Mythology Gag / Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal contains multiple references to other id Software and Bethesda games and previous Doom continuities.

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• At the end of the first segment of the QuakeCon 2018 gameplay reveal, one of the two invaders has the handle "Daisy121", referencing the Doom Marine's pet rabbit in the original two games. Similarly, the game's standard edition box art has a small rabbit running through Hell behind an Arachnotron, as well as a portrait of the Slayer holding a rabbit in his "office" aboard the Fortress of Doom. Daisy herself can be found hidden on every level if you look closely.
• One of the locations in Eternal is the Martian moon of Phobos, the initial setting for the original Doom. The BFG 10,000 on the Union Aerospace Corporation's base on Phobos is named after the BFG from Quake II, and also heavily resembles the "Big Gun" part of its story centred around.
• One of the major draws of Doom Eternal is that a lot of the character, enemy and weapon designs have been changed to hearken back to the previous games:
  • The Doom Slayer's improved Praetor Suit now has exposed arms, a recoloured midsection, and new boots that make it resemble the classic Doomguy armour from the original Doom illustration on the box art.
  • The Combat Shotgun takes cues from the Doom 64 Shotgun, such as its grey colouration and the design of its unmodified barrel. This becomes most apparent when viewed with centred weapons.
    • Players with the Rip & Tear pack receive a skin for the Combat Shotgun, which recolours it black with a wooden livery to closely resemble the classic Doom shotgun.
  • The Plasma Rifle is remodelled directly on the classic weapon, down to the look of the gun barrel, rate of fire, and firing sounds.
  • The big green ball of argent plasma fired by the BFG 9000 is a spitting image of the green plasma projectile fired by the classic BFG 9000.
  • The Unmaykr is a pun/retool of the Unmaker laser cannon from Doom 64. It fires three super-powerful lasers in a spread much like the Unmaker does when fully powered up with all three Demon Keys.
  • The game's deluxe edition comes with a sound effects pack that changes several sounds, such as those of the Slayer, the weapons and the menu sound, to those of their 1990s counterparts.
  • The Blaster and Shield variants of the Zombie Soldiers respectively resemble the Zombiemen and Shotgun Sergeants of classic Doom.
  • Unlike their Doom (2016) version, Imps in Eternal have brown skin, long protruding bone spikes and glowing red eyes, evoking their appearance from the original games.
  • Mancubi and Cyber Mancubi now better resemble the former's "cybernetic ogre" appearance from classic Doom.
  • While still largely looking the same as their 2016 counterparts, the Cacodemon has had many small changes that pay homage to classic Doom, including more bright-red skin, grey horns, a pupil in their single eye and even blue blood.
  • The Arch-vile has its unmistakable "spell-casting" pose from Doom II: Hell on Earth. Additionally, it's stated to be among Hell's royalty, presumably a major reason why it and the Baron's faces appeared carved into Doom II's various maps alongside the Icon of Sin.
  • The Tyrant serves as the most Truer to the Text example, looking like a modern version of the Cyberdemon from the original games.
  • The Slayer's facial appearance, haircut and "angry eyebrows" expression underneath his helmet is modelled off the sprite of the Doomguy's face in the HUD of the original games.
  • Small, Medium and Large Health pickups now resemble the health potions, stimpacks and medkits respectively from the classic games.
  • While Small Armour Shards still retain the rectangular plating look from 2016, the Medium and Large shards now resemble Sentinel helmets and combat vests respectively, taking cues from classic Doom's Armour Bonus and Armour pickups.
    • The Full Armour pickup, seen replacing certain Extra Life pickups on Ultra Nightmare, possesses a blue colouration much like the Megaarmour from classic Doom.
  • The Rad Suit is a spitting image of classic Doom's Radiation Shielding Suit, complete with white boots.
  • Mega Health pickups are now spheres with faces gaping in horror - a fully-realised version of the classic Soulsphere.
• The Doom Slayer's office aboard the Fortress of Doom is packed to the gills with Mythology Gags:
  • The bookshelf contains many items referencing various other works by id and Bethesda, including PC box copies of Quake, Quake III: Arena, the classic Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth and Doom³. Virtually all of the books are also nods.
    • Nuka Cola: A History from the Atomic Age of Flavor
    • Vault Dweller's Survival Guide
    • 2 Prey or Not 2 Prey
    • Cooking From Hell's Kitchen: Thy Flesh Consumed^note The latter is a reference to the namesake fourth episode of The Ultimate Doom
    • Tei Tenga: Offworld Travel Guide^note The original setting of the classic game's prototype version
    • Ret-Conned: The Life and Times of Flynn Taggart
    • From Nopefish to Dopefish: The Dope Tale
    • The Strogg: A Transdimensional Field Study
    • Living With Rage
    • The Spear of Destiny: A Post-War Deconstruction
    • My Best Friend, Daisy^note Doomguy's pet rabbit in classic Doom
  • A skateboard can be found, referencing Doomguy's appearance as a Secret Character in the PC port of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
  • There are several call-backs to Doom 2016 - an Argent Cell container, the Doomguy collectible, two Ammo Crates, and the remains of his old Praetor suit.
  • On top of the bookshelf, Commander Keen's skull and helmet can be found, along with his ray gun.
  • The Soul Cube from Doom 3 is sitting on the Slayer's computer desk.
  • As mentioned above, there is an oil painting of the Doomguy holding Daisy.
• At the start of the Cultist Base level, players can find the Dopefish hanging from a line off of a cliff. You find two more as the level progresses, one half-buried in an ice wall, and one prepared for sacrifice on an altar.
• The Cacodemon's codex entry makes note of the fact that they resemble certain cyclopic Titans within the depths of Hell. In the original Doom, the Cacodemon is rather famously traced from the art of the Astral Dreadnought, a creature from the Forgotten Realms rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons.
• In the Sentinel Prime level, several expositionary Flashbacks are shown. Not only is the Doom Slayer explicitly Doomguy from Doom, Doom II and Doom 64, but in his Suddenly Voiced scenes, he makes several quotes taken from the comic book and the infamous Fan Fic DOOM: Repercussions of Evil:
  Doomguy: "Guts...huge guts! Kill them...must kill them all!"
  • Furthermore, the Doom Slayer's accent when he speaks is reminiscent of William "B.J." Blazkowicz's in the Alternate Continuity that began with Wolfenstein: The New Order. In certain Doom media, Doomguy is acknowledged as B.J. Blazkowicz III, a descendant of Commander Keen (William Blazkowicz "Billy Blaze" II), the latter the grandson of Blazkowicz I.
  • The ending of Ancient Gods Part One goes further with the Repercussions of Evil references by giving the Dark Lord the same face as the Doom Slayer himself, harkening back to the twist ending where it turns out that "John was the demons".
• Again, even the final boss gets in this. While in Doom 2016 the Spider Mastermind had been granted a plasma cannon like her Arachnotron successors^note amusingly, the original Doom manual outright stated to "be thankful she doesn't have one", the Icon of Sin has now finally acquired a full humanoid body that he was only stated to have in Doom II, due to technical limitations at the time.
  • Also, the suit of Powered Armor the Icon of Sin bears during the first phase of his boss fight has a Red White And Eerie All Over colouration, resembling his original colour scheme from Doom II, and his first appearance in Urdak shows his head and shoulders, at an angle which seems to call back to his depictions from both II and II RPG.
  • At the end of the fight, the damage to the Icon of Sin's skull means it heavily resembles its Doom II appearance, being largely barebones with a hole in the middle exposing its brain.
• The cheat codes for the permanent Sentinel Armor and all mastered weapons and equipment are called "IDDQD" and "IDKFA", the cheat codes for invincibility and all weapons respectively in the classic games.
• In the original Doom and Doom II, enemies that used the Chaingun used the Shotgun sound effect for firing. The Spider Mastermind even fired several bullets per round! And now, with the Full Auto weapon mod, the Doom Slayer finally gets to join in the fun!
• On death, the loading screen displays tips on defeating whatever killed you. The Tyrant/Cyberdemon's tip is "Shoot it until it dies," which is a callback to the much-memed Doomworld image depicting a (fake) GamePro tip for defeating the Cyberdemon in Doom.
• One possible animation for executing the Tyrant is slashing its leg off before slicing its head open, the same way the Soul Cube finishes off the Cyberdemon at the end of Doom³.
• Speaking of Doom 3, the design of the Doom Hunter brings to mind that of Sabaoth, being a cybernetic demon on a tank body. Its dual-bladed Chainsaw also brings to mind the Chainsaw from Doom 64.
• A statue of Olivia Pierce is found late in the game. It must be punched from behind, toppling and breaking it, to continue.
• The scientific term for the teleportation technology used by the Slayer is "Slipgate".
• In "ARC Complex" you can find a cash register with a post-it, not on the back of it labelled "not A mimic!".
• Much like the original Doomguy, the Slayer punches with his left hand. Makes sense, since they're the same person.
• The "ARC Complex" convenience store sells various candles with the Dopefish or Commander Keen on their packaging, such as Dopenuts, Keen Candies, Okasushi, and Dope-Chan Chewy Candy. The last one comes in the flavours of "Hellfire Cherry", "Lava Melon", and "Radioactive Lime" - three types of damaging floors in classic Doom.
• The first ARC broadcast mentions that the Slayer had been given the in-universe nickname of Doomguy, and later broadcasts use the nickname interchangeably with the Slayer moniker. Again, makes sense, given that he's the same person as the original Doomguy.
  • Taken further in The Ancient Gods, as one particular ARC intern affectionately calls him Doomguy.
• One of the magazines on the Doom Slayer's desk in his office is Guns and Bullets from Fallout. Fittingly, Guns and Bullets is the magazine that boosts the player's shooting skills.
• There's a challenge in Nekravol called "Tricks and Traps", which shares a name with the eighth map of Doom II.
• The Classic Doom Marine skin harkens back to Doomguy's appearance from the classic games. Even the midsection has been torn off and features a noticeable scar on Doomguy's stomach, matching the fresh claw wound visible on Doom (1993)'s cover.
  • The "Indigo", "Brown" and "Red" Classic Doom Marine skins (unlocked for registering a Bethesda.net account to Doom, Doom II and Doom 3 respectively) each harken back to the Deathmatch Multiplayer colours of the original Doom.
• Several of the codex entries depict demons that look rather similar to the ones from the cover of the original Doom (which themselves look rather similar to the classic Barons of Hell).
• The fight with Kalibas harkens back to Shub-Niggurath in Quake I, being a stationary "boss" in a hazard-filled arena that relies on minions to fight on its behalf.
• The Marauder can be considered an evolution of the Quake I Death Knight: skeletal Elite Mooks who wield a melee weapon that can also throw ranged attacks, both have a similar strategy of being defeated (I.E. baiting them into charging melee attacks), both being taller than most Mooks and having a similar silhouette to each other.
• The skin colour of Demonic Wintherin as seen in The Ancient Gods Part 2 is a bright red and blue gradient that evokes the original "Doom'''s "fireblu" texture.
• The "classic" hitsound is taken directly from Quake III Arena.
• In the official soundtrack, the main theme ends with a series of screams. However, if you change the sound mix from stereo to mono, the screams become the opening of "Sweet Dead Little Bunny", the ending theme of the original Doom.
  • The ambient theme of Exultia and Taras Nabad plays the main guitar melody of the original ''Doom'''s Victory theme.
  • The ambient theme of Sentinel Prime prominently features an atmospheric synth rendition of the main guitar melody from Sign Of Evil.
  • One of the "post-battle" strings of ''Meathook'' uses the melody of Doom 3's intro theme.
• The Final Boss The Ancient Gods Part Two features the Dark Lord himself, armored in a Big Red Devil Praetor Suit much like the Doom Slayer's, and fighting him in a circular arena with very similar tactics and abilities to your own. Since the game doesn't come with the mode, one could say that this fight is as close as it'll get to a good old round of 1v1 Deathmatch. The Dark Lord's health bars can even be seen as "frags".