Is Hell in the game really supposed to be "christian Hell"? Here's my theory...

So recently I replayed Doom 3 and quite enjoyed it. If you ask me I say that the game aged pretty well, despite many people disliking it and preferring Doom 2016.

What I always liked about this game is the story (of all the games in the series the third one took itself the most seriously) and atmosphere. The nature of Hell and monsters shown in the game kinda interested me and I would like to look at it from the "science fiction" point of view.

Much of Doom 3 plot and atmoshpere reminds me of a 1997 sci-fi horror movie "Event Horizon". It seems that the writers of the game were clearly inspired by this movie. Similarities between Event Horizon and Doom 3 are remarkable: In both cases we have a supernatural power possesing an isolated location and humans in it (a spaceship in Event Horizon and UAC facility in Doom 3). In Event Horizon travelling through other dimension corrupted the ship's crew and forced them to torture and mutilate eachother. Now that's pretty much the same to what happened to many UAC researchers that travelled to Hell through the Delta portal before the demon invasion and that's what eventually turned them into zombies. The way Dr. Betruger was posessed in Doom 3 was just like Dr. Weir from the movie. The only difference is that there are no monsters in Event Horizon.

Now what's interesting is that in both Event Horizon and Doom 3 the other dimension is believed to be an "actual Hell" but it's not confirmed in either of two. To quote the movie: " You know nothing. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse." "A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil..". Now these quotes fits Hell from Doom 3 quite well, don't you think?

The demons in previous games looked clearly like supernatural demonic creatures. The demons in Doom 3 on the other hand clearly have a more "alien-esque" look. Some of the demons were killed or captured alive and brought to Delta Complex to be studied by UAC scientists. I don't think that something like this would be possible if the Hell was an "actual Hell" from christian perception.

When you meet injured Swann for the last time in Delta Complex he mentions that the demons were on Earth once before but they were driven out by something. It's possible that they followed the surviving Martians through the portal and were defeated by them again with the help of the Soul Cube or some similar weapon. Once again that doesn't fit at all in concept of Christian hell.

So I think that Hell in Doom 3 is not a "christian Hell" (the one where souls of sinful people supposed to go after dying) but a parallel dimension with completely different laws of physics and reality and it's "devil" is a psionic entity that feeds on living creatures (like humans) while using their fear against them by materializing their worst nightmares (hence the disturbing imagery and sounds that appears in UAC facility during the invasion) to make them an easy prey. And the multiple cries of help that player hears in the game belongs to people (both from ancient Martian civilization and UAC research teams) absorbed by Hell's dimension. It seems that Hell fails with posessing individuals with strong will, like the protagonist, Swann, Campbell and sergeant Kelly (the last one was eventually possesed but it took a lot of time and effort for "demons" to do it).

The Hell in Doom 3 is definitely not congruent with a standard Christian Hell, however the areas that are actually explored by the player could very well be a microcosm compared to the overall vastness of it. In theory there could have been other parts of that Hell never experienced in the game where, as with the Christian Hell, sinful people do in fact go. Impossible to know for sure however.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Hell in the Doom games is more like a psychic entity that feeds upon the collective fears or humanity. So maybe Hell is not a place where bad folks go for eternity but because a large majority of people fear this possibility, this dimension created by the psychic entity looks a lot like that including damned souls that are only there because people believe in them.

Makes sense to me. Just another one of those wacky worlds we should stay away from.

Not sure why people try to overcomplicate this. Doom's hell is hell. This isn't even a theory, it's outright called hell in all of the games. 

On 6/25/2018 at 8:16 AM, hardcore_gamer said:

Not sure why people try to overcomplicate this.

Because it's fun.

What a strange topic.

It obviously isn't congruent with Christian 'hell', because the normal Christian understanding of hell doesn't involve a physical place, at least not from the Orthodox or Catholic worldview (some Protestants think otherwise). That's like asking if Painkiller's levels are really a good representation of the Catholic idea of Purgatory. Like, of course not.

I believe hell is actually a state of mind from fear and not letting go after moving on from dying and your consciousness leaving the body. I came up with the idea from watching various NDE accounts.

But I don't believe the game version actually follows any religions version of hell, I think they simply made up one for the game.

On 6/25/2018 at 9:16 AM, hardcore_gamer said:

Not sure why people try to overcomplicate this. Doom's hell is hell. This isn't even a theory, it's outright called hell in all of the games. 

Well to explain the existence of a hell as described in ancient text, as opposed to an alien world, is far much more complicated in my opinion.

Sight...

Hell is the enemy in the Doom games for exactly 2 reasons:

1. It's cool.

2. It's scary.

There is no reason to look for explainations that don't even need to exist.

6 minutes ago, hardcore_gamer said:

There is no reason to look for explainations that don't even need to exist.

Yes there is. It's fun.

The guys at id didn't need to get together and make Doom.

On 6/27/2018 at 11:19 PM, Inno said:

It obviously isn't congruent with Christian 'hell', because the normal Christian understanding of hell doesn't involve a physical place, at least not from the Orthodox or Catholic worldview (some Protestants think otherwise).

Doom 3 hell didn't look like a 'place'. One moment player is in cage, the other he's among some floating rocks. Cramped caverns get replaced by views of vast and dark maroon sky with almost every step as we progress through. Walls move apart, brick by brick, as if they don't disclose another place, but rather want to present something new and nasty. Sense of time and exhaust are completely gone. Does anyone remember, that stamina didn't deplete at all? CD, Revenants, mancubi and pinkies have tech stuff, but it's not like they have some background behind this. Unlike Doom 16, they are just given as is. Given depiction of hell is not place, but it can be a place, so it sometimes just has no story or sensitive time span. Listening to this log might be handy at comprehending hell's concept.

Moreover, D3 depiction of hell is a product, that was created with limitations of engine, artists' imagination and their tools. And despite of that, it does good work. It looks really wicked and twisted without any excessive gore and it's is not chocked up with chrestomathic attributes.

2 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

1. It's cool.

2. It's scary.

Personally I'd like to add this as well.

3. There is nothing wrong with slaughtering demons. They are absolutely evil creatures from hell, place of eternal suffering. At some extent they should even be thankful for player for relieving them of terrible existence.
4. We already have unpleasant experience with the movie and 90ies novels. Lack of true infernal stuff was by no means the only drawback, but it definitely was a significant one. Should we learn on our mistakes?

34 minutes ago, Quadrops said:

 

Doom 3 hell didn't look like a 'place'. One moment player is in cage, the other he's among some floating rocks. Cramped caverns get replaced by views of vast and dark maroon sky with almost every step as we progress through."

Uh, the Doom marine in D3 was physically in hell. That makes it a 'place', a physical location that he is capable of being in, and using guns to shoot things in. It doesn't matter that it doesn't work 'normally'. The point is that it has a physical 'reality' to it that the Orthodox/Catholic understanding of hell does not possess, because it is a spiritual reality, not a physical one.