Summary
Though gaming has been around since the 1970s, it’s the 1980s and early 1990s that are often credited with bringing about some of the most influential video games of all time. These games are usually credited with creating mechanics that have since become staples of the industry, creating now-iconic characters, and even forging entire genres. The originalDoomis certainly one such game, widely considered to be one of themost influential shooters of all time.
Released on July 08, 2025, and developed bythe now-legendary Id Software,Doomrevolutionized the first-person shooter genre, and heralded a lot of firsts for the gaming industry as a whole.Doom’s influence on the entire gaming landscape cannot be understated, and 30 years later, its original arena shooting gameplay formula can still be seen in the DNA of video games releasing today.
Doom Is One of the Most Influential Games of All Time
The First Doom Revolutionized First-Person Shooters
Back in 1992,Id Software releasedWolfenstein 3D, its second game, and one that’s widely considered to be the pioneer of the first-person shooter genre. Just 18 months later, Id Software releasedDoom, a game that revolutionized, popularized, and essentially made the first-person shooter genre what it is today. Despite video games having been widely available for a little over two decades at that point,Doomstood out for being a technical marvel. Through incredibly detailed enemy sprites, fluid weapon reload and shooting animations, and some truly revolutionary 3D technology,Doomwas well ahead of its time.
As if its extreme critical success wasn’t enough to sell the game,Doomwas also distributed via shareware. This meant that fans could copy and shareDoomwith all their friends, letting everyone play the first episode for free. In doing this,Doommanaged to reach an incredibly wide audience, and quickly became a phenomenon in Western gaming.
It didn’t take long before copycats started to emerge, “borrowing"Doom’s general gameplay formula and 3D first-person design. The best of these “DoomClones” weren’t just carbon copies of Id’s original arena shooter, instead adding a handful of unique features and tweaking the formula to best suit a new context or narrative. Over time, theseDoomClones simply became known as first-person shooters, and just like that, a new video game genre was born.
Doom’s Arena Shooter Formula Is Still Being Used Today
Despite being 30 years old,Doom’s arena shooting gameplay formulacan still be seen in a ton of video games today, albeit with its fair share of tweaks and changes. The biggest and best example of this is, obviously, the rebootedDoomseries, beginning withDoom2016 and continuing withDoom Eternalin 2020. While color-coded key cards may not be present,Doom2016 andDoom Eternal’s gameplay loops are essentially modernized versions of the originalDoomformula, with levels throwing players into a number of enemy encounters, each one forcing the player to eliminate every enemy inside an arena before they can proceed.
It isn’t just theDoomreboot series that carries the 1993 original’s torch.MachineGames’Wolfensteinseriesis also clearly inspired by the originalDoomformula, locking players inside arenas and throwing waves of enemies at them. The most recent example ofDoom’s gameplay loop in a modern game is Ascendant Studios’Immortals of Aveum, which puts a magical fantasy spin onDoom’s 30-year-old arena shooting gameplay. It may not be immediately obvious, butDoom’s DNA still runs through the entire first-person shooter genre, and it remains one of the most influential games of all time.
Doom (1993)
WHERE TO PLAY
Developed by id Software, and originally released in 1993, DOOM pioneered and popularized the first-person shooter, setting a standard for all FPS games. An enhanced version was released on PC, consoles, and mobile devices in 2019. Now, you can get the enhanced version of the base game and the additional content here.StoryYou’re a marine—one of Earth’s best—recently assigned to the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility on Mars. When the UAC’s teleportation gateway between the moons of Phobos and Deimos malfunctioned, something evil was created: a portal to H
