Doom is the daddy of first-person shooters and one of the crucial influential video games of all time, so we battled via hell and put collectively these lists of the Doom video games so as, each by chronological timeline and launch date.
Doom: The Darkish Ages is about to reach on Could 15, 2025, and we will hardly wait! If you happen to’re a newcomer or solely performed the final two installments, you is perhaps a bit confused in regards to the unfastened timeline of the sci-fi-horror-fantasy sequence.
Now, earlier than diehards transfer in for a glory kill on us: Sure, we’re conscious of the historic significance of stage packs and expanded re-releases, lots of which have been summoned through the years. That mentioned, the Doom timeline is difficult to know and clarify, even in case you keep on with the mainline entries. That’s why we’re maintaining issues easy and specializing in the explicitly canon installments of the veteran FPS franchise.
The Doom video games are extensively identified for taking gamers to futuristic science installations on Mars, however in addition they discover Earth in addition to different worlds and dimensions… like Hell itself, which seems to be a multiversal nexus (extra on that later). Positive, you may simply blast your method via all of them paying little to no consideration to the plot, however we predict the wacky lore enhances the entire trip and might make you actually fall in love with Doom.
Quick on time? We put collectively an inventory with the Doom video games ranked, worst to finest (spoiler: they’re all good). Plus, in case you’ve received entry to an honest trendy PC or Xbox console, the Doom video games are among the many finest area video games on Xbox Sport Go you could immediately bounce into at little or no price.
Spoilers forward for the whole Doom sequence.
Doom Video games in Chronological Order
Placing further stage packs and upgraded re-releases apart, and solely the core mainline entries, the in-universe order of the whole Doom franchise is as follows:
- Doom
- Doom II
- Doom 64
- Doom: The Darkish Ages
- Doom (2016)
- Doom Everlasting
- Doom 3**This takes place in a parallel universe.
1. Doom
- Platforms: PC, Linux, iOS, macOS, Android, Sega Saturn, PS1/3/4, Xbox 360/One, Sport Boy Advance, Nintendo Change
- Developer: id Software program
The plot within the authentic video games is minimal and was largely informed via the instruction handbook (bear in mind these?) and brief textual content descriptions that served as ‘cutscenes’ when shifting to the following episode. The primary Doom consists of three episodes: Knee-Deep within the Useless, The Shores of Hell, and Inferno. A fourth titled Thy Flesh Consumed was added in The Final Doom, an prolonged lower of the sport.
Lengthy story brief: Sooner or later (no particular 12 months), a marine is shipped to Mars on a boring project after getting right into a combat with a superior officer who ordered him to fireplace on civilians. There, the Union Aerospace Company (UAC) and the army are engaged on teleportation experiments. After a rift in dimensions is opened accidentally, invaders from Hell enter our actuality and it is as much as ‘Doomguy’ to safe the Phobos and Deimos bases. Later, he takes the battle to Hell itself and finds out a portal to Earth has opened too.
2. Doom II: Hell on Earth
- Platforms: PC, Linux, iOS, macOS, Android, Sega Saturn, Tapwave Zodiac, PS1/3/4, Xbox/360/One, Sport Boy Advance, Nintendo Change
- Developer: id Software program
Set proper after the occasions of Doom’s 4 episodes, Doom II: Hell on Earth offers with the invasion of our planet. By the point Doomguy arrives, the demons have already worn out billions of individuals. The primary character’s first mission is to liberate the spaceport from the hordes of Hell, permitting the surviving people to flee and blast off into outer area.
An off-planet transmission informs Doomguy the place the demons are rising from: his hometown (what a coincidence). After battling via the city, he reaches a demonic base and enters Hell once more to destroy the portal from the opposite aspect. Ultimately, he finds the Icon of Sin monster and blows it up with rockets. Its demise devastates Hell, closing the portal to Earth too.
3. Doom 64
- Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo 64/Change
- Developer: Halfway Studios, Nightdive Studios
Whether or not you take into account Final Doom canon or not, Doom 64 marks the following foremost entry within the overarching Doom sequence. Because of its Nintendo 64 exclusivity, it was initially ignored. Nevertheless, after fan-made ports and the fashionable 2020 re-release, it may now be thought of the ‘true’ Doom 3.
After the occasions of Doom II, humanity is attempting to rebuild and the now irradiated UAC analysis installations have been quarantined and deserted. Issues start anew when a satellite tv for pc sends a message again to Earth, reporting that an entity escaped destruction and has been resurrecting useless demons and human corpses at one of many installations. Doomguy, the one marine with sufficient expertise to take care of the demons, is shipped in alone and makes his option to Hell, once more. With the Unmaker weapon, he kills the Mom Demon and decides to simply stay in Hell for so long as he can to make sure demonic forces do not threaten our dimension ever once more.
4. Doom: The Darkish Ages
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Collection X/S
- Developer: id Software program
This is the place issues get hazy within the timeline as Doom’s (2016) lore was unfastened and its connections to the earlier video games ambiguous. Nevertheless, Doom: The Darkish Ages plans to bridge the hole between the outdated Doom video games and the newer entries, exhibiting us how the unique Doomguy grew to become the legendary Doom Slayer.
What we all know for certain is that the Argenta (people from a unique dimension sharing a typical origin with Earth’s people) got here throughout the Doomguy after he stayed in Hell. The Argenta welcomed Doomguy onto their planet, Argent D’Nur, and made him a part of the Evening Sentinels warrior caste. Good factor they did, as a result of that is when Hell assaults the Argenta.
Doom: The Darkish Ages, a prequel to Doom (2016), seemingly places gamers on the heart of this sinister medieval invasion and expands on the occasions that Doom Everlasting informed us fairly a bit about.
5. Doom (2016)
- Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Change
- Developer: id Software program
The Doom reboot takes place in a universe that is totally different from the one Doomguy had fought for in Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64. After the occasions of The Darkish Ages within the dimension of the Argenta and preventing his method into Hell, the demons one way or the other managed to entice the Doom Slayer in a sarcophagus for an unspecified (however very lengthy) time. It needs to be famous that point in Hell works in a different way, and when he is finally introduced into one other Earth’s dimension, eons may’ve handed for him. Actually, we all know that the ages of Hell are tied to the rulers there, and Doomguy’s rampage as chronicled in Doom (2016) positioned his first go to within the First Age.
With out entering into the large twists that play out in Everlasting, the Doom reboot noticed the Doom Slayer being woke up on Mars (but once more) by a unique UAC to the one he as soon as knew. This one goals to unravel an vitality disaster on Earth by refining uncooked Hell vitality, which, unsurprisingly, would not go nice for mankind on this universe both.
Samuel Hayden, a UAC scientist who transferred his consciousness to an android, and the VEGA AI make issues tough for the Slayer, regardless that they do need to halt the demonic invasion. In the long run, the demons are stopped, however Hayden traps and teleports the Slayer away so he would not destroy his plans of harnessing the harmful Hell vitality.
6. Doom Everlasting
- Platforms: PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Collection X/S, Nintendo Change
- Developer: id Software program
Doom Everlasting’s foremost occasions occur within the 12 months 2163 (of this new universe), roughly 14 years after the occasions on Mars and the Doom Slayer’s disappearance. He is reintroduced as a free warrior with plenty of upgrades and even his personal fortress in outer area he makes use of as his base of operations. The logical clarification right here is that he was banished again to Hell by Hayden and fought his method again.
Everlasting is by far the richest Doom sport story and lore-wise. It explains an excessive amount of what went down with Doomguy after the occasions of the unique video games, and likewise why and the way Hell has menaced plenty of dimensions for eons. Furthermore, it elaborates on how the hardened marine grew to become the Doom Slayer and the way ‘divine’ forces are key to the plot and to resolving the everlasting battle. There’s a whole lot of realm-hopping journey on this one, and ending Hell’s invasion of this Earth is not almost so simple as in Doom II.
The Historical Gods growth, damaged into two hefty items of DLC, acts as a sequel that offers with the aftermath of Everlasting’s occasions, Hayden’s true id, and the determine of the Darkish Lord. With the assistance of the remaining Sentinels and human forces, the Hell capital of Immora is attacked and the Slayer battles the Darkish Lord. We cannot spoil the primary plot right here, however the whole Doom storyline is tied up with this finish chapter… for now.
7. Doom 3
- Platforms: PC, Linux, macOS, PS3/4, Xbox/360/One, Nintendo Change
- Developer: id Software program
We have saved Doom 3 for final as a result of it’s extremely a lot its personal factor, and whereas it repeats story beats from Doom and Doom II, the story is totally standalone. That mentioned, with Hell revealed to be one realm linked to a multiverse, let’s imagine that this installment is ‘canon’ elsewhere. Because it stands, Doom 3 is the one entry in its personal, self-contained timeline.
The story begins in 2145 and follows an area marine as Hell actually breaks unfastened on Mars when the UAC tinkers with issues it should not. That appears to be a multiversal fixed, and, in fact, there is a Doomguy that may resolve the issue.
Doom 3 is essentially the most dialogue-heavy and grounded Doom sport, and it largely behaves like a survival horror FPS in that the participant character is extra susceptible than the opposite marine (later Doom Slayer) we would performed as.
Growth pack and direct sequel Resurrection of Evil occurs in 2147, two years after the marine stopped the demonic invasion on Mars. Equally to Doom 64, the siege begins anew when a satellite tv for pc detects a sign coming from an artifact. This time, on the heart of the motion is a fight engineer who helps a health care provider return the artifact to Hell and cease the invasion.
Doom video games in launch order
Through the years there was an enormous variety of Doom releases and re-releases, together with all-new stage packs and profoundly upgraded ports. So, if you wish to stick simply to the large mainline entries and their canon expansions in launch order, that is the best way to go:
- Doom (1993)
- Doom II (1994)
- Doom 64 (1997)
- Doom 3 (2004)
- Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (2005)
- Doom (2016)
- Doom Everlasting (2020)
- Doom Everlasting: The Historical Gods, Half One (2020)
- Doom Everlasting: The Historical Gods, Half Two (2021)
- Doom: The Darkish Ages (2025)
