Deconstruction: DOOM - Part II: Motif

The basic motif of DOOM is a combo sci-fi/horror.  You are a Marine stationed on the Mars moon Phobos, where a government project is underway trying to create teleporters.  All Hell literally breaks loose when Deimos goes missing, having been entirely teleported to Hell.  Now hellspawn are coming through to the other side, and you must get in and destroy the mastermind behind the invasion.

What makes this so popular is that these separate genres combine seemlessly, and work so well.  Sci-fi and horror have been married since Frankenstein, staying alive with Alien, and finally making it to the videogame market with DOOM.  Other sci-fi/horror games may have existed before DOOM, but none with the popularity or perfection.

DOOM is a jump-out-go-boo kind of horror, but that works well with its orientation toward action rather than suspense.  Suspense does enter into it, especially in boss battles, such as when you can hear the cyberdemon before you see it at the end of Episode II, but these are welcome diversions which only heighten the action later when you have to confront the bosses.

Long have businessmen in all forms of media told artists to stay away from mixing genres, and they have a point:  99% of the time, the result is terrible.  But when it works, it has to work perfectly.  DOOM is one of these games that works perfectly, like Frankenstein and Alien before it.

The gradual increase in firepower is offset by the ferociousness of the new enemies, which makes you feel both powerful and overwhelmed at once.

The subtlety of the art in DOOM is an aspect all-too-often overlooked.  Consider the bodies which hang on the walls and from the ceiling:  they are purely aesthetic, but add to the mood in such a way that what could have been a balls-to-the-wall action game becomes an eerie, tension-filled horror game.  Some of the bodies even twitch!  You wouldn't notice it if you ran right by, but the gruesomeness of the visual makes you stop to rubberneck.

Like a car crash, but pixelated.

Likewise, the dark rooms, flickering lights, and maze-like level design contribute to the fear as well, preying on your claustrophobia and fear of things that go bump in the night.

We can also see the tonal shift from episode to episode and even from level to level on occasion, as the art slides from tech-filled sci-fi buildings to red brick and blood-soaked hellscapes.

DOOM's popularity is due in part to its cliffhanger appeal:  what is around the next corner?  What is that sound?  What new baddies await next level?  What new weapon will I get?  Each episode's ending was a cliffhanger for the next, hooking players with the first free episode and making them buy the rest, which they were more than willing to do.

Read Part III:  Weapons