With its unapologetically violent gameplay and hellfire aesthetics, Doom not only popularized first-person shooters when the franchise launched in 1993 but changed the gaming industry forever with its countless influences still felt today far beyond its genre. And despite its success, there are surprisingly few games in the core series once you discount the seemingly endless platforms the classic games have been ported to throughout the years. Fortunately, most of these games are clear winners that towered above contemporaries and have stood the test of time. With that in mind, not all Doom games are created equal, even if the gameplay and core premise has remained consistently intact for decades. Eschewing spinoffs like Ultimate Doom, Mighty Doom, or Doom RPG, here are all the mainline Doom games ranked from worst to best. 8. Final Doom (1996) This entry was very nearly left off this list entirely since some fans saw 1996’s Final Doom as a glorified spinoff—or little more than a standalone expansion of Doom II. But with its own PC and PlayStation release, along with a vocal fan base accumulated over the years, Final Doom does indeed count as its own installment in the franchise’s main line. The game also features a story that takes place after the events of Doom II, with the Doom Slayer repelling a hellish invasion of a colony on one of Jupiter’s moons before taking the fight to Hell itself. That said, Final Doom is easily the weakest game from the series’ classic era, recycling old assets instead of introducing new elements while presenting largely uninspired levels. The PS version is worse than the PC version, providing players with less than half of the original PC release and an overall weaker visual fidelity and presentation. Final Doom is best enjoyed by hardcore Doom II fans looking for something a bit different than the base game they know and love. 7. Doom 3 (2004) After a lengthy hiatus and high-profile personnel changes at developer id Software, Doom returned a decade after Doom II with 2004’s Doom 3. The game is more or less a rehash of the original game’s story where a research facility on Mars accidentally opens a portal to Hell, allowing demons to pour into our world. The game was ported to Xbox eight months after the initial PC release, received the Resurrection of Evil expansion in 2005, and was remastered with new content in 2012. Taking advantage of the advances of technical capabilities since the franchise’s heyday in the early to mid ‘90s, Doom 3 is a slower, moodier experience, favoring suspense and scares over wall-to-wall action, at least for the first half of the game. This makes Doom 3 something of an outlier in its overall gameplay and presentation, which is the most strikingly different in the wider franchise. However, the pacing for those earlier portions of the game really drags, especially for players used to the series’ penchant for just diving headfirst into the usual carnage. 6. Doom 64 (1997) When the Doom franchise made its way to the Nintendo 64 in 1997, it didn’t do so as a port of the existing games but rather as its own standalone title. Doom 64 is very much its own game, complete with an original story of the Doom Slayer being lured back into Hell by an elaborate trap set by the Mother Demon. A remaster of the game was released in 2020 for modern platforms, including original content that linked this game’s story to the revival trilogy that began in 2016. At the time of its release, players may have been experiencing franchise fatigue, not giving the game the credit it was due as more popular successors to Doom, like Quake and Unreal, took shape. To be fair, Doom 64 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, not adding much distinctly new. But it does refine the established formula with heightened atmosphere and engaging level design. Years later, fans are finally starting to recognize Doom 64 for what it really is—the last game released in the franchise’s classic era and the culmination of that initial cycle. 5. Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) People are going to look at this ranking and invariably think that a fifth place position means that Doom: The Dark Ages is a bad game. To be clear, it isn’t, The Dark Ages is a solid entry in the franchise; the series just has a list of absolute bangers that outrank it. True to its title, The Dark Ages blends the franchise’s penchant for sci-fi horror with dark fantasy as the Doom Slayer uses more medieval-inspired weapons to battle invading armies of demons across the cosmos. For sure, The Dark Ages is the biggest tonal departure within the revival trilogy, including more strategic combat and even vehicle-based levels to navigate. The gory sensibilities of Doom are still very much intact, fortunately, though the game’s insistence on having players rely on the Doom Slayer’s new shield may throw established fans off who are just looking to rip and tear. An expansion of what Doom can be without discarding the franchise’s core ethos entirely, The Dark Ages is a welcome big swing from the series that mostly connects. 4. Doom (1993) Obviously the entire franchise we’re talking about here wouldn’t exist without the original Doom released in 1993, not only serving as the series’ foundation, but a title that changed gaming forever. With all that said, when doing our best to remove nostalgia out of the equation and look at the game on its own standalone merits, that first Doom game still stands in the top half of the franchise but is narrowly edged out of the top three. The game’s premise is simple: when a dimensional portal on the moons of Mars accidentally serves as a bridge to Hell, the Doom Slayer stands alone in purging the invading demons from the research facilities with whatever weapons he can find. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! From its chugging heavy metal-inspired soundtrack to its over-the-top arsenal reducing hellish enemies to bloody pulp, Doom set the template for the franchise that has only been built upon to this day. The game spawned countless copycat titles while being ported to virtually every major gaming platform, a distinction that it continues to hold over 30 years since its initial release. Despite now having the roughest of edges, Doom holds up as one of the most straightforward and enjoyable first-person shooters of its era, both for nostalgia-minded gamers and those curious of the franchise’s roots. 3. Doom (2016) Though commercially successful, the middling response to Doom 3 and changes in the developer’s ownership had left the franchise languishing in limbo for over a decade, confined to the occasional port and remaster as id Software returned its focus to Wolfenstein. After undergoing years of various stages of development, it was 2016’s Doom that completely reinvigorated the flagship franchise, getting back to the fast-paced gameplay that the series was known for while also enjoying extensive updates for modern sensibilities. The game itself is more or less a rehash of the original story, with a human research facility on Mars descending into madness and being overrun after opening a portal to Hell. The 2016 Doom is also exactly what fans wanted after the more deliberately paced Doom 3, something that ditched the emphasis on tutorials and narrative and instead got back to gory gunplay in all its glory. Though the multiplayer aspect left some players wanting, the single-player campaign is among the franchise’s best, powered by a hard-rocking soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon. The kick in the pants that the series needed, the Doom revival lived up to the franchise’s example while bringing it deeper into the 21st century, guns blazing. 2. Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) The original Doom set a high bar for first-person shooters moving forward. But it’s a bar that the direct sequel Doom II: Hell on Earth vaulted over when it was released in 1994. Picking up from its predecessor with the Doom Slayer fighting for the fate of Earth after it is invaded by the forces of Hell, Doom II would receive a number of expansions and ports after its launch, with the latest released as recently as 2024, adding an original episode with brand-new weapons and enemies to the venerable title. Everything that the original Doom did, Doom II does noticeably better, all while expanding on the premise with new enemies, fresh weapons, and even more inventive level design. From a technical standpoint, there is no huge leap in the graphical department or sound design, but rather in the complexity and size of the levels coupled with a larger number of enemies onscreen. Indeed, Doom II almost makes the original game feel like a first draft at times given how much it refines the overall experience despite only coming out a year after the franchise began. 1. Doom Eternal (2020) After successfully relaunching the franchise for modern audiences in 2016, the Doom revival got a direct sequel in 2020 with Doom Eternal. Taking its cues from Doom II, Eternal has Earth invaded by the armies of Hell and facing near-annihilation from the all-powerful Icon of Sin with the Doom Slayer as humanity’s last, best hope for survival. The two-part DLC epilogue The Ancient Gods has the Doom Slayer travel deep into Hell to confront the Dark Lord and vanquish the demon hordes for good. Though Doom Eternal may have divided hardcore purists about its inclusion of prominent narrative elements, platforming gameplay sequences, and tutorials, it is a clear refinement of what the 2016 revival began. The combat is as frenetic and engaging as it has ever been in the franchise, the arsenal is upgraded and expanded, and the hellish aesthetics the series is known for are in excelsis here. Simply put, Doom Eternal is the apex of the franchise, leaning into what the series does best while incorporating bold flourishes to build the mythology and subtly redefine what Doom can be.

Comments from NISTA’s Matthew Vickerstaff come as ministers weigh up benefits of relaunching initiative next monthThe government’s new infrastructure advisory body has said ministers would need to “learn from the mistakes” of the past if a new generation of PFI contracts are launched as part of the upcoming infrastructure strategy. Matthew Vickerstaff, deputy chief executive of the The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), said there was still a “constant drumbeat” of construction issues on schools built through private finance initiatives (PFI). Matthew Vickerstaff speaking at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday afternoon Chancellor Rachel Reeves is understood to be considering reinstating a form of private financing to pay for public projects, including social infrastructure schemes such as schools, ahead of the launch of its 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy next month. It would be the first major rollout of PFI in England since 2018, when then chancellor Philip Hammond declared the successor scheme to the original PFI programme as “inflexible and overly complex”. >> See also: PFI: Do the numbers add up? Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament yesterday, Vickerstaff highlighted issues that had blighted historic PFI schemes where construction risk had been transferred to the private sector. “Just what we’re seeing on school projects, leaking roofs is a consistent, constant drum beat, fire door stopping, acoustics, lighting levels, the ability of classrooms to be operable in a white board environment, problems around leisure centres or sports facilities, contamination of land, latent defects of refurbishments on old buildings creating real problems,” he said. “The dash to get the schools ready for September, I cannot tell you how many PFI schools have that problem, and we need to get the private sector to fix it.” But while Vickerstaff said he was “ambivalent” about a new generation of PFI contracts, he argued contractual arrangements on new schemes could contain less risk for the public purse if the government did decide to opt for this route in its infrastructure strategy. “I would say that compared with 25 years ago, the asset management, the building information systems and computer aided facilities management has vastly improved so we’re dealing with a generation of contracts that would certainly by improved whether it’s public sector or private sector,” he said. “I’m ambivalent but what we need to make sure is that we learn from the mistakes and definitely get them to fix what we’re experiencing in some situations.” Vickerstaff added: “In terms of lessons learned, making sure construction is monitored by a clerk of works and independently certified would be a really important factor moving forward, because construction defects have been a problem because the construction contracts whether it be public sector or private sector have not been well monitored or controlled.” Meanwhile, a new report by PwC has called on the government to explore a new generation of public-private finance in order to address the deficit in infrastructure including schools and healthcare. The research, published today, found “strong market appetite” for a new model of public-private partnerships which could be based on the Mutual Investment Model developed in Wales. PwC corporate finance associate director Dan Whittle said: “There is a strong view that public-private finance has a valuable role to play as a strategic tool to close the UK’s infrastructure gap, particularly at a time when we are constrained by fiscal rules. “There is no need to reinvent the fundamentals of the PPP model. What must continue to evolve is how we implement this model with refined risk allocation to reflect the current appetite of the market, smarter contract management, and a genuine partnership approach.” The government is expected to unveil its infrastructure strategy alongside its spending review in June.