8 Weirdest DOOM Enemies (And What They Represent)

8. Imp

Imps are the most common enemy you'll come across in the Doom franchise, cropping up in almost every entry across the canon. Throwing fiery projectiles and flitting about the map, they were implemented as the troops of hell - the backbone of their forces that will harass you at every turn. No bother, they chop up just as easily as anything does when you take a chainsaw to them.

So what brought about the inception of the imp? Well, like everything in Doom, it all started with a game of Dungeons and Dragons. John Romero has said of their campaign: 'I got greedy trying to procure a magic sword and caused the entire world to be overrun by demons. Something just clicked.'

Much like in mythological belief that imps are minions of the devil, in D&D, imps are lawful evil 'tiny fiends' that have wings, can shape shift, and turn invisible - with the latter nicely linking to the Doom Imp's ability to quickly travel across the map. It feels like a natural step that the enemies imp-lementation (get it?) could have been from D&D, especially when you consider the original design of the imp was meant to be a winged demon itself, too.