# Doom by id Software

102 Hacker News commenters recommended Doom by id Software and 24 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A landmark shooter praised for fast, fluid gameplay, smooth performance and a huge modding scene; critics find its plot thin and lacking heart.

## Why people recommend it

- Culturally significant genre milestone (6 comments): "The first Doom was certainly industry defining, but it and its sequels have never been considered the best by anyone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48820436)) "Doom has some star power and is instantly recognizable to pretty much anyone, not just video game fans." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252631)) "Doom and Quake/2/3 all represented massive technological jumps over their predecessors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48820064))
- Fast, flowing, satisfying gameplay (6 comments): "The weapons and monsters are perfectly balanced and fair, and there's a ton of extra levels and mods" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296551)) "The latter feels much more artificial and forced, whereas Doom feels like "just playing a game."" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765709)) "Doom was special just because it felt right and the rhythm just flowed as you went deeper" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943689))
- Smooth, well-optimized performance (5 comments): "I don’t think unreal engine games play and look as well as custom engine games. Like doom or cyberpunk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48820331)) "Doom worked because it was crazy fast and you could have a lot of sprites on the screen at once" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662871)) "I have also been very impressed by the performance and fluidity of Doom and Doom Eternal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828018))
- Endless mods, ports and community content (6 comments): "The weapons and monsters are perfectly balanced and fair, and there's a ton of extra levels and mods" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296551)) "This is awesome! the amount of devices doom has not been run on shrinks by the day haha" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46753507)) "We've still got Doom (1993) being ported to anything that has a transistor in it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48583882))

## What people warn about

- Thin plot, lacks heart (4 comments): "Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468274)) "Cynical content from the 90s and 2000s that lack "heart" like Quake, Doom, and the like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467659)) "the Doom games mostly focused on having cool levels, with plot as an afterthought" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50061975))
- Flaky early multiplayer (2 comments): "Downside is that your framerate was capped to the person with the slowest computer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45968234)) "simply froze both computers whenever there was a communication issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48664696))
- Weak sound effects handling (2 comments): "The music sounds great but stopping the music to play sound effects sounds terrible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128986)) "it sounds significantly worse than Wolfenstein 3D's PC speaker sound" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46130867))
- Unrealistic speed, motion sickness (2 comments): "I get horribly motion sick playing some games like Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime, or the original DOOM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50255824)) "The player speed in Doom is completely unrealistic, which is fun, but plays against immersion." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46379881))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Quake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake.md): 118 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 2004](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament-2004.md): 51 recommend
- [Quake III Arena](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-iii-arena.md): 49 recommend
- [Half-Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life.md): 42 recommend
- [Unreal Tournament 99 GOTY](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-tournament.md): 33 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Doom by id Software", https://hackerapproved.com/p/doom/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).