# Doom Is Progressive(-ish)

One probably wouldn't think of any version of *Doom* as anything more than a hyperviolent first-person shooter. But more recent games in the franchise offer more depth than blood'n'guts.

In *Doom* (2016) and *Doom Eternal*, The Doom Slayer fights against the forces of Hell to keep them from overrunning humanity. But he also goes after the people who stripmined Hell for unlimited clean energy (and therefore unleashed Hell on humanity). To the degree that he can even be anything other than "too angry to die", The Doom Slayer's vendetta against UAC could make him *anti-capitalist*, and his later vendetta against the Maykrs could make him *anti-authority*.

The 2016 game also mocks well-meaning-but-overbearing "corporate inclusion" speech. The "Mortally Challenged" comment from that game pokes fun at that kind of corporate correctness: The line comes from not from The Doom Slayer, but from a faceless corporate voice over loudspeakers during an invasion by demons from Hell.

*Doom* isn't and hasn't ever been a parody of "wokeness" and/or progressive values. If anything, the most recent games in the franchise offer a...twisted affirmation of such values. The Doom Slayer fights against a corporation intent to unleash havoc in the name of profit. He protects those who can't protect themselves when he fights to save Earth. He even sets out to destroy what is effectively Heaven when he learns its leaders provided worlds for Hell to invade so they could benefit from the energy created by mass sacrifices.
 
Violence aside, the messages sent through the worldbuilding and storytelling of these games are far more left-leaning that right-leaning. If anyone would have a problem with these games for their story, it would be the "anti-woke".