There's the obvious notion that "Doom was always cartoony but Quake should be as gritty and hard as a NIN album".
But because of some points:

  • Hell in Doom was always a mix of different themes, making it surreal and unpredictable (Or at least potentially that).
  • While D64 has a better atmosphere, it does feel thematically restricted, hence the colored lightning.
  • For better or worse, D3 demon designs were more experimental and stranger, partially because of the horror focus but even taking away the darker atmosphere and all, you could see how "horror in Doom" could mean stranger and experimental designs.
  • 2016 felt like they had a sense of "nature/logic" because of the streamlined aesthetics of Hell and the recurring chittin demon anatomy (While cybernetic demons were made inventions of the UAC), which may in a way make its demons even "more alien" than D3's.
  • Eternal focuses more on variety of enemy designs and even Hell related environments, even if with lore that doesn't have a certain level of true weirdness (Specially with Immora).

Both Doom and Quake always had a mix of ideas, specially as fusions of fantasy and sci-fi (Even Quake has some Satanism and unlike Doom, had actual Jesus).
But while Doom was colorfull, Quake was seen as "the mostly brown one" and i feel like it's because of the "materials" of the environments: Specially when Doom's Hell always had different materials to make it feel weird and suit the enemy variety in terms of visuals.
Doom had rock, wood, marble, tech, flesh and whatever FIREBLU is supposed to be.

I think in a way, it's easier to see Quake concepts fit in Doom than the other way around (Hell, you could even make Doom take stuff from Heretic or Duke).
Because Hell is seen as a representation of evil and certain concepts, that you think of it as something "intentional", like a very powerfull psychopath that can do anything and he knows it.
So if some demons suddenly look "too eldritch", it's Hell knowing it would scare humans (Whether or not it means they're even aware of Quake's monsters).
While Quake is influenced by Lovecraft and an aspect of those kind of themes is how humans cannot comprehend these outwordly monsters; Which could also mean "we're not even sure if they hate us or know we fear them".

In a way, this tends to be compared to how a human would look at a tiny bug and rarely question its own thoughts, if it has any.
Quake monsters can be terrifying but in a way, they may have some "limits" that means they don't have certain things that Doom's Hell has.
Even if Q1 expansions introduced a variety of designs and concepts that aren't that related to the Lovecraft aspect.

It's the same reason why other game genres, from horror games to JRPG's, tend to have creative designs for Hell and demons.
AND we cannot forget artists from centuries ago like THE Hieronymus Bosch and others, who proved Hell can be more than meets the eye.
It can range from "an evil entity that hates humans and wants them to know it with terrifying creatures" to "abstract beings whose appearences may have familiar ideas, as if they represent or mean something".

Meanwhile, Lovecraft stuff mainly comes from literature and there's only so much you can do with Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep before a Lovecraft fan complays you're "missing the point", so people tend to use those algorithms/AI/DeepDream based software things to generate "eldritch visuals" and maybe do the Zalgo thing with letters.
Tentacles/eyes/mouths can be too obvious and overdone.

And obviously, Doom had different art style changes over the years and had a lot more fan content that "unofficially expanded the setting".
While Quake has fan content like mods and art, it may not show a similar range for the setting's versatility.
Then again, there's still the difference between "what Doom's Hell could be" and what it actually is.
But if Doom's Hell seems limited, it's something you can blame it on specific design/lore decisions (Specially when you cherrypick certain designs or props to prove how crazy Hell can be).

But still, Doom's Hell always had a sense of versatility and Quake is notorious for having a different setting/identity change because of Q2; Even if it's kinda unfair how there's way more Strogg stuff.
Nothing against the Strogg but QChampions feels like a reminder of how long it took Quake to acknowledge that section of itself.

Then again, maybe this view is skewed because Q1 expansions did add more material to Quake's "sandbox".

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Pub: 31 Aug 2022 12:57 UTC
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