Crash As Doom 6's Protagonist

[Doom_Dude]

There's nothing wrong with having options, so if they did add different characters it could make the game more interesting. So you could start in a different area depending on who you play and why not have some different abilities, story elements, alternative paths and whatnot. I like variety myself so id be all for a Crash and or a Phobos characters being playable. Actually that's more interesting to me than playing as a demon type.

[DoOmEr4LiFe]

9 hours ago, Nevander said:

If they did a co-op Doom game, it might be cool to have Crash as the player two.

 

This. Maybe have a couple other marines and give them each different abilities. When playing co-op you and your teammates could select which marine you play as. Bonus points if one of the characters is colorblind and thinks his armor is Indigo but is actually a dull gray.

 

Just as long as they add co-op. Preferably splitscreen.

Edited April 27, 2020 by DoOmEr4LiFe

[Gifty]

This concept of Doomguy being an "iconic character" is an extremely new phenomenon that pretty much only exists because of mythology added in the reboot games (which is a perfectly fine decision that works in the context of those games). Prior to 2016, the Doom marine was basically just a digital stand-in for the player themselves--you're not meant to be playing the Doomguy, you're playing YOU within the world of Doom. John Romero himself has famously said this, and it's the reason the marine has never been given a name or a consistent appearance.

 

People who get real testy at the mere suggestion of a "beloved, iconic" character who was basically a faceless avatar for 20+ years being "replaced" by something new and scary (god forbid, a #Womuuun!) really ought to keep that shit on Reddit where it can be safely ignored.

 

The only actual worry I would have in adding additional player characters would be in creating a F.E.A.R-like universe, where the need for mechanical consistency leads to like six or seven characters all having identical superpowers. This cheapens all of them as characters (since their powers basically are their personality) and cheapening the stakes of the story by implying that every generic DeltaForceGuy has godlike matrix powers.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Gifty

[A Nobody]

It should be like GZDoom where you can change your character skin.

[Murdoch]

2 hours ago, The Strife Commando said:

It should be like GZDoom where you can change your character skin.

 

It really should not. This is thing that you seem to be missing. In the modern Doom games, the Doom Slayer is fundamentally integral to the main storyline.

 

One way I could potentially see it working in a main game is if, as someone above suggests, there were female Night Sentinels. Perhaps this woman was able to escape from Hell thanks to the Slayer's latest bouts of creative house keeping. Being a Sentinel, she's stronger than your average human so her being able to fight the demons makes sense. You get to play as her to tackle different missions. To me, this kind of breaks the lone warrior against all the forces of Hell which is kind of the central theme of the game, but it sort of works lore wise when you consider the Sentinels that remained loyal to their original mission and each other.

 

Replacing the Slayer, even with another male, would be like releasing a mainline Tomb Raider without Lara Croft as the primary protagonist. To just have a skin switch would completely break the lore. It would not even be as simple as changing the pronouns. Even the demons themselves are more upgraded than those we faced in the first games so this new female would need to have at least some semblance of unique back story explaining why she is powerful enough to take on the demons and why she is there. I suppose you could have it as a retroactive continuity thing but that would seem very forced and contrived to me.

A kick ass female cop or solider as protagonist in a DLC/spin off makes much more sense. I am into that. Maybe the rank and file demons are not as tough as the ones they send after the Slayer, so a non-superpowered human fighting them is a little bit more believable. Or as I suggest above, it could be more survival horror? A mother trying to make it through a city to get to her kids and get them to a safe(ish) area. Something like that. Our hypothetical female Night Sentinel could star here too. There are plenty of ways you could creatively and logically fit a strong female character into the overall narrative without replacing everything that has been done with Doom Slayer for no good reason.

 

5 hours ago, Gifty said:

This concept of Doomguy being an "iconic character" is an extremely new phenomenon that pretty much only exists because of mythology added in the reboot games (which is a perfectly fine decision that works in the context of those games).

 

I actually strongly disagree with this. The way the main character is presented in the original games is considerably less... "superhero-y" but it's still pretty iconic to me. As for the Slayer, the tag line for Eternal plainly says - the only thing they fear is you. Yes, he is more defined as a character, but he is still supposed to be a representation of you.

 

5 hours ago, Gifty said:

People who get real testy at the mere suggestion of a "beloved, iconic" character who was basically a faceless avatar for 20+ years being "replaced" by something new and scary (god forbid, a #Womuuun!) really ought to keep that shit on Reddit where it can be safely ignored.

 

Character changes need to make narrative sense. A sudden change of the primary character in Doom as it currently stands - regardless of whether that character is male, female, androgynous android, or superpowered canine - absolutely would not. As I said above, would you change the primary character of Tomb Raider away from Lara Croft, even to another woman? No. She is Tomb Raider. Make new characters and fit them into the narrative in a way that makes sense. Change for the sake of change accomplishes nothing.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Murdoch

[Doomkid]

I just don’t see why more options is a bad thing. In a fantasy world that’s already full of nonsense which is only conceivable in a fictional universe, replaying the game as a woman despite it not quite making sense in the established lore is a big “who cares” to me personally. If the lore is prioritised to the point of “preventing” fun additional content like skins/character customisation, then frankly the lore needs to take a step back. Not really though, the game is already full of stuff that is technically “nonsensical” anyway so character options just don’t seem like a big deal to me.

 

I see this more as a sound argument for making it unlockable content, but that’s about it.

[Wrathoxic]

The story centers around Doomguy, it would be very hard to write the Doom plotline around another character.

[rustygizzard]

to be honest, i wouldn't mind if they took this route in a spinoff game. for now though, in a mainline DOOM game there is no real reason to stop following the story of doomguy, and it would most likely be met with an unnecessary shitstorm.

[Murdoch]

I suppose for the uncritical, a female skin option is considerably less absurd that zombie Doom Slayer or Unicorn Doom Slayer. Not really sure what the benefit would be exactly but if lore inconsistencies do not bother you then eh, all power to you. Sure.

[whatup876]

I'd argue Doomguy never felt like a self-insert to some people, even before the reboot, because he still had some bits sticking out, like the face in the HUD and the background with Daisy and beating up his higher up over orders.

I feel like it were Romero and Carmack that went with the "he's supposed to be you" route because they cared little about story, since Doom's setting is more of a concept that made the series unique.

They thought it was more fun if players decided who the Doomguy was.

 

But besides Tom Hall, i'm pretty sure other people at id thought of there being a bit more to the setting.

 

Might be wrong, but if id wanted to push the Doom protagonist as "Mister You", they could have made him completley faceless/covered/silent like how he was in 2016, to the point you could have been a robot.

Otherwise, he's as much of a character as classic BJ except for the lack of a name.

 

Making Crash a character could allow for some ideas out of Tom Hall's bible or what worked with Doom 2 RPG.

I once imagined an Hexen-like Doom spin-off where Phobos and Crash had their own unique weapons, some of them based off weapons in 2016's multiplayer.

[DoomKrakken]

Also on topic, and bringing back my thoughts on a Night Sentinel Crash (you can find that on Page 1), I had further developed the idea with a friend.  He commissioned an artist on Twitter (Substance20) to draw her.  This is the result:

What do you guys think? :D 

 

An uncorrupted Marauder, complete with axe and Sentinel Beast, and a couple more tricks up her sleeve! ;)

[Murdoch]

17 hours ago, DoomKrakken said:

 

What do you guys think? :D 

 

Suitably epic. 10/10 would play.

[Taurus Daggerknight]

I'd be cool with it if it was a choice between playing as her, Phobos or Slayer. Or if it was a co-op thing in which each player assumed one of those roles. 

[DoomKrakken]

4 hours ago, Taurus Daggerknight said:

I'd be cool with it if it was a choice between playing as her, Phobos or Slayer. Or if it was a co-op thing in which each player assumed one of those roles. 

That, plus Commander Valen.  The Slayer better drag his ass back through the Exultia portal and knock some sense into him! ;)

[Artman2004]

That Night Sentinel Crash makes me imagine other marines getting swept up into the ranks of the Night Sentinels, like Phobos and the Doom 3 protagonist.

[DoomKrakken]

5 minutes ago, Artman2004 said:

That Night Sentinel Crash makes me imagine other marines getting swept up into the ranks of the Night Sentinels, like Phobos and the Doom 3 protagonist.

That'd be cool. :D

[Artman2004]

On 5/2/2020 at 12:40 AM, DoomKrakken said:

That'd be cool. :D

I had this stupid idea of the Doom 3 protagonist using an Argent flashlight if he joined the Night Sentinels. It's about as goofy as you could imagine.

[DoomKrakken]

LMAO

 

It could either manifest as his Crucible Blade or as a laser cannon. :P

[AtimZarr1]

A female protagonist like Crash would be really cool to play! Though considering people's reactions to the female protagonist of Doom: Annihilation, I don't imagine it would go well if they "replaced" the Slayer. Id could convince skeptics through execution: have her play with a unique gameplay style or maybe as a CO-OP partner as some have suggested. In terms of lore, Crash could fit into the newer Doom games nicely enough - her only backstory in Quake III was being that she was Doomguy's military instructor. If Bethesda pushes Id to make spin-offs, akin to how Wolfenstein II was followed by spin-offs, I could also see Crash being a playable character in one of them.

 

On 5/3/2020 at 2:05 PM, Artman2004 said:

I had this stupid idea of the Doom 3 protagonist using an Argent flashlight if he joined the Night Sentinels. It's about as goofy as you could imagine.

 

Argent Soul Cube please.

[BBQgiraffe]

sound dumb but modders would probably add it in

[AverageDoomguy]

While there's a large amount of support for female protagonists in videogames, as you can see with Tomb Raider and Metroid as examples. It's difficult for it to happen to Doom, personally it would be totally awesome to get some in-depth character background on Crash or Phobos for that matter, even though they were basically characters that were added to the arena so it could have some diversity in it, I feel like they deserved some creativity and love as well.

 

I can see them possibly appearing up on a future co-op mode, while it would be a bit over the top, it would be awesome to have Ranger, Wrack, BJ, Crash, Phobos, Bitterman and some of the other ID characters added in to the mix. Or simply a female unnamed player character "Slayer Gal" perhaps?

 

On 4/27/2020 at 3:18 AM, Avoozl said:

They are more likely to name the next title Doom 666

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by AverageDoomguy

[Final Verdict]

Wouldn't it be easier to just make her a 2nd character? Why replace one with the other? That's just going to piss people off. It's better to have both for some variety, just give her some different weapons (Railgun instead of Plasma Rifle) and off you go.

 

Not sure about Crash as the female, too obscure. It would probably be better to make a new female character up.

[DooM Bear]

I honestly clicked on this thinking it was a joke thread / someone making a DooM mod where you play as crash bandicoot :-P

 

That said and now I’m up to speed, na I don’t think so. Maybe as a main NPC / one of the DooM marines colleagues would be cool :-) Plus she can still be bad ass as hell and save the DooM slayer or take down a demon he can’t or something :-)

 

Also, no i’m not saying no cos she’s a woman! I’m saying the DooM marine / slayer is the main character and switching any main character is generally not a good idea. Would feel just the same if someone wanted to replace Lara Croft or Alyx Vance with someone else :-)

Edited July 19, 2020 by DooM Bear

[Final Verdict]

37 minutes ago, DooM Bear said:

I honestly clicked on this thinking it was a joke thread / someone making a DooM mod where you play as crash bandicoot :-P

 

That said and now I’m up to speed, na I don’t think so. Maybe as a main NPC / one of the DooM marines colleagues would be cool :-)

 

Also, no i’m Not saying no cos she’s a woman! I’m saying the DooM marine / slayer is the main character and switching any main character is generally not a good idea. Would feel just the same if someone wanted to replace Lara Croft or Alyx Vance with someone else :-)

 

My thoughts exactly. Replacing an iconic character with a new one is never a good idea. Many games have tried and failed to do it, people get attached to these characters. Better to add new characters, not take away.

 

It has absolutely nothing to do with gender for me and I'm not just saying that, I really couldn't care less if they're male or female, as long as the character is interesting.

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Final Verdict

[DooM Bear]

1 hour ago, Final Verdict said:

 

My thoughts exactly. Replacing an iconic character with a new one is never a good idea. Many games have tried and failed to do it, people get attached to these characters. Better to add new characters, not take away.

 

It has absolutely nothing to do with gender for me and I'm not just saying that, I really couldn't care less if they're male or female, as long as the character is interesting.

 

 

Agreed :-)

 

Additionally, the reason I think adding her in an NPC capacity first is a good idea is that this gives the devs a chance to build her into established lore (especially if she is a main character) thus exposing her to a wider audience (again, I had no idea who crash was before this thread!).

 

Once she is a well known character, then you can have her as an option as a playable character (along side the DooM marine - not replacing) / give her her own spin off in later games :-)

 

I always feel this is a much better approach than randomly finding a game / tv show / movies main character has suddenly changed for no apparent reason!

[Liberation]

I'm not sure simply replacing the doom slayer would be a good option, especially when it comes to the DLC.

However if the next Doom game came out with character creator, full of sliders to cover all genders/races etc etc, then that would be pretty cool. Make your own Doom slayer or just stick to the default. I'll certainly be down with that.

EDIT: Nor would I oppose if a character creator was patched into DE, but that is mega doubtful.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Liberation

[Doomkid]

Is Crash really that obscure? Quake 3 / Quake Live were never world-shatteringly popular, but they definitely had somewhat large playerbases for a while there and still have dedicated fans. It’s also known to be a brother franchise to Doom. While not quite as popular as Doom, it’s nowhere near obscure.

[DooM Bear]

5 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Is Crash really that obscure? Quake 3 / Quake Live were never world-shatteringly popular, but they definitely had somewhat large playerbases for a while there and still have dedicated fans. It’s also known to be a brother franchise to Doom. While not quite as popular as Doom, it’s nowhere near obscure.

 

I do think she is pretty obscure personally. I could be completely wrong though!

 

Maybe do a poll on it?

 

However, I think a poll here would provide you with some pretty skewed results as we are all more hardcore DooM fans and therefore your survey sample would have a much higher probability of knowing who she is than the average person / gamer :-) 

 

Still would be interested in the results though and am happy to be wrong :-)

Edited July 20, 2020 by DooM Bear

[Doom-X-Machina]

Crash as an NPC or a selectable multiplayer / co-op character - yes.
Main protagonist - no.

[ReaperAA]

9 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Is Crash really that obscure? Quake 3 / Quake Live were never world-shatteringly popular, but they definitely had somewhat large playerbases for a while there and still have dedicated fans. It’s also known to be a brother franchise to Doom. While not quite as popular as Doom, it’s nowhere near obscure.

 

The problem is that not all Doomers play Quake games and those that *do* play usually play the SP games (Quake and Quake 2). Not to mention that Crash is actually the weakest character/bot in Quake 3.

 

As mrthejoshmon stated:

Quote

 

The reaction probably goes like this:

 

Handful of hardcores: "Oh that's Crash, cool"

Most hardcores: "Why?"

Everyone else: "Who?"

 

 

So yeah among the Doomers, Crash is probably obscure. The devs would be better off creating a whole new female character than using Crash (and even that is not a great idea in my book).

Edited July 20, 2020 by ReaperAA