I’m too young to remember Doom 3 discourse. All these years later, I know that people were upset that it radically moved the series away from action-packed arena shooting toward slower-paced, methodical horror. But I was three when it launched, and only a couple of years older when I tried it. I didn’t care that it wasn’t like the ‘90s originals, to me, it was more akin to the original Half-Life with the technical leaps of its sequel, and looking back, I still don’t care. Doom has always been unsettling, 3 just leaned into it.
Doom 3 and the 2016 reboot are two sides of the same coin. One embraced the original’s horror, the other its action, but both abandoned the other half. We haven’t had a Doom game with the frantic, fast-paced shooting of the ‘90s era that also leans into how unnerving and alien Hell would be, with 2016 opting for spectacle instead. Eternal upped the ante and leaned even further into action, and now that we’ve seen the Doom 4 concept video, it’s clear that 3’s sequel would’ve embraced horror even further. Two wildly different trajectories made similar in that they chose to double down.
The original Doom used claustrophobic, smaller environments to box you in and keep you alert. Your freedom was limited, bound by corridors full of nightmarish abominations and Satan’s fiends. All while the distorted retro growls of the undead screeched out as they scurried behind you, and as the thumping of giant metallic footsteps closed in, making the action as unnerving as it was exciting. However, you still had a huge arsenal of over-the-top, powerful weapons that would quickly turn enemies into mush, carefully balancing the two tones.
Doom 3 in contrast had a more limited arsenal with scarcer ammo, focusing more on heightening the sense of anxiety. Horror clearly came first, and looking at Doom 4’s concept trailer, we can see that this wouldn’t have changed. Small rooms, dingy corridors, and fleshy caverns accompanied by creatures so clearly playing into body horror makes it look more like a first-person Dead Space than Doom, but that’s exactly what the original ‘90s games would look like with modern tech.
Doom 2016 and Eternal play into the idea that you are the threat—you are this giant, towering monster with a shotgun that would make Satan himself sweat, and everything on your path to closing Hell’s portals is nothing more than a nuisance. While you were a powerhouse in the originals, the denizens of the underworld weren’t just pushovers meant to make you feel powerful, they were a seemingly unstoppable hoard.
The new games and Doom 3 are great at what they do—one is a brilliant horror FPS that took the series to new places, experimenting with ideas that few at the time were doing, while the newer Doom games are some of the best arena shooters on the market. There’s room for both, and as much as people loved to shit on Doom 3 for breaking the mould and embracing a less discussed part of those original games, it has a place in FPS and horror history for its attempts to bring the genre’s closer together than ever before.
It didn’t take, and Doom 4 was scrapped for the Doom 2016 we know and love today. But after two games that’ve been all about wailing on demons to equally as punchy metal, it’s time to look at those ‘90s originals and Doom 3—even the cancelled Doom 4—to try to strike a balance that hasn’t been struck in 30 years.