The DOOM Easter Eggs you have to see
The DOOM Easter Eggs you have to see
Id Software's latest is punctuated with cheeky little nods to series history and Bethesda's sheltering arm. Some of them are meatier than others, and there are a few we're still trying to figure out - any theories on the birthday party?
These are the ones that made us grin, laugh, or just go "worr". Beware spoilers, obviously!
Classic DOOM levels
Search DOOM carefully and you may stumble across levers, which open doors elsewhere in the environment. Pass through and you'll be magically transported to 1993, to explore levels from the first game in all their glory. This isn't how it looks in your memory, is it?
Immersion breaking? Maybe. But every much in the spirit of the original game and its era. How we loved tracking down those secret rooms!
Really classic DOOM
If you don't know the classic DOOM levels like the back of your hand, you've lost some reflexes since the early 90's, or you're playing on the highest difficulty settings, you may spot an Easter Egg inside an Easter Egg.
As spotted and shared by Redditor mordecai32, your helmet will show the classic DOOM face if you cark it in one of the secret rooms. Nice.
Sean Bean (but not that Sean Bean)
There's one Easter Egg doing the rounds that isn't actually an Easter Egg at all. Id Software did not list Sean Bean as DOOM's lead campaign producer as a joke about how often the actor's characters die. Sean Bean is the actual name of the lead campaign producer. It's not an uncommon name.
As well as appearing in the shooter's credits, Bean's name was slipped in among a list of casualties you can find in-game, which prompted a further round of Sean-Bean-always-dies jokes (here's an example on Twitter). Development staff names appearing in game text is an Easter Egg, if not one that means a great deal to the general audience.
Skyrim
Who's this poor unfortunate soul? They met their end in a lonely spot, and their body has shrivelled and dried. It almost looks like a Draugr, doesn't it?
Whether this is the Dragonborn themselves or just an unfortunate denizen of Skyrim wearing a relatively common helmet, this is definitely a little nod to the phenomenally successful RPG produced by id's stablemates at Bethesda Game Studios. It's not clearly visible here but other screens show an arrow in the corpse's knee, referencing the famous ambient line.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
This GIF, posted by Redditor NightmarishPT, is a very cute tribute to James Cameron's classic 1992 tale of time-travelling murderbots.
What we especially like about this one is that you'll never see it unless you die. Magnificent. Go watch it.
Demon Destruction mini-game
Uh so yeah if you search Lazarus Labs you may come across this hidden mini-game. It's a match-three affair, like Bejeweled, only instead of sparkly gems you're matching enemies from classic DOOM.
It's pretty fun! Put aside your Candy Crush aversion and remember why this genre occasionally swallows people whole. Get your name onto the leaderboard and you'll see the rest of the entrants are references and in-jokes from id Software and the shooter's history.
Fallout
Another little nod to Bethesda Game Studios can be spotted on many doors throughout DOOM. This example comes from Redditor AwesomeAstroman.
Could DOOM and Fallout share a universe? Nah, it's probably just a wink. But perhaps in an alternate timeline, where we didn't get stuck in a retro-futuristic nuclear period until apocalypse arrived to save us from painful gender norms, Vault-Tec found an alternate line of work in the space program.
Super Turbo Turkey Puncher
This next one comes to us via Redditor Novakiller. You may remember the Turkey Puncher game Easter Egg from DOOM 3, and maybe you've spotted broken arcade cabinets about the place. At least one of these is intact, plugged in, and playable. Enjoy punching turkeys, in much the same way as you enjoyed them last time.
The same eagle-eyed player also spotted DOOM and Quake posters around the labs, and a packet of Dopechan Noodles - of course Dopefish made it in somewhere.
Commander Keen
Eyyyyyy, it's Commander Keen's helmet! Commander Keen is, of course, the series that started it all for id Software back in the days before it single-handedly popularised several of the most important genres in gaming today.
Note that the helmet is on a stick, which may or may not be a reference to the secret boss of DOOM 2 - John Romero's head on a stick. The jaws around the helmet certainly look a bit Icon of Sin-like, don't they?
Icon of Sin
Speaking of Icon of Sin, the boss of Doom 2 whose form hid John Romero's head on a stick, it makes an appearance in the upper reaches of the Necropolis.
If you shoot the boss in the appropriate weak spot, you'll receive a collectible and a nostalgic bit of audio to boot. Very cute.