What's With Doom 3's Weird Weapon Designs?

[Artman2004]

Is it just me, or do Doom 3's weapons look weird? I mean:

 

- The pistol functions like any typical pistol would. However, it's grip designed as if it were a revolver. How the fuck would that even work?

 

- The shotgun has a charging handle despite being pump-only. If it had a semi-auto mode, it would make sense.

 

- The machinegun seems to be double/triple barreled. I guess it's a reference to Quake's nailgun.

 

- The grenade looks like more like a jar than a grenade.

 

- What's with the BFG? It looks like a seashell. And where's the trigger at?

[AverageDoomguy]

That's right, the weapon design on Doom 3 is quite lacking, like it does makes sense to create innovative ideas since the game takes place in a futuristic setting. Though it was almost as if they were aiming for a balance of both worlds. Something that gives the impression of "both modern and classical at the same time."

 

Some of the designs do justice over the Classic Doom weapon designs such as the Chaingun and the Rocket Launcher, however there was something going wrong with the Shotgun, Pistol or BFG designs.

 

 

[D4NUK1]

It was the weird future desing of the far away 2172!

Maybe you don't like it now, but hopeful your grand grand grand  grand kids would like it.

But to expand the idea, maybe trink as a gamer dev at 2002-2004. Newer games are mostly focus on semi actual weapons. So may you take a look of some popular weapos at the time, and try to imagine yourself, how this gun will look in the future?

The machine gun looks like a PDW Weapon with a nice monitor to see your bullets. Something that is look like the Assault Rifle from Halo, but is made it look like is small because is more reason as is a security weapon, not a war weapon.

The biggest offender is the shotgun cause, it's look always weird. But maybe that was the reason is like that.

Edited August 6, 2020 by jamondemarnatural
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[Tetzlaff]

I think the weapons look great, they nailed the "not too far future" look well.

 

58 minutes ago, Artman2004 said:

- The pistol functions like any typical pistol would. However, it's grip designed as if it were a revolver. How the fuck would that even work?

The pistol looks great, with a slightly retro touch. What's the problem with the revolver handle?

 

1 hour ago, Artman2004 said:

- The shotgun has a charging handle despite being pump-only. If it had a semi-auto mode, it would make sense.

I generally don't care for realistic weapons, so I never noticed that. Maybe it can be upgrade to semi-auto mode?

 

1 hour ago, Artman2004 said:

- The grenade looks like more like a jar than a grenade.

As far as I know grenades come in all kinds of shapes. I've seen grenades that look like pineapples...

 

1 hour ago, Artman2004 said:

- What's with the BFG? It looks like a seashell. And where's the trigger at?

It's a scifi super weapon. The trigger is in that glove-like protrusion at the back.

[kristus]

Essentially a hand grenade is just a jar with a detonator and explosive filling.

[Biodegradable]

2 hours ago, kristus said:

Essentially a hand grenade is just a jar with a detonator and explosive filling.

 

That's the kind of thing you spread on your toast when you're in need of an energy jolt to wake you up in the morning when your coffee isn't enough.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Biodegradable

[Lila Feuer]

Pistol is a reference to Blade Runner, there is also a similar looking handgun in Fallout 2 and New Vegas.

The final design of the shotgun is a bit ugly looking, it's very bulbous and has unusual characteristics like the aforementioned charging handle as well as a ventilated rail on the barrel typically seen on hunting configurations. It's also on on the shotgun's receiver, another bizarre design decision. The original shotgun shown in alpha footage was a lot better looking IMHO and thankfully you can still use it if you search for alpha shotgun on moddb.

The machine gun is a bullpup and PDW, similarly designed like the FN P90 and does indeed have two, reciprocating barrels for some reason.

The hand grenades remind me of a modern take on the Russian RGD-5, and are cooked with a twist mechanism like the ones in Quake II.

The rocket launcher looks a lot like the Quake II model, which is a nice nod though the unusable targeting system is unfortunate.

D3 has the best chaingun and my favorite plasma gun and BFG designs, that is all.

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by Lila Feuer

[Hellektronic]

It was a much different approach to design than the original Doom- the original Doom was almost kinda cyberpunk, like a juxtaposition of outdated tech like wooden shotguns and chainsaws with advanced futuristic space travel. Crummy tech but in the far future, like, oh... Alien or Bladerunner.

 

Doom 3 is kinda like the opposite- it's almost all futuristic, with a few nods here and there to the style of the original. So yeah, they're all "futuristic" weapon designs. Doom 2016 and Eternal kinda follow the same path, mostly clean, futuristic environments. Not really like... rusty, scummy, ugly space. It's nice and shiny, kinda bizarre looking like Star Trek or something.

 

Very stylistically different games, I'm not sure I'd say they even take place in the same universe.

 

Quote

The shotgun has a charging handle despite being pump-only. If it had a semi-auto mode, it would make sense.

That's a pretty common trope in shooters, actually- a shotgun that should technically be BOTH pump and semi-auto like a SPAS-12 is instead made pump only for balancing. It's more or less a semi-auto + pump shotgun, but in the game everyone uses it pump. Why? Well... it looks cool.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[Tetzlaff]

14 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

Doom 3 is kinda like the opposite- it's almost all futuristic, with a few nods here and there to the style of the original. So yeah, they're all "futuristic" weapon designs. Doom 2016 and Eternal kinda follow the same path, mostly clean, futuristic environments.

 

I think the Doom 2016 weaponry generally looks more futuristic and high-techy than Doom 3's. For example the Doom 3 Plasmagun looks like an experimental prototype, while the Doom 2016 Plasmagun looks more streamlined and high-tech.

[Hellektronic]

1 minute ago, Tetzlaff said:

I think the Doom 2016 weaponry generally looks more futuristic and high-techy than Doom 3's. For example the Doom 3 Plasmagun looks like an experimental prototype, while the Doom 2016 Plasmagun looks more streamlined and high-tech.

 

I think it was like... a progressive evolution. The new Bethesda breed of id Software kinda took the futuristic basis and really ran with it, Quake Champions is very much the same way.

 

It's not filthy, it's not ugly, it's not rusty, it's... like... immaculate. Shiny. Clean. Like traditional sci-fi

[D4NUK1]

15 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

 

It's not filthy, it's not ugly, it's not rusty, it's... like... immaculate. Shiny. Clean. Like traditional sci-fi

Eternal Rocket Launcher, Ballista and SSG want to talk to you about their cleaness.

[Hellektronic]

Just now, jamondemarnatural said:

Eternal Rocket Launcher, Ballista and SSG want to talk to you about their cleaness.

 

The rocket launcher is made by Hell cultists, the super shotgun and ballista are sentinel-designed.

 

I think that pretty much speaks for itself. In terms of UAC tech though? It's all clean and shiny, unless covered in blood or something.

[Maximum Matt]

Now let's talk about Doom3guy's fists, dammit.  He looks like his hands are the wrong way around or something

[Eurisko]

I think with a few of the weapons they went for a more realistic approach probably to coincide with dark military aesthetic. 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Eurisko

[seed]

My only gripe with the weapons is really just the Chaingun, which looks like it's made of plastic, and some of the final designs are worse than the alpha.

 

The alpha shotgun and SMG looked a lot better than the final product, but I'm hearing that only the texture and the animations have changed between the stages for the SMG, and the alpha texture can just be applied to the final version and matches perfectly.

[MFG38]

On 8/6/2020 at 10:52 PM, jamondemarnatural said:

It was the weird future desing of the far away 2145!

 

FTFY.

[Tetzlaff]

Thinking of it, the Doom 3 near-future scifi/vaguely military weapon design is pretty unique. The only FPS I can think of that has a similar style is Timeshift (2007). It was set in an alternate timeline were a fascist regime took over the US.

 

I love Doom 2016's powerful meaty scifi guns, but to be honest, the style is basically the same like in the Unreal Tournament series and many other scifi FPS. Which is also cool, but also a little bit generic.