“Was not that Lucifer an angel once? How comes it then that he is Prince of devils?” Faust asks of Mephistopheles in Christopher Marlowe’s telling of the legend.

“O, by aspiring pride and insolence; For which God threw him from the face of Heaven.”

Had only Infinity Ward been more insolent, perhaps they would not have the most hated game trailer in YouTube history . Lucifer may have taken on an evil aspect in Christianity, but his translated name means “light-bearer,” suggesting more promethean resonances. Game developers should embrace his Satanic spirit and steal fire from DOOM ’s gameplay heaven. Get insolent developers, it’s time to rip off DOOM.

Close Quarters

Many have attempted to claw back the elaborate mechanics that have made modern shooters in the Call of Duty mode feel like such a chore. But strip away the crawling cover system, deliberative iron sights and “hurry up to wait” health regeneration and you’re not guaranteed a more frenetic experience.

Past attempts to bring the FPS more in line with old-school gameplay have too often mistaken simplicity for elegance. The main strategy becomes endless backpedaling, as enemy swarms chase you in backward circles. It’s not a mode that makes anyone feel badass. In fact, it would look downright embarrassing in third person.

Instead of simply taking stuff away and hoping the old ways sprout up, DOOM incentivizes close quarters by making it the best way to save ammo, regenerate life and find no ammo. Getting all up in demon grills is not a choice, it’s the only way.

There are at least four ways the DOOM play mechanics achieve more frantic shooter gameplay than the rest of this decade’s flagship shooter franchises:

1. Melee “Glory Kills” let you conserve ammo, plus teleport you into the brawl.
2. “Glory Kills” guarantee health drops, encouraging players to rush toward enemies when they’re close to death instead of away.
3. Chainsaw kills spray ammo all over the place.
4. Level design isn’t based around shooting alleyways, but open arenas. Enemies spawn everywhere instead of appearing in front of you. Movement becomes essential.

Very Special Buttons

DOOM isn’t wasting space on a context-dependent “Use” button. At least on PS4 you don’t really “use” anything at all, you punch it with the control stick click. DOOM has a dedicated button for your chainsaw and another one for the BFG. It’s definitely wasteful, but it’s also fun. Combined with the “equipment” button (grenades, basically) you have five different attack options only a click away: gun, equipment, melee, BFG and chainsaw. This means DOOM has more attacks available with a single button press than two-gun inventory games often have in total (primary, sidearm, melee, grenade).

Ditch On Rails Design

DOOM maps are open, rather than an endless series of checkpoints on a jagged line. But level design alone isn’t the reason why DOOM gunfights are so satisfying. Rather than enemies always ahead, just at the end of your sights, many DOOM conflicts are opt-in arena battles. A typical encounter involves finding a demon spawner and a few enemy supplicants surrounding it. You activate the spawner, turning on the incoming onslaught, who teleport into play around the arena.

This achieves a couple of wonderful things:

• You’re typically at the center of the killing floor when the combat begins, ensuring that you’re surrounded by enemies instead of perpetually proceeding toward them.
• Combat arenas feel almost like multiplayer maps, zones of warfare inside the larger level.
• Power-ups are picked up strategically in combat, instead of opportunistically along a linear path.

Hell Is Here And Won’t Be Ignored

DOOM ’s reception has been very positive thus far, so its gameplay will have to be grappled with one way or another. With the gates of Hell already opened, no one will be as accepting come the next release of yet another shooter with recharging health, iron sights and endlessly scripted combat sequences.

Of course, there’s plenty in DOOM that we don’t want to see duplicated. A decade of shooters exactly like DOOM would be just as unfortunate as a decade of shooters exactly like Call of Duty. You can tell good stories, for one. Long cutscenes, quick time events and scripted incidents are too much, but DOOM has far too little.

Too many reviews have praised DOOM for being “ back to basics,” but that’s a fundamental misreading of why the game is so successful. DOOM may have stripped away a number of modern shooter conventions, but it built up a number of new and interesting things in its place.

Game developers, the era of DOOM has arrived and it won’t be ignored. Don’t make the same mistake as Faust, who believed himself apart. “How comes it then that thou art out of hell?” he asks the demon.

“Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it,” Mephistopheles replies. Hell is here, learn to rule in it.