I actually played the OG Doom right before Dark Forces (it was what reminded it me to try it), and while the first few levels of Doom are fun enough to the point where I beat the first episode, I very quickly lost interest in episode 2, as the level design begins to get really maze-like and sprawling, and the monster closets get old. Episode one gave me all the Doom I needed, personally.

While Dark Forces is definitely very Doom-like, it added quite a lot to the experience over Doom that drastically helped to keep my attention. The addition of a story with cutscenes to provide context for the missions, the specific objectives that needed to be completed, and the far less game-y level design was drastically more interesting to engage with. I just really liked the set-up of each mission being an infiltration, with sometimes requirements to then escape back to the extraction point.

I also noticed that none of the missions in Dark Forces are really that long, they kinda felt like bite-sized missions, which kept any one mission from overstaying its welcome.

Overall it’s just a much more fleshed out, more intriguing take on the doom formula.