This Is The Part Where The Chaingunners Kill Us: An analysis of classic Doom design and gamefeel
Recently I have started going through historic FPS games to get a better feel for how they progressed as a genre. Throughout December and January I went through Half-Life and its sequels, and on this month I played Doom. Most specifically I played the original, the extra episode Thy Flesh Consumed, Doom 2 and the Final Doom expansions (TNT Evilution and Plutonia Experiment to those unaware)
Throughout this I like to believe I developed some understanding of what makes Doom maps enjoyable, and so I'd like to take a moment to structure those thoughts.
Now it is worth noting that, for the purposes of this text, I am not going to criticize Doom's technical details. By all means it's a borderline miracle it got developed at the time, Carmack, Romero and Taylor are wizards for what they've done. No, this is just about design.
So, with that setup out of the way, let's get started:
Doom is a very simple game at its core. Run around, make it to the exit, and shoot anything that moves on your way there. Now, this is not meant to be a disparaging remark, any good game has a core this simple. It's the job of the foundation to be uncomplicated.
Now the matter of contention is how to build on that foundation. This may seem like a controversial opinion, but the brunt of the weight to make the game interesting is not the weapons. They feel good to use, to be sure, with only the exception of the normal shotgun I think. They're incredible templates that set the stage for all future FPS games, but they're not all that interesting on their own. I'd argue only 2 weapons actually have some nuance, those being the BFG, with its tracer gimmick, and the rocket launcher, with its splash damage.
So this means the heavy weight will have to be pulled by the enemies and the levels, so let's start with the enemies.
The Enemies
I'm not going to give you an in depth list of every enemy, but I'll start with a distinction between two types that on its own already achieves an incredible dynamic when it comes to target prioritization. That being, of course, the difference between projectile and hitscan
Projectile enemies, as the name implies, shoot projectiles at you. As with any projectiles, these are objects that have a certain amount of speed which makes them travel towards their destination. The mere fact that it is an object in the game world, regardless of speed, means you have a chance to dodge, no matter how slim. These enemies are a test of your movement prowess. Pictured here is me dodging an imp projectile.
Hitscan enemies, however, simply aim in an area, scan if you're there, and if you are, they hit. There is no projectile or dodging, if you are where they aim, you take damage, simple as that. However, they work on line of sight, meaning that if you go behind cover they can't hit you anymore. They're meant to keep you moving and cover sightlines that force you to seek other routes. Pictured here is me getting hit by a hitscanner. As you can see, its attack animation is not yet done, I was hit instantly.
When it comes to enemy variety the hitscanners are definitely the least interesting, being essentially sequentially more powerful versions of each with a single exception to this, the Archvile. The Archvile works a bit differently from the other hitscanners, rather than just aiming and shooting, it controls the whole area over which it looks. If you see fire and don't get to cover in about 3 seconds, you take extreme amounts of damage.
The projectile monsters make up for it with a few quirks, like the Mancubbi shooting to the sides, as if to punish you for moving, and the Revenants having their homing missiles. There are plenty of enemies to make you consider your approach to any given fight, so let's talk priorities.
The game will often try to force your priorities. There's a type of enemy I haven't mentioned, Melee, populated by two enemy types, the Pinky and the Lost Soul. There are also the Spectres but mechanically they're just Pinkies that are a bit harder to see. The Lost Souls, in the meantime, charge at you. They're small, but far more durable than you would at first expect, and they can easily swarm you due to being spawned endlessly by the Pain Elemental.
These melee enemies are the perfect support for a game like Doom. Enemy prioritization is half the game, and trying to hit someone past a group of pinkies is hard enough but add a Lost Soul charging at you when you think you have a clear shot and you're gonna end up killing yourself with the rocket you fire.
However, when you have room to maneuver, the main threat will always be hitscanners. Though they have the least potential damage (sometimes, it's a bit inconsistent), their sure-hit is more dangerous than any projectile monster, Revenants with their homing missiles are remarkably less dangerous in an arena because you can simply outrun the missiles, but you cannot outrun bullets.
Outside of arenas, the priority changes slightly depending on the level structure. Lots of corners make hitscanners much less dangerous. It also doesn't help projectiles but hitscanners are especially affected, in that situation you might even want to target melees, as corners have no bearing on their threat level.
To conclude and summarize this segment: I think the enemy design in Doom is great. Almost every enemy has their own niche and hitscanners are a great supportive class that is capable of brutally locking down areas and applying pressure on the player by simply being within line of sight.
Now let's talk levels
Doom levels come in many shapes and sizes. Some of them are fairly linear, where you don't really have to consider areas you've been through and you're just a relentlessly advancing murder machine, some are a little more convoluted with switch hunting and looking for keys as you walk around, while others are... Charitably, big directionless squares.
I am not very fond of the last ones. They are mostly used in city settings and those are maps I take issue with, as they are easy to get lost in and offer little to no actual objective from the start. You don't know what you're aiming for or where to go, you're just in a square city, getting sniped from windows all over.
If your level has a big arrow to point the player in the right direction, it is not a good level.
But I've only just begun to unravel the thread on the unfun decisions that Doom makes for some of its maps, and the biggest culprits are, by far, the Final Doom expansions. That's the reason I named this whole analysis what I did, because their decisions just buried themselves into my mind and refused to let go.
Team TNT and the Casali brothers endeavored to create hard games, something difficult to keep the challenge seekers of Doom sated, and while they succeeded at times there were fatal failings that utterly tanked my enjoyment of these levels, and it all comes down to one thing.
I would like you to go back and remind yourselves of the praise I gave hitscanners. Now throw it all away, we won't need it anymore. Observe:
Here's a fun fact about hitscanners. I haven't looked at the code so I can't say what their real range is, but, in practical terms, it is infinite. If you see them, they see you, and if they see you, they can hit you.
At the end of this hallway lie 8 Chaingunners, they are currently behind a Cacodemon for cover. I can see them, they can see me. They can hit me. I, however, have ammo to worry about. So what are my options?
I approach, and the Chaingunners pelt me with shots, each having a max damage of 15 according to the wiki, but the most I took notice of taking at a time was 12. There's some health on the way so you maybe won't die crossing to the other side, but you will be severely injured.
I shoot them from a distance, but the autoaim doesn't help much from this range, I must waste ammo trying to aim, and because they're so far away it's hard to see their hitstun so I have no idea if I'm actually hitting them or not. Even if I bring a rocket launcher from another level they have plenty of space to move around so it's unlikely to hit many at a time.
The only cover I have is to my right or the Cacodemon, I have to go through the hall while being riddled by bullets and shot by my own cover which won't last long against them either. And do you want to guess what lies at the end?
See that Chaingunner on the pillar? There's one on the other side too. And they get infinitely resurrected by hidden Archviles you can't hit. Throughout nearly the ENTIRE map, these two will keep harrassing you because of the grid windows into the room they're in, windows which let bullets through.
When chaingunners are in reach of the player the designers find ways of making them the bane of your existence all the same.
This room is the very antithesis of what Doom represents. Doom is an aggressive and fast game, you're the one that's attacking most of the time. Sometimes you're expected to be more defensive, it would only stand to reason to turn things on the player like that, but at those points your defense is your movement.
No movement in this room will save you. No, you're going to get mowed down if you try to advance, even if you make it to one of those pillars for "cover" you're going to get shot from all directions anyways. The most efficient solution is to go back out, peek around the corner, and little by little clear the room one end to the other.
The process is not very fun.
This overuse of Chaingunners is prevalent throughout the entirety of both expansions, and their inconsistency is plain to see. Sometimes they start firing instantly, costing you half your health, sometimes they just wander around when they have a clear shot, sometimes they give you just enough time to react. Sometimes.
Hitscanner ambushes are like this. Archviles are the sole exception because they have a set amount of time until their attack goes off, but the other hitscanners can very easily hit you without giving you time to react. That's not a reaction test or a matter of skill, that's a health tax. A costly one at times.
And on the topic of Chaingunner inconsistency, let's talk about how Doom, in general, is inconsistent. This isn't an expansion issue, it's one that's observed in basically every game.
Liquids that harm you in some levels don't in others. Certain assets sometimes are switches and other times mere decorations. I understand they were working with very limited storage but readability will ALWAYS be more important than aesthetic, and in their pursuit of aesthetic ID made an utterly unreadable game. When I look at a river of lava I cannot think "I shouldn't step there" I need to think "I wonder if I can step on it" and that's not how things should work past your first encounter with any element in a game.
I think the level Hunted from the Plutonia Experiment showcases this the best. This level interferes with the very working of DOORS. Now that isn't to say I don't understand the rationale behind it, but the fact is that it is extremely poorly explained!
As the level name implies you are being hunted down by enemies within a maze. The design of how the doors work is actually rather ingenious. Unlike other doors which can be activated through switches or interacting with them, these activate through triggers signaled by those grey lines on the sides. This makes sense, if you're being hunted you want the door open by the time you get there.
However, by the time you are introduced to this mechanic, you have already seen these 12 Archviles teleport out of this room, and are rightfully operating under the assumption that they're out to get you. You may have bigger concerns on your mind than how the doors work if you think you're being hunted like this.
So at this point you may be wondering:
Does this guy even HAVE something positive to say about Doom?
And yes, I do in fact! I just have a much easier time elaborating on negative feelings than positive ones. It's easier for me to pinpoint what I dislike rather than what I like, but that doesn't mean I'm clueless about it.
Personally, I think Doom is at its best in short linear maps, where you just need to worry on the combat rather than backtracking for keys and switches. I think it excels at being a run and gun with good arenas. The gunplay is incredibly good, I need the levels to focus on that over other things.
That is not to say levels should be a straight line, exploration should be a significant part of any doom game, and I think more than anything it's important to entice the player into exploring. This soul orb on the left is a perfect example. It's a carrot on a stick approach that works for most secrets. It's something fully visible but out of reach, something you want that would make your life easier.
I think this is the best kind of secret, as it becomes sort of a puzzle, using the map and your own perception to try and figure out the path to get to the item.
However that does not mean I dislike texture secrets, it feels good to be rewarded for your perception, though there have been plenty of times when I thought a texture was a secret only to find it was a random difference to add variety.
Going back to the topic of level size, while I do prefer small levels, there are some big ones that I also quite enjoy, and how it comes to happen is very simple.
The good big levels have a strong sense of segmentation. Nothing bleeds together, they are simply a bunch of different sectors around a pseudo hub area that you need to solve, simple as that. In this one, for example, the inverted cross is the hub. From it you get all these different areas, and then you move on to the circle arena on the top left of the hub.
That arena leads to a large linear area where you're unlikely to get lost, and to another arena that leads to the exit. Since every area is so clearly self contained you run no risk of running around a big open field looking for keys or somesuch, it's a straightforward sequence.
To conclude and summarize this segment: Doom maps are at their best when they have well defined constraints and segments, whether in linearity or by creating a hub you can familiarize yourself with. Big open fields, long hallways where you have no room for maneuvering or cover, or overabundance of hitscanners ruins the gamefeel and makes traversal and navigation not fun. The inconsistency of switches and damaging floors creates an ever present feeling of second guessing yourself that doesn't feel fair within the confines of the game.
In Conclusion: Doom is rightfully one of the most influential games of all time, the gunplay and enemy designs are incredible, I can see how they'd form the template for basically every FPS to even dare to exist for a good few years. However, in experiencing it myself, I found myself disappointed by its allegedly legendary level design. There are an incredible amount of good levels, to be sure, but a considerable portion were exercises in directionlessness, frustration, and unfair damage. In playing this, I have gained greater insight into FPS enemies, more than anything else, and how their positioning can turn otherwise good enemy design into something that causes only a feeling of infuriation.