Doom received its 12th console port last week, a mere five years after the PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and mobile ports arrived on the series’ 25th anniversary. That’s… a lot of ports, before we even mention the myriad operating systems it now works on (or the toasters and fridge freezers). But this port is markedly different—it brings mods to consoles. OK
Just last night, I was gunning down Ned Flanders in the halls of hell, fighting Daleks with Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver, and collecting Sonic rings while fending off Dr. Eggman’s army of robots. Fans have kept this game thriving since 1993 with a bustling mod scene that continues to reinvigorate those old blocky hallways.
Many of the old ‘90s map competition winners have even been ported to console with these new ports.
It’s a side of the game that those on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch have been sorely missing out on, but id Software and Bethesda are finally opening the pearly, kinda cursed gates. It’s exciting to see, especially as classic fan favourite maps like MyHouse.wad and Star Wars Doom are finally available for a wider audience (although, how long the licensed stuff will last—we’ll see). Up until now, the most we’ve had is officially curated ‘add-ons’, things like John Romero’s Sigil and Final Doom, but the new library is so freeing because anyone can upload their work to be played across all platforms.
There are caveats to that, of course. Some incredibly controversial works have been uploaded and quickly removed, like the Columbine Shooter’s custom maps and even levels in the shapes of swastikas. Moderation clearly needs a kick up the rear as everything and anything seems to be approved—there’s also a litany of reuploads taking credit for other people’s work—but the core idea is brilliant and should be celebrated.
While some developers and publishers crack down on mods and see them as a plague on their intellectual property, the truth is that they give games longevity. Skyrim didn’t become a ten-year game because Bethesda zeroed in on making a generational blockbuster with an army of focus test groups (see: Starfield), it became a ten-year game because of the community that sprung up around it. The mod scene is so fervent that entire games have been developed within Skyrim and even gone standalone to win awards, like The Forgotten City.
Fans are even remaking old Bethesda titles in Skyrim, and others are expanding the borders into wider Tamriel.
Doom has a very similar story. In 1993, following on from Wolfenstein 3D, it paved the way for modern FPS games as we know them. The genre at the time was even called “Doom clones”, with icons like Duke Nukem, Heretic, and Star Wars Dark Forces liberally pulling from id Software’s generational, genre-defining classic. It was followed by the equally revolutionary Quake, which led to Half-Life, Halo, Call of Duty, and all the beloved shooters of today. But even though the FPS genre grew at breakneck speed, ushered on by id Software itself, Doom stuck around.
That’s because of the community it fostered. It has one of the biggest modding scenes in history that still prospers to this day, over 30 years later. Bringing mods to console at long last will only give Doom even more life, keeping this foundation of the FPS genre in the spotlight on console as well as PC even as new games in the series come and go.
Bethesda has been a pioneer in the world of modding, transforming it from a hobbyist scene into a touchstone of modern gaming to be celebrated, rather than quietly accepted but seldom acknowledged. Mods aren’t merely tolerated or cracked down on when they get too big for their boots, they are supported and nurtured. The new Doom + Doom 2 ports encapsulate that sentiment more than ever, and I can’t wait to see what the next few years of this ‘90s gem look like with this brand-new jolt to the system.
Doom (1993)
4.5/5
One of the most iconic and impactful games ever made, Doom puts you in the role of a marine sent to a research facility on Mars. When a portal to Hell unleashes a horde of demons, it's up to you to blast them into oblivion.
