Why Doom is one of the most important PC games of all time

May 13, 2025: This piece was originally published August 18, 2016 as part of our 'most important PC games' series. We've republished it for Doom: The Dark Ages' launch.

“The Citizen Kane of videogames” gets thrown around a lot in the modern ‘games as art’ discussion. And it’s a term that can mean different things, depending on the commentator. Alex Steacy and Cameron Lauder put forward Half-Life as the Citizen Kane of videogames in their Twitch show, Talking Simulator, on the grounds that it had legitimized the medium, just as Citizen Kane had for film. Matt Kamen wrote for Empire that PS4 exclusive The Last of Us “may also prove to be gaming’s Citizen Kane moment – a masterpiece that will be looked back upon favorably for decades.”