Trivia / Doom Eternal

• Acting for Two:
  • Nika Futterman voices both the Khan Maykr and Dr. Elena Richardson.
  • Keith Silverstein provides his voice to both Deag Nilox and Deag Grav.
  • The Slayer is voiced by Matthew Watterson (in the main game anyway), who also covers the role of the Maykr guardian at the beginning of Sentinel Prime.
  • Edward Bosco voices both the Marauders and the Icon of Sin.
  • Piotr Michael voices both King Novik and the Dark Lord.
• Approval of God: John Romero played Eternal and praised it, both for its direction and gameplay, even though he admits to not being very good at the game yet.
  • The official DOOM Twitter account posted an image of Doom Slayer with Isabelle to celebrate the new year, in a nod to all the fan art of Doom Slayer with Isabelle.
• Ascended Fanfic: As with Doom (2016), lore implies that every Doom .wad is canon, in a sense - after being picked up by the Argenta military, the Slayer helped them destroy demons infesting countless dimensions and lands, along with the Maykrs secretly plotting to invade several dimensions for the production of Argent energy.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: A developer interview claimed that Whiplash was the "first female demon" in the Doom franchise, even though there were already multiple canonically female demons, both the classic and Doom (2016) Spider Masterminds, and the Doom 64 Mother Demon. The 2016 Summoner also has a noticeably feminine design.
• Creator Backlash: Mick Gordon vocally disapproved of how the official soundtrack was handled, as Mick only mixed a handful of the 59 tracks while the rest credited id Software's Chad Mossholder. Fans were angry enough that Executive Producer Marty Stratton put out an open letter explaining that the soundtrack was rushed due to legal requirements regarding its advertised inclusion in the Collector's Edition. Mick was unable to have his work done by the deadline (even after delays), which necessitated Chad Mossholder use the in-game mixes to fill out the soundtrack in time for release^note According to Stratton, this was a backup plan done with Mick's knowledge and consent, although Mick's comments on social media implied otherwise. Stratton stated that Mick would not provide music for post-release content, while Mick doubted he would work with id again. In November 2022, Gordon published his own open letter in which he alleges that id had put him into almost impossible conditions and didn't pay him the sum outlined in his contract and that Stratton had withheld crucial details from him, such as already having Mossholder work on a soundtrack while Mick was still attached and that they agreed to publish a joint open letter only for Stratton to go on Reddit and post his version of the events.
• Cut Song: Quite a few. During the earlier phases of the soundtrack's development, Mick Gordon was asked to make music that was "bigger, louder, more in [the player's] face". During DOOM Eternal's presentation at QuakeCon 2018, the background music of the Super Gore Nest and Mars Core levels was completely different than in the final game. Due to a negative reaction from beta testers, however, these "bigger and louder" songs were cut and scaled back. The original cuts of these songs have not been released to the public, but a snippet of the Super Gore Nest's original "heavy fighting" theme was shown off during a live stream by Mick.
• Development Gag: The "Meathook" attachment on the Super Shotgun is visually based on the rifle bayonet◊ from early builds of the classic Doom.
• Dummied Out:
  • The Whiplash Spectres were meant to appear in the main game's campaign, but were left unused for unknown reasons, instead being properly introduced in The Ancient Gods.
  • Although Kalibas doesn't have a Codex entry, a notification for his non-existent entry may occasionally pop up while fighting him, suggesting that he originally had his own Codex entry rather than just being mentioned in the Nekravol lore.
  • The release version of Doom Eternal has a pistol, albeit cut from actual gameplay. The command console allowed you to "enable" it, but it was entirely removed after an update.
  • The Tyrant has a weak point in the form of its arm cannon, which goes unused normally. Destroying the arm cannon greatly hinders its capabilities, leaving the arm cannon only able to shoot rockets similar to the classic Cyberdemon.
• Fandom Nod: As a general rule of thumb for any Doom instalment, players tend to ditch the pistol and use the shotgun as their main workhorse upon gaining the latter. Eternal has no pistol, as players start with the Combat Shotgun, just to speed things up.
• Hostility on the Set: As stated in Creator Backlash, Eternal's composer and producer accused each other of being hard to work with or sabotaging their music, with the former claiming his tracks were mangled and taken out of his hands and the latter accusing Mick Gordon of consistently missing deadlines.
• In Memoriam:
  • The UAC spokesperson hologram in the final level proclaims that Lemmy is God.
  • Nature Ganganbaigal is credited for helping with the recording of the Eternal soundtrack in a behind-the-scenes video.
  • There is a shrine in the Super Gore Nest level, after the first encounter, to John "TotalBiscuit" Bain, featuring a chair with a top hat perched on top and a plaque in the seat with the words "Slay Cancer" embossed on it.
  • According to Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach, id Software left an Easter Egg in the form of one of the books in the Doom Slayer's library called "how to comb your moustache." The book's author, Clifton M. Fischbach, is Mark's late father, who introduced his son to the Doom franchise.
  • A graffiti on the ARC Complex level is a quote from Stan Lee.
  • The credits state that the game is dedicated to id Software programmer Stephen Ash, who died during development in 2019.
  • Finally, the credits to The Ancient Gods - Part Two begin with a dedication to Robert A. Altman, one of the co-founders, chairman and CEO of Bethesda's parent company, Zeni Max.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Aside from the archetypal steelbook for Eternal and some assorted goodies, the stand-out item from the Collector's Edition is a full-sized wearable replica of the Doom Slayer's helmet.
• Meme Acknowledgment
  • At the end of the first part of the game-play reveal at QuakeCon 2018, one of the two invading demons is a Revenant named "D00T76", a reference to the "skull trumpet/DOOT DOOT" meme.
    • Mixed with Ascended Meme, at the E3 2019 Bethesda conference, a multiplayer skin in Battlemode for the Revenant was shown, replacing their rocket launchers with brass trumpets.
  • The official Doom Twitter account replied to a Nintendo announcement of an Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Direct, a nod to the Doom Slayer/Isabelle Crossover in Fan Art^note Both games have their release date moved to March 20, 2020.
  • A Flashback to when the Doom Slayer is first brought before the Hell Priests has a reference to the "huge guts" line from the Doom comic book.
  • The official release of Eternal's soundtrack has a bonus track titled "You Can't Just Shoot A Hole Into The Surface Of", which starts off with Hayden's final and memetic line before the Phobos mission, then continuing with "BFG Division."
  • Doubling as an Easter Egg, following the release of The Ancient Gods Part One, id Software released a logo called "DOOG Eternal", a reference to hololive character Korone Inugami and her livestream playthrough of 2016.
  • When the cutscene of Maligog from The Ancient Gods - Part One was shown off, many people took to affectionally calling him "Bob". The official Twitter account took note of this before revealing their actual name.
• Milestone Celebration: Despite the Schedule Slip, Eternal is meant to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Doom franchise.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: Zigzagged - though this piece of Fan Art made for Doom (2016) was never actually submitted to any sort of official contest, it was eventually sent to id Software when one of the developers started collecting various fan-art to display at id's headquarters; the developers ended up liking this particular piece so much that they went and got the artist's permission to put it into the Fortress of Doom.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Mick Gordon incorporated Heavy Metal singers from bands such as Aborted^note Sven de Caluwé, Black Crown Initiate^note James Dorton, Fear Factory^note Tony Campos and Helstar^note James Rivera as part of a choir for the soundtrack.
  • Andrew Hulshult, otherwise known as the guy behind the IDKFA Doom heavy metal cover soundtrack as well as a plethora of other official video game soundtracks, had his music for Quake Champions included as a collectible in the game much to his surprise. To top it off, id Software later hired him as a co-composer for The Ancient Gods.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The 2011 E3 footage for Doom 4, which eventually became Doom (2016), showed human soldiers preparing to fight off a demonic invasion on Earth. That same scenario occurs in Eternal. However, the Doom Slayer once again has to deal with the invasion all by himself; while there are pockets of armed human resistance and the Doom Slayer is on their side, they wisely step back whenever he's around.
  • The Prowler demons were at one point going to appear in the 2016 campaign but were cut early on and repurposed for its multiplayer mode. In Eternal, Prowlers regularly appear as enemies in the campaign.
  • The final battle with the Icon of Sin in Doom II was supposed to have the Icon as a behemoth-sized enemy, but due to engine limitations, he was instead rendered as a wall texture. Now, with the massive engine improvements made in the decades between Doom II and Eternal, we finally get to fight him at his apex.
  • The idea for the meathook weapon attachment goes back to the alpha versions of classic Doom, where the melee weapon was not the fists, but a weapon-mounted bayonet.
• The Other Darrin: A musical example: after Mick Gordon's rather nasty fallout with id Software, The Ancient Gods DLC has music composed by Andrew Hulshult and David Levy, both of whom seem to channel Mick's style well enough for the difference to be hardly noticeable.
  • Acting-wise, the Slayer's voice was changed from Matthew Watterson to Jason Kelley in The Ancient Gods Part Two.
• Schedule Slip:
  • The game was originally slated for release on November 22, 2019, but was pushed back to March 20, 2020.
  • The Nintendo Switch version was originally meant to be released at the same time as the other console versions, but when the general release was delayed to March 20, 2020, the developers said that Switch had to be delayed even further than that, with its release eventually scheduled for December 8, 2020, as digital-only.
  • Soon after the collector's edition with the soundtrack album was released in April 2020, Bethesda promised that the album would soon get released to the general public on streaming services. However, the soundtrack has yet to surface, presumably due to Mick Gordon's acrimonious split from Bethesda over the soundtrack album's mixing.
• Throw It In!: The infamous "The longer the Icon of Sin is on Earth, the stronger it will become" line repeated several times in Urdak was left in the game completely by accident, as revealed in Hugo Martin's playthrough of the campaign. The developers supposedly placed the lines in their places as part of testing and didn't even notice what happened until the memes kicked in.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Code for a handgun that uses the same ammunition as the Heavy Cannon exists in Eternal. It cannot be found in normal gameplay, but as this video demonstrates, players can enable the console commands to add it to the Slayer's inventory. Not only is it fully functional, but the handgun also has enough animation frames to suggest that it was cut after being proposed and tested due to feedback, even capable of switching between single-shot and burst-fire modes. According to the developers, it was ultimately removed for not fitting in with the combat flow.
  • The official art book includes a piece of concept art for the Hell Knight that looks very much like its Doom II version. Presumably, it ended up being used as the basis for the Gladiator instead.
  • Quite a lot of things shown in the QuakeCon 2018 demo didn't make it to the final cut.
    • During the Mars Core segment of the Official Gameplay Reveal trailer, the Doom Slayer is shown being able to knock back and stun a Baron of Hell with his melee attacks, suggesting that they were originally going to be as powerful as they were in 2016 before the Blood Punch mechanic was implemented. This is further supported by the fact that his punches had no shockwaves emanating from them and there was no Blood Punch meter visible on the Heads-Up Display.
    • The Heads-Up Display itself was completely different in the demo, looking a little more similar to (2016)'s HUD than the brightly coloured one from the final game. Looking at the HUD also showed that the maximum amount of ammo and chainsaw fuel was much higher, which was likely a carryover from (2016).
    • While the Mancubus could still have its cannons blown off in the demo, it could still use its flamethrowers against the Slayer. This was changed in the end as it presumably made targeting their weak points pointless.
    • The camera also zooms in on the Arachnotron as the Slayer encounters it, suggesting that some demons would’ve had a Mook Debut Cutscene to go with them like in 2016. It can also be inferred that certain demons would’ve debuted in different levels based on the Arachnotron and Archvile’s trailer introductions, which shows them being introduced in the Super Gore Nest and Mars Core levels rather than Hell on Earth and Taras Nabad respectively in the final game.
  • The Meathook was originally going to pull enemies toward the Slayer. The team decided to change it where it would pull the Slayer toward enemies instead, as they felt this would better fit the "keep moving constantly" philosophy of the game's combat.
  • Hugo Martin revealed in an interview that Valen and the Intern were going to be Killed Off for Real by Davoth in Part 2 of The Ancient Gods, but were ultimately spared.
  • The trailer for Battlemode showed off quite a few things that weren't in the final game:
    • The HUD was once again quite different in comparison to the one in the final game, but it much more closely resembled the final HUD than the HUD shown in the QuakeCon 2018 demo.
    • Pinkies could have originally been summoned by player demons.
    • The Baron of Hell's summoning was accompanied by a clip of the announcer saying "demon summoned", suggesting its summoning wasn't always unannounced.
  • Invasion was a planned game feature that was shown in pre-release footage, an optional feature where players can be invaded by other players taking control of enemy demons in the single-player campaign as they attempt to kill the Doom Slayer; alone or with a friend. Invasion wasn't added on time for the game's release and was still delayed even after the DLC campaigns were released. In July 2021, Id Software announced Invasion mode was officially cancelled, but they planned to add a new single-player horde mode in its place, which was eventually revealed as Horde Mode.
  • Concept art of the Armoured Barons has them decked out in deep crimson armour, matching the Immoran technology from which the armour is said to have been constructed in their codex entry. This was switched to the cobalt blue for the retail release, likely to prevent the Barons from blending in too much with the predominantly red environments of Immora.

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