As one of the first and best FPS games of all time, you may not think there’s more to understand about the Doom games than the fact that there are demons and you need to kill them. And sure, you can have a blast with the games just enjoying the thrills of ripping through monsters to a rocking soundtrack, but there’s actually a very rich lore and timeline beneath the surface if you’re willing to look for it. The timeline isn’t as clear as when you play the Metal Gear games in order, but it takes a bit more work to unravel the timeline from the original to the newest Doom: The Dark AgesTrust us, just like playing the Borderlands games in order, you will get confused very fast trying to figure it out on your own. We’ve read all the ancient tombs and chainsawed our way through every single Doom game to figure out how you can play the franchise in release order or chronologically.

Doom began in 1993 and has seen numerous sequels, spinoffs, and rereleases. As impressive as the original games were for the time, and for how well they hold up, it is clear that they are the hardest ones to go back to. We highly suggest playing the games in release order to anyone who plans on tackling the entire series so you can enjoy and appreciate where the games began before diving into the more modern titles that iterate on that formula. For this list, we will include every official Doom game released, ignoring remakes, DLCs, and enhanced editions.