Video Games About Demons

"We weren’t worried about offensive stuff, because that would stop us from making what we were trying to make. As artists, we’re trying to be true to our vision. Because, in the game, you were killing demons, and demons are really a religious thing—everyone in the company was an atheist. We didn’t believe in hell or heaven or any of that stuff. Putting demons in there was just, “This is what people believe in.” We thought that the juxtaposition of future science—a space marine on a moon of Mars with all these experiments happening, it’s very scientific and futuristic—and then all of a sudden this religious thing happens, demons coming through a portal, versus aliens—"

"GamesBeat: What do you say when people ask you for the quick “What’s the legacy of Doom? What’s the cultural impact of Doom?” It would make my head hurt."

"Bobby Prince was a lawyer before he was a musician. He knew the legal amount of sampling that he could do without getting into trouble."

"It has to be well timed. It needs to have the right components that maybe contain emerging technologies or something like, say, when Doom came out -- the Network play -- there weren't many games like that. There was a really great 3D world that a lot of people hadn't seen. It was light-years ahead of Wolfenstein. It was shareware, so it had Internet distribution. We used the Internet to get it all over the place. So it used a lot of stuff that was just becoming popular at that time. id just capitalized on it."

"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon..."

"An old Doom map was the inspiration for 2forts, as well as TF itself"

"I have no problems with the demons in the game. They're just cartoons. And, anyway, they're the bad guys."

"Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; teach a man to play Doom, and you'll never get another day's work out of him."

"It's gonna be like fucking Doom man - after the bombs explode. Tick, tick, tick, tick... Haa! That fucking shotgun [he kisses his gun] straight out of Doom."

"Playing this game for one hour may be acceptable. Playing for many hours could be cause for anxiety and/or depression. Playing for hundreds of hours is getting you ready to take action against anyone who gets in your way."

"Don't interrupt me."

"These games are getting really realistic. Next year I might even play in the big Doom tournament. You might wonder what I'm doing here. Well, I'm getting kind of an inside look at some of these new games."

"This ultimately wonderful classic is truly the most inspirational first-person shooter ever created, and if you had to choose between Doom and another game, I don't care what it is, Doom would always be the winner."

"Those seeking the ultimate in home demon protection can now protect their plane of existence with a double-barreled, pump-action combat shotgun that blasts more holes than Mobil Oil."

"I remember playing Doom 'til 3 o'clock in the morning. It was the first time I had ever been frightened while I was using a computer. And it really opened my eyes - experiences like that are why we play computer games."

"In 1993, we fully expect to be the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world."

"There is a scene in 'The Color of Money' where Tom Cruise shows up at a pool hall with a custom pool cue in a case. 'What do you have in there?' asks someone. 'Doom.' replied Cruise with a cocky grin. That, and the resulting carnage, was how I viewed us springing the game on the industry."

"Thematically, Doom was viewed as 'Aliens' meets 'Evil Dead 2'."

"Carmack: I am greatly proud of the fact that Doom is one of those things where everything that has a 32-bit processor has had Doom run on it, and I think that's been one of the great aspects of having it be open source, having everything out there means that people have maintained that and kept it up to date."

"Carmack: On the thematic side of things, I pushed certainly for the demonic aspect of it. That's still something that I feel good about, looking back: In later games and later times, when games get attacked with some of the moral ambiguity or actual negativity about what you're doing, I always felt good about the decision that in Doom, you're fighting demons. There's no gray area here, it is black and white, you're the good guys, they're the bad guys and everything that you're doing to them is fully deserved. There was the little bit of undercurrent, especially when I was younger and I was a bit more aggressive. I think at one point, I said it was fun offending the easily offended. Poking at the fundamentalists was at least a sub-current of picking the demons, and the pentagrams, and the goat's heads and all the things in there. So I was certainly supportive in pushing that but obviously all the actual instantiations of them were done by the artists, Kevin and Adrian."

"His sound would cause great fear during my gaming sessions. Upon discovery of this character I felt frozen watching him methodically reanimating his brethrens one by one. Carefully he walked to each of the fallen corpses summoning his endless energy into the once lifeless body calling upon it to walk again. The feeling of helplessness combined with a shear state of panic had set in. If left unattended he would resurrect all of the characters I had painstaking silenced one by one. If I was to confront him, I was surely to become engulfed in flames and loose all sense of direction looking for the nearest corner to block his line of sight. If unsuccessful in my search for shelter, I would be dealt with swiftly and forcibly by a power so great I would surely be catapulted high in the air and my lifeless body left to fall to the floor. I'm talking about no other then the Arch-Vile of Doom II."

"Victory is mine! Yet, earth remains besieged by creatures unspeakably foul. It will take a strong man to bring the light of freedom back to this planet. A strong man with the biggest, baddest gun in the world! Amen to that."

"My cause is just... My will is strong... And my gun is very, very large!"

"Death surrounds me. Yet in my head I hear something that sounds like angels! Lo, I have found the holy grail of firepower! Mine eyes can but weep as they bear witness to the majesty... The BFG 9000!"

"Sweet Christmas! Big-mouthed floating thingies!"

"Why can't we find a way to safely dispose of radioactive waste and protect the environment? Even if I personally stop this alien invasion, what kind of planet will we be leaving to our children? And our children's children, and... Oh, the humanity!"

"Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!"

"Imps? Zombies? You think you can get me?!? Wait, maybe they don’t think. Well I do! And I think you’re dead!"

"Dig the prowess, the capacity for violence! I'm the man! I'm superbad!"

"You're stupid! And you're gonna be stupid and dead!"

"At this particular moment in time I don't believe I have a healthier or more peeply- felt respect for any object in the universe than this here shotgun...."

"Ahhh! Chainsaw! The great communicator! Allow me to communicate to you my desire to have your guns!"

"Rip and tear rip and... TEAR RIP AND TEAR... RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS! YOU ARE HUGE! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS! RIP AND TEAR!"

"I'm cookin' with gas! I've gotta handful of vertebrae and a headful of mad! Yeah. That's your spinal cord, baby! Dig it! Who's the man? Im the man. I'm a bad man! How bad? Real bad! I'm a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness! Don't need a gun... Guns are for wusses!"

"Who's a man and a half? I'm a man and a half! A berserker packin' man and a half!"

"They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done."

"Trouble was brewing again in your favorite vacation spot... Hell. Some cyberdemon punk thought he could turn Hell into a personal amusement park, and make Earth the ticket booth. Well that half-robot freak show didn't know who was coming to the fair. There's nothing like a shooting gallery full of Hellspawn to get the blood pumping. Now the walls of the demon's labyrinth echo with the sound of his metallic limbs hitting the floor. His death moan gurgles out through the mess you left of his face. This ride is closed."

"A long forgotten relay satellite barely executing, decayed by years of bombarding neutrons, activates and sends its final message to Earth. The satellites message was horrific, from the planetary void there came energy signatures unlike anything sampled before. The classified archives are opened. The military episodes code named "DOOM" were not actually completed. A single entity with vast rejuvenation powers, masked by the extreme radiation levels, escaped detection. In its crippled state, it systematically altered decaying dead carnage back into corrupted living tissue. The mutations are devastating. The Demons have returned even stronger and more vicious than before. As the only experienced survivor of the DOOM episode, your commission is re-activated. Your assignment is clear: MERCILESS EXTERMINATION."

"Your fatigue was enormous, the price for encountering pure evil. Hell was a place no mortal was meant to experience. Stupid military doctors: their tests and treatments, were of little help. In the end, what did it matter - it was all classified and sealed. The nightmares continued. Demons, so many Demons; relentless, pouring through."

"Finally... The mother of all demons is dead! The blood pours from your eyes as you stand in defiance. As the only marine to endure the slaughter— you decide to remain in Hell and ensure no demon ever rises again."

"What the !@#%* is this!"

"You cackle as the familiarity of the situation occurs to you. The gateway to the Demons domain was too accessible. You realize the demons mock you with their invitation. It does not matter... The demons spawn like rats and you have the grade AAA U.A.C. poison they crave. Your bloodthirsty scream shatters the teleport haze. Once again you find yourself amidst..."

"[Describing the Spiderdemon] You guess the Arachnotrons had to come from somewhere. Hi, mom. She doesn't have a plasma gun, so thank heaven for small favors. Instead, she has a super-chaingun. Crap."

"[Describing the Pain Elemental] What a name. And what a guy. Killing him is almost as bad as letting him live."

"The horrendous visage of the biggest demon you've ever seen crumbles before you, after you pump your rockets into his exposed brain. The monster shrivels up and dies, its thrashing limbs devastating untold miles of Hell's surface. You've done it. The invasion is over. Earth is saved. Hell is a wreck. You wonder where bad folks will go when they die, now. Wiping the sweat from your forehead you begin the long trek back home. Rebuilding Earth ought to be a lot more fun than ruining it was."

"To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!"

"You are at the corrupt heart of the city, surrounded by the corpses of your enemies. You see no way to destroy the creatures entryway on this side, so you clench your teeth and plunge through it. There must be a way to close it on the other side. What do you care if you've got to go through Hell to get to it?"

"Congratulations, you've found the super secret level! You'd better blaze through this one!"

"Congratulations, you've found the secret level! Looks like it's been built by humans, rather than demons. You wonder who the inmates of this corner of Hell will be."

"You have won! Your victory has enabled humankind to evacuate Earth and escape the nightmare. Now you are the only human left on the face of the planet. Cannibal mutations, carnivorous aliens, and evil spirits are your only neighbors. You sit back and wait for death, content that you have saved your species. But then, Earth control beams down a message from space: sensors have located the source of the alien invasion. If you go there, you may be able to block their entry. The alien base is in the heart of your own home city, not far from the starport. Slowly and painfully you get up and return to the fray."