Doom

Doom is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released worldwide on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in May 2016 and is powered by id Tech 6. A port for Nintendo Switch was co-developed with Panic Button and released in November 2017, and a version for Stadia was released in August 2020. A soft reboot of the Doom franchise, it acts as a sequel to Doom 64 released in 1997, while largely ignoring the previous installment Doom 3 which was a reboot of the original series and was released in 2004. Doom is the first major installment in the series since Doom 3.

Doom was announced as Doom 4 in 2008, and that version underwent an extensive development cycle with different builds and designs before the game was restarted in 2011 and revealed as simply Doom in 2014. It was tested by customers who pre-ordered the 2014 Bethesda game Wolfenstein: The New Order and also by the general public. Mick Gordon composed the music for the game, with additional music contributed by Ben F. Carney, Chris Hite, and Chad Mossholder.

Players take the role of an unnamed space marine as he battles demonic forces from Hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation within their energy-mining facility on Mars. The gameplay returns to a faster pace with more open-ended levels, closer to the first two games than the slower survival horror approach of Doom 3. It also features environment traversal, character upgrades, and the ability to perform executions known as “glory kills”. The game also supports an online multiplayer component and a level editor known as “SnapMap”, co-developed with Certain Affinity^[b] and Escalation Studios, respectively.

Doom was well-received by critics and players. The single-player campaign, graphics, soundtrack, and gameplay received considerable praise, with reviewers crediting the game for recapturing the spirit of the classic Doom games and first-person shooters of the 1990s, whereas the multiplayer mode drew the most significant criticism. It was the second best-selling video game in North America and the UK a few weeks after its release and sold over 500,000 copies for PCs within the same time period. A sequel titled Doom Eternal was released in March 2020.