Doom changed the gaming industry by making first-person shooters popular. This led to the creation of many games that were like Doom and kept players entertained for hours.
Doom changed the game world when it came out in 1993. That’s not even a proper sentence. Even though it wasn’t the first shooter, it was the game that made the genre so famous that it’s now the most popular type of game in the world. Some of the best-feeling games out there are still made by the Doom series.
As a response, the gaming industry made a lot of “Doom clones” that were a lot like the original ID Software game about space marines killing monsters. This may sound like a bad thing to say, but there were some great “Doom clones” that changed the industry and kept players entertained for hours.
Rise of the Triad
Wolfenstein 3D by ID Software showed how good first-person shooters could be, which made them decide right away to make DOOM. Publisher Apogee Software, on the other hand, wanted to get some use out of the Wolfenstein 3D engine, so they made Rise of the Triad. It was supposed to be a follow up to the famous Nazi shooter, but Apogee dropped the idea and made it stand alone.
Rise of the Triad, which came out in 1995, is much more advanced than Wolfenstein 3D. It has five playable characters, more advanced monster features, multiple ways to leave a level, different levels with different heights, dynamic lighting, and wide skies. Gravitational oddity disks were also in the game, which made it even more fun to play. It got good reviews from reviewers and has been re-released on newer systems and platforms, which is rare in the history of video games.
Terminator: Future Shock
Bethesda Softworks made some well-reviewed shooters set in James Cameron’s Terminator world before Fallout 3 and Skyrim made the company the giant it is today. This shooter is very hard and uses the same engine that the company used for Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall. It has huge landscapes and 3D houses that you can enter and explore. You will jump at the slightest sound because the sound design is great and the monsters are hard to kill.
There are lots of different ways to do things and methods you can use. Even though the 1995 game isn’t very good now, if you played Terminator: Future Shock and its follow-up, SKYnet, as a kid, you’ll remember them as a fun and different take on the first-person shooter genre back then.
Alien Trilogy
The Alien series has had some good and some bad video games. The Alien Trilogy came out at the same time that Doom was becoming popular. In 1996, the game was thought to be a pretty good shooter, and it had a lot of levels and material that were true to the movies.
But at the time, the 2.5D images weren’t really thought out. The sound design, on the other hand, kept things together. It came out for computers, the PlayStation, and the SEGA Saturn. Motion-capture technology was used to make the Aliens move in the game.
Chex Quest
Chex Quest will always be remembered as one of the strangest games to ever do well. The 1996 version of the game, which came in cereal boxes, was not at all typical. However, kids of that time loved it because it used the DOOM engine. There were no more scary monsters like in Doom. Instead, there were cute aliens called Flemoids.
You no longer used plasma weapons to kill large groups of aliens. Instead, you “zorched” them back to their home area. Doom, but it’s free and doesn’t hurt people. People really liked the game; it was so creative that it won an advertising award. In 2008, it got a sequel and a re-release. That’s pretty good for a cereal box ad.
Blood
When it came out in 1997, Blood had a lot of the same gameplay elements as Doom, but it also had different moves, two guns, and a great mood. The dark and horror themes that Monolith Productions added to this Doom clone make it even more DOOM-like.
You take on the role of Caleb, a gun-toting zombie who fights evil. It has more features than Doom and uses the Build Engine. It also has a lot of the same themes, but they are updated, gorier, and moodier.
Redneck Rampage
People were very interested in Redneck Rampage, another Doom clone that used the Build engine. It was different from other Doom clones because it didn’t make you feel like a space marine or an action movie hero. You don’t play as aliens; you play as drunk Arkansasns.
The game isn’t too serious, and instead of med packs, there are health boosts called “pork grinds.” Fans of funny and unique shooters loved this new take on the genre, and it was even nominated for “PC Action Game of the Year.” It led to a lot of sequels, which is pretty good for a “clone” of Doom by ID Software.
Hexen
Raven Software, a famous company, made Hexen, which was a darker and more magical version of the Doom engine. Hexen is an RPG with non-linear gameplay and different types of characters that can be played.
When it came out in 1997, the game’s 2.5D graphics were already a bit old. However, Raven Software changed the system so that you could look up and down and hear music that was as good as a CD. Hexen is a famous game in its own right. It won some Action Game of the Year awards and was praised for its “intense gameplay” and hub-style level design instead of straight lines.
Star Wars Dark Forces
LucasArts saw what ID Software was doing and thought it would be great if it took place in the Star Wars world, just like everyone else who played Doom. They made their own “Jedi Game Engine.” At first glance, it looks like a copy of DOOM, but each level had more than one floor and you could look up and down.
There were goals to reach in Star Wars: Dark Forces, puzzles to solve, and a number of familiar Star Wars sets to explore. When I was a kid in the 1990s and saw Dark Forces on a demo disk for the first time, it blew my mind about how realistic a Star Wars game could be. Since then, many other great games have come out in the franchise.
Marathon
Bungie (yes, that Bungie) made Marathon so that no Apple Macintosh players would be left out of first-person games. In Doodle Cricket, you play as a security guard on the colony ship Marathon, which sounds like a name from another famous shooting series. Bungie’s first-person shooter system had a 3D world with floors that could be any height or width. All of the objects were texture-mapped and had dynamic lighting.
A popular way to handle PC guns today is to “look and fire” with the mouse. Marathon had this control system as well. There weren’t enough Macs to go around because the game sold so well. It beat out Doom 2 to be named the best action game of 1995 by MacUser, showing that Bungie had been a student and now was a master.
Duke Nukem 3D
Before DOOM came out, the first two Duke Nukem games were 2D platformers, which were one of the most popular types of games. But 3D Realms learned from the ID Software shooter and used what they learned to make the Build Engine for their 1996 game.
In a time when DOOM clones were the norm, Duke Nukem is one of the most remembered game characters. The Build engine’s ability to be involved, along with DN3D’s fun and parodying of gaming tropes, made this a breath of fresh air. Some of Duke’s most recent games could have been better, but this one will always be remembered as one of the best shooters ever made. It even has a new version that lets you relive all your favorite moments.