DOOM Eternal Review

By Tanner Linares

Rip and Tear until it is done.

 

I saw a lot of little blurbs calling DOOM Eternal one of the "greatest shooters ever made" and I initially thought "ok, that seems like hyperbole." But man, now that I've 100%'d my first save file, played a decent amount of multiplayer, and am getting ready to beat the game for technically a third time (I beat all the levels a second time as I replayed them to find each of the collectibles that I missed), while I'm not going to say it had some mind-blowing story because, I mean, it's DOOM, that's not the point, I will say... yeah, that's not an unfair assessment. As far as just pure shooter fun, this is game sits right up there near the top. I definitely like it more than DOOM 4, which I was unsure of before getting my hands on it, but I quickly realized this to be the case within only a short time of playing.

It flows so much nicer than it ever did in the previous game, and that already flowed great. This just took everything DOOM 4 did and made it better. The game ditches the fallback of an Infinite ammo pistol in favor of a regenerating chainsaw to replenish your ammo when you start to run low. As well, enemies have enough strategic variety to force you to constantly switch up your plans, but none of it is so complicated you'll ever really find yourself stumped either, so the only thing tested is your ability to adapt and execute fast enough. You'll find yourself constantly running out of ammo, but also rarely find yourself without any ammo. The game seems to be smart enough to know when to spawn a new low-level enemy for you to kill if you're running low on ammo, and there usually seems to be enough around if you start to run low on health. There is a good depth to the weapons; almost none of them feel tacked on as they all serve a purpose in some way. There’s also a simple, yet varied, customization system to them that lets you further dictate how you wish to play, as does the now-streamlined rune system.

In the previous game, I found the bosses to be cool on the surface, but also some of the most frustrating parts of the game. After spending a bunch of time running, gunning, ripping and tearing to my heart's content, I was suddenly forced into small arenas with bullet spongey enemies unleashing large barrages of attacks; It never felt right to the rest of the game. However, here, the bosses are limited to only a few moments in the game. There are, instead, “Super Demons” which can’t be as easily defeated with a simple stream of bullets (such as the incredibly strong Marauder) which push your learned skills to the absolute limit in the same frantic, fast-paced environment the game gets you used to throughout its many challenging encounters. As for the real bosses, they have also been greatly improved, as they now offer unique mechanics which, while simple, are still testing the same skill set you build throughout your demon-slaughtering adventure to save Earth. While there are only three full bosses, and one additional boss which is later relegated to the “Super Demon” category I mentioned earlier, each of them offers a memorable battle that no longer tests your patience, but instead your mettle.

Speaking of mettle, there is the absolutely fantastic metal soundtrack of this game. I won’t get too far into that, but suffice to say, composer Mick Gordon has once again delivered a blood-pumpingly badass soundtrack to massacre the forces of Hell to. And as a fun bonus, there are collectible tracks from other id software games to be found throughout the game that you can then play in the Fortress of Doom, a fun Easter-egg filled hub you get to enter between missions in the campaign.

The game is not devoid of problems, rare though they are. In my playthrough, each time I encountered a section requiring you to swim, I found issues with getting my character to surface, instead bouncing off the top of the water rather than breaking through into the open air. This was a bit annoying, as certain aquatic areas actually dole out damage over time, and in one instance this lasted long enough that I actually ended up dying before I was able to get out of the water. There are also a few tracking errors in the in-game milestones, which prevented me from unlocking an achievement for mastering all of the weapons. This issue, however, has been noted by the publisher in a blog post and there is currently a fix being worked on. 

The storyline itself is genuinely entertaining. It’s not trying to take itself too seriously and lets the game go to many different, pretty insane places. It makes you feel like you’re a one-man army, and if somebody tells you not to do something, you’re going to do it, dammit. There are also a few fun, though brief, moments that help hint at a history for the player-character that I will not spoil here, but it suffices to say that I got a good kick out of those brief reveals. Though it was genuinely still entertaining, most of the real depth to the story comes from the many readable codex entries. I did not get the chance to read all of them quite yet, but the few I did read offered some really cool tidbits and lore information I’m sure dedicated enthusiasts to the story will find great. I would have liked if the codex entries could have had narration—perhaps by the ever-present and charming VEGA, returning from the first game, or one other character who joins you on your journey about halfway through the game—so that you could listen to them rather than stopping the momentum of the game to read pages upon pages of history and context.     

The game is kind, too, about progression. Deaths do not wipe the progress of collectibles, simply a bit of mission progress, and using the fun cheats the game allows you to unlock does not prevent you from unlocking achievements as they can only be used in missions you have already completed, anyway. The only real restriction put on you by the cheats is that, when activated, you cannot enter any of the game’s six slayer gates, which unlock keys that eventually allow you to unlock a high-power weapon that, if I am being honest, would not totally be worth the effort it takes to get, were it not for the two achievements you unlock for completing the tasks required to obtain it. The game also does not lock achievements behind difficulty settings, allowing any player dedicated enough to experience the game to its fullest. Given the game features a large amount of cool collectibles and secrets to find, each one hidden in a fun way that gives you a nice “a-ha!” moment rather than a “finally!” moment, this makes the game a lot easier to recommend to less-experienced players, while not making the game so easy that more hardcore players will be annoyed at an overly-forgiving experience. It strikes a good balance between difficulty freedom and being challenging. One interesting thing, too, is that you are able to unlock all of the game’s suit upgrades with far fewer suit points than you can obtain throughout the game; the same is true of the unlockables inside the Fortress of Doom. I am not sure why this is, but it does allow you to enjoy the rewards of being fully powered up even before the point in which you have nothing left to do, an issue I’ve had with many games in the past.

Shifting over to the multiplayer, I know many fans were upset about the removal of deathmatch, a staple of the series. However, the new Battlemode is, in its own right, a fantastic addition to the game. I did not play the multiplayer much in DOOM 4, however here, I found myself in one instance playing until 6am with one of my friends, something I haven’t found a game make me do in years. As a 1v2 mode, one player controls a fully-upgraded Doomslayer who must go up against two players controlling demons of their choice, who also have the ability to summon fodder demons to attack the enemy slayer. At first, it seems like the slayer has a distinct advantage; however, upon playing more, the demons can actually be very tough opponents. I played mostly as the demons, and I believe we only lost a couple of matches in a 5-hour session. That’s not to say they are overpowered, either, though. A more learned player showed us that a slayer still has many tricks up their sleeve. The mode is a “first to three” wins mode, with an obvious max of 5 rounds, and at the end of each of the first three rounds you get to choose an upgrade for yourself. The first two upgrade choices come from the same selection, while, if you get the chance to choose a third upgrade, you get a new selection of higher-powered upgrades. This lets both sides even things out a bit if early rounds prove one player to be distinctly advantaged, helping to minimize the skill gap without entirely erasing it. Overall, it feels fairly balanced, Battlemode is a great additional mode to play once you have finished all you want to do in the game’s campaign.

On the whole, DOOM Eternal has a lot of great stuff to offer. It is a fantastic game, and blurbs calling it one of the best shooters of all time are not simply blowing smoke. The game truly is a modern masterpiece and is once again proof that shooter games do not all need to follow the same rules and formulas. This is an easy recommendation from me.

“Bad, Good or Great?”

Great