Summary
It is an understatement to say thatDoomchanged the gaming industry when it first came out in 1993. While it wasn’t the first shooter, it was the landmark game that popularized the mechanic to a point where it has become the dominant genre in the industry. The Doom franchise is also still producing some of thebest-feeling shootersout there.
The gaming industry responded by pumping out a plethora of “Doom clones” that felt remarkably similar to the space-marine-shooting-demons classic that ID Software released. While it may seem like a derogatory term, there were some classic “Doom clones” that made their own impact on the industry and entertained gamers for countless hours.
10Rise of the Triad
ID Software’sWolfenstein 3Dshowed the potential of first-person shooters, which immediately catapulted them into creating DOOM. Publisher Apogee Software, however, still wanted to get some mileage out of the primitive Wolfenstein 3D engine and developed Rise of the Triad. Initially, it was going to be a sequel to the classic Nazi shooter, but Apogee dropped the idea and made it a standalone.
Since it was released in 1995, Rise of the Triad is much more advanced than Wolfenstein 3D, with five playable characters, more advanced enemy mechanics, multiple exits from levels, different elevations in levels, dynamic lighting, and panoramic skies. The game also featured gravitational anomaly disks, which added even more variety to the gameplay. It was well-received by critics and has seen re-releases on more advanced consoles and platforms as an oddity in the history of gaming.
9Terminator: Future Shock
BeforeFallout 3andSkyrimmade Bethesda Softworks the industry behemoth it is today, the game studio produced some well-regarded shooters set in James Cameron’sTerminatoruniverse. Using the engine the game studio used forElder Scrolls: Daggerfall,this shooter features expansive environments, 3D buildings that you may enter and explore, and a high degree of difficulty. With excellent sound design and enemies that are tough to kill, you will jump at the smallest noise.
There are many different strategies and approaches you may take. While the 1995 game is primitive by today’s standards, if you were a kid that booted up Terminator: Future Shock and its sequel, SKYnet, itdefinitely sticks in your mindas a unique and fun take on the first-person shooter genre in the 1990s.
8Alien Trilogy
While theAlien franchisehad resulted in some great and not-so-great video games, Alien Trilogy hit the market at the same time Doom fever had taken hold. Regarded as a pretty good shooter in 1996, the game featured plenty of levels and content faithful to the movies.
The 2.5D graphics, however, were seen as somewhat meh at the time, although the sound design of the game held things together. It was released for computer, PlayStation, and ported to the SEGA Saturn. It featured motion-capture technology for the movement of the Aliens in the game.
7Chex Quest
Chex Quest will forever be considered one of the weirdest successes in the gaming industry. Included in cereal boxes, the game was far from a traditional release in 1996 - but by using the DOOM engine, it caught the hearts of kids growing up in that era. Gone were the scary demons of Doom, replaced by the cute aliens known as the Flemoids.
You no longer gunned down hordes with plasma rifles but rather “zorched” the aliens back to their home dimension. It’s Doom, but free and non-violent. The game was so well-received that it won an advertising award for its inventiveness and received a sequel in 2008, along with a re-release. Not bad for a cereal box promotion.
6Blood
Released in 1997, Blood was similar to Doom in-game mechanics but added alternate attacks, dual weapons, and a great atmosphere. Developer Monolith Productions added occult and horror themes into the game, making this Doom clone even DOOM-ery.
You play as Caleb, an undead gunslinger who battles the forces of evil. Using the Build Engine, it has more bells and whistles than Doom but carries a lot of the same themes in an updated, gorier, and atmospheric package.
5Redneck Rampage
Another Doom clone using the Build engine, Redneck Rampage, garnered a lot of attention for running away from the idea of being a space marine or some action movie hero. Nope, you play as some rednecks living in Arkansas.
The game doesn’t take itself too seriously and even has health power-ups like pork grinds instead of med packs. This different take on shooters was praised for being genuinely funny and creative and was even nominated for “PC Action Game of the Year.” It spawned a plethora of sequels, which ain’t bad for a “clone” of ID Software’s Doom.
4Hexen
Legendary studioRaven Softwaredeveloped Hexen and took the Doom engine to a darker and more magical level. Hexen features RPG elements, different playable classes of characters, and a non-linear design.
Released in 1997, the game had 2.5D graphics that were already getting a bit long in the tooth, but Raven Software modified the engine to allow for things like looking up and down and CD-quality music. Hexen is a classic on its own and was praised for its hub-style level design instead of linear paths, and its “intense gameplay” while winning some Action Game of the Year awards.
3Star Wars Dark Forces
Like everybody who played Doom,LucasArtssaw what ID Software was doing and thought it would be an incredible experience if set inside theStar Warsuniverse. They built their own “Jedi Game Engine,” and while it looks like a DOOM clone on the surface level, its levels had multiple floors and the ability to look up and down.
Star Wars: Dark Forces had mission objectives, puzzles to solve, and several classic Star Wars settings to play around with. As a 90s kid seeing Dark Forces on a demo disk in 1995 for the first time, it was a revelation of just how immersive a Star Wars game could be, and manygreat titles in the universehave followed.
2Marathon
Not to leave out theAppleMacintosh gamers from first-person shooters,Bungie(yes, that Bungie) createdMarathon. You play as a security officer fighting off aliens on the colony ship named Marathon, which sounds familiar to another popular shooter franchise. Bungie’s FPS engine was a 3D-rendered world with floors of carrying heights and widths, and all surfaces were texture-mapped with dynamic lighting.
Marathon also featured the “mouse used to look and fire” control scheme, which has become the go-to method in PC shooters today. The game sold so well on Macs there were shortages of units on the shelves, and it was named the best action game of 1995 by MacUser, beating out Doom 2, showing that Bungie was once the learner but now was the master.
1Duke Nukem 3D
The previous twoDuke Nukemgames had been 2D platformers, which were one of the most popular genres in gaming before DOOM came out. However, 3D Realms took the lessons learned with the ID Software shooter and created the Build Engine for its 1996 title.
Not only is Duke Nukem one of the memorable protagonists in gaming, but the Build engine’s interactiveness, along with DN3D’s humor and spoofing of gaming tropes, made this a breath of fresh air in a DOOM-clone-dominated era. Some of Duke’s latest entries into gaming could have been better, but this game will forever be considered one of the best shooters ever released, and it even has amodern remasterto enjoy all your favorite memories again.
