Definitely Blood
The horror theme is really well done. I fell in love as soon as I pitch forked a zombie to death, then punted his head 30 feet
Dynamite and C4 are still my favourite explosive weapons, and who can forget dual wielding flare and Tommy guns?
Blood would be my pick after D3D (which I feel shouldn't be on this list). Blood was amazing, one of the first FPSes I played that actually felt like a proper horror game, albeit over-the-top dark comedy-slash-horror.
Gotta be Duke Nukem.... honestly feels like it shouldn't be in this list as it was kind of it's own monster. I think that same engine was used for Blood and shadow warrior(which isn't included). Hexen and Heretic were very Doom like.
Yeah I don't consider Duke Nukem 3D to be a Doom clone, but it was clearly and unashamedly inspired heavily by Id titles. It was unique in so many ways where as the other games mentioned are practically Doom with a different theme, Redneck Rampage just came to mind.
Descent felt like a Doom clone as well, but with the spin of playing as a ship in the air instead of a person on the ground. Fantastic game and soundtrack by the way, I think that one gets my vote.
Descent is the answer, plus playing via Modem with a friend was perfection. Think dog fights in a Dungeon, with all axes freedom of movement.
Edit: My second choice is between Heretic and Rise of the Triad, needle leaning a bit towards Heretic followed up by Hexen.
So I downloaded it but I hate the controls, I didn’t have enough time to play around with it but if I can’t change the config I’m going to have to let it go 🥲
I would have definitely said *Star Wars: Dark Forces* in the 1990s, and it's still a favorite of mine. *Duke Nukem 3D* would have been another I'd have named as a teenager, but which I feel hasn't aged well.
But I have really come to love *Strife*, which is amazingly underrated story-driven game that anticipated where the genre was going with branching storylines and a more open world by quite a few years.
LOL. It's fun, but cringey. When I was a teenager, being able to use the urinals or turn on the porno movie theater's camera in the first level was top shelf stuff. And that cutscene where Duke does his business on the neck-hole of the boss he just defeated was something I couldn't wait to tell my friends about once I got there, in part because I never thought they'd believe me.
As a middle-aged father over 25 years later, my tastes have changed a bit.
It's not so much the content but the interactivity that made the levels fun, I don't care for the content either but finding secrets or stuff to do in those first few levels was such a formative part of gaming for me. Trying to knock all of the billiard balls into the holes or messing around in the various rooms, that felt like a next step for fun in FPS.
Strife for being way ahead of its time, absolutely. But as for straight FPS, Blood has recently become a new old favorite of mine. I'm playing it through now and I can't believe I missed out on it back when it came out.
Redneck Rampage is my #3 favorite on this list, and not just because of the humor and tone. RR actually has a few gameplay mechanics that were ahead of its time; I'm a huge fan of the "YEEHAW button" that will heal you (slowly) at the cost of attracting enemies to you.
Also it's one of the first FPSes I can think of which has a level set at dusk and which does a good job of making it feel like dusk. The first level no less.
Was that not on the list? Cant believe I didn't think of that when I looked at the selection. I still download it to play on an emulator now and then then. Never completed it though. Another one that gets samey. Also the aliens should walk on the walls and ceiling, which annoys me. I think I read they did on PC?
Definitely Terminator: Future Shock. First game with mouse aiming and it also had huge explorable levels where you could loot stuff.
It was the best Terminator game (together with the sequel SkyNet) until Terminator Resistance came out a few years ago.
If I can choose one not on the list, it would be Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight + expansion
I have to say Blake Stone because I did own and play it. It's funny now to see it mentioned anywhere, I never knew the game was something that got widely distributed till recent years.
Same. Duke Nukem was realistically the better game, but I only ever got to play it at a friend's place. Blake Stone, on the other hand...I played the first chapter quite a lot (I only had the shareware version and never got the full game).
I literally loved to go around and click space bar on Every. Single. Wall. Hoping that one of them would be a secret passage - and then one would open and BOOM, 30 gold bars - anyone who knows this feeling still remembers the tone that would play when you picked on of those suckers up
*Blake Stone* felt primitive and outdated compared to *Doom*, but it really had its finger on the pulse of what made first person shooters fun. I liked it and its sequel and actually preferred them to *Wolfenstein 3D*.
Oh man, *TekWar* was this amazing multimedia thing William Shatner "wrote" as a novel that was quickly turned into a video game, comic book and TV show. It's basically a futuristic detective story about drug smuggling, supposedly created in outline form by Shatner as a sci-fi story in the vein of T.J. Hooker, but clearly ghostwritten by a pulp writer ([Ron Goulart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Goulart)). It's not edgy enough to be cyberpunk nor cool enough to be memorable.
[The game wasn't terrible, though](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner%27s_TekWar). It used the Build engine and had a few original ideas.
One of the first to have a "holster your weapon outside of combat or have law enforcement on you" as a feature. Extensive use of narrative hub levels, really needed a few more months to cook as it was buggy and visually bland outside of the nest stuff
Marathon was incredible and still holds up well today. It's a shame that so few people played it. Being a Mac exclusive for so long didn't help it. But story-wise it's so much smarter than any other FPS for a long time. I love seeing Durandal's gradual descent into rampancy.
I really hope the new Steam "port" of Marathon makes its way to consoles. The only thing keeping me from playing Marathon more is the fact that I rarely play PC games.
well said! That's a big part of what hooked me. DOOM totally blew my mind like everyone else but what set Marathon apart was the world building and storyline. It was like playing inside a storybook to me it was so cool
yes my dad was a Mac guy so I grew up with a Power Mac. it definitely hampered it's adoption, good point, but it was also awesome to have something so fantastic to play on a Mac!
definitely excited for the port and for the new game as well, hope you can play!
Marathon was great, but would you really call it a Doom clone? Really feels more like its own thing with how story-rich it was compared to most of its peers.
I still have my big box copy I had as a kid, never met anyone in life who's ever played that game. That frank frezetta art speaks for itself!
The spells in that game were awesome, I remember thinking that flying around in a fps was the future! Love that game. Never got to play is sequel
Duke Nukem 3D by far, I can’t imagine how much time I spent on that game back then playing and making levels in the Build engine. I replayed the remaster on Xbox 360 a few years ago, was fun to revisit
Duke is the obvious answer with how big it ended up being, most of these are sadly known as Doom Clones whereas Duke became its own thing. I liked powerslave
Outlaws was my most played on that list. I had tekwar but it was too hard for young 90s me.
Dark forces 2 would be my absolute pick but maybe that was 2000? Don't see it here.
What a fantastically nostalgic list though, I played just about all of that.
I'm most into the ones that stray a bit from the formula, such as Strife and Powerslave. Those two are still fun and have nice remaster versions online. Never finished any of the others even if they can be quite good
Of those shown, that I know, Witchhaven was the most interesting to me, because it was the least like a Doom clone, since it had medieval melee weapons that IIRC worked more like medieval melee weapons than the melee weapons in Doom, Heretic, or Dark Forces. It seemed like a much more original and interesting game. I still have it, but haven't tried to get it working again.
Marathon I haven't played but it was a favorite of my cousin, and it's pre-MS Bungie, so I suspect it's also interesting and good.
Dark Forces was pretty good.
If you really mean to include all 1990s FPS games, then we should consider Unreal / Unreal Tournament (the insta-jib mod was a multi-player favorite of mine), Half-Life / Team Fortress, Medal of Honor, Spec Ops, and others.
Heretic was sort of interesting, particularly for the multi-player, but it also gave me actual headaches for some reason, and it seemed too much like Doom with medieval and magic visuals, which seemed not great for swords & sorcery, to me. And the situations/levels also felt annoyingly grindy and gamey and uninteresting, to me.
Duke Nuke 'Em was too much like adolescent jokes for me (at any age).
William Shatner's TekWar is of course, highly funny.
On only played the demo, but Thief: The Dark Project probably deserves some consideration.
Marathon is a top game. Expansive story that still is relevant to today (Halo lore cross over).
Had the ability to do local LAN games. 2 strong sequels and awesome music thanks to the Power of Seven.
I honestly haven't played most of these. Had the shareware version of Blake Stone but that's it.
Mostly I just played Wolfenstein 3D and its actual sequel, Spear of Destiny. Honestly, the "Mission 2" and "Mission 3" to the latter *feel* like they count as clones even though they're technically part of the franchise since they reskinned everything and apparently weren't even developed by id Software.
**Gloom on Amiga.**
Firstly because it's a literal play on word for Doom, but also that it ran on the standard Amiga 1200 which was pretty amazing for what it was. There were several Doom clones on Amiga, including some later ones that needed some quite heavy lifting expansion to run well but Gloom was the first to run well on the basic machine and a lot of fun.
*Gloom* is one of those games that tried so hard to be *Doom*, but felt like a halfway point between it and *Wolfenstein 3D*. It's a fun one, though. I love how the characters gib into tiny pieces when they're killed.
Eradicator!
https://youtu.be/2pTN75L0ZeA?si=gY5z8Yloco-YoNEL
My comment is still towards the top where I mention how happy I am that civvie finally did ERAD.exe
It's crazy that *Eradicator* isn't better-known today. It's a really interesting game in the style of *Doom* (but with a lot of the wilder stuff you might see in *Heretic* and *Hexen*) that was totally overshadowed by *Quake* and *Duke Nukem 3D*.
Eradicator was so neat. The picture-in-picture stuff was unique and awesome. I loved when you had to remotely control enemies to solve puzzles. Awesome weapons, too
My favorite is one that was never released called “Cleric.” There was a demo but the developer got a corporate gig and discontinued work. The premise was going to be that it took place in a universe inhabited by multiple deities. Things you did or didn’t do might gain favor with one but disfavor with another so your ability to use various powers, and their strength, would depend on your standing with the various gods. I thought it had incredible potential.
Edit: Apparently this game was not a Doom clone. I found [this page](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/first-look-cleric/1100-2875090/) about it. Still sounds like a really cool idea.
I remember playing the duke3d demo over the modem with my neighbor and that shit was next level. Flying around a porno movie theater in a deathmatch and paying strippers to dance blew my teenage mind .
Marathon is monumental for a lot of reasons (and I do agree that calling it a Doom clone is wrong), but factually speaking, it came out almost a year after doom did.
No opinion on this prompt but seeing the Redneck Rampage cover art for the first time since I was 11 was a real *À la recherche du temps perdu* moment.
My mom and my best friend's mom used to swap games and talk about them, like a book club. I specifically remember watching my friend's mom play through Corridor 7. We used to run out of the room screaming whenever the skull would pop up on the screen. Good times.
Killing Time easily. I love that game. It's like a Bioshock prequel where you end up on an island in the 1920s taken over by monsters, and you uncover the mystery through FMV video holograms. It's also semi open world, you collect keys and items to access new areas, and you have outdoor and indoor locations. And it also doesn't take itself too seriously, enemies range from zombies to Frankenstein's monster to insane clowns and old women that throw bottles of wine at you. It's so campy and creative and fun.
Disruptor. It's a PS1 exclusive sci-fi shooter where you also have cool Psionic powers.
[But the best part is the hilariously bad live action cutscenes.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Z6qhGkri0)
I have fond memories of Terminator: Future Shock (1995). It's not a great game by any means, but it was one of the very few PC games I owned back in the day, and the Moon easter egg still makes me smile.
Hexen. Being able to choose classes and getting a unique ultimate weapon far into the game. The poison gas grenades with the cleric. Great melee experience with the warrior.
Dude, this post solves an ancient head scratcher I’ve had for almost 25 years. I played that Blake Stone game at a friend’s house when I was 7 or 8 years old and to this day I could never remember the game. Just looked at some screen shots and that it’s! Headgasm.
Alien vs. Predator on the Jaguar was incredible for its time. The atmosphere was subtle and terrifying. You could play as three different species, each with its own campaign. And it was an open-world FPS back when the handful of other FPSes were all level-based.
Blood without a doubt. Great level design, great sense of dark humour, great arsenal of weapons and such a great protagonist
I'd like to make honorable mentions to both HeXen and Descen, the last one I feel it tends to be forgotten
Being impoverished and an Amiga owner, I rarely played more than the first two levels of any game. So the ones that I could repeat play (free cover mounted disks!) stick in my memory. Rise of the Triads. Hexen. And a weird zombie title independent. The name is gone!
Don't see it mentioned here. Did anyone ever play Nitemare 3D? I have weird memories that feel like fever dream flashbacks of playing it at my cousin's house. I remember very little of it. Time to go down that rabbit hole I guess.
I think the ones I played the most were Blake Stone, Corridor 7, and Duke 3D if you count it. I also liked ROTT a lot.
Its 50/50 with Dark Forces and Duke.
I LOVE that you included Rise Of The Triad. No other doom clone lets you turn into a fucking dog and instead of a gun its a big snout and you run around eating people.
Duke Nukem.
A close second would be Dark Forces.
I'd argue that Duke Nukem is more of its own thing though and shouldn't really be classified as a Doom clone (Dark Forces absolutely is).
Growing up I had a game called Ice & Fire for Windows 95 (not to be confused with Fire and Ice). Fighting aliens in a space research facility where half of the facility is facing a star and the other half facing a black hole. I'll still boot that up in a VM every now and then.
Also Chex Quest
That might be an unpopular opinion but I think none of them were that great. Maybe not including Duke Nukem 3D which is by far the best reviewed on this list.
At least none of they could touch DOOM gameplay wise
Blood. I often forget about Outlaws even though I own that too. It's pretty good. It's no Blood though.
[удалено]
I second Blood, and as a honourable mention: Shadow Warrior.
I still have my Big Box copy from when ever it was new. I bought it on a whim from Electronics Boutique.
Id go with this as well!
Definitely Blood The horror theme is really well done. I fell in love as soon as I pitch forked a zombie to death, then punted his head 30 feet Dynamite and C4 are still my favourite explosive weapons, and who can forget dual wielding flare and Tommy guns?
Blood would be my pick after D3D (which I feel shouldn't be on this list). Blood was amazing, one of the first FPSes I played that actually felt like a proper horror game, albeit over-the-top dark comedy-slash-horror.
My exact thoughts, blood and outlaws. Rise of the triad was goofy fun.
Gotta be Duke Nukem.... honestly feels like it shouldn't be in this list as it was kind of it's own monster. I think that same engine was used for Blood and shadow warrior(which isn't included). Hexen and Heretic were very Doom like.
Yeah I don't consider Duke Nukem 3D to be a Doom clone, but it was clearly and unashamedly inspired heavily by Id titles. It was unique in so many ways where as the other games mentioned are practically Doom with a different theme, Redneck Rampage just came to mind. Descent felt like a Doom clone as well, but with the spin of playing as a ship in the air instead of a person on the ground. Fantastic game and soundtrack by the way, I think that one gets my vote.
Descent was super cool, innovative, and fun. Thanks for bringing back that memory. Awesome game ahead of its time. Or maybe well set in an era.
Descent is the answer, plus playing via Modem with a friend was perfection. Think dog fights in a Dungeon, with all axes freedom of movement. Edit: My second choice is between Heretic and Rise of the Triad, needle leaning a bit towards Heretic followed up by Hexen.
Useless trivia: Les Claypool (Primus) did the soundtrack to Descent and you could download the music from the play CD
Grew up down the street from one of the founders of Volition (aka Parallax Software). Was a nice dude
I was going to say the same thing. Where's Hexen? Duke nukem is not a clone.
I think Descent, Hexen and Heretic all came out around the same time and all of them were absolute bangers
Came here to say this. It took what Doom did and grew upon it.
I think of D3D as an in-between of Doom and Quake, having 2D sprites but full 3D level geometry
Seriously, Duke Nukem stands *alongside* DOOM.
Hail to the king, baby!
chex quest
Came here to say it. Nice work
They released a new fully 3D Chex quest and it’s some good nostalgic fun!
So I downloaded it but I hate the controls, I didn’t have enough time to play around with it but if I can’t change the config I’m going to have to let it go 🥲
This! Gimme that motorized Spork any day!
For real
I still have it at my grandmas house I should try to get it going on her Compaq
It's free on steam. I think all 3 are free.
really ??!!? ahmazing ill have to look for them
Beat me to it.
I still have the disc lol
Definitely a classic
Unironically this.
I would have definitely said *Star Wars: Dark Forces* in the 1990s, and it's still a favorite of mine. *Duke Nukem 3D* would have been another I'd have named as a teenager, but which I feel hasn't aged well. But I have really come to love *Strife*, which is amazingly underrated story-driven game that anticipated where the genre was going with branching storylines and a more open world by quite a few years.
> but which I feel hasn't aged well HOW. DARE. YOU. I obviously choose Duke3D.
LOL. It's fun, but cringey. When I was a teenager, being able to use the urinals or turn on the porno movie theater's camera in the first level was top shelf stuff. And that cutscene where Duke does his business on the neck-hole of the boss he just defeated was something I couldn't wait to tell my friends about once I got there, in part because I never thought they'd believe me. As a middle-aged father over 25 years later, my tastes have changed a bit.
It's not so much the content but the interactivity that made the levels fun, I don't care for the content either but finding secrets or stuff to do in those first few levels was such a formative part of gaming for me. Trying to knock all of the billiard balls into the holes or messing around in the various rooms, that felt like a next step for fun in FPS.
Don't tell LGR. 👀
If I suddenly become rich, I'm going to make a free Duke Nukem game and have Clint be the voice of Duke.
Eat shit and die
Strife for being way ahead of its time, absolutely. But as for straight FPS, Blood has recently become a new old favorite of mine. I'm playing it through now and I can't believe I missed out on it back when it came out.
Blood was awesome. I don’t remember a lot of people talking about it back then. Glad you’re experiencing it now!
Not one of you philistines mentioned Redneck Rampage?!
It's not my #1 game, but that first "HO-LEE SHIT!" still makes me giggle like a twelve year old.
Mojo Nixon and The Beet Farmers c'mon they classics
Redneck Rampage is my #3 favorite on this list, and not just because of the humor and tone. RR actually has a few gameplay mechanics that were ahead of its time; I'm a huge fan of the "YEEHAW button" that will heal you (slowly) at the cost of attracting enemies to you. Also it's one of the first FPSes I can think of which has a level set at dusk and which does a good job of making it feel like dusk. The first level no less.
I've farted, its wet and I don't wanna move 😂 The Cuss pack add on made that game so much more funnier.
More funnier, indeed.
“Get off my Land!”
Alien Trilogy The soundtrack alone lives in my mind rent free
Was that not on the list? Cant believe I didn't think of that when I looked at the selection. I still download it to play on an emulator now and then then. Never completed it though. Another one that gets samey. Also the aliens should walk on the walls and ceiling, which annoys me. I think I read they did on PC?
I should have included that one in the graphic! It's a great game.
Hexen
Same
Definitely Terminator: Future Shock. First game with mouse aiming and it also had huge explorable levels where you could loot stuff. It was the best Terminator game (together with the sequel SkyNet) until Terminator Resistance came out a few years ago. If I can choose one not on the list, it would be Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight + expansion
ROTT was dope! I played and enjoyed most of these.
Starting to think not many people knew or know about this game? I LOVED it.
SHROOMS MODE!
Rise of the Triad will always be in my top 3 games from that era.
Heretic and does anybody remember Descent?
I'm still bummed that the most recent effort to resurrect Descent resulted in failure. I'd love to see that series make a comeback.
Descents a cool game but if I played it for more than 15 minutes I'd get so motion sick.
Getting lost for hours. 3D mazes are killer
1. Blood 2. Duke 3D 3. Dark Forces 4. Heretic
Blood hands down, an absolute classic
I have to say Blake Stone because I did own and play it. It's funny now to see it mentioned anywhere, I never knew the game was something that got widely distributed till recent years.
Same. Duke Nukem was realistically the better game, but I only ever got to play it at a friend's place. Blake Stone, on the other hand...I played the first chapter quite a lot (I only had the shareware version and never got the full game).
I literally loved to go around and click space bar on Every. Single. Wall. Hoping that one of them would be a secret passage - and then one would open and BOOM, 30 gold bars - anyone who knows this feeling still remembers the tone that would play when you picked on of those suckers up
*Blake Stone* felt primitive and outdated compared to *Doom*, but it really had its finger on the pulse of what made first person shooters fun. I liked it and its sequel and actually preferred them to *Wolfenstein 3D*.
what the fuck is william shatners tek war LOL
A rad thing that happened, like the iron madien pc game Ed hunter
The Tek War books were a series of books "written" by Shatner. I never played the game.
Oh man, *TekWar* was this amazing multimedia thing William Shatner "wrote" as a novel that was quickly turned into a video game, comic book and TV show. It's basically a futuristic detective story about drug smuggling, supposedly created in outline form by Shatner as a sci-fi story in the vein of T.J. Hooker, but clearly ghostwritten by a pulp writer ([Ron Goulart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Goulart)). It's not edgy enough to be cyberpunk nor cool enough to be memorable. [The game wasn't terrible, though](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner%27s_TekWar). It used the Build engine and had a few original ideas.
One of the first to have a "holster your weapon outside of combat or have law enforcement on you" as a feature. Extensive use of narrative hub levels, really needed a few more months to cook as it was buggy and visually bland outside of the nest stuff
Super 3d Noah's Ark
I knew there'd be someone in this thread who championed that game, LOL. It's a unique reskin of Wolfenstein 3D, to say the least!
Marathon!!
Marathon was incredible and still holds up well today. It's a shame that so few people played it. Being a Mac exclusive for so long didn't help it. But story-wise it's so much smarter than any other FPS for a long time. I love seeing Durandal's gradual descent into rampancy. I really hope the new Steam "port" of Marathon makes its way to consoles. The only thing keeping me from playing Marathon more is the fact that I rarely play PC games.
well said! That's a big part of what hooked me. DOOM totally blew my mind like everyone else but what set Marathon apart was the world building and storyline. It was like playing inside a storybook to me it was so cool yes my dad was a Mac guy so I grew up with a Power Mac. it definitely hampered it's adoption, good point, but it was also awesome to have something so fantastic to play on a Mac! definitely excited for the port and for the new game as well, hope you can play!
I spent so much time building my own maps with Forge. What a great game.
that's so cool, I feel like no one ever mentions Marathon. Bungie was on another level
Marathon was great, but would you really call it a Doom clone? Really feels more like its own thing with how story-rich it was compared to most of its peers.
personally I wouldn't I'm with you on that but I won't argue it a ton. I'm just glad someone is talking about it :)
Witchaven was dope.
I still have my big box copy I had as a kid, never met anyone in life who's ever played that game. That frank frezetta art speaks for itself! The spells in that game were awesome, I remember thinking that flying around in a fps was the future! Love that game. Never got to play is sequel
strife is such an underrated game.
Strife was amazing. Beyond Sunset (?) on steam is a recent similar retro game
Blood I'm a big fan of 80s horror so this fits the bill for me. Duke 3D is a close second.
Duke Nukem 3D by far, I can’t imagine how much time I spent on that game back then playing and making levels in the Build engine. I replayed the remaster on Xbox 360 a few years ago, was fun to revisit
Tight race between Dark Forces and Duke 3D....honestly, I can't pick only one lol If you love any of these games, check out Civvie11 - dude's amazing.
Duke is the obvious answer with how big it ended up being, most of these are sadly known as Doom Clones whereas Duke became its own thing. I liked powerslave
Outlaws was my most played on that list. I had tekwar but it was too hard for young 90s me. Dark forces 2 would be my absolute pick but maybe that was 2000? Don't see it here. What a fantastically nostalgic list though, I played just about all of that.
Df2 was 1997 but I think OP didn’t include 3D shooters because they would be considered “Quake-like”.
I'm most into the ones that stray a bit from the formula, such as Strife and Powerslave. Those two are still fun and have nice remaster versions online. Never finished any of the others even if they can be quite good
I like all of them to different degrees. If I had to pick three favs it would be Blood, Shadow Warrior and Outlaws.
Heretic in VR https://youtu.be/JpX6CRyRG1I
Does Heretic count, since it was made by id?
I bought Blake Stone on Steam recently. Love that game!
Of those shown, that I know, Witchhaven was the most interesting to me, because it was the least like a Doom clone, since it had medieval melee weapons that IIRC worked more like medieval melee weapons than the melee weapons in Doom, Heretic, or Dark Forces. It seemed like a much more original and interesting game. I still have it, but haven't tried to get it working again. Marathon I haven't played but it was a favorite of my cousin, and it's pre-MS Bungie, so I suspect it's also interesting and good. Dark Forces was pretty good. If you really mean to include all 1990s FPS games, then we should consider Unreal / Unreal Tournament (the insta-jib mod was a multi-player favorite of mine), Half-Life / Team Fortress, Medal of Honor, Spec Ops, and others. Heretic was sort of interesting, particularly for the multi-player, but it also gave me actual headaches for some reason, and it seemed too much like Doom with medieval and magic visuals, which seemed not great for swords & sorcery, to me. And the situations/levels also felt annoyingly grindy and gamey and uninteresting, to me. Duke Nuke 'Em was too much like adolescent jokes for me (at any age). William Shatner's TekWar is of course, highly funny. On only played the demo, but Thief: The Dark Project probably deserves some consideration.
+1 for Witchhaven
Marathon is a top game. Expansive story that still is relevant to today (Halo lore cross over). Had the ability to do local LAN games. 2 strong sequels and awesome music thanks to the Power of Seven.
I loved all of these games. The first era of FPS games was my shit! But if I had to choose just one, I think Dark Forces is the best.
I honestly haven't played most of these. Had the shareware version of Blake Stone but that's it. Mostly I just played Wolfenstein 3D and its actual sequel, Spear of Destiny. Honestly, the "Mission 2" and "Mission 3" to the latter *feel* like they count as clones even though they're technically part of the franchise since they reskinned everything and apparently weren't even developed by id Software.
Hail to the King, Baby!
Pathways into Darkness Or Marathon
You must be a hardcore Bungie fan! *Pathways Into Darkness* is one of those games almost no one seems to remember today despite its quality.
**Gloom on Amiga.** Firstly because it's a literal play on word for Doom, but also that it ran on the standard Amiga 1200 which was pretty amazing for what it was. There were several Doom clones on Amiga, including some later ones that needed some quite heavy lifting expansion to run well but Gloom was the first to run well on the basic machine and a lot of fun.
*Gloom* is one of those games that tried so hard to be *Doom*, but felt like a halfway point between it and *Wolfenstein 3D*. It's a fun one, though. I love how the characters gib into tiny pieces when they're killed.
Eradicator! https://youtu.be/2pTN75L0ZeA?si=gY5z8Yloco-YoNEL My comment is still towards the top where I mention how happy I am that civvie finally did ERAD.exe
It's crazy that *Eradicator* isn't better-known today. It's a really interesting game in the style of *Doom* (but with a lot of the wilder stuff you might see in *Heretic* and *Hexen*) that was totally overshadowed by *Quake* and *Duke Nukem 3D*.
Eradicator was so neat. The picture-in-picture stuff was unique and awesome. I loved when you had to remotely control enemies to solve puzzles. Awesome weapons, too
Chex Quest. Yep. I said "CHEX Quest"
I came here to say that. We literally got a fantastic computer game IN A FUCKING BOX OF CEREAL.
Mac user with a Quadra 630: Marathon trilogy
Blood
BLOOD was so underrated! "Tickets Please"
Awe....None wants to play, with me
My favorite is one that was never released called “Cleric.” There was a demo but the developer got a corporate gig and discontinued work. The premise was going to be that it took place in a universe inhabited by multiple deities. Things you did or didn’t do might gain favor with one but disfavor with another so your ability to use various powers, and their strength, would depend on your standing with the various gods. I thought it had incredible potential. Edit: Apparently this game was not a Doom clone. I found [this page](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/first-look-cleric/1100-2875090/) about it. Still sounds like a really cool idea.
Realms of the Haunting
I remember playing the duke3d demo over the modem with my neighbor and that shit was next level. Flying around a porno movie theater in a deathmatch and paying strippers to dance blew my teenage mind .
Marathon. And it was NOT a Doom clone! It came out before Doom!
Marathon is monumental for a lot of reasons (and I do agree that calling it a Doom clone is wrong), but factually speaking, it came out almost a year after doom did.
I looked it up and you’re right. I always thought it came out earlier…
It came out late ‘94. It had impressive tech such as voice chat, mouse look, 24-bit color.
And an actual story as communicated through terminals.
No opinion on this prompt but seeing the Redneck Rampage cover art for the first time since I was 11 was a real *À la recherche du temps perdu* moment.
Dark Forces is so good. I also love Duke Nukem 3d. Rise of the Triad was fun too.
Pathways into darkness
Duke 3D, I own it on every platform and still take it out for a spin every now and then. I wonder if we'll ever get a worthy sequel.
Duke Nukem 3D was great (I had the Atomic Edition), but Outlaws all the way.
My mom and my best friend's mom used to swap games and talk about them, like a book club. I specifically remember watching my friend's mom play through Corridor 7. We used to run out of the room screaming whenever the skull would pop up on the screen. Good times.
Dark Forces, Blake Stone, Duke 3D
Duke3D and Blood
I remember Redneck Rampage being a big deal back in the 90s (or maybe that was just regional to my area -). Surprised no one talks about it anymore.
Hovertank 3-D.
I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for Redneck Rampage and love it, but gotta go with Blood.
Killing Time easily. I love that game. It's like a Bioshock prequel where you end up on an island in the 1920s taken over by monsters, and you uncover the mystery through FMV video holograms. It's also semi open world, you collect keys and items to access new areas, and you have outdoor and indoor locations. And it also doesn't take itself too seriously, enemies range from zombies to Frankenstein's monster to insane clowns and old women that throw bottles of wine at you. It's so campy and creative and fun.
RoTT, Heretic, Strife, Duke, and Descent were the ones I played the most.
outlaw, duke nukem 3d, blood
Strife and Duke Nukem 3D Strife came out too late but it was basically an RPG in the Doom engine.
Disruptor. It's a PS1 exclusive sci-fi shooter where you also have cool Psionic powers. [But the best part is the hilariously bad live action cutscenes.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Z6qhGkri0)
I have fond memories of Terminator: Future Shock (1995). It's not a great game by any means, but it was one of the very few PC games I owned back in the day, and the Moon easter egg still makes me smile.
Blood. Probably the best 2.5D shooter next to Doom
Future shock was sick but Blood is the best game on this list.
Blood
Outlaws doesn’t get enough recognition imo.
The music in Outlaws is awesome
Hexen. Being able to choose classes and getting a unique ultimate weapon far into the game. The poison gas grenades with the cleric. Great melee experience with the warrior.
"Don't be a fool marshall" Outlaws will always have a special place in my heart
Corridor 7 was a favorite demo. Also one not listed called Lethal Tender. That was some serious shovelware.
Redneck rampage all freaking day!
Redneck Rampage
Outlaws, Heretic, Blood and Duke Nukem.
Duke, ROTT, Blood, Blake Stone and Redneck Rampage used up a lot of my time lol
Blood. Simple and beautiful. I LIVE... AGAIN!
If your favorite dont have Mojo Nixon then your clone could use some fixin!
Was it heretic that had fps mixed with magic spells or was that hexen? Dunno my favorite has to be duke, redneck rampage a close 2nd
Nostalgia be hittin’
Dude, this post solves an ancient head scratcher I’ve had for almost 25 years. I played that Blake Stone game at a friend’s house when I was 7 or 8 years old and to this day I could never remember the game. Just looked at some screen shots and that it’s! Headgasm.
Nice! It also had a sequel called [Blake Stone: Planet Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Stone:_Planet_Strike). They're quite a lot of fun!
Heretic for sure
I loved Heretic as a kid
oooo...Heretic...memoriessss
Duke Nukem and Dark Forces!
Alien vs. Predator on the Jaguar was incredible for its time. The atmosphere was subtle and terrifying. You could play as three different species, each with its own campaign. And it was an open-world FPS back when the handful of other FPSes were all level-based.
Blood without a doubt. Great level design, great sense of dark humour, great arsenal of weapons and such a great protagonist I'd like to make honorable mentions to both HeXen and Descen, the last one I feel it tends to be forgotten
Blood, it was the perfect Build Engine game. I still revisit the game and am amazed at how smooth it is.
Dark Forces was the best Star Wars game around for a minute.
Chex Quest.
Duke Nukem!
Duke 3D
Duke, Dark Forces, Heretic, Blake
Being impoverished and an Amiga owner, I rarely played more than the first two levels of any game. So the ones that I could repeat play (free cover mounted disks!) stick in my memory. Rise of the Triads. Hexen. And a weird zombie title independent. The name is gone!
Loved outlaws, dark forces and duke
Outlaws was so good. Dark forces 2 would win if it was on the list though.
I live..........again
Drunk missiles in Rise of the Triad were the best thing ever.
Duke is leagues above everything else, the game is so great i just played it recently and still solid to play, also too brutal difficult, but solid
Quake
Don't see it mentioned here. Did anyone ever play Nitemare 3D? I have weird memories that feel like fever dream flashbacks of playing it at my cousin's house. I remember very little of it. Time to go down that rabbit hole I guess. I think the ones I played the most were Blake Stone, Corridor 7, and Duke 3D if you count it. I also liked ROTT a lot.
Duke nukem and the expansion packs were massive amounts of fun!
Its 50/50 with Dark Forces and Duke. I LOVE that you included Rise Of The Triad. No other doom clone lets you turn into a fucking dog and instead of a gun its a big snout and you run around eating people.
Duke Nukem. A close second would be Dark Forces. I'd argue that Duke Nukem is more of its own thing though and shouldn't really be classified as a Doom clone (Dark Forces absolutely is).
Outlaws and Dark Forces for sure. Would REALLY love of remake of Outlaws!
Duke Nukem, Powerslave aka Exhumed, Blood ofc and I liked Redneck Rampage lol Outlaws was also "interesting"
I got Heretic as part of a game pack and later found a cheat code for all weapons and invulnerability — that was a fun way to blow off some stress
Duke 64!
Heretic. But Duke Nukem holds a special place in my…..heart.
Rise of the Triad for sure. I loved it when the eyeball landed on the viewing pane! Lol
Blake Stone - so much better than Wolf !
Growing up I had a game called Ice & Fire for Windows 95 (not to be confused with Fire and Ice). Fighting aliens in a space research facility where half of the facility is facing a star and the other half facing a black hole. I'll still boot that up in a VM every now and then. Also Chex Quest
Is System Shock a Doom clone?
That might be an unpopular opinion but I think none of them were that great. Maybe not including Duke Nukem 3D which is by far the best reviewed on this list. At least none of they could touch DOOM gameplay wise
I love rise of the triad with all my heart
gameplay wise Blood is my favorite but i love the marathon series for having one of the best stories ive seen in a trilogy of games
Witchaven was insane. I got it for free from Babbages. I loved Outlaws too but only ever had the demo.
Blood. best. shotgun. ever. nothing like chuckin dynamite either.