DOOM Eternal Game Review

DOOM Eternal, released 20/03/2020, is the followup to 2016’s DOOM, and the latest game in the cult classic DOOM series. The game follows the player character, known as ‘The DOOM Slayer’, ‘Doomguy’ or ‘The Doom Marine’ as he fights the evil forces of both Heaven and Hell to save Earth, and what’s left of Humanity, from a demonic invasion.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/782330/DOOM_Eternal/

The following review contains Spoilers.

Story:

DOOM Eternal diverges from the other games in the series by putting more focus into a structured story, with characters and objectives. Despite having a more detailed storyline from the other games in the series, the story is still very scarce compared to many other games, although this is both expected and suitable for a game of this genre. Most of the storytelling in Eternal comes from ‘Codex’ entries the player can find throughout the game’s levels. These codex entries detail characters, factions, enemies, history and characters within the game’s universe and provides context for a lot of the player’s actions. While playing, I went out of my way to collect these little nuggets of lore, and I was often excited to read a new entry I just picked up, hoping to learn more about the universe’s history, or the locations I was visiting. Many players might find these codex entries annoying, as they require a break in immersion in order to read, and greatly slow down the pace of the game, but as someone interested in the game’s lore, I found these to be an interesting break between the game’s many fast-paced intense battle sequences.  

Although the codex entries provide the bulk of the game’s writing, there is the occasional cutscene to help add context to the game’s events, and the game includes a handful of significant characters to meet and interact with.

One character that stood out to me was the main character himself, The DOOM Slayer. When the previous game was released, he quickly became a very popular character online. While he doesn’t talk throughout the game, the developers did an excellent job of giving him a personality expressed through his body language, and further backed up by the various bits of lore concerning him throughout the game. In fact, one of the most entertaining aspects of the game is how the characters and universe react to the DOOM Slayer.

The previous game established him as someone the Demons had learned to fear long before the events of the game, as a kind of mythological boogieman dedicated to wiping out the forces of hell, and in DOOM Eternal the developers went out of their way to make it seem like he is in fact some sort of Legendary being, with Human audio logs talking about him being a myth, then hearing news reports of sightings of the DOOM Slayer in locations the player has visited. In one level, you can collect a series of audio logs where a scientist goes from believing the Slayer is just an overblown story in the first log, to worshipping him as a sort of god of vengeance here to save Humanity from their sins in the final log. All of this does an excellent job of immersing the player in the world, even with minimal story, and goes a long way towards making the player feel powerful, which is a large part of the game’s appeal.

Gameplay:

DOOM Eternal, like its predecessor, is an arcade first person shooter, with a lot of focus on action and violence. The player is given various tools in their fight against the forces of hell, and each weapon is unique in how they allow the player to plan their strategy against each type of demon.

In DOOM Eternal you must keep moving. That’s the golden rule. In many modern shooting games, you would take cover and pop out every now and then to fire at enemies, but in DOOM there is no cover, and stopping to hide behind something for even a second could mean death. Combat in DOOM is usually done in encounters. You would enter a large area, and there would be no way out until you have defeated wave after wave of demons. Within this arena there will likely be pickups. Health, ammo, armour, sometimes power ups, but these can all run out very quickly. The best way to stay alive is to fight. Low on health? Charge into battle. Same with ammo, and armour. The reason this works is because the game allows you to control what items an enemy drops when they die.

You’re low on health, what do you do? Damage an enemy until they are staggered and start flashing blue if you’re far away, or orange if you’re close enough to perform a glory kill, which is an instant kill animation that causes the enemy to drop health. Low on ammo and you use your chainsaw on an enemy, causing a little bit of ammo for all your weapons to fly out, like a pinata. If you need armour, which allows you to take less damage, you use your shoulder mounted flamethrower to set enemies alight, and any damage you cause to them will then drop armour pickups. Survival relies on action, and this allows for fast paced, intense combat where one wrong move could get you killed, and every shot count. You learn to use certain strategies against certain demons. While playing I found myself leaving certain enemies alive, because I knew if I needed health or ammo, I could use them to get it.

Aside from the combat, DOOM Eternal allows the play a lot of mobility. The player can double jump, and perform two dashes, which allow you to quickly boost in any direction. This allows you to navigate through levels in many ways, and there are many tricky jumping puzzles throughout the game. There are also many secret collectibles to find, and you will need this extra mobility to reach the majority of them.

Audio:

DOOM 2016 was well known for it’s soundtrack, and Eternal is no different.

The soundtrack consists almost entirely of heavy metal created by Mick Gordon, who also did the music for the previous game. A key mechanic within the game is the music’s tendency to speed up, slow down, and get louder or quieter depending on how the player is doing. If the player is taking damage a lot, moving slowly or just isn’t doing well in general, the music will slow down and won’t be as aggressive, but if the player is moving fast, getting kills and avoiding damage the music picks up and really sets the scene for how chaotic the combat is.

While playing I found the music helpful, both because it was the game’s way of telling me how well I was doing, and because I found that the faster and louder the music got, the more it encouraged me to be more aggressive.

Aside from the music, DOOM Eternal is chock full of great sound effects. Everything sounds very satisfying. Weapons feel powerful, explosions are loud and demons growl and scream at you until you kill them, which replaces those screams with sounds of demons being blown up, stabbed, shot, or sliced into pieces.

Sometimes I like to play games while listening to music, or with a film or show on as background noise, but with DOOM Eternal that can’t be done, as it hurts the experience and your chances at survival.

Conclusion:

DOOM Eternal is a very fun game to play during a global Pandemic, as it’s great for taking your mind off the problems of the world, with tense, fast paced combat, fantastic music and sound effects, and a story that’s just present enough to be interesting, and providing context for the game’s otherwise chaotic series of fight sequences.

I enjoyed my time playing it, and even when I was frustrated, and it seemed impossible to progress, the game still felt fair. If I was ever doing badly, it was because I wasn’t playing by the rules the game set out, I wasn’t moving fast enough, I wasn’t aggressive enough, or I wasn’t accurate enough.

Overall I would give the game a 9/10