Quake and Doom goofy?

[XBOX UNIDOS]

I remember when I was kid I was playing doom and quake and I was extremely afraid, having nightmares and such, then because of gamepass I had the opportunity to replay both games, and honestly it's not scary anymore, kinda goofy, and I would like to know, was it really scary back in the day or was I scared because I was a kid? 

[Teo Slayer]

I used to be very scared when I first played Doom.

[Zirtonic]

The couple times I've talked to my dad about DooM he's maintained that Knee Deep in the Dead (he couldn't afford the full game) spooked the hell out of him. He would have been 19 when it came out so either it was truly scary or my dad's a big baby. He always explicitly mentions the E1M3 blue key trap and I'm sure the low lighting of the optional area in E1M2, almost all of Phobos Lab, and the claustrophobia of E1M6's finale were all hair-raising moments.

 

Personally I've never found it scary but I didn't get into DooM until just a few years ago (thanks, 2016 reboot!) so while it can still evoke a creepy atmosphere I'm far too young and spoiled by modern day AAA horrors.

[onetruepurple]

Quake E4M4 is as scary to me at 29 as it was at 9.

[Sergeant G]

I was like 11 years old when I first played DOOM. This was the early 1990's. That was a long time ago. DOOM was abjectly terrifying. There had been no Silent Hill, no F.E.A.R., no Deadspace, no Amnesia: The Dark Descent or anything of the sort, and all of those games were still a long way off.

I thought that I would be totally prepared for "Wolfenstein 3d in space". 

Wolf 3d never bothered me. According to decino's research, a lot of the demon noises are distorted big cats...so it plays upon the instincts, deep instincts. What is most scary is an unidentified sound that you can't see. 

The zombies and imps growling and snorting in other parts of the level were traumatizingly scary. It was like a month before I could fight Archviles with the sound on. 

Yeah, I might been a bit of a wimp at first, but again, DOOM was literally without precedent, it was wrong in a way that Wolfenstein hadn't been and it kind of sucked you in, regardless of how intense it was. 

Thank whatever that DOOM came out, the 90s would have been even more boring if it hadn't. 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Sergeant G

[Murdoch]

Familiarity breeds, well, familiarity. When you know what's coming, fear loses it's edge. I never found Doom particularly scary even as a kid, but there were one or two scary spots like that bit in E1M3 (I think) when you grab a key and the lights go out. Quake I definitely found a bit spookier but again not really scary per se except for maybe the Fiend jump scares. Now, 25+ years for both games later, when I hear a noise I know exactly what it means and almost exactly how I am going to handle that challenge without really even consciously thinking about it. Though I still get the odd jump scare when something surprises me. It takes an exceptionally creative mapper to make either game genuinely and consistently scary nowadays, like what @Bauul did in the recent Death's Dichotomy where managed to make even Troopers scary.

[7Mahonin]

Yes, both of these games were very terrifying at the time, but Quake was a bit scarier for me at the time. I remember Doom being scary in certain sections, but for Quake the whole game felt truly frightening from start to finish. I remember thinking both of these games looked really realistic at the time, but now I don't even see exactly how I could think that, but maybe it's due to the fact there wasn't as much to compare it to at the time for me anyhow. Wasn't really a huge gamer back then, these were the first games I truly got very involved with as a teen. I had never seen anything even remotely like Doom, all my prior gaming revolved around NES and C64, so this was a HUGE leap ahead in my eyes.

[PsychEyeball]

That one room with the lights going in and out in Doom's E1M5 will forever remain ingrained in my mind. Getting jumped by Spectres in the dark was something.

 

Weirdly enough I was more scared of Doom than Quake. Then again I didn't like Quake as much as a kid since I was dumb and played it only with the keyboard. I felt my entire game grind to a halt every time I'd face a Scragg because of the herculean task of aiming up/down properly with the keyboard.

[Noiser]

Resolution may be one of the reasons, together with the fact that you was a kid. Most people came back to Doom using a modern source port like GZDoom, but the game was way scarier on 320x200 imho - the environment just felt dirtier and mysterious. Doom on high res looks like everything is made of paper (and it's even worse on hardware render, when all the cool tricks with colormap lighting are removed).

Edited August 26, 2021 by Noiser

[Gibbon]

Some parts scared a little 7 year old me.  I remember always running for the yellow key in E1M4 because the pinky in the maze..  you can hear it and it just really unnerved me.

 

Of course playing on a crappy dark as hell CRT probably helped the mood

Edited August 25, 2021 by Gibbon

[FireballCaco]

In my opinion, Quake is more unsettling than Doom is. The soundtrack and the enemy designs are more frightening than Doom's. The Vores and the Spawns are especially scary for me.

[SilverMiner]

I didn't feel scared when first time played Doom cuz I was around 1 year old, and I didn't even know yet what to be scared of in my life lol, and I remember the game as something familiar and not to be afraid of.

I managed to go thru 2nd and 4th episodes when I was 6 heh + tried out Plutonia.

 

Speaking about Quake, I played it for first time at 4 (shareware) and then when I finally got a playable version (at 6), I was scared of every moving thing in episode 4, especially the Shamblers at E4M2, E4M4 and E4M7

[P41R47]

I come here expecting a Doom/Quake Goofy, the Disney Character, mod!
oh, what a disappointment!!!

When thinking about something that scared you before but not now, you should think also on the context surrounding it.
Examples:
-a. was you playing just with keyboard whe you were a kid?

-b. were you kid enough to even feel afraid or annoyed by the darkness and needed a light on for you to sleep?

-c. were you use to the same amount of gore at that time when you were a kid than what you are use to now?

-d. when analizing the monsters one by one, you found them goofy for not being realistic, or because they are unrealistic?

-e. when you were kid, there was any kind of sound that scared you, like a roaring thunder, and it doesn't scare you now in fact?

The context, when studied enough, may give you the answers far more than trying to rationalize the difference on your feeling today.
 

For most of the people that played Doom on their childhood, there are moment on the game that were always kinda scary.
Like the earie music on E1M8, the sight of the two Baron bosses, the strange ending of Ep.1 where you suffer in darknes until you are dead.
Or the music on E2M4 with those strange faces on the walls, or the menacing footsteps of the Cyberdemon on E2M8.

Doom was made not to scare, but it did use tropes that one can say that when used adequatelly, they are indeed scary.

The same can be said for Quake, except it is far more developed on the scary tropes, with more detailed enemies and with a music far more earie.
 

[Bauul]

18 minutes ago, Noiser said:

Resolution may be one of the reasons

 

I was going to make this point too. A big aspect of a successfully scary experience is fear of the unknown, and a super low resolution facilitates this strongly. The first time I played E2M8 I had no idea what the Cyberdemon actually was: it was just this threatening mass of pixels I never got close enough to actually make out.

 

Plus we didn't know the ins and outs of the game like we do now. These days a Cyberdemon (to continue the example) is more a visible representation of lines of code as a "real" monster, but at the time it presented far more of an unknown threat. 

[Gez]

Doom in 1994 had basically the most realistic graphics you could hope for in a fast-paced action game. Nowadays, low-res sprites are a lot less intimidating.

[msx2plus]

doom is very cute and silly

[Endless]

For the 90s, both games were pretty scary. The marketing for both games also help out sell the idea of ''horror''.

 

Yo see this promo for Final Doom and think about something spooky.

 

And one for Quake with quite the metal style:

[FireballCaco]

I find it funny how the hardest enemies to deal with in my opinion in Quake (Shamblers, Vores, Fiends, and Spawns) have no eyes. It adds to the surreal atmosphere and how the levels are dark and foreboding. Also makes them creepier.

[Gez]

Where they're guarding, they don't need eyes to see.

[FireballCaco]

I wonder how they sense you in the dark. Probably echolocation where eyes are useless.

[Linuxmaster1992]

47 minutes ago, Endless said:

For the 90s, both games were pretty scary. The marketing for both games also help out sell the idea of ''horror''.

 

Yo see this promo for Final Doom and think about something spooky.

 

 

I feel that this poster is kind of silly. "Old soldiers never die, they just turn into mutant zombies" Just makes me laugh for some reason, especially due to the fact that "mutant zombies" is in a tiny font compared to the rest.

[Dexiaz]

John Romero's head scared me a lot, when I saw him for the first time. It was surreal.

 

Also, some levels of PlayStation Doom scared me due to dark atmosphere and music, of course. Actually, PSX Doom is even scarier than any other version except Doom 64. I never had Nintendo 64 because it wasn't popular in my country (and it was almost impossible to buy in small cities), but if I had a chance to play D64 in my childhood - with no doubt I would be scared a lot (and possibly I'll just never finish the game).

 

P.S.: Since Arch-Viles doesn't exist in PSX Doom, I was also very surprised to meet them on PC. It was also kinda scary surprise.

[SteelPH]

There's definitely some of that 90's cheesiness to them.

[roadworx]

i was never really scared by doom like some others here - i didn't start playing til i was 12 or so, and it was on an lcd monitor - but i did recognize the atmosphere that was present, and there were definitely some moments that scared the shit out of me due to being unexpected.

 

however, at the time i started playing, i didn't really see any of it as "goofy". in fact, i thought the designs were super cool, with the huge teeth, spikes, evil eyes, claws...nowadays i still think they're cool, but also incredibly cartoonish and, as you said, goofy. they always were, we were just too young to realize it :p

[Chip]

1 hour ago, FireballCaco said:

I find it funny how the hardest enemies to deal with in my opinion in Quake (Shamblers, Vores, Fiends, and Spawns) have no eyes. 

It's because the enemies that have eyes are zombified creatures, they aren't actually from that dimension.

 

56 minutes ago, FireballCaco said:

I wonder how they sense you in the dark. Probably echolocation where eyes are useless.

In the Quake Champions game, there is a character named Visor. Like their name suggests, they wear a visor over their face. it is revealed in the tie-in comic that Visor's eyes have been removed. Visor has the best sight in the game despite this. he can make out shapes with his super intellect, and even see through walls. The earth of the Vores, Shamblers, Fiends, etc. is too dark for eyes to be purposeful. instead they have this sort of super sight that allows them to make out shapes without actually seeing it. 

[FireballCaco]

12 minutes ago, Chip said:

It's because the enemies that have eyes are zombified creatures, they aren't actually from that dimension.

What about the Scrags and Ogres? They're from Quake's dimension and they have eyes. Must be a pain living in almost total darkness and being able to make out everything.

Edited August 26, 2021 by FireballCaco

[Chip]

3 minutes ago, FireballCaco said:

What about the Scrags and Ogres

I never realized Scrags have eyes. Ogres I just forgot about for a second. Not too sure why they have eyes. Maybe in their realm, they are known as kind of morons, so they keep them outside in the light to act as protection. 

[FireballCaco]

Just now, Chip said:

I never realized Scrags have eyes. Ogres I just forgot about for a second. Not too sure why they have eyes. Maybe in their realm, they are known as kind of morons, so they keep them outside in the light to act as protection. 

Scrags fly, so they most likely need to have eyes to prevent themselves from crashing into walls. Not sure about the ogres.

[Pirx]

3 hours ago, TelicAx7 said:

Yes, both of these games were very terrifying at the time, but Quake was a bit scarier for me at the time. I remember Doom being scary in certain sections, but for Quake the whole game felt truly frightening from start to finish. I remember thinking both of these games looked really realistic at the time, but now I don't even see exactly how I could think that, but maybe it's due to the fact there wasn't as much to compare it to at the time for me anyhow. Wasn't really a huge gamer back then, these were the first games I truly got very involved with as a teen. I had never seen anything even remotely like Doom, all my prior gaming revolved around NES and C64, so this was a HUGE leap ahead in my eyes.

 

 

doom has a rather comic-like representation of characters, and is more colorful. quake on the other hand is drab and brown, especially in software. pinkies with their short arms looked funny to me, fiends didn't. i remember saying to a friend that there aren't humorous bits in quake like there were in doom. that impression was spoiled by the fact that some of the weapons and monsters in quake weren't up to doom's.

[silentzorah]

Doom definitely bothered me at an early age, but I was young and impressionable.  Nowadays, yeah, it's kinda goofy and campy.  Granted, there's a whole 20+ year spread between then and today, and I've seen a lot of horrifying things since then.  Lived experience definitely changes your outlook on things, that's for sure.

 

Quake didn't bother me.  Like, at all.

Edited August 26, 2021 by silentzorah