Doomguy

Doomguy
Doom character
Doomguy in The Ultimate Doom
First game	Doom (1993)
Created by	id Software
Designed by	Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack
Voiced by	Mike Dopud (grunts/screams)

The Doomguy, also known as the Doom marine or just the Marine, is a figurative representation of the player in Doom series of science fiction horror video games created by id Software, and its sequels and spin-off media. He is a space marine dressed in green combat armor who never speaks onscreen. He has little defined personality, as he is supposed to represent the player itself.^[1][2]

Incarnations

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The website for Doom RPG states that the player in Doom RPG is the same character from Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3. "you reprise the role of the Doom Marine made famous in the groundbreaking id Software titles Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3."^[3] Although its unclear which order they fit if part of a single timeline. Perhaps Doom 3 is roughly the prequel, followed by Doom RPG, and then Doom I, and then Doom II.

Classic Doom series

Doomguy is never referred to by name. The original game's co-designer John Romero said this was to increase player immersion. Romero said, "There was never a name for the DOOM marine because it's supposed to be YOU."^[4]

On the box art for the original Doom, the Doomguy is portrayed as a muscular man wearing green armor and a light gray space helmet that conceals his facial features. He is firing a chaingun and fighting a Baron of Hell. The introduction screen of Doom shows him holding a machine gun and clutching a shotgun in his left hand. The player's in-game avatar, as seen in multiplayer mode and in the ending of Doom II: Hell on Earth, is based on this depiction. In multiplayer mode, the character wears green, red, brown and indigo.^[5] In Doom 64, the Marine is portrayed as a less muscular figure, with slightly modified black armor and a black helmet with an antenna. His visor is blue rather than grey. The Doomguy's face is seen in the game's HUD, where he is shown with light brown hair, a buzz cut, and blue eyes. The Doomguy appears without his helmet in the cover art of Doom II and in the ending to The Ultimate Doom episode IV, "Thy Flesh Consumed", where his armor and pants are a darker shade of green. His face is never seen in Doom 64.

At the start of Doom II, shortly after arriving on Earth and realizing that a zombie is attacking people, he instantly blows away the monstrosity with his sidearm. Later, he fights his way to the spaceport and deactivates a force fields to allow Earth's population to escape; he volunteers to stay behind and find the source of Hell's incursion. During the events of Final Doom, he promises to slay as many of the demons that overrun a moon base and slay the population (in the TNT: Evilution compilation's backstory) as possible. In the Plutonia Experiment, he enters the infested Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) complex that contained the Quantum Prototype Accelerators after he learns that an entire Marine platoon with heavy air and ground support are on their way to assault the complex. Because the Marines have never encountered the Minions of Hell, Doomguy knows they would not stand a chance.

In Doom 64, Doomguy has nightmares because of his experiences, including the traumatizing descent into Hell itself. He fights his way through an abandoned base and descends into Hell again alone, and defeats the Mother Demon, after which he decides to remain in Hell to ensure an invasion never happens again. His fate there is unknown.

In Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom, Doomguy expresses little emotion at the horror unfolding around him, maintaining a stern and alert glare, his eyes constantly darting left and right. When he takes damage, his reaction is a mixture of pain and anger. He grins upon picking up a new weapon, and his most emotional face is seen when he has 20 hit points or more taken away during a single tic, showing a somewhat shocked/surprised face.

Other versions

Tom Hall's original design draft, "The Doom Bible", describes a non-playable character named Buddy Dacote. "Dacote" is an abbreviation of "Dies at conclusion of this episode", and Buddy was supposed to be killed by one of the bosses at the end of the planned third episode. In the game's final version, the Marine is nearly killed by the hellspawn in the first episode, but is able to continue his adventure in the second episode.^[6] In the Doom novels, the main character is referred to as "Flynn 'Fly' Taggart".^[7]

In the Wolfenstein RPG, it is implied that Doomguy is the descendant of William "B.J." Blazkowicz. In a reference to Doomguy's confrontation with the Cyberdemon, when Blazkowicz defeats the "Harbinger of Doom", the creature states that he will return in the future to confront his descendants. The Doom II RPG includes the character Stan Blazkowicz, who is the descendant of B.J. However, he is not the same character as the identical Marine in Doom RPG. According to the Doom II RPG comic and game, there were no known survivors of the Mars Incident.

Doom 3

In Doom 3, Doomguy appearance is similar to that of his classic Doom incarnation, except his facial features are not concealed. His muscular build is less exaggerated, he has black hair and appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties. Doomguy in Doom 3 had recently arrived on Mars and is the newest member of the Marine detachment sent to the planet; his past remains a mystery. He is a corporal and was sent to replace one of the marines that have mysteriously disappeared.

Doom 3's plot is similar to that of Half-Life; during the game the player can talk to several people, several of whom, such as Sergeant Kelly, give the player some briefing regarding his mission. The player character is addressed as "marine" and remains silent. In Doom 3, Doomguy is portrayed as tough and fearless in the game's cut scenes; he generally glares at the creatures he sees, including several psychic visions. He opens his mouth when he sees the towering Cyberdemon just before the final battle of the game.

Novels

In the Doom 3 novels, Doomguy's name is John Kane. His past is similar to the character in the original Doom, having been demoted after disobeying command to save some of his fellow marines. He is a combat veteran of wars raging on Earth for its remaining resources, including one between the United States and Russia. After arriving on Mars, finally resigns to his fate as a "glorified security guard". Whilst there he befriends fellow marines such as Maria Moraetes—a marine with a similar fate.

During the Hellish invasion, John Kane is forced to take command of several of the surviving marines despite his stripped ranking. He battles the demons singlehandedly or with a few other marines. Kane is depicted as compassionate to his fellow survivors, working to save the child Theo, and to save the damned in Hell. After volunteering to enter Hell to retrieve the soul cube, Campbell is shown as very impressed by him. He and Maria start to feel romantic ties to each other. During the end of Doom 3: Maelstrom Kane's leg is blown off and he is admired as the "man who saved Mars City."

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

In Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, the main character is different from the Doomguy of Doom 3. In this game, Doomguy is a combat engineer and is trained to operate a remote manipulation device known as the Grabber. He wears blue armor, has a shaved head, and appears to be older than his Doom 3 counterpart, based on his heavily-weathered facial features. He is likely in his late forties or early fifties. In this game, Doomguy is part of a detachment of Space Marines under the command of Dr. Elizabeth McNeil, sent to investigate the Mars UAC facility in the aftermath of the demon invasion. While investigating the Martian ruins, Doomguy finds and touches the Heart of Hell artifact, which releases a wave of energy that disintegrates the rest of his squad and opens another portal to Hell underneath the UAC base. In Resurrection of Evil, he appears to an anti-hero who seemingly enjoys using the Heart of Hell artifact, which kills almost everyone at the base.

Film

In the film adaptation, John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban) is the son of UAC scientists who were killed in an accident during the early excavation of a Martian dig site. Reaper abandoned his scientific heritage and joined the military to forget about this personal tragedy, eventually becoming a member of the elite Rapid Response Tactical Squad. Grimm, his commanding officer Sarge and the other members of the RRTS are dispatched to the UAC Mars facility to investigate the disappearance of several scientists, where they confront humans who have mutated into "demons" after being injected with an artificial "24th chromosome". Near the end of the film, Grimm is fatally wounded and injected with the chromosome by his sister to save his life. Instead of becoming a monster, Grimm is granted superhuman strength, reflexes, and regenerative abilities. These new abilities allow him to single-handedly mow down a small horde of demons, zombies. After killing the now-mutating Sarge, Grimm leaves the base with his nearly-unconscious sister in his arms.

Guest appearances

Doomguy's corpse appears in a secret area in Duke Nukem 3D; he is seen halfway through his Classic Doom death animation clutching his throat and gurgling, surrounded by various Satanic iconography. Upon seeing him, Duke Nukem says, "That's one doomed space marine". A similar scene occurs in Duke Nukem Forever.^[8]

In the Windows version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, the Doomguy is a secret skater,^[9][10] added by developer Gearbox Software, who ported the Windows version. This was included because Activision, publisher of the Tony Hawk series and Doom 3, wanted to promote the latter, which was still in development. Doomguy replaces Darth Maul, who is featured in the sixth generation console versions of this game.

In Quake III Arena, Doomguy appears in three levels under the name "Doom". He is described as 6' (1.83 m) tall and weighing 180 lbs. (81 kg), according to the character description from the game.^[11][12] The character "Phobos" is also a Doom Marine, though his skin is darker and his armor is orange rather than green. The third Doom Marine in the game, "Crash", is mentioned as being Doom's female training instructor before arriving at the Arena.

In Rage, after the first cut scene, the player enters a dune buggy with a bobble head of Doomguy on the dashboard. The Easter egg in the game's Gearhead vault level is the first room from the Doom game, where the player can pick up a Doom Marine bobblehead.

Reception

In 2009, GameDaily included Doomguy on its list of "ten game heroes who fail at the simple stuff" for his inability to look up and down in the original series.^[13] UGO Networks ranked him fourth on its 2012's list of best silent protagonists in video games, noting his courage to continue in silence even when he faces the Hell's army.^[14] In 2013, Complex ranked Doomguy at number 16 on its list of the greatest soldiers in video games for being "the original video game space marine" and "one of the classic silent protagonists".^[15] Both CraveOnline and VGRC ranked him the fifth most "badass" male character in the video game's history.^[16][17] The 2013 Vidya Gaem Awards included the Doomguy Award for the best character.^[18]

See also

• The Postal Dude

References

External links

• Doom's protagonist article at the Doom Wiki

Doom series Main series Doom (1993) Doom II: Hell on Earth Master Levels Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil BFG Edition Doom Spin-offs Final Doom Doom 64 Doom RPG Doom Resurrection Doom II RPG Novels Doom novels Doom 3: Worlds on Fire Doom 3: Maelstrom Other media The Boardgame Film Universe BFG 9000 Cyberdemon Doomguy Gravity gun Technology Doom engine source ports id Tech 4 id Tech 6 WAD Related Development of Doom DWANGO Chex Quest Id Software Marine Doom Wolfenstein 3D Book:Doom series Category:Doom Portal:Video games