Introduction

The original Doom from 1993 is a First-Person Shooter developed by id-Software for the MS-DOS. Players take over the role of a space marine, mostly referred to as the Doomguy. They fight their way through hordes of demons on Mars to try to stop them from invading. Doom is held as one of the most significant games in video game history and helped to define the FPS genre.

The Sound of Doom was created by Bobby Prince. He created all 107 sound effects that can be found in the game, as well as the music tracks. Prince created the sound effects based on short descriptions or concept art of the demons and adjusted them later to fit the final animations. The music tracks were created without clear assigned levels and were later assigned to different levels by Romero. Some songs were inspired by metal bands, while others are more geared towards ambient pieces.

The full library of the Doom sounds can be found here: http://www.wolfensteingoodies.com/archives/olddoom/music.htm

Muisc

Doom is a mix of Heavy Metal, Horror and Power Fantasy. Which is also clearly the case when looking at the soundtrack. The game starts in the first level with the Track “At Dooms Gate” and already sets the mood for the rest of the game. With a shotgun and a kick ass metal track, you're about to purge some demons from Mars, and you will love it. Even now, the first track holds up quite well and perfectly sums up what doom is about. Mixed in with more musical tracks are also ambient tracks like “Dark Halls”. They set a more horror inspired mood and still work quite well as ambient soundtrack.

The music also helps to keep the game alive. Ambient sounds are fairly limited to switches and doors. So, a solid track in the background helps to set the mood where ambient sound is missing. Overall, the Soundtrack of Doom must have been great in 1993 and even in 2022 the Track list holds up. The switch between more clear metal tracks and ambient tracks throughout the game is quite a welcome change. Some tracks can get annoying after a while as they are quite repetitive, but you should also consider the age of the game when playing it in 2022.

Enviroment

Ambient sound in Doom is quite limited, probably thanks to its age and how ambient sound was designed in 1993. The entire library of ambient sound consists of 18 sound effects. While limited, they are used in the right spots. Switches and doors for example use sound effect that help the player as an indicator when something is activated. Others like exploding barrels also make sense and are smartly placed. As mentioned before, the soundtrack helps here a lot to fill out a lot of blank space. The same goes for a lot of the demons that can be heard.

The ambient sound of the game is still good enough to be enjoyed. It also helps that the level design isn’t much more detailed as well, so it balances each out. In 1993, it was probably pretty good thanks to all the other sound bits. In 2022, it shows its age but doesn’t ruin the experience.