Can Doom be considered a horror game?

[Artman2004]

I've always thought about this question, as Doom has a lot of elements that could lead people to believe it to be one. Demons, zombies, darkness, hell. Even it's theme is inspired by horror (Aliens and Evil Dead). Yet, it doesn't really play like one. Maybe it's because our view of the game has shifted over time, and we started playing differently. 

 

Let me know what you guys think.

[Kute]

It has horror elements but the purpose of the game isn't just to scare the player.

[Murdoch]

It has a chainsaw, hell, and demons. Pieces of past victims are used for decor. There are unquestionably horror elements. But you also play as fast, super tough badass with a massive arsenal which is more straight action hero stuff not really compatible with typical horror ideas where the enemy has the advantage and the protagonist survives more by luck, will and cunning. 

 

Thus i would consider Doom a sci fi action FPS with strong horror elements. I have never considered it straight horror and i doubt most people have.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Murdoch

[GraphicBleeder]

It's an FPS game with horror elements. A horror game is meant to make the player feels scared and powerless, I feel neither of those while playing Doom.

[Rudolph]

It involves fighting your way through undead and demonic hordes in environments that are meant to be visually unsettling - through the use of gore, dim lighting and surreal imagery - and that make use of jump scares. So yes, it is a horror franchise. Some might take themselves more seriously than others, but the horror is intrinsically linked to the series' DNA.

 

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:29 PM, GraphicBleeder said:

A horror game is meant to make the player feels scared and powerless

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Horror is a broad genre. I believe what you are describing is survival horror, which I would argue is a subgenre.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Rudolph

[Gibbon]

Well the original release box had 'action' and 'explosive excitement' on the back.  So it's an action game.  I'm sure if it was designed as a horror game, it would have been mentioned over 'action'.  Yes some parts are scary (for a kid) but not for any grown adult.

[Loud Silence]

Original Doom games - No.

Doom 3 (NOT BFG Edition) - Yes.

[SilverMiner]

E2M6...

[Rudolph]

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:52 PM, Loud Silence said:

Original Doom games - No.

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Not even Doom 64 and the Playstation ports?

[Zaxxon]

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:52 PM, Loud Silence said:

Original Doom games - No.

Doom 3 (NOT BFG Edition) - Yes.

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I know Doom 3 is supposed to be scarry, but it had me laughing all the way through, beucase every time the demons get summoned, all i can hear is "PISTACHIOS", and it looks like i wasn't the only one.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

As for Doom 1 & 2, it should be clear what type of games they are the moment the soundrack kicks in.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Zaxxon

[Dexiaz]

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:59 PM, Zaxxon said:

PISTACHIOS

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You may laugh but russians hear the word "Злосчастный" (Zloschastniy), which means "unblessed" or "accursed".

 

About the topic itself:

Back in the day when I was playing Doom 1 & 2 on PS1, it was super scary from time to time. Playing Doom 1 & 2 on DOS with vanilla retro lighting effects with some pixelated grain makes the eerie feeling, so it was scary sometimes in dark places.

[7Mahonin]

It's as much of a horror game as Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness are horror movies.

[Old-Doomguy]

I got scared sometimes as a kid. If it's scary for you, you could call it a horror game if you wish. 

[Hitboi]

It has horror elements, demons, corpses, decapitated rabbit, and more. But it also has a marine running quickly and shooting demons using powerful arsenal. It combined the style of Evil Dead 2 and Aliens, so I think it's more of an action shooter than a horror game.

The ambient music and mazes (e.g. E1M2 and E2M3) in Doom 1 made me feel scared as a kid, but I thought they were cool.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Hitboi

[Murdoch]

  On 2/20/2022 at 7:46 PM, Old-Doomguy said:

I got scared sometimes as a kid. If it's scary for you, you could call it a horror game if you wish. 

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Yeah it made me jump and unnerved me a few times but that's clearly not the primary aim.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Murdoch

[chemo]

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:17 PM, Artman2004 said:

Even it's theme is inspired by horror (Aliens and Evil Dead).

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I think it's important to note that DOOM is inspired by Aliens and Evil Dead II, specifically. Compared to the first movies in their respective franchises, the "horror" elements are downplayed significantly. The latter especially as it's basically like a bloody Three Stooges film.

 

If DOOM was meant to be "scary" or have an atmosphere primarily based around a feeling of dread instead of empowerment (neither of which are required for a work to be considered "horror", I might add), then I don't think those specific inspirations would've been cited.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Referring to DOOM/2: in general, no. But it's something that would be better to analyze on a map-by-map basis. At its lowest point, it's pure sci-fi/action. At its highest, it's a sci-fi actioner with a horror flavor. The music, which is usually energetic midi rock, greatly detracts from any feeling of horror. Audio is one of the most basic parts of creating an oppressive atmosphere, and for the most part the audio in DOOM doesn't live up to that task - because it usually isn't trying to. Even games like HeXen had a more intense, dreary, and surreal atmosphere.

[Stupid Bunny]

  On 2/20/2022 at 7:06 PM, 7Mahonin said:

It's as much of a horror game as Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness are horror movies.

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Pretty much verbatim what I was going to say.

 

Doom did scare the hell out of me when I was like 5, though.  The game is pretty cartoonish now but still doesn't pull punches as far as the preponderance of blood and guts and corpses and horrible flesh walls and whatnot.  And there are moments in the game where I do legitimately get drawn into a cold, fearsome atmosphere that transcends the cheap jump-scare non-horror of so much of the genre.  I'd still say though that the experience of running around blowing up devil horned demons and flying flaming skulls and such while surrounded by 80s metal imagery makes the horror generally more camp than anything.  It's admirable how much variety of mood the game can strike but in its emphasis I wouldn't call it a horror game at any stage.

[Maes]

It's more "splatter"and "metal"  than "horror". What keeps it from being classed as horror without a second thought, is that the player is generally pretty well equipped to deal with whatever "horrors" the game throws at him, and its representation of Hell is what you'd typically find on a 1980s Heavy Metal album cover -quite different than what they later pulled with Doom 3 or even titles like System Shock, House of the Dead, etc., if we stick to -mostly- action games.

 

IMO, a "horror" game without also heavy elements of "survival horror", aka having the player being systematically outgunned, outmaneuvered, overpowered, restricted, paying for each mistake dearly etc., and thus not being able to rely simply on running around/pointing and shooting, is not really a horror game.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Maes

[Rudolph]

  On 2/20/2022 at 7:06 PM, 7Mahonin said:

It's as much of a horror game as Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness are horror movies.

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I would say those two are horror comedies.

[Valboom]

Mix of Horror and Action Shooter.

When I was a child I was so afraid of E1 M5.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Valboom

[DoomBoomer]

Well... as others have mentioned, Doom is far from survival horror, but still has horror elements. Doom may sometimes scare the player, but those are more jump scares than building the suspense. After all, the protagonist is well equipped to meet whatever horrors the game throws at him, so I think Doom is more action horror than traditional horror.

[BGreener]

It's a style of "action-horror" that Id were strong in pioneering for shooters. The Playstation ports and Doom 64 would steer towards this style, but I feel it's at its most realized with Quake: Very fast gameplay, very moody atmosphere and tone.

[Nikku4211]

I think this question gets more interesting when you look at Doom in the context of 1993.

 

It's especially interesting when you're talking specifically about the non-Ultimate first game, not the 2nd, which was arguably more action-oriented.

 

Sure, you can still go fast, and you're still a space marine that can hold so many weapons and ammo, but then again, by the standards of 1993, what counted as a horror game?

 

I know games like Alone in the Dark definitely resemble what we'd call survival horror nowadays, but back in 1993, was there a standardised, consistent idea on how a general horror game should play?

 

Back in the 1980s, it's possible people probably considered Castlevania a horror game, but nobody would consider any Castlevania game as such today, simply because it's not survival horror.

[SleepyVelvet]

I dunno, playing on a 320x200 resolution, keyboard only, in the 90's was kinda scary.  Especially Map16 - Suburbs and that spooky MIDI.  You know that you eventually have to leave the house you're in to progress through map, but there are tall, yellow-ghouls out there that make you light on fire if they look at you - eventually you muster up the courage to scurry to the next house and catch your breath again.

 

Doom is a trap heavy game.  And if not an outright jump-scare suckerpunch: you hear or see a menacing, uncomfortable obstacle you know you might have to tackle, sometimes presented explicitly and other times with varying degrees of foreshadowing.  Or if sometimes you don't get to control the pace at all, and you're thrown into Plutonia Map11 - Hunted...

 

Or you can ram yourself through a Swift Death meatgrinder over and over again and become numb to all that, and develop technical and mechanical skills that change the game at a fundamental level.

Edited February 20, 2022 by NoisyVelvet

[Kute]

  On 2/20/2022 at 7:46 PM, Old-Doomguy said:

I got scared sometimes as a kid. If it's scary for you, you could call it a horror game if you wish. 

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That's... I don't like that. As a kid, the Ghastlies and haunting soundtrack in that pokemon tower creeped me out, but I'm not thinking Pokemon Red/Blue are horror games.

 

The movie Outbreak scared me the shit out of me as well. Again, I'm not out there trying to get Wikipedia to change it to a horror listing. At a certain point, we gotta stop the entire "Only you matter, so what you think goes" schtick, it makes things too confusing. Doom is not made to made you feel small and scared. They might have given it a creepy demonic setting but that doesn't make it a Horror game anymore than choosing a gun for the task at hand makes it a Real-Time Strategy title, even if it has strategic elements.

 

 In fact I love how the new games are making it absolutely clear who the monster is in the Doom universe.

 

Edit: I'd agree with the guy who said Doom 3 is a horror game. I think they've said they were making a horror game, and it plays like one.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Kute

[ImproversGaming]

Damn, I have often thought of this. I played Doom when it came out and did not really think about the gore or horror elements. For me it was just a nice challenge to run to the exit and find the secrets. Now I play it with my kids, we find it fun and don’t tend to focus on the gore now either. My wife found it really strange when she saw an impaled twitching corpse on screen but has gotten used to it – don’t think I really paid much attention to those things.

[Nikku4211]

  On 2/20/2022 at 6:59 PM, Zaxxon said:

As for Doom 1 & 2, it should be clear what type of games they are the moment the soundrack kicks in.

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I'm assuming you're talking about the moment the music for the first map kicks in, because those title screen themes definitely scream (no pun intended) horror.

 

Also, fun fact, Bobby Prince originally envisioned an ambient soundtrack for Doom.

  Quote

[...]essentially DOOM was metal through and through. Prince had reservations about this, pushing more for an ambient, environmentally sensitive soundtrack. But he duly supplied a large body of music, including plenty of metalesque scores. Mainly, he says, this was to prove that metal didn't work as well as the darker, moodier pieces. It all went in anyway.

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- DOOM: SCARYDARKFAST

 

[Kute]

  On 2/20/2022 at 9:25 PM, ImproversGaming said:

Damn, I have often thought of this. I played Doom when it came out and did not really think about the gore or horror elements. For me it was just a nice challenge to run to the exit and find the secrets. Now I play it with my kids, we find it fun and don’t tend to focus on the gore now either. My wife found it really strange when she saw an impaled twitching corpse on screen but has gotten used to it – don’t think I really paid much attention to those things.

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I definitely noticed the gore as a kid, and found it a bit spooky. Still do. The moving skinwalls and massacred people hanging around. And the imagery they used. The goatfaced wall-texture guy is seared into my brain. But it's still best described as a sci-fi/action shooter, though like many groundbreaking works, it really is its own thing. Even now, at this stage of the game, their novel approach of making you the big bad of the universe still feels fresh. It's propping you up in an epic atmosphere, not tearing you down and scaring you.

[Rudolph]

  On 2/20/2022 at 9:33 PM, Nikku4211 said:

Also, fun fact, Bobby Prince originally envisioned an ambient soundtrack for Doom.

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He was definitely vindicated by Aubrey Hodges!