DOOM's Demons

Doom was something I only got into somewhat recently, a few years ago. I spent most of my life convinced FPS titles weren't for me, mostly because they seemed difficult to get into and mostly involved normal military men with the voices of squealing children, but then I booted up DOOM 2016 for the first time and that changed. I can hardly think of going back to a time when blowing up stuff wasn't the center focus. 

I've since gone back and played through as much of Doom as I could, getting GZDoom and Rocket Launcher to play the original games, then adding in some mods, checking out Doom 64, and even attempting to play Doom 3 before realizing people weren't joking about the lack of visibility being more annoying than genuinely challenging.

I also follow Bogleech.com, and while Mr. Wojcik was kind enough to review the cacodemons in his signature detail, the rest of the bestiary bores him, which is understandable enough, but I felt like SOMEONE had to review all of them, so, hey, here I am to provide my own two cents.

 Without further ado, let us now discuss every single member of Doom's original roster.

Note: I will also be discussing Brutal Doom on occasion. This is because I consider it to be quite a well-designed mod, worthy of its fame. I understand why some people dislike it, of course, and I promise that I enjoy the original games with the original settings and limitations, too, but it was an inspiration for a large part of Nu-Doom, calling back to the Doom comic and showing off how cool that can be, and I think it made some good design decisions that even Id wouldn't reach.

THE FORMER HUMANS

Yeah, I meant all of them.

The original Doom games predated Resident Evil by about three years. Zombies weren't really "in vogue" in video games at that point in time, and the standard zombiemen, sergeants, and heavy weapons dudes have little in common with them, walking about without much shambling or worry, roaring like big cats, and firing guns at you.

From a character design perspective, the basic zombieman, pictured above, is easily the most recognizable one. All former humans have red eyes. The higher-powered ones are also all bald, but there's no cosmetic variety to them, so they all look exactly the same. Couldn't tell you if their baldness is related to increased power or survivability, or if a hypothetical zombiewoman would undergo hair loss, too. The most interesting thing about them is the hair, which is now shocked green. It might be dyed green with the humongous amounts of radioactive goop in these games, or it might be something else. 

John Romero is on-record as stating these guys aren't zombies in the traditional sense, and indeed, in just about all of Doom's media, the zombiemen are created when possessed by a demonic spirit, typically while they sleep, which explains the use of jaguar noises being emitted by a human. Nifty!

 

Nu-Doom, however, managed to do the more modern zombies fairly well with a creepy design for their shamblers. The Possessed are noticeably less human, with those big, concave holes in the skulls of scientists being perfect. Nu-Doom focuses a lot more on Hell as a meaty place, and indeed, the possessed scientists typically funnel around, killing anything nearby, as they try to turn themselves into gore nests to let more powerful demons in. I love that detail: something crawls inside you, puppets your body to flop down with a bunch of your friends, and then morphs you into a door for its friends to come in. Awful.

It also reintroduced the ones using guns, explained as reacting to the combat training of the guards possessed, and they get to use their plasma weapons which are now fused to their flesh. Grody, but less unnerving to me than what happened to the scientists.

Eternal went on to have more human-looking zombies most of the time, which are a lot more funny to perform the cartoony glory kills on, but less upsetting than the cratered faces.

IMPS

Arguably the lowest-ranking demon, I'm a bit surprised Id Software went with brown and no horns on the head for their introduction to demons. Regardless, what we're looking at here is a grumpy little feller that creeps around throwing fireballs. Imps are nasty-looking enough to feel a little threatening, but also comical enough, and easy enough to take down, that despite their hissing and blustering, I sometimes feel a smidge sorry for the poor things. That goes double for Brutal Doom, where we get more sprites of imps looking scared and panicked.

Nu-Doom returned a bit to the original design. Looking less like Domo-kun, the design is yet more competent, a little bit alien, and their acrobatics have increased yet again... but I feel like something was lost in this take. The imps don't feel nearly so comical. It's all pure menace.

I do still appreciate imps being more quick and acrobatic. Anything called an imp ought to be able to cause problems on purpose and at least attempt to escape the consequences of their own actions.

All that said, I'd ultimately say the best design is the box art for Doom 1. The Muppety, dogman ghoul look is perfect. I want to be that in real life. I don't even care if I don't get to throw fireballs, or move faster, or whatever. I just wanna be a hobgoblin.

DEMON PINKY

Originally called demons, fans called them pinkies to differentiate them from every other demon in these games. They've got a hunched back with dinosaur legs, muscled arms, and a face reminiscent of the Hodag.

Finally, we get the trademark horns, but rather than use them or those big arms, pinkies exclusively fight with their teeth. The ease with which you can dance around their chomping jaws and take them out with your bare hands made them only useful in large swarms as they try to pin you in place. They're also the toughest demons to bring down in the light class with 150 HP, compared to a former human's 20, a sergeant's 30, an imp's 60, and a chaingunner's 70.

This, combined with their propensity to charge straight at you and get hit by their friends, as well as their dying animation, results in pinkies having a very specific "personality" to me: that of an angry pug, grouchy pug. The horns even remind me of drooping ears from the front!

I honestly can't decide whether I prefer to think of them as animals or as, like the imps, just regular citizens of Hell. They definitely read as dumber and more animalistic than most of their companions, but I could still see them singing Where There's a Whip There's a Way alongside the imps.

They also come in camouflaged variants called specters. Kinda fun to imagine that the truth behind a ghost story is that some carnivorous gorilla from a world of hate and pain just got lost in the woods and eats people alive. 

The last thing I'd like to mention about pinkies is exclusive to the game's hardest difficulty, Nightmare. Normally, demons shoot projectiles at double the speed and neglect the part where they need to reposition before they toss out another one, becoming like automatic turrets upon spotting the player. Pinkies don't have projectiles, so instead, they just move at double speed across the board, making them by far the single fastest monster in the game, perfectly capable of running a player down and biting them to death. Even the chainsaw, the best way to handle one of them without Berserk in Doomguy's bloodstream, can no longer stunlock them to death. If they're going to die from being cut in two, they're going to take you to the grave with them.

Nu-Doom decided that pinkies being so pathetic couldn't go on and leaned into their size and ability to face-tank gunfire, giving them one of those bullfight gimmicks where only the tail is vulnerable. Glad to see they got some love, even if it removes a light demon from the roster. Still very Hodag of them!

 

 LOST SOULS

Doom is, first and foremost, pulling from metal artwork, and their take on the souls of the damned as just being giant, flying, flaming human skulls with horns that rocket at anything they see has to take the cake as the most egregiously metal monster design.

...And that's the best I'll say about Doom's original lost souls. They're utter nuisances that tank more punishment than an imp and can get into just about everywhere, making using the rocket launcher exceptionally risky. 

Nu-Doom made them more fragile kamikaze units with more reptilian skulls than before and explicitly identifies them as the ones responsible for possessing people. Neato!

Cacodemons and Pain Elementals

Iconic for a reason. Bog did such a great job at summarizing just how wonderful these fellas are that I honestly can't think of much else to add, aside from one thing: pain elementals are 100% the more intelligent of the two. Especially in Nu-Doom. Pain elementals have opinions about things, like where you can shove this flaming skull it just barfed up. In fact, it'll toss 'em straight at you itself sometimes. 

...That, and just how speedy cacodemons are in Brutal Doom. The Brutal Doom cacos move at surprisingly quick speeds and can even actively dodge rockets, which is just as well considering how much more vulnerable they are to explosions in that mod. Probably has something to do with the eye being good at detecting incoming fiery projectiles, considering they can likewise dodge fireballs from other demons, but not grenades.

Not entirely sure whether I prefer them more sluggish and tanky or quick and agile.

Doom 1 had cacodemons as their singular "mid-tier" monster, and the game SUFFERED for it whenever they needed something less dense than a baron but bigger than a pinky; cacodemons on their own aren't much more interesting to fight than an imp with 400 HP. You can't even use the rocket launcher without them floating away to another ZIP code, and if they're moving too quickly in a bad direction, the autoaim WILL screw you.

REVENANTS

Doom II made sure to include some more variety in its middle-of-the-road monsters, things that can eat at least one rocket and keep going, but not more than four direct hits. Revenants, standing nearly twice your height, are twice as tough as pinkies at 300 HP, but are both faster and more devastating, firing rockets that hit like trucks and sometimes home in on you, all while closing in with their signature swagger so they can straight up deck you in the face. Dangerous!

Nu-Doom gave them skin, which is an automatic letdown. It also gave them a jet pack, which is cool as heck. At the end of the day, it's just nice to have a skeleton in your game, y'know? And skeletons that shoot missiles and fly are really fun.

 

MANCUBI

 

I love these things. They're big and chunky with 600 HP and wield napalm cannons that fire off multiple devastating projectiles in a row. Their war cry is a heavily modified pig grunt that sounds a bit like "HUMP YOUR MOM." When they die, they melt with a satisfying goopy sound. I love these big, stompy ogres with their dinosaur feet. I want to hug them.

Of the Nu-Doom reimaginings, I'd have to say I prefer 2016's the best. Eternal's look so angry all the time, but the cyclopean, pupilless take here looks, first of all, like something out of Ben 10, and second of all, adorable. I respect Eternal's tusks, but I prefer this cutie pie.

HELL'S NOBILITY

I wanted to move quickly on to the next medium monster, but figured I might as well show off the original first. The first boss encounter of Doom 1 was against these two fellers, the nobility of Hell. With 1000 HP each, They can reliably chew through your reserves as you try and take them down. Fortunately, aside from that, they're mostly just bigger imps in terms of AI. Not hard to handle at all.

Brutal Doom spiced them up by giving them a spreadshot version of the fireball attack which is harder to dodge, and I feel like that handily resolved the gameplay problem.

As another attempt at having more middle-of-the-road monsters, the Hell Knight was introduced in Doom II and is literally just a reskin with pitched up roars and half the health. Definitely easier to use in most levels without boring the player, but completely unoriginal.

Leave it to Doom 3, of all games, to reinvent them in an interesting way! This eyeless, mutant creepazoid was a brave decision, but one they were very proud of, as they made it the first thing any kid walking down the halls of Walmart would see of the game by putting it on the box. This design is, technically, the first thing I EVER SAW related to Doom!

Nu-Doom has kept roughly this design ever since, and I'd say Eternal has my favorite take. While it is clearly a pretty angry design, putting the eyes back on allows it to make some goofy facial expressions when you catch it in a glory kill.

Mechanically, Hell knights have followed the imps in their increasing ability and speed, but where imps are scurrying little nightmares that throw fireballs and then scamper off, knights have traded out the fireballs in exchange for just running you down and beating you to death, with their great size and strength making the prospect of facing one up close a terrifying one.

Likewise, the barons got upgraded, in a similar fashion, with Nu-Doom working to make them all much faster, but they keep the projectiles and are even bigger than the knights. Eternal even gave them a versiont hat bleeds lava, which is cool, I guess! When it comes to classical goatmen, the barons remain consistently solid.

I also really appreciate the idea of Hellish nobility being determined by how big and smart you are. Of course Hell is abusive leadership and constant discord. Heck, a dysfunctional system is likely why infighting is so easy to provoke.

THE ARCHVILE

Archviles are the worst of Hell, and rather interesting, design-wise. Visually, the design has more in common with your typical space alien than a demon, with a bulbous head like a martian and no spikes anywhere. It fights by casting a spell that gives you plenty of forewarning before blowing up your face, blinding you with flames before exploding. The only way to dodge it is to break line of sight with the archvile, who thankfully has to stand still to cast. They're easily one of the fastest things in the game, though, and can cover huge amounts of ground quite quickly, and worse than the flames, they can also resurrect other demons that aren't the two bosses or other archviles. High priority targets, and the fourth bulkiest of them all with 700 health.

Also interesting: while archviles are EXTREMELY easy to make infight with other demons, those same demons will never infight with archie, something that can't be said about even the boss enemies. Archviles are just flat out above reproach to them, even as the archvile is blasting them to pieces.

 

The Brutal Doom mod made a few graphical changes to different monsters, but one of the biggest is to the archvile, which they gave horns.

Not too jazzed about that, to be honest. Makes them less unique. Kinda clashes with the rest of the design a bit, too.

Eternal, meanwhile, manages to strike the perfect balance for me between Martian and Mephistopheles. The design is imposing and strange, but also brimming with personality, with a face that looks like it WOULD eat you, but it would prefer to do so with a fork and knife.

They also no longer resurrect dead monsters, but summon and empower them. Still a primary target, and they're even bigger now. 15 feet tall or something???

SPIDER BRAINS

The final boss of Doom 1 and also the easier of the two to take down, the Spider Mastermind is our first boss monster with 3000 HP, though not the first in appearance. Implied to be the literal mastermind behind the first invasion, she ruled Hell at that point in time... up until Doomguy stuck the B.F.G. 9000 in her mouth and pulled the trigger exactly once.

Mechanically, she's a hitscanner like the zombiemen and basically rattles off a huge number of shotgun blasts at you all at once... and that's it. Not much of a challenge unless you're pistol starting the level.

While the design overall isn't much to write home about in terms of brain monsters or cyborgs or cyborg brain monsters, I would like to emphasize the fact that this thing is supposed to be a demon.

One of the rulers of Hell was, at one point, a giant, carnivorous brain on  a mobile platform she probably had to build at least in part herself. How? Why? It looks like it should be in Mars Attacks.

Meanwhile, Nu-Doom did one of the greatest RIGHTS and made the Spider Mastermind a legitimately challenging and entertaining encounter with more ability to control the environment and soak up damage. It even made it the apotheosis of Demon Friend and main antagonist, Dr. Olivia Pierce.

Love the head ridge. Looks like a spinal cord that kept extending up and around.

...And the babies! The arachnotrons are another mid-tier monster. Plasma instead of hitscan, thankfully. Nuisances, but adorable, and their deathrattle is SUPREMELY satisfying.

They also got brought back for Doom Eternal as their first introduction to medium demons, as well as destructible parts, as you could destroy the turret, forcing the monster into melee. Love this design better than the original, and the noises it makes are still cute.

THE CYBERDEMON

 

While he's technically the second boss fight in Doom 1, the Cyberdemon is by far the most well-remembered boss fight, and he's tougher than the Spiderdemon, too. He wouldn't be the posterdemon for Doom II if he wasn't beloved, would he? 

While he's definitely not much of a talker, he reminds me a bit of Bowser with his impressive size, hefty stride, and overwhelming power. He looks like he's always in a rotten mood and would love nothing more than to blast the neighborhood ice cream truck just to make it shut up, and if the kids start crying, he'll blow them up, too. It is his style to seldom smile and never laugh.

Cybie is many things, but first and foremost, I feel like he best summarizes what Doom is aesthetically: he's a giant cyborg devilman with a rocket launcher that can blow away anything he hits and barely give a damn about being shot back. He's a 4000 HP juggernaut that tortures barons for fun. He is, by far, the demon I would point to as "the coolest in the game," and his theme song, "No One Told Me About Id," is my favorite track in the game.

And he has a nice ass.

Doom 2016 brings him back... but a bit different. The new mug reminds me a bit of Gantu from Lilo & Stitch, and he's about that size, too. I stand by what I said about him being a sourpuss. He is absolutely the type to dismantle a rabbit just because it might bring someone joy.

...Actually, is that a smile? The more I stare at it, the more I'm starting to see that underbite as a gnarly grin, like a slasher. No mirth in it. Just sadism.

This one might be my favorite? I'm not entirely sure. I just know I like whatever it is that's going on with that face. A smidge of sarcastic fringehead? A bit of spider? Shark? The horns are great. Love the battle damage.

The original design is brought back in Eternal for the Tyrant and still looks good, leaning into the more bovine appearance of the original. Feels more recognizable as the original, though they flattened out the face and stole his nose.The tusks feel kinda useless, even without the guns. With horns like that, and especially that humanoid body, the real damage is going to be in the limbs. He's not a pig!

THE ICON OF SIN/BAPHOMET

I am not used to writing this much about one topic without bouncing off of someone else, so I'm a smidge exhausted at this point, but here we are. The final boss of Doom II.

...Well, it's a longhorned cow skull with an exposed brain. It shoots demon crates at you. You shoot rockets into the hole in the forehead to kill it. It is trivial if you can use mouselook. The explosions at the end aren't even placed correctly. They're off-center by a few feet to the right side from our perspective.

The eyes are nice at least, and the backwards speech is quite menacing... until you know the secret.

John Romero calls it Baphomet, saying that "Icon of Sin" is just the name of the level featuring him and maintains this even as he made the expansion pack Sigil.

Doom Eternal ups the ante, making the Icon of Sin a Godzilla-sized final boss, covered in cybernetic armor you have to shoot off.

Underneath said armor, it has an appearance somewhere between a hairless goat, a monitor lizard, and a horror pig/daeodon. The goat eyes are cute, but it's still a completely bipedal demon of gargantuan size, and that's perfectly solid, sure, but it's what you expect.

Brutal Doom is by far my favorite take, especially with how Map30 was redesigned to cooperate with it. The original ending text describes "...thrashing limbs devastating untold miles of Hell's surface," and here, I get the impression that this bony, multi-limbed body is simply the tip of a creature whose flesh IS all of Hell.

 Illustration by CookieMancer

Doom's got some pretty great monsters. Sure, a lot of the designs are more on the generic side, but every last one of them, to me, is absolutely charming, not just in design, but in behavior. You may have also realized that I tend to prefer the older stuff over the newer in terms of design, but if you disagree, your opinion is totally valid.

There is one thing about these games that is upsetting, though, and it's that, in-universe, all these colorful creatures are angry all the time. Or scared. Or blowing off steam through sadism. 

This is, ultimately, to make the process of blasting them with a shotgun feel more righteous, and yeah, if you need a violent power fantasy, then this is a good way to go, but sometimes I just feel sleepy and want to snuggle up in a cuddle pile with some pinkies. Is that too much to ask?

So I'd like to end this article by sharing some fanworks.

Doomed Love: A dating sim where you get to be romantic with some iconic enemies.

Lt. Typhon: A Doom mod that, aside from letting you play as a badass grandma, lets you carry around and pet a baby cacodemon.

Finally, I've gone ahead and statted up every monster seen on this page in Savage Worlds, my favorite TTRPG system.

Do with it as you wish HERE