Gameplay

This document is by no means complete, and should by no means be refered to as an absolute authority on the gameplay of Doom.

Controls

Before you start to play, visit the controls section of the options menu to change your controls to resemble a more modern control scheme. With a few changes, you can be playing Doom just like all your other games, with a keyboard and mouse.

Movement

In Doom, there are several 'bugs' in regular movement that have over time been come to be known as features of the Doom engine. See The Doom Wiki for completeness.

Straferunning

This is done by moving forward and strafing left or right at the same time, which allows you to move faster than you would normally by just running forward or backwards. This is a basic movement which, when the game has been played often, is essentially a natural and effortless maneuver.

SR50

SR50 stands for "straferun 50", and is basically a varient of straferun that allows you to move even faster than normal straferunning. This maneuver is accomplished by simultaneously mouse-strafing and straferunning. To SR50, you move your mouse in the same direction as your straferun. While in SR50, you can not turn around due to mouse-strafing, so you sacrifice aim for mobility. This is a more advanced maneuver and is harder to control, but it is useful at times, especially for reaching a distant point faster or dodging an enemy's fire.

Backwards Movement

Although its use is limited, backward movement is actually faster than moving forward. Straferunning backwards is thereupon proportionally faster.

Wallrun

If you straferun at a certain angle against a straight wall while moving from north to south or from east to west, you actually gain even more speed than SR50. There is a server setting that enables wallrunning in all cardinal directions, but by default, wallruns are only achieved in the two said directions -- from north to south, and from east to west.

Weapons

Weapons in Doom are differently balanced than in most other games.

Super Shotgun

This is one of the most used weapons in multiplayer. The super shotgun, or commonly known by its abbreviation as the "SSG", is usually the most abundant weapon on any given multiplayer map, and because of the powerful blows it can deliver closely, an accurate shot can kill an opponent in one hit. However, the main drawback is that it takes a second or two to reload. It becomes inaccurate past a few player lengths due to its large spread, and is thus most suitable for combat in closed, short-range areas.

Chaingun

This weapon is most useful at long range combat, or chasing down a fast moving player. The chaingun fires small shots rapidly and thus has the ability to constantly disorient an opponent with the near-persistent amount of red-screen build-up it causes, which can affect the opponent's aim. The first several shots of the chaingun are the most accurate, while subsequent shots are less so, a phenomenon referred to as "chaingun recoil". Therefore, to maintain accuracy with the chaingun, one must tap the fire button repeatedly instead of continuously pushing it down so that the first few shots would be fired continuously.

Rocket Launcher

The rocket launcher is a powerful projectile weapon that can easily kill in one hit. However, unlike rocket launchers in modern games, the rockets this weapon fires are slow; so slow that a straferunning player can actually outrun their own rocket easily, given enough space. Another drawback to the rocket launcher is that it can produce a great amount of splash damage to the player firing it.

Plasma Rifle

Another projectile weapon, the plasma rifle shoots fast blue balls of plasma that can cause a considerable amount of damage, and is one of the more efficient weapons. The pinnacle of its efficiency is seen at close-range combat, where it is difficult for the adversary to escape the flying projectiles.

BFG 9000

The BFG9000 fires a large, green and slow-moving projectile that can easily gib an enemy in a direct hit. Simultaneously, it fires invisible tracers that fly toward the direction the player had shot the BFG, regardless of the player's position. The BFG9000's use can become highly complicated due to the many advantages and uses of the said tracers and the difficulty that can be experienced while dodging the tracers. This weapon is very often criticized for being overpowered and unfair, but in a 1-on-1 game, this weapon is considered balanced. For a full explanation on how the BFG works, please read The BFG FAQ. Once you learn how this weapon works, it is remarkably easy to dodge in a 1-on-1 fight and using it can become much easier.

Shotgun

The shotgun is a relatively weak weapon compared especially to the super shotgun, but its tight pellet spread does not subside at long range, making it a decent weapon to 'ping' people at long range with. It proves a fairly fast-killing weapon at close range, where its pellets are more concentrated.

Other

There are four other weapons, all of which are of dubious value. The pistol is far too weak to even consider trying to kill someone with. The fist, beserk fist and chainsaw are too hard to land hits with, and if you're close enough to punch them, you're more than close enough to deliver a killing shot with a Super Shotgun. There are two situations these weapons will likely be used in, desperation and comedy.

Items

Doom has two main ways in which items are handled by the engine.

Deathmatch

In normal deathmatch, weapons stay where they are, but all other items, such as ammo and health, do not respawn after being taken. In a 1on1 situation, this forces players to carefully consider and save items for times when they need it. In FFA, it doesn't really matter anyway, since you have lots of ammo when starting out, and you'll probably be dead before needing ammo again.

Altdeath

In Altdeath, all items, including weapons, respawn after 30 seconds except for invulnerability and invisibility spheres. This leads to the item control gameplay seen in other populat deathmatch games, but has fallen out of favor in the Doom community.

Capture the Flag

Capture the Flag handles item placement in a way reminiscent of more recent games, with weapon stay and item respawn. Since CTF is a relatively new mode of play in Doom, this modern standard of item spawn has been adopted.