I’m the Doom guy, duh.
The Sequel I Didn’t Know I Wanted
To give a little bit of context to my review of Doom Eternal, I was never on the hype train for either of the latest entries in the Doom franchise. I was about a year or two late to playing Doom (2016), and I feel like that was detrimental to my experience with the game.
There was, and still is, a lot of buzz surrounding Doom (2016) being one of the best shooters in gaming. I personally don’t agree with this take, but I can see where those believers are coming from. One of my biggest issues with the game was that it didn’t have much of a narrative, and it felt archaic in the sense that I was just going room to room killing demons in stylish ways “just because”.
Doom Eternal, on the other hand, is one of the best shooters that I’ve ever played. I’ll go further in depth with the changes to Doom’s mechanics that led me to this belief, but for now I’ll summarize my perception of Doom Eternal as the Uncharted 2 treatment of Doom (2016).
Welcome Changes
Where the previous entry was all about skating around on the x-axis killing every demon you come across, Doom Eternal has a heavy emphasis on vertical elements such as jump pads (think Halo gravlifts) and the Super Shotgun’s new attachment the Meat Hook that will pull you towards your victims.
The change to a vertical focus is one of my favorite improvements to Doom. It added to Doom’s mindset of “keep moving or die” by encouraging me to think of ways to increase my momentum moving around levels.
Another big change to how the player maneuvers levels is the addition of platforming segments that stitch together the combat encounters. When I first heard that there was going to be a lot of platforming in Doom Eternal, I was a little worried about how they would pull it off in the game without making it frustrating or jarring to the player’s experience.
I think that Doom Eternal nailed platforming in a first-person shooter like very few games have (Titanfall 2 has wall running but not a lot of platforming, don’t @ me). Somehow, Doom Eternal’s platforming helped to make Doomguy as powerful as he seems. The way that he leaps, double jumps, and dashes from climbing walls has a beefy feel to it. I can’t remember getting frustrated with the platforming outside of one moment towards the end of the game.
Doom Eternal still doesn’t have the narrative focus that I would desire from a modern shooter, but it makes up for it with the polishing and addition of both old and new gameplay mechanics within the franchise. I can’t wait to see what id Software decides to do with the next entry in the series.
A Swing and a Miss
One of the biggest disappointments for me was the removal of Doom’s traditional multiplayer mode in lieu of Doom Eternal’s Battlemode. Battlemode pits one Doomguy player against a pair of Demon players in a chaotic “first to 3” fight.
The only way for Doomguy to win a round is to defeat both demons at the same time (they can respawn after about 20 seconds as long as their teammate survives the timer). Meanwhile, the Demons simply have to use the various abilities at their disposal to kill Doomguy to win the round.
As of writing this review, this mode is incredibly unbalanced and is the only portion of the
game that makes Doomguy feel like a weakling. In Battlemode, Doomguy simply has access to the entire arsenal from the campaign, while the demons have access to spawning various demons such as Hellknights, Spider demons, etc., as well as AOE effects that can heal demons or do damage over time to Doomguy if he gets caught inside them.
I think that this is an interesting idea for Doom’s multiplayer mode, but the execution just simply isn’t there in my opinion. I’m not even entirely sure what could help make this mode more fun for Doomguy players, maybe buffing up damage or health a bit? In any case, id Software has hinted at big changes coming to Battlemode in the future so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Conclusion: 8.5/10
As I previously mentioned, Doom Eternal is one of the best shooters that I’ve ever played. I think that the changes id Software made to the gameplay introduced by Doom (2016) work together to make this an excellent entry in the franchise that speaks to outsiders like myself.
I highly recommend Doom Eternal to shooter fans, even if you don’t have an attachment to this franchise that’s been around for decades.
The level design and various environments are incredible to look at, there was a lot of love put into making Doom Eternal a visually appealing game that doesn’t lock you into “fire and brimstone” levels.
I can’t leave this review behind before I bring up the return of the bombastic soundtrack that makes you feel ever more powerful when you’re heading out into the world of Doom Eternal to “rip and tear, until it is done.”
LongLivePlay 