Why does doomguys' armor expose his stomach?

Anyone ever notice the demon that has a gun for a hand?

Iv always wondered if that was a cyberdemon or some other type of demon we have not seen.

The "demons" are so generic that they could be imps, knights, barons, or "cyberbarons"/"rocketbarons".

I think the main reason his armor was designed that way was to actuate at the waist easier. It looks like its just a vacuum formed hunk of steel rather than a kevlar plate vest like we use these days so unless some parts were modified he couldn't bend at the waist up or down or turn very well either.

That said, its still a stupid fucking design because his mid section is then completely exposed spare for his uniform (which is ripped in the cover picture) so a gut shot is pretty much a guaranteed kill x_x Buckshot (or plasma heated to the temperature of the sun's surface) to the stomach will ruin anyone's day. Not even a Zantac will fix that shit.

Maes said:

The "demons" are so generic that they could be imps, knights, barons, or "cyberbarons"/"rocketbarons".

Some of them have a pretty "barony" face. Especially the one in back grabbing at his leg. The others have a more canine like face, always thought they were supposed to imps personally. Better than these green whateverthefucks on the PSX cover:

I love the cover art for PSX Doom, thanks for sharing!

Unholypimpin said:

Anyone ever notice the demon that has a gun for a hand?

Iv always wondered if that was a cyberdemon or some other type of demon we have not seen.

I always thought the demons surrounding doomguy were Barons, and the demon with the metal/tech thing on its arm had either a broken weapon or some kind of blade.

Because he can...

Maes said:

The "demons" are so generic that they could be imps, knights, barons, or "cyberbarons"/"rocketbarons".

I've never understood how anyone can interpret them as imps. Imps have no head horns, they have body spikes. The demons in the pic have head horns and no body spikes. They're clearly barons (or hellknights, but given those didn't exist in the first game...) The cyborg arm is just for some variety and an indication that something like that is in the game.

Also, if you look at the uncropped image, the one that's getting shot has green blood coming out. Another baron/hk trait.

Linguica said:

Are you fucking kidding me?

apparently not.

Revealing armor's been around for a lot longer than Doom.



It was really common for tabletop RPG products and fantasy/SF novels of the 70's and 80's.

Various pulp magazine covers from the early 1900's also had interesting attires.

Honestly I was just reading this thread and wondering WTF is wrong with everyone here! (I'm obviously just kidding) There are like 10 posts talking about Doomguy's sexuality alone! This is why Doom World is such a fun place haha

The girls love the doomguy's torn armor... and so do some of the guys, maybe this is why they tore his armor so that they could widen their audience?

Not to be 100% sure, but I have a feeling that those creatures looking like "Demons/Barons/whatever" were actually meant to be Imps.

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

I've never understood how anyone can interpret them as imps. Imps have no head horns, they have body spikes. The demons in the pic have head horns and no body spikes.

What about the demons in this magazine cover art (which was done by the same artist who did the game's cover)? Although their upper body does look like that of the Baron, they seem to have clawed imp-like feet.

TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

they seem to have clawed imp-like feet.

Actually I can't see them as anything but big, black, goat or cow hooves, with a kinda big split.

Those look even more generically like "red devils", and they don't even have a consistent face design: the two ones on the left have those weird dog/baboon snouts also appearing on other cover arts (the middle one is very pronounced), while the one on the right looks more human (albeit a pretty ugly, orcish one). And those crotches....WTF are those, natural bony armor plates, matching the rest of the body?

hex11 said:

Revealing armor's been around for a lot longer than Doom.

It was really common for tabletop RPG products and fantasy/SF novels of the 70's and 80's.

We need more pics of the Doomguy in Red Sonja poses. Wait, no!

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Doom World

Hello, Kotaku spy!

On the topic of the generic as heck demons, I'm kind of interested in seeing them pop up in-game, especially as a ZDoom monster so they can be randomized to have the different faces. I'm not really sure how they'd behave, but considering their swarming behavior on the box art and the fact that one of them has a rocket launcher, perhaps they'd just pop up in huge crowds with one or two "leaders" with mechanical weapons, and quickly approach the player, only firing projectiles when they are at close range? Could also have the leaders explode on death, making their love of getting up close more dangerous and allowing somewhat of a simulation of how leader enemies work in other games - kill them, and it causes havok amongst the weaker ones.

TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

this magazine cover art

The demons do look pretty generic in that picture, but I really like the setting and the image of Doomguy. Very cool.

Two things: 1. it's evidence of a long history of objectification and 2. you cannot change the habits of dead people.

This is inconsistent with those same complainers arguing for censorship of content when there's not enough "PoC" in history books and asking for revisionism to prop up the history of "oppressed" races (even though races don't exist).

The truth: outrage culture doesn't involve venturing into museums or other boring places, for that movement is about getting high on hate, the target merely an excuse. Self-appointed moral crusaders will only bitch about things that affect them personally, such as a fictional character being assaulted in their favorite TV show. Ongoing rape gangs on a massive scale are sweeped under the rug if the ethnicities and cultures involved don't fit the narrative.

On Doomguy, judging from the progress of obesity it's obvious by the time the events of Doom happen 95% of the population is fat. Being fit becomes a sign of rebellion against a decadent society, and bodybuilders put their abs on display for the whole world to see.

Maes said:

The "demons" are so generic that they could be imps, knights, barons, or "cyberbarons"/"rocketbarons".

They're barons. Keep in mind that the barons had a lot of concept art done for them, and a clay figuring, while imps were added later and made out of pixel art. We've got a baron face marble texture, but no imp face texture.

When the box art/title pic art was made, its author had a very clear idea of what a "baron of Hell" was, at least in lineart, but probably no solid concept for the imp.

Gez said:

They're barons.

I don't doubt that. I'm a "they're barons" man myself. It's just that often you hear other opinions that they look like "imps", or "imp-baron hybrids", or just generic "devils".

IMO, they have absolutely nothing implike, and yet there are people who still call them that.

Interestingly, the only place in Doom where you come close to a situation such as the one depicted on the various covers, AKA being cornered by a lot of Barons at the same time and using the PL against them, is E2M9: Fortress of Mystery.

Maybe people associate them with imps because:
1. They are numerous, which makes them look like common enemies, which imps are.
2. Doomguy deals with them up close and with a relatively weak weapon. Acceptable if he was fighting imps, implausible if they were barons. He would get hopelessly slaughtered immediately. (side note: his situation looks like he's just before getting slaughtered anyway)

Though in-game sprites didn't show that his armor expose his stomach (Both DOOM and DOOM III )

scifista42 said:

Maybe people associate them with imps because:
1. They are numerous, which makes them look like common enemies, which imps are.
2. Doomguy deals with them up close and with a relatively weak weapon. Acceptable if he was fighting imps, implausible if they were barons. He would get hopelessly slaughtered immediately. (side note: his situation looks like he's just before getting slaughtered anyway)

But those aren't good reasons. On that logic you could as easily say "Well, clearly they're meant to be zombiemen. Even though they, you know, look exactly like barons."

The doomguy(if you can call him that)on the PSX cover looks like Phil Anselmo.

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

But those aren't good reasons. On that logic you could as easily say "Well, clearly they're meant to be zombiemen. Even though they, you know, look exactly like barons."

Our human thinking is associative by its nature, instead of being exactly logical. The depicted enemies give an impression of "generic low-tier devils", and this description in the context of Doom literally means "imps". ;)

Also, Barons have that green stuff attached to their hands all the time. How come these guys don't?

What if the art was drawn before Doom was even close to finished, so there was really no intention for it to be canon with the actual game?

"Doom is a game where you're a space marine who has to fight his way through hell against all these demon monsters with machine guns and rocket launchers. Here's a clay model of the space marine and and some sketches Adrian did. Good luck!"

40oz said:

What if the art was drawn before Doom was even close to finished, so there was really no intention for it to be canon with the actual game?

If so, one can remain in the theory that Imps were meant to have horns.

What if, and I know this is a totally radical suggestion with no existing precedents that would fundamentally alter our understanding of gaming history, but, what if Mr. Punchatz was just given minimal materials and directions and created what he wanted on his own terms (there's a technical term for this called artistic license), and the demons depicted are not in fact "meant" to be anything that happens to occur in-game?

Regardless, id liked the result, and time has been very kind to it, with it being consistently voted one of if not the best game box arts of all time, even with its arguable accuracy issues if compared to the game's content. My suggestion is that it is meant to be imaginative, and perhaps even suggestive, like as if to say the hordes of Hell have innumerable forms and hey maybe you could run into a demon just like that one if you stepped in the wrong corner of perdition.

I've seen some pretty amazing boxes for Amiga, PC-88/98, and various console games. Doom box art is way up there, but I wouldn't automatically claim it's the best of all time.

A lot of the old art (80's to early 90's) were also paintings and some were by artists just as or more talented.