Doomguy has been everywhere. He’s been to Mars, he’s been to Hell, he’s been to Thatcher’s England. But what’s he do between monster-murder sprees? He pops down to a museum opening to better himself.
In Doom: The Gallery Experience, you walk around a rejigged E1M1 with a cheeky glass of red in hand looking at Piero Di Cosimo’s Return from the Hunt and a vase from the fourteenth century. There’s not an imp in sight, unless you count the baby Jesus in Francesco Francia’s Madonna and Child, who has always looked a bit sus if you ask me.
You walk through various cultural exhibits, with Doomguy’s eyes looking left and right from behind glasses that, in my favorite touch, have been added to his face in the UI. The pickups include wine bottles, hors d’oeuvres that refill your cheese meter, and cash. You’ll need the money, because of course you have to exit via the gift shop.
Examining each work of art brings up a link to The Metropolitan Museum of Art page for that piece, where you can learn a little about them. While it’s intended as parody, Doom: The Gallery Experience is actually a better educational game than most of the ones I played in school.
The only thing that could make it better is an addition Cultic designer Jasozz made in a video where he overlaid a drawn-out Doomguy grunt to make it sound like he was really appreciating that painting of the nativity, as well as each sip of his pinot noir.
You can download Doom: The Gallery Experience, or play it in your browser, at itch.io.