Commander Keen (1990)
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) 6/10 +
Doom (1993) 7/10
Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) 6.5/10
Quake (1996) 6.5/10
Quake II (1997) 6.5/10
Quake III: Arena (1999) 5/10
Doom 3 (2004) 6.5/10
Rage (2011)
Doom (2016) 6.5/10
Rage 2 (2019)
Doom Eternal (2020) 5.5/10
Id's three Doom games released from 1993 through 1996 -- Ultimate; its sequel subtitled Hell on Earth; and the superhuge expansion pack Final -- were projects made as simple advancements from the company's first hit shooter Wolfenstein 3D; and what resulted was the insemination of the first gamer culture of players hard and horny for comical, bloody action set in the unnerving atmosphere of a satanic horror film.
The tone of the Doom games showed some influence from horror cinema, specifically Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies: aside from gruesome battles with zombies (and other monstrosities of the supernatural), we have similar weapons and ammo lying around the place (most memorably the chainsaw), a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor (see the difficulty names), and even a Bruce Campbell-looking player-character whose face is just as fun to watch as Bruce's.
The very name of the series "Doom" is not just an edgy action-horror game title with a marketable ring to it: the level designs in each of the three releases are essentially -- and characteristically -- merciless traps for every player to walk into.
An example of what I mean by "trap" would be this scenario: You open a door to an unpleasant surprise of a tough enemy to shoot down -- but conveniently, you have out your shotgun and the monster is in close-range; so out of luck, you gun it down easily. "Whew!" you'd think, then walk across the carcass of the quickly-disposed demon to collect the item they might have dropped only to hear about six doors around you slide open with a harmonious growl of maybe eleven different kinds of new enemies -- right when you'd have your guard down.
This kind of thrill -- much too clever to dub it a "jumpscare" -- is precisely what makes the three Doom installments not only so frightening, but also so fun. The weapons and strategies the player will acquire over time playing the game will aid them against these unfair "traps" set up for them; and so as they learn to overcome these tricks of the game-world, the more glorious the relief they feel after gunning down each monster unexpectedly met room by room, level by level.
This characteristic trick of the game developers may seem formulaic over time, yet it has never failed to spike my heart-rate no matter how many times I play a certain level on an appropriate difficulty. But these shenanigans of "trap" design is not the only thing about Doom that makes it "horror".
The visuals of the Doom games have aged well in the sense that the graphics and animations are still emotionally provocative in two critical ways: the colors of the game are clear and potent hues to make the shiniest blood you've ever seen stick out among the campy and vivid 2D textures, which means the game's visual tone is technically "light" enough to appease the action-loving "play-for-fun" casual gamers; yet in another way, we have some actually pretty gruesome scenery with the occasion of some disturbingly violent deaths that could unnerve those players looking to immerse themselves in the game more seriously. (Examples: Dungeon-like scene from the game that is both campy and unnerving; death of a demon whose organs literally just spill out)
This efficient double-standard of appeasing both sorts of gamers -- the casual and the more invested ones -- carries on through Doom's music: we have an ominous synthesizer soundtrack full of rhythmic bass lines that emanate a grungey seriousness as well as a funky sort of groove; both equally pungent enough to interpret depending on which sort of player you are while playing: Do you hear the grungey bass? You're looking for a DIA experience. Do you hear the groove? You're looking to play casually.
Fear and fun is the essence of what the Doom games were about, because fear and fun is what the heart of horror in general is about. There's camp, there's paranoia, there's a big gun. What more could you want? (Assuming you don't want respectful stories and deep, poetic contexts for the horror-tale's setting and its characters... in which case, you should probably look somewhere else).
And I'll say again that the characteristic idea of multiple "traps" happening level by level may get formulaic, but to have a formula that relies on the creativity of the designer is already one step further than the majority of popular video games, so I would say that's still ambitious. Although, with Doom I still have my nitpicks: Id's innovation from Wolfenstein 3D included an implementation of a 3D height system -- a feature that inevitably brought some irritating glitches: specifically the issue of monsters being able to attack you with special point-blank attacks (like demons biting or scratching you) when you are at the edge of much higher platforms; and working with the system of auto-aiming to an enemy on a higher platform is also frustrating on occasion -- when you'd mean to blast an enemy to pieces with your rocket launcher, only to just shoot straight at the lower invincible wall in front of you, and take damage from the enemy above you's projectile attack instead. But neither of these issues ruin the game to any extent.
These three releases would begin a craze for that gratifying thrill of shooting your way out of a scare, out of a challenge; and for a time Doom was the pinnacle and prime example of how this idea should be executed in the DIA format. Later a shooter by Valve called Half-Life would take this concept to even more respectable heights in 1998.
Other notes:
An expansion pack for Doom II containing 20 more levels known as the Master Levels would be released a year after the original game's first release. Final Doom would release in 1996 with 32 more: enough content to unofficially count it as its own entity, a separate installment to the series.