Every Main DOOM Game, Ranked

Doom has always been considered one of the most influential FPS games in gaming history, perhaps even the grandfather of FPS, or at least the game that popularized the genre.

The franchise has evolved from shooting pixelated denizens of hell to ripping and tearing demons in a gory fashion while accompanied by high-intensity metal.

With the anticipated release of the next Doom on the horizon, let’s examine the franchise’s more than three-decade-long demon-slaying history as we follow “too-angry-to-die” Doomguy/The Doom Slayer on his crusade against an unholy army.

We’ll be ranking each Doom game that’s released since the first Doom game in 1993, all the way to Doom Eternal.

We won’t be looking at DLCs, expansions, or unofficial episodes.

11 Mighty Doom

The True Evil Is Microtransactions

Remember those Mini Slayer figurine collectibles you could find throughout Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal?

Well, in Mighty Doom, you get to play the Mini Slayer, who must traverse through a cartoonish version of the Doom universe to rescue his pet rabbit Daisy from the demonic horde once again.

If you’re familiar with Habby’s mobile game Archero, then Mighty Doom might seem familiar, as they are both single-stick shooters where you progress through levels while shooting demons with upgrades that can dramatically change the way your guns shoot.

Like Archero,Mighty Doom seems like a genuinely fun way to kill time on your phone. With satisfying gameplay and progression that allows for some creative build-crafting, it is also unfortunately marred by a difficulty spike that bullies you into caving to predatory microtransactions that have long plagued the mobile gaming scene.

Unfortunately, Mighty Doom was pulled from the App Store, as Bethesda closed Alpha Dog Games in May 2024. From August 2024, Mighty Doom is no longer available to download for new players.

RIP Mighty Doom, you could’ve been a darling of the Doom franchise.

10 Doom Resurrection

Do People Still Play Rail Shooters?

Doom Resurrection is a rail shooter mobile game that was released in 2009 for the iPhone. It uses the same engine, same assets, and the same art as Doom 3, with a plot that sets itself up as a prequel to the game.

You play an unnamed marine trying to make his way through a demonic invasion of Mars while working with a surviving scientist to shut down portals the demons are using before escaping.

Similar to most classic rail shooters like House of the Dead 2, the gameplay takes you through eight rail shooter levels that you might have experienced in the arcade, where instead of wielding a plastic gun prop to shoot at the screen, you’ll be tilting your phone to aim and tapping the screen to fire and reload.

As a mobile game, Doom Resurrection’s lackluster reception was par for the course and felt more like a cash grab capitalizing on Doom 3’s popularity. It might stand on its own as a mobile game, but not very well as a Doom game.

9 Final Doom

Difficult As Hell

Unlike what its title suggests, Final Doom is of course not the last Doom game to release, and is instead a successor to Doom and Doom 2, releasing on personal computers in 1996 and then the PlayStation 1 later on.

Despite being the franchise’s third entry, there’s a reason why Final Doom isn’t called Doom 3 (that’s for a later entry). It was originally a level pack designed by hobbyist group TeamTNT before the devs were contacted by Doom creator John Romero with an offer to acquire and sell Final Doom as an official product.

While Final Doom plays identically to its predecessors with the same weapons and demons, it’s set apart by significantly more difficult levels and a different ambient soundtrack composed by Aubrey Hodges in the PlayStation version, who would later compose music for Doom 64.

By definition, Final Doom is one of the main games of the franchise. It’s touted as one of the hardest Doom games, mostly because it struggled with lower frame rates, less precise control, and borderline sadistic level designs that many players struggled with.

8 Doom RPG

It’s Actually… Not Bad?

Remember those old mobile games before smartphones? Those games that ran on the Nokia or Motorola slider phones? Turns out that those phones could run Doom–well, Doom RPG.

When I learned about Doom RPG, I was incredulous, thinking that there was no way it would be any good. I mean, how do you even translate the fast-paced shooter mechanics of Doom onto an old Nokia phone in 2005?

Simple: turn-based RPG mechanics where movement revolves around making 90-degree turns and making a certain number of attacks per turn.

Researching Doom RPG has piqued my interest in this game, though unfortunately, like most older Doom games, it’s lost to time unless you dig really deep into media conservation projects.

7 DOOM II RPG

A Direct Upgrade

Thanks to Doom RPG’s success, id Software decided to create and publish a sequel. Released in 2009 for mobile phones and then the iPhone later that year, Doom II RPG was a direct upgrade of the original Doom RPG, retaining its RPG elements and even adding some technical improvements.

Using the same engine that the Wolfenstein RPG ran on, Doom II RPG now had 3D-generated environments while still retaining the 2D sprites that the Doom franchise was still best known for.

The art and gameplay also seem much smoother, with NPCs helping and talking to you throughout your adventures, and combat that felt a lot more intense than its predecessor.

Doom II RPG doesn’t take itself too seriously, and also recycles assets from Doom 3 and Wolfenstein 3D. It also shares the same story as Doom 3, as Doomguy arrives at a space station to help some UAC scientists.

One of the most hilarious parts of the game is that you can make combat a lot easier by using a water gun that sprays holy water, which terrifies demons and deals extra damage than most other guns.

6 Doom 64

Darker, Grittier

While most Doom games were developed for personal computers, Doom 64 was released for the Nintendo 64 and remained an exclusive until 2020, when it finally received ports to other systems.

While it was competing with other 64 shooter games like the ever-classic GoldenEye 007 and Duke Nukem 64, Doom 64 was able to stand on its own by setting itself apart from its predecessors with a different tone, complete with darker aesthetics, a gloomier ambience, and completely new artwork.

Like most other old-school Doom games, Doom 64 plays the same as any other, as it runs on the same engine as Doom II.

Most weapons, while artistically different, function the same – except the Unmaker, which is a new addition to the Doomguy’s arsenal and was later reintroduced as the Unmaykr in Doom Eternal.

Doom 64 is generally considered a highly underrated game, as it didn’t receive the same amount of attention from fans despite it improving upon its predecessors.

5 DOOM 3

A Noticeable Shift Into Horror

Doom 3 was rather divisive because of its noticeable shift from the classic shooter to a more survival horror shooter aesthetic it was going for, and slows down the pace of gameplay and forces you to take your time and sit with the feeling of an impending doom that survival horror games are best at.

Doom 3 completely ignores the events of the previous games and is also barely acknowledged by the later games, becoming its own entity within the main franchise.

However, the premise remains the same, with the Doomguy fighting demons on Mars in a story that is negligible if you’re only here to kill demons.

Doom 3 does away with the chaotic shootouts and leans more into the horror elements.The game environment is more claustrophobic, with tight and dark corridors, a gloomier ambience, and enemies that pop out at you in the corner of your eye.

While it’s not the best-received game, it has a special place in many Doom fans’ hearts because of its different approach compared to the rest of the franchise.

4 DOOM

Can It Run Doom?

The first time I got to play Doom wasn’t on the original platforms like the PS1 or the Macintosh, but a port that was within Doom Eternal that you can access in the Doomslayer’s base, the Fortress of Doom.

I can’t exactly speak about the experience of playing the original Doom when it first came out (Doom is five years older than me), but I can say that the original Doom, as it is in Doom Eternal, plays exceedingly well for a game that is almost 30 years old. It can also be run on just about any platform.

Doom is such a simple game that the source code can be run on just about any electronic device, sparking an Internet meme of “It Runs Doom” where people just start porting Doom onto unlikely devices, from graphing calculators to electronic pregnancy tests.

Doom’s simple yet intense combat set a new industry standard for first-person shooters, and continues to be one of the best classics to ever come out of the video game industry.

3 DOOM 2

It Can’t Get Better Than This, Right?

My experience with Doom 2 was essentially the same as its predecessor, as I was able to play it on the Doomslayer’s computer in his man cave in Doom Eternal.

Still, I had a blast playing through this classic and found it much more enjoyable than the first game. While it functions essentially the same, Doom 2 had a lot of direct upgrades to the first game, including more metal music and much faster-paced and more intense combat.

One of the best parts of Doom 2 was the introduction of the Super Shotgun,which has since become almost synonymous with Doomguy himself. Besides the BFG9000, the Super Shotgun is the most recognizable weapon in the entire franchise, nay, in all gaming history.

2 Doom (2016)

Fight Like Hell

While I grew up playing bits and pieces of some of the older Doom games when I was younger, Doom 2016 was my formal introduction to the franchise, and boy, did I fall in love with the franchise.

Doom is the perfect successor to the original games, and even builds upon the franchise with enhanced visuals, a strong (yet still auxiliary) story, and innovative mechanics like Glory Kills and weapon customization.

The game also continues the story of the original games, turning the Doomguy into the much more serious and intimidating Doom Slayer. The combat is also buttery smooth, with demons that feel not just satisfying to fight, but weapons that improve upon their original counterparts.

Ripping and tearing to Mick Gordon’s high-octane heavy metal music invokes such a primal bloodthirst that you can only feel in a game like Doom.

Despite some of its flaws, like repetitive combat, samey environmental design, and an anticlimactic final boss fight, Doom still remains one of the best FPS games of the 2010s. But this game still can’t hold a candle to the next entry on this list.

1 DOOM Eternal

KAR EN TUK

If Doom 2016 is one of the best shooter games of the 2010s, then Doom Eternal is one of the best shooter games of the 2020s. Most importantly, it is the quintessential boomer shooter.

Despite its release at the start of the decade, there is no other game like Doom Eternalthanks to its fast-paced gameplay, powerful compositions from Mick Gordon, and strong visual designs that make you feel like the unstoppable force that is the Doom Slayer.

Doom Eternal takes what Doom 2016 learned and improves upon it, cranking the speed and intensity to eleven with new movement abilities and weapons that help the Doom Slayer turn every demon his way into gory ribbons.

The visuals of Doom Eternal are a direct upgrade to Doom 2016’s gloomy atmosphere. With vibrant and diverse levels accompanied by effective environmental storytelling, being inside the Doom Slayer’s helmet while Mick Gordon’s headbangers blast into your ear is a cathartic joy that helped me get through the stressful times of the 2020 pandemic.

Not only that, but the inclusion of built-in cheat codes gives Doom Eternal so much more replayability.

Hilariously, Doom Eternal was also released on March 20th, 2020, the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the crossover art and memes were something to behold during that time.

Doom Eternal is a love letter to the shooter genre and the Doom franchise. It is a masterpiece, and if you consider yourself an FPS fan, then you need to play Doom Eternal. If you could turn the phrase “HELL YEAH” into a phrase, then Doom Eternal would be it.