and down by default, something the engine isn’t built to do.
Another important aspect ofHereticis how story-focused it is, even if “story” could be too strong a word for it.Hereticdoesn’t have a conventionally good story; it doesn’t have drama or memorable characters. Its narrative is simply more compelling and coherent than most shooters of the day. It also has a nice gothic atmosphere which does stand the test of time.
Doom 2is the sequel to the originalDoomand, according to many of its fans, the best game in the series. This, of course, doesn’t include theshooter’s modern reboot. The changes from the original game aren’t drastic, but they’re significant. Maps are longer, there are more and stronger weapons and enemy variety is much greater.
The main technical difference betweenDoomandDoom 2is that the sequel was slightly more demanding with the machines it could be played on. It also came with much better multiplayer, featuring classic deathmatch or even a coop mode integrated into the campaign.
Hexen: Beyond Hereticis one of three games in theHereticseries. While it isn’t the mainline, numbered sequel (that honor would go toHeretic 2), it’s the one most fans still have fond memories of. Not to say thatHeretic 2wasn’t successful, but the jump to 3D and away from the first-person perspective didn’t go well with many long-term fans.
Just like its predecessor,Hexen: Beyond Hereticused an improved version of the Doom engine, which allowed, among other things, vertical camera movement. The originalDoomhas received incredible community support: it’s hard to remember that, originally, it was supposed to run much slower and that the camera could only awkwardly rotate left and right.
Doomis, of course, the first game developed on the engine it gives its name to. Whether it’s thebest game on the Doom engineis a matter of taste, but it’s certainly one of the most influential games built on it.
Doomis also one of the most polished games on the Doom engine, but that’s not more the result of excellent community maintenance than of development. The engine’s more recent games would certainly outclass the original if it weren’t for its massive community of modders. Without those modders,HereticandHexenwould probably still be the only Doom engine games to allow players to look up and down.
