I'm not usually susceptible to sudden flashes of feeling ancient, but counting the number of years since id rebooted Doom did the job. 2016 was a long time ago, so long that it predates me owning a gaming PC. Back then, I was still shackled to consoles for anything more demanding than Team Fortress 2, so that's where I picked up Doom '16. It was OK, but I didn't see what all the hype was for, and didn't even like it enough to see it through.
After finally getting a capable PC a few years later I picked Doom back up, and this time it was sublime. Every element of id's reimagined FPS that I'd chafed against with a PS4 controller—its speed, vertical arenas, emphasis on hot-swapping guns—created beautiful music with the precision of a mouse and keyboard. Doom '16 and its follow-up Doom Eternal were undeniably PC games first.
