DOOM and DOOM 2 are really cool. There are both fun games from start to finish even in the modern era. They have aged really well. This is in part due to its enduring community and availability on nearly every platform.
The gameplay of Classic DOOM is relatively simple. You’re a marine with different weapons, taking down demons, picking up keys to unlock doors advance through the level. It’s not complicated at all and probably not very interesting to modern gamers. The game itself is pretty limited when compared to modern first-person shooters. But for me, both games are still very fun.
You can still buy these games in all their classic glory (Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch). If you were to buy them, I highly recommend the Steam release since this one actually provides you with the data files (and original DOS release) you need to play user-made maps, but still either game alone is totally worth five bucks.
If you do decide to try it out, keep in mind that this is a game from the DOS era. There’s no jumping, crouching, aiming down the sights, or even aiming up and down. Technically, the game isn’t even 3D in the conventional sense; maps will never have multiple floors above each other, and you don’t even have to be at the same height to shoot an enemy. For example:
Despite all of this, Classic DOOM is still actively played to this day. One of the reasons for this is that the game was built to be modifiable. You don’t necessarily have to play DOOM on the levels the game came with! On top of this, DOOM’s source code – the computer code that makes the game work – was made public way back in 1997. You can view it on GitHub here. This is why “can it run DOOM?” is a meme – hobbyist programmers have found that with some effort you can get the game’s code to run on nearly anything with a processor and screen (such as old consoles and even pregnancy tests). The game has received plenty of fan ports to modern PC systems with more features and enhancements. I’m partial to GZDoom (even if hardcore DOOM fans would detest this because this version does modify the game quite a lot).
You can create DOOM maps with modern tools such as SLADE. I’ve tried my hand at this, and I’d recommend anyone who is into video games do the same. It’s not easy, even if you have experience with modding/mapping tools for other games. I think it’s worth trying it just to understand what kind of workload goes into games (even if this particular game is relatively simple and extremely limited). My level was just a bunch of box-shaped rooms in a line with monsters in them and an exit switch at the very end, but with proper experience you can make a convincing DOOM level that looks like this:
There is still an active community for this game – speedrunners, map developers, code developers, YouTubers, everything! I highly recommend a guy by the name of Decino and his DOOM analysis videos. It’s really cool to see just how well DOOM players know the game, and that they reference the source code to know how it really works.
I love classic DOOM and the passion the community has had for it for just about 30 years. I think DOOM was one of the first video games I ever played, and it’s super awesome I can still enjoy it to this day.