At Doom's Gate: The Ultimate Story/Timeline Guide (FULL SPOILERS)

[Man of Doom]

As it turns out well over a year ago, someone managed to pull off the enviable task of finally piecing together the timeline for the entire Doom franchise (barring spinoffs such as Final Doom, the two Doom RPGs, etc.).
I've since decided to put this here just to make sure this gets more attention, even if this is quite a hefty read.

And you may wonder, why put this here in the Doom Eternal subforum? Well, as you're about to see, Doom Eternal essentially becomes the sort of backbone for the franchise's story thus far.

So without further ado, the timeline guide for the entire Doom franchise (be warned as there be full spoilers here):
 

 

As for my personal thoughts:

Regarding this document itself, not only does it do an amazing job at piecing together aspects of nuDoom which might've initially been confusing or unintentionally ambiguous. While there is quite a reliance either on speculation or outright fan theories or headcanons (often noted as such), it is nicer to see titles such as Doom 3 get some well-deserved love.

Not only that, I feel that Doom's story as of late has gotten quite a fair amount of vitriol (first with Doom 3, and then with Doom Eternal which might as well be the Diablo 3 of the franchise; seriously, some people had outright dismissed the game's graphics as being "kiddy" and not being dark enough).



I'm not going to lie: I have my own personal set of issues with the kinds of plot elements that Doom Eternal in particular had introduced (and to a lesser extent, Doom 2016).

(SPOILERS)

Spoiler

I'm not so sure I'm able to fully gel with the plot point of "Hell was once a super-heaven called Jekkad". I'm completely fine with the entirety of the Urdak/Night Sentinel timelines, just not the Hell timeline.
I know that this clearly takes inspiration from mythology and biblical stories, but the end result is a series of strange continuity issues that basically culminate in Doom no longer being a never-ending fight against evil incarnate but essentially some sort of interstellar chess game (AKA a similar issue the Doom novels ran into). Not only that, much of Hell's mystique is just gone outright (though I will actually argue that this has actually been an issue as far back as Doom 2016, though in that case it's mainly just "demons have literally turned into a literal punchline instead of being fearsome like they used to").
As a result, a lot of Doomguy's struggles essentially come across almost as insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and the scale of his fight ends up being surprisingly small (almost like a petty squabble amongst a royal family more than anything).
Not helping is that Hell essentially has to follow a set of "rules" when it comes to topics such as where it's allowed to invade, the hierarchies of demonic entities such as archdemons, etc.

I mean, isn't a core factor of Hell is that it's literally a dimension of pure chaos? Why would it need to follow rules?

Not only that, TAG2 in particular was very much meant to be the end of the story arc which began with Doom 2016 but ended up coming across as being the grand finale for the Doom franchise (which was very much unintentional).

But all of this can be amended: these particular plot points can be addressed without necessarily having to resort to retcons.
Hell's mystique can be restored, and the demons can be made scary again.

A Diablo IV can be made for the Doom franchise, if you catch my drift.

Hell, a larger goal of a project of mine is to hopefully attain this exact goal; shameless self-promotion ftw


If anything, I suspect all of this was a side effect of The Ancient Gods probably being a case of id Software biting off more than they could chew (especially since it was planned at one point for Doom Eternal's campaign DLCs to instead be about various survivors instead of continuing the Slayer's story).
Either that, or someone just wanted to be done with having to handle the Doom franchise and move on to other things for the time being (maybe to something like Quake).

But in the end, I'd prefer not to speculate over what may or may not have happened, over what could have been.

And in the end, there's good ideas but it didn't quite stick the landing when it comes to execution.
But I do think that it's salvageable, and I feel that the document I brought here is proof of this.

So yeah, Doom's story isn't really the most consistent at all. It's frustratingly told at times, and Doom Eternal in particular does seem to struggle with it.

But more than anything, I suspect that it's just more of a side effect when it comes to gameplay-vs-story ratio, and I know for sure that special care was placed on the player ripping and tearing while telling the best story they can.

While the story has issues, I do feel that not only did id truly work to really throw caution to the wind and tell a story filled with passion, they did so with the constraints they had to work with.

And that to me is not only commendable but outright admirable.


Just to quote part of the document's ending:

Quote

It’s poetic, in a way. Its writers, very clearly, had an immeasurable amount of passion for
the Doom canon, new and old, and sought to write a satisfying story that tied this iconic franchise
together under one creation myth - a story of machines, of swords and shields, of rage and hatred,
of oppression and defiance. It has its issues, but I will be blunt: those issues mean nothing to me
in the face of what is truly a passion project, a story written by people who care about Doom. Who
care about its story, its characters, and its legacy. Trivialities such as the occasional contradiction
or a plot point being too rushed mean nothing when we have a story filled with this much love and
care for its source material. Other franchises would beg for treatment as good as this.

So, is Doom’s lore good? The obvious answer, of course, is yes. It is not just good - as
someone who has studied every conceivable facet of its writing and backstory, I am of the opinion
that it is fantastic - a genre-hopping, epic, well-thought-out, and truly badass story. It is worthy of
Doom’s reputation. Of course a franchise as iconic as important as Doom would receive a story
to match, in spite of its flaws - which, mind you, there are. It does have flaws, but is one not able
to love something in spite of its flaws? Doom’s story makes up for its occasional missteps with
sheer passion, creativity, and love for its franchise.

So one could ask: what is the point? What is the point of this story, its moral, its lesson?
Why tell it? I put forth my opinion on Doom’s story: It is a story about destiny, the
weaponization of rage in the face of injustice, and humanity’s need to cut its own path. It
is a story about defiance in the face of uncountable odds - of looking in the face of those who
would seek to subjugate and harvest your life, and to say no. Hatred in the face of oppression
and authoritarianism is not only valid; it is sacred.

While I am also of the opinion that Doom has always been action-horror, it can do so much more with what it has to work with, and Doom Eternal is just one example of what the franchise can be.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Man of Doom

[whatup876]

I think the "real appeal" of the "Doom universe" is the fact that's broken, empty and can be up to interpretation instead of trying to "piece together to make sense".

Hence why i wouldn't even leave out the mobile games and Final Doom: Being "seperate" only means they're adhering to the "true point" of Doom's universe, so they inadvertadly should count.

 

Romero once said the Doomguy lacked a name because it was up to fans to decide what he could be like and i think that "blank slate" empty status also applies to the setting.

(And besides, there could be more nicknames to give him besides "Doomguy")

What is Doomguy's personality and what we should even call him? Who founded the UAC? Who made cybernetic demons? What should Hell look like? Who is Samuel Hayden or the Dark Lord? What should a Heaven in Doom look like?

In reality, there should be multiple answers, no matter who contradictory they are.

 

I think people overrate the idea of a franchsie having a well connected universe (side effect of nerd culture being big and people looking at things like Star Wars) when there's media that works and had staying power because there wasn't a concrete universe, just recurring concepts and characters that could be done differently.

Even a "multiverse" is still adressed in canon in some media and you have all these crossover events and universes marked as "number 101 whatever", when Doom's versatility goes beyond the concept of a multiverse.

 

People know the Carmack quote about story not mattering but forget the other ways to look at the series:

• The “soft” way is seeing it as a concept that can be done in a lot of ways, justifying later games looking/playing/feeling differently, “non canon” stuff and even the creativity in the fanbase; Worst case scenario is some ideas people don’t like such as a movie/novels changing the demons to aliens.

• The “hard” way is taking the little existing story (Ingame texts, manuals etc) and the abstract levels/textures/sprites/assets too seriously, whether it means looking at how id made them, expanding the setting through fanmade assets/mods or even getting picky over what couldn’t work, hence some restrictions; You still have to realize that some lore contradicts itself, levels will always be obscure and Doomguy’s armor has inconsistencies etc.

 

I think if Doom was always a story bound series:

• Maybe some of Tom Hall’s ideas could be accepted or even lead to something more.
• We could have had the Marathon thing of there being texts you had to read.
• We probably wouldn’t have plagiarism like the Caco’s design or most music.
• Levels could be less abstract.
• “Doomguy” would have an official name and not rely on a fanmade nickname.
• Final Doom and RPG wouldn’t exist for not being canon or even being mechanically different (RPG specifically, since FD is just D2 megawads).
• D64 may not exist because of its different art style and being made by a different dev (So a classic Doom 3 could have been to D2 what D2 is to D1).
• Doom in general could have retained the classic art style and even stuff like Eternal’s “classic” looks would be closer and more faithfull.
• If there were more Doom games, maybe even Quake and Heretic would be Doom games and lose what made them stand out as new IP’s.
• D3 wouldn’t exist because of its differences from the old games or at least be closer to them, whether they’d please fans or disappoint them.
• Ideas from 2016/Eternal such as the Sentinels and Urdak would be seen as being too deviating from the traditional Doom premise.
• The Doomslayer may not exist because of his influence from the fanbase and outside factors.
• Doom wouldn’t have a huge modding scene, either because the series’ setting could have been “expanded enough” that fan creativity wouldn’t be that huge or in case id gets restrictive over the setting that they don’t even care about fanmade levels or designs inspired by the setting.
• We wouldn’t have movies and books that changed the setting heavily.
• The “Blazkowicz family/idverse” stuff would be taken seriously beyond easter eggs and small crossovers or stuff in obscure content.

Because when looking at the series itself:

• There's lack of story and context in some places.
• Abstract levels and assets.
• Contradicting information like how did Doomguy return to Earth in D2: D1 makes it seem he used a portal but D2's manual states an escape pod i think.
• “Additional info” that is obscure and hard to look for. I assume it was Sandy Petersen or Bobby Prince that said in a blog post the Arch-vile "just wanted to help his buddies".
• Adaptations that deviate from the main setting such as the 2005 movie or older novels.
• Different games with different looks and/or canons, since D3 being its own timeline is as honest as it can get.
• Sigil being from Romero himself and using artwork by Lovell that doesn't adhere to the aesthetics of both classic Doom and modern Doom. But it's also not owned by id/ZeniMax so by this logic, Final Doom is technically "more canon" than Sigil.
• The mere fact that concepts from the fanbase overlap with the series, be it a nickname like “Doomguy” or how anyone remembers an aspect of gameplay due to source ports. This alone is why i made that "things that wouldn't exist without Doom fans" post.

It's why i think Doom can "fix TAG2" by simply doing story ideas, no matter the retcons it causes.

Because trying to establish rules (some of which already contradict pre-existing lore like the origin of cyberdemons) would be more out-of-field.

 

It's a way to see Doom apart from something like Halo, which always had a universe since a book came before its first game. And then came along 343 and we know what happened.

Honestly if Doom had its own "the Forerunners were our ancestors but not anymore i guess" it'd probably be "Hell had weird cybertech but not anymore" due to both UAC and Immora.

 

I feel like next time someone at id is struggling with "how do we explain x", they could just look up someone's mod or fanart/redesign and think "this could technically be Doom in a way".

The "blank canvas" state is seemingly both safe and can offer more opportunities.

 

There could still be room for a new game expanding the current universe, but i also would welcome a new game with its own.

"Dr Doom: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Broken Lore"

 

 

[OliveTree]

MAN i said literally everything i have to say on this subject in that doom story thread i made a while ago

[Eurisko]

I’m gonna enjoy reading this. Nice one. 

[Azuris]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:41 PM, whatup876 said:

I think the "real appeal" of the "Doom universe" is the fact that's broken, empty and can be up to interpretation instead of trying to "piece together to make sense".

Hence why i wouldn't even leave out the mobile games and Final Doom: Being "seperate" only means they're adhering to the "true point" of Doom's universe, so they inadvertadly should count.

 

Romero once said the Doomguy lacked a name because it was up to fans to decide what he could be like and i think that "blank slate" empty status also applies to the setting.

(And besides, there could be more nicknames to give him besides "Doomguy")

What is Doomguy's personality and what we should even call him? Who founded the UAC? Who made cybernetic demons? What should Hell look like? Who is Samuel Hayden or the Dark Lord? What should a Heaven in Doom look like?

In reality, there should be multiple answers, no matter who contradictory they are.

 

I think people overrate the idea of a franchsie having a well connected universe (side effect of nerd culture being big and people looking at things like Star Wars) when there's media that works and had staying power because there wasn't a concrete universe, just recurring concepts and characters that could be done differently.

Even a "multiverse" is still adressed in canon in some media and you have all these crossover events and universes marked as "number 101 whatever", when Doom's versatility goes beyond the concept of a multiverse.

 

 

 

 

I am also a Fan of letting Stuff just in the Dark, especially all related to Hell

 

Everything that starts explaining Hell, the Backgrounds and how the Cybernetics came to ne lead to ground it at make Hell boring.

In the End its Aliens, wow.

 

Letting Hell be the unexplainable Thing beyond Human Imagination just suits it better.

 

Also, more Information don't make Story better, it is HOW you tell it or in Case of Video Games showcase a Story.

 

Doom made it in many Ways very good, rocking Music, cool Level and Sound Design, memorable Enemies.

Also by changing up the Formula as in Doom 64 or PSX Doom shows us, that it can create a creepy Atmosphere with changing Music and Sound.

 

I think Doom 3 just gave out enough Information to create the World, but never grounded Hell, as the Informations were mostly about the UAC, the Base, the People and what they found.

 

Also Doom 2016 was very ok, but Eternal went way too far.

 

[Dreamskull]

They only keep to the various interpretations model because they want to eventually be able to shoehorn bad element back into things. The horror element needs to be striken down and removed from Doom entirely. I have been awakened to the truth. Its not a horror element, its SUSPENSE.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Dreamskull

[NoXion]

Anyone else getting a "Blocked Page" when trying to download the PDF from Google Drive?