[Série] Doom

Was reading through the "Favourite map of all time" thread and noticed mje's post about E1M8. Once the Barons are killed and the player is transported into the dark room where he is immediately attacked by a multitute of nasties - mje observed that the player dies and goes to hell.

I had never considered this, but it would make sense because of the subsequent hell-themed episodes. I just re-read the ending text for Knee-Deep In The Dead: "What the hell is this? it's not supposed to end this way!" This kind of shock and surprise at the reward for "beating the big badasses" would corroborate the going-to-hell theory. Especially "now you're stuck on the shores of hell".

Of course, this would then bring up the question of resurrection once you beat the Spiderdemon on Dis. If you were indeed dead during both episode 2 and 3, when you step through the portal and return to earth - you are once again manifested into reality?

However, it has been pointed out previously by a number of other members pointed out that you do not in fact die when being attacked in the dark room. Rather, your health is decreased a great deal, but you are still alive when the end story text rolls. How could the player die and go to hell if he is not actually killed at the end of the episode?

Then, I got interested, and did a search through the forums for references to this. Enjay, on a thread years ago, claimed that you got teleported to Deimos immediately and are then struck by a surprise ambush. Other theories suggest that it's an hallicination (unlikely), or that the dark room is actually still on Phobos.

Personally, I subscribe to the theory of immediate teleporation to Deimos. Perhaps the surprise ambush is serving as a teaser for players to purchase the game and continue the battle.

However, many people I've talked to about this had absolutely no idea what the hell (pun intended) happened at the end of the episode. So I don't think id's "teaser" strategy worked as intended. Though perhaps, some people may have bought the game just to find out what exactly did happen at E1M8 out of confusion or curiosity :)

I think the message is "as you feel unsatisfied by ending on that way, you must buy the full version if you want to really be victorious".

My conversation with John Romero:

Mogul:
Hey - I'm sorry to bug you. But I want to ask this. What is it that happens at the end of DOOM's E1M8? Do you die and go to Hell?

The Romero says:
yep

Mogul:
OK, going into it just a little more, is there any particular reason that you wake up on Deimos instead of Hell? I know that's pushing it for details. Just checking

The Romero:
because that's where the phobos anomaly was linked

Mogul:
The Phobos anomaly being the room you die in at the end of E1? You're saying you have to be dead in that room to get to Deimos?

The Romero says:
yes, that's the room. it's not that you HAVE to be dead - it's just a flimyass story!

Mogul:
Heh. Just checking!

What's pretty funny is the first version of Doom I played was the SNES. You could only play the other episodes on higher difficulties and the beating one episode actually continued right into another provided the skill level is set high enough for it to be playable. Well when I first beat episode 1 it was on a skill too low to play episode 2, so it just went back to the title without even showing the ending text. I beat the barons, stepped on teleporter, get a blitzed in a pitch black room for a split second, and it goes straight back to the title screen leaving me really wondering what the hell just happened.