The Lost Soul in Doom 3 looks vastly different from its classic counterpart. It is a flying demon in the shape of a flaming, human head with the ability to charge at the player.
The first appearance of a Lost Soul occurs when the Marine discovers a female UAC employee, Theresa Chasar, crying all by herself in her office. When he enters, she whispers "Help me!" at him, before her facial skin starts to shrivel inwards while acquiring a pale color. Suddenly, something inside her head starts to violently jerk, before a Lost Soul finally bursts out of her head to attack the Marine.[1]Many more Lost Souls are encountered, although this is the only time one is seen to originate from a living human.
Appearance[]
The Lost Soul is a small flying demon in the form of a pale white, hairless human head. Its eyes are black with white irises and its mouth and jaw are severely distended and torn up, enabling the Lost Soul to open its mouth to unnatural extents. Their teeth are extremely long and thin, analogous in both shape and size to sharp needles.
A grotesque contraption, a rocket engine of some sort is fused to the Lost Soul's head, giving it the ability to hover and fly. The rocket produces a stream of reddish-orange fire behind and around the demon. It vocalizes through high-pitched shrieks when alerted, and can also be identified by the sound the rocket in the back of their head makes.
Combat Characteristics[]
In contrast to its appearance, the Doom 3 Lost Soul behaves almost identically to its previous iteration. They usually come in swarms and hover through the air at moderate speed, and abruptly charge by rocketing in a straight line towards the player. Unlike the classic Lost Souls, however, Doom 3 Lost Souls can cover a larger area and can change course if necessary.
Tactical Analysis[]
While this iteration of the Lost Soul only has 20% health compared to its classic version, it also presents itself as a much smaller target, making them harder to aim. Combined with the lack of space for the player to dodge their charge attacks, the Doom 3 Lost Soul can potentially pose as a greater threat than its classic version. If it survives the player's initial shot, it grants them a perfect opportunity to retaliate against the player.
The general strategy is to maintain a reasonable distance away from these enemies as their charge attacks will allow them to quickly close in on the player to attack. The Shotgun is ideal against fighting an individual Lost Soul at point blank range. However, its low rate of fire and reduced effectiveness at long range makes this weapon unviable when fighting a horde of them. The Pistol is also a reliable weapon if used at a safe distance, as it takes two shots to destroy them. This, however, requires good accuracy from the player, and thus is not as useful if they suddenly close in. The Machine Gun or the Plasma Gun are more efficient for taking down a horde of them, thanks to their high accuracy and rapid rate of fire.
Notes[]
- While it's unknown how the Lost Soul originated inside Theresa's body, it could be possible that the demon needs to manifest itself within a human body. Despite how it may originally appear, the Lost Soul's head is not Theresa's actual head, as inspection of her body reveals that her actual head is partially intact.
- The Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission expansion packs replaced the Lost Souls with a new monster called the Forgotten One, which bears a closer resemblance to the classic Lost Soul.
| ||||||||||||||||||