Figuring out Plutonia’s setting: Chapters 2 and 3

[LucidLocomotive]

This is an interesting topic that still seems to be up for debate. Despite the second chapter of Final Doom being 14 years old, the last thread could not come to an agreement on this. We know that chapter 1 takes place on Earth, at the United States UAC base located in Africa. The mystery, however, has to so with whether chapters 2 and 3 also take place on Earth, chapters 2 and 3 both take place in Hell, or chapter 2 takes place on Earth and chapter 3 takes place in Hell. Based on the format laid out by Doom II: Hell on Earth, as well as the first half of Final Doom, TNT: Evilution, it would follow that the only chapter taking place in Hell would be the 3rd one. However, chapter 2 has a red sky very reminiscent of the red sky we see in Evilution’s Hell levels. With that being said, the intermission text-screen at the end of chapter 1 says nothing about Doomguy heading into Hell, as it normally would. Surprisingly, neither does the text at the end of Chapter 2. Could The Plutonia Experiment be the only game in the Doom franchise that takes place on Earth alone in its entirety? One user on the last thread seems to think so. How can we get to the bottom of this? Does anyone know how to reach out to the Brothers Casali, or even id? Has there been any further info published about this, other than the game manual’s backstory, and the in-game text-screens?

[head_cannon]

This is just a personal interpretation (and I always encourage anyone who's naively considering an actual canon to take everything with a grain of salt), but I always assumed that the distinct Teleport-Pad entrances & exits meant that you were constantly jumping between dimensions for the entirety of Plutonia's campaign. Every layer reflects the top layer on earth, but is further and further distorted the deeper you get, hence the corruption in the sky textures.

 

That's mostly based on my upbringing playing D&D, though. I always interpreted Doom based on that fiction: that these unholy realms exist in effectively infinite layers, and the protagonist is constantly fighting through one petty Demonlord's personal domain in order to break through to the next one's domain.

Edited May 10, 2020 by head_cannon

[P41R47]

It always looked like this to me.

First chapter is Earth, no doubt.

Second chapter is corrupted earth.

And Third chapter is Devil Hive, a part of hell that overtaken the place where Earth forces had the Quantum Accelerator. That why the map29: Odyssey of Noises is reminecent of a city. Because it is a city that was wrapped while the devil hive formed around the place where the quantum accellerator was stored, and the last gate opened. So all the fight was to impede the aliens to learn how to manipulate the quantum accellerator for their own benefit, qhile also closing the last gate to hell.

Edited May 10, 2020 by P41R47

[LucidLocomotive]

I am Really glad I’m not the only one who loves to overanalyze the afterthoughts of canon of classic doom games lol. I like this theory

6 hours ago, P41R47 said:

It always looked like this to me.

First chapter is Earth, no doubt.

Second chapter is corrupted earth.

And Third chapter is Devil Hive, a part of hell that overtaken the place where Earth forces had the Quantum Accelerator. That why the map29: Odyssey of Noises is reminecent of a city. Because it is a city that was wrapped while the devil hive formed around the place where the quantum accellerator was stored, and the last gate opened. So all the fight was to impede the aliens to learn how to manipulate the quantum accellerator for their own benefit, qhile also closing the last gate to hell.

 

[Splatter]

Metaphysical questions aside, in Doom games, you need to go through an interdimensional gate to get to Hell. In Plutonia, there's explicitly one last gate on Earth. Your paramount mission is to reach it and neutralize it before enough demonic badness comes through to cause a second global catastrophe. You do in Map 30, and the game ends. So the weirdness to me is not that one user states the game is set on Earth, but that any player thinks he got to Hell before even reaching The Gateway of Hell.

 

Classic Doom may not be particularly story-based, but the other games always provide some special transition to Hell and text acknowledgement that you've crossed over. The original Doom has the corrupt UAC gate in E1M8 and text about you being stuck on the shores of Hell. Doom II's map 20 has a hole in the world and text about you closing it on the other side. Evilution has the Quake-like gate near the end of map 21 (though since intermissions couldn't be shown mid-level the text about that familiar vista had to play at the end of map 20). Doom 64 has the gateway in map 8 and text about how the demons are practically inviting your into their domain. But Plutonia's map 6 & 11 - some posters have said the former and some the latter - just use the WAD's standard platform exit, and their text is just about about destroying one of the accelerator trio and moving on.

 

14 hours ago, P41R47 said:

It always looked like this to me.

First chapter is Earth, no doubt.

Second chapter is corrupted earth.

And Third chapter is Devil Hive, a part of hell that overtaken the place where Earth forces had the Quantum Accelerator. That why the map29: Odyssey of Noises is reminecent of a city. Because it is a city that was wrapped while the devil hive formed around the place where the quantum accellerator was stored, and the last gate opened. So all the fight was to impede the aliens to learn how to manipulate the quantum accellerator for their own benefit, qhile also closing the last gate to hell.

 

Sure, that works well enough. Doom never goes into detail about how the demons make their fortifications... I don't imagine imps going to it with hard hats and toolboxes. So them forming the devil-hive on Earth from parts of Hell they brought through the gate shouldn't be a problem.

 

14 hours ago, head_cannon said:

This is just a personal interpretation (and I always encourage anyone who's naively considering an actual canon to take everything with a grain of salt), but I always assumed that the distinct Teleport-Pad entrances & exits meant that you were constantly jumping between dimensions for the entirety of Plutonia's campaign. Every layer reflects the top layer on earth, but is further and further distorted the deeper you get, hence the corruption in the sky textures.

 

Someone in the other Plutonia thread mentioned a blurb on Dario Casali's old website about skipping between alternative time periods. The platform entrances and exits could be a remnant from that concept.