Greetings folks, and welcome to an LGR Doom Thing! Ahh finally, it feels like an eternity since Doom 2016 came out and blew away expectations, our preconceived notions exploding all over the place like so many gory demonic entrails.
And now the folks at id Software are back with Doom Eternal, the follow-up to Doom that
isn’t called Doom II, thank god. Having to call Doom 2016 Doom 2016 was confusing
enough, so let’s hope that kinda naming scheme is over with. Besides, as it turns
out Eternal isn’t only a sequel to Doom 2016, but rather a follow-up of sorts to several
Doom games and spin-offs of the past. Back in my Doom 2016 review I said it was a series
reboot, but after playing Doom Eternal I don’t think that holds true anymore. That being
said, this review will not be diving into plot spoiler territory, not even boss fights,
so don’t worry about it. In fact, since I received an early review code, I had to
agree not to spoil a whole list of spoilery spoilers. But the rest of what I’m about
to say is entirely my opinion, and neither id Software or Bethesda are looking at this
beforehand, they’ll be seeing it for the first time same as you. With that nonsense outta the way, AUGH DOOM ETERNAL! This game ****ING RULES. If Doom 2016 was the best shooter I played that year, then Doom Eternal has to be one of the best shooters I’ve played, period. No exaggeration,
this game is top-notch single player bombastic first person pandemonium from start to finish.
It picks up some time after the end of the previous game, with the Doom Slayer headed
back to planet Earth in a massive spacefaring building, known as the Fortress of Doom. But
just like the original Doom II: Hell on Earth, it turns out Earth has a rather serious problem
regarding Hell, on Earth. In short, 60% of the world’s population has been wiped out
by demonic forces large and small, with the tendrils of evil spreading out from major
metropolitan areas threatening to destroy all that remains. It’s up to you to find
some Hell Priests and kill ‘em! And just like that, you’re tossed into the nightmare
world of Doom Eternal, shotgun at the ready, and demons just asking for a good beatdown. [a good beatdown commences] Yeah that’s right, in this game, your starting
pistol is a shotgun! [chuckles] Or more accurately, there’s just no pistol anymore, with the
first weapon slot being claimed by the combat shotgun instead. And I am all for that really,
since the last game’s pistol sucked, and in even in classic Doom games it’s really
only there until you find the shotgun or you’re in an incredibly desperate situation. Here
it’s just like nah man, here's a shotgun, have at it! Oh and the chainsaw too, why the
hell not. [copious chainsaw carnage] Then hey, why not upgrade your shotgun with sticky grenades or a fully automatic buckshot chaingun? Fuse that with the return of glory
kills to use when an enemy staggers and yeah. Within the first minute of Doom Eternal you're
already well-equipped to take down any of the half dozen most common enemies in the
game, it's truly wonderful in how much it does not wanna waste your time. Well, except
when it's wasting your time when you've got the tutorial on. Honestly, if you've played
Doom 2016 you can turn this right off and ignore the incessant pop-ups for the first
couple hours. Besides, there are codex notifications on the left side of the screen, so I just
left those on for new features and it was fine. Otherwise, it’s too easy to become
overwhelmed at the sheer mass of CONTENT™ being revealed every few seconds. Piles of
guns, lots of special moves, like twice the number of demons as before, and the upgrades.
So many upgrades. There’s a set of collectible rune upgrades, a set of Praetor Suit upgrades,
a set of weapon upgrades with a set of upgrades for those upgrades followed by mastery upgrades.
A set of attribute upgrades that turn into more upgrades once you merge upgrades. And
a set of upgrades on your space station that help unlock cosmetic upgrades, like weapon
reskins and player models. But yeah it’s all just a lot. This “stop and read” approach
is doing the game a disservice, since the lifeblood of Doom Eternal relies on maintaining
momentum through combat and learning how to best deal with each enemy’s attacks on the
fly. So I say just play the dang game, the best way to learn here is by doing. And by
doing, I mean engaging in absolute non-stop slaughter by way of the Doom Slayer’s menagerie
of finely-tuned firepower. An immensely satisfying act considering the way demons crumble apart
now into a mess of bones and bowels. The aforementioned shotgun and chainsaw make a return from 2016,
as does the heavy assault rifle, now known as the heavy cannon. Along with the plasma
rifle, the rocket launcher, the super shotgun, the chaingun, and the legendary BFG-9000.
Each one functioning more or less the same as they did before, but with some fresh upgrade
paths and mastery end goals here and there. For instance, the assault rifle still offers
an endless micro-missile launcher and a sniper rifle when upgraded, as seen in the last Doom
game. But the new Ballista is more of a remix, sliding into the spot previously occupied
by the Gauss Cannon. It’s an absolute beast of a weapon, basically a railgun that can
also shoot explosive bolts, as well as throw out substantial charged blades that slice
their way through any and all hordes of nastiness. The classic Super Shotgun shoots off two shells
simultaneously, and its secondary attack is a devilish little thing: a grappling hook
module Scorpion would approve of, known as the Meat Hook. Fire this deep into some demonic
flesh and hold on for a ride as you’re thrust straight at ‘em, setting you up for a point
blank double barreled barrage or a well-time melee move. The latter of which often makes
use of the new Doomblade, a wrist-mounted attachment popping out to slice open torsos
and skewer eyeballs on demand. You’ve also got the Blood Punch, something you charge
up to make the Doom Slayer’s overpowered fist even more overpowered, violently combusting
just about anything in the general vicinity. But yeah both are a perfect pairing with the
Meat Hook, which can itself be upgraded to another level so that each time you use it,
it sets everything on fire. A most excellent addition that I recommend unlocking sooner
rather than later, since fiery enemies drop piles of armor shards while they rapidly burn
to a crisp. Speaking of flame-broiled giblets, attached to your shoulder is another new weapon:
the Flame Belcher. And ah, it’s never been easier to set something ablaze at the press
of a button, being assigned its own hotkey along with grenades and the chainsaw. Mighty
useful stuff, since armor is always at a premium and it’s quickly depleted by the more deadly
demons. So always try to remember: burn first, shoot later. And get good at those grenades
too, especially the ice bombs, since they’re one of the most effective ways to stop the
assaults of low and mid-tier monsters. I was having a rough time with a few of these jokers
before I started switching from frags to ice. My go-to siphon grenades from the last Doom
are no longer a thing, so yeah, ice bombs are a dear Eternal friend. And finally, late
in the game you receive one more power tool of pain: the Crucible. A massive glowing red
blade only able to hold enough charge for three swings at any given time, but it’s
an ultra-heavy instakiller so eh, who cares! It’s like a BFG in the sword form, doesn’t
get much better than that. Regardless of your preferred setup it’s gonna be tough to keep
the heart rate down while blasting your way through the 15 to 20 hour campaign, especially
with another Mick Gordon soundtrack keeping you company. It’s even better than the 2016
score in my book, with a bit less of the glitched-out chaos and more melodic ambience and guitars
than before, and even some choir vocals performed by various metal musicians. Just excellent
stuff. [chaos, sheer chaos] That being said, which enemy you attack, when
you attack them, and in what way matters immensely here, an equation that remains in flux from
moment to moment. More than ever, this incarnation of Doom is an FPS combat strategy game, a
blood-soaked chessboard littered with demon guts and spent shell casings. Each encounter
is a puzzle to be solved at a moment’s notice, like if you need a health boost? Whittle a
dude down to perform a glory kill and spawn some health. If you need ammo, it’s all
about that chainsaw, spewing gobs of ammunition with each viscous dismemberment. As mentioned,
the Flame Belch and other fire attacks provide armor drops in copious quantities. And glory
kills also help build up Blood Punches, granting an effective way of chaining together other
moves so you can keep the combat flowing without missing a beat. All worth remembering since
the old enemies have been buffed up to become more effective at both defense and offense,
being faster, angrier, more armored, and more unrelenting in their urge to slay the Slayer.
It’s all mighty vicious stuff, when even seeing a pinky demon means you’re in trouble,
you know they did something right. And that’s not even mentioning all the new enemies, with
all their own counters, defenses, immunities, and special moves easily offsetting yours.
Carcasses, gargoyles, cueballs, prowlers, dread knights, doom hunters, marauders, tyrants.
These satan-spawn are out for all the blood you have, and they’re designed so that if
you get too close without them being staggered or frozen first, they’re just gonna clobber
you to death in a fraction of a second. No more running up to every other demon point
blank with the super shotgun, half the time that’ll get you knocked back or killed.
Instead you’ve really gotta use the right tool for the job. After a little practice,
each confrontation turns into a rhythmic exercise, playing out beat by beat as you switch from
weapon to equipment to special move, with every monster playing its part as they dance
to their death. It also requires such split-second accuracy at times that I have no idea how
you play this on higher difficulties with a gamepad, a good mouse and keyboard setup
is crucial in my opinion. I whipped out a controller just to compare, and nah man. Yeah,
however you’re controlling it, this game can be downright brutalizing later on. I began
playing on Nightmare difficulty and did so happily for the first several hours, but went
to Ultra-Violence and then to Hurt Me Plenty at one point. And that point was when multiple
Marauders start showing up at once, those things are insane. For me at least, this difficulty
spike happened at a point where my arsenal and skillset just didn’t match the abilities
of the new demons and ugh. Yeah, my kill/death ratio was more of a death/death ratio of negative
nothing, it was pathetic. There are still plenty of checkpoints in each map, but no
quicksaving, so failing at any point sends you back to the start of the area. However,
this can be alleviated by the addition of extra lives, enabled in the options menu,
and while I was highly skeptical of this in the gameplay trailers I now understand why
they’re included. Not only are they few and far between, often hidden in secret areas
or just around a corner you can’t reach without a conscious effort. But they provide
a way to respawn during some of the most infuriating encounters in the later parts of the game.
Usually involving Archviles and again, in my case, multiple Marauders. At least you
rarely see Lost Souls anymore, they mostly only show up when Pain Elementals are tossing
them out like boney baseballs. Anyway yeah, extra lives exist now, and even if you never
use ‘em it’s still fun to figure out where they are and how to reach them. Cuz yeah,
secret places man, and collectibles! Doom 2016 had plenty, but Eternal goes utterly
bonkers. Many of these are clearly-labeled with a glowing question mark, acting as a
tease that they exist but with few clues as to how to get to ‘em. Usually it involves
angrily punching something. But yeah you’ll find extra lives, berzerk and supercharge
power-ups, collectible figurines, sentinel crystals, 3.5” floppy disks with cheat codes
to use when replaying the game, various instant upgrade tokens, even vinyl records with music
from past id Software games. You’ll also run across secret encounters and combat arenas,
activated by smashing demon hearts. But these are hidden, more optional experiences compared
to the ones in Doom 2016, unlocking bonus items and keys that you don’t entirely need
but are nice to have on down the line. Oh and hey, Dopefish! That... is terrifying.
Anyway yeah, collectibles and secrets are everywhere and it’s good fun snapping them
up for display back at your Fortress of Doom, home sweet home. Described by the devs as
“the Doom Slayer’s man cave,” it really is a place to unwind between levels and take
a gander at what you’ve collected. And dude, as a lifelong id Software fan, there’s a
whole lotta nifty crap here, it’s easter eggs and references galore. I especially love
this little DOS PC over in the corner, with even more stuff to unlock once you collect
all the different floppy disks. Also dig the records and their companion posters. They
let you play music from games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom III, Quake Champions,
all sortsa good stuff. Really sets the mood for wandering the fortress, admiring your
spoils of war, and taking part in the game’s “practice moooooode” down in the ship’s
Ripatorium. Because of course that’s a thing. Rip and tear folks, rip and tear! [downright delightful demon-slaying] Combine this with the classic Doomguy skins,
centered weapon models, and original Sound Blaster sound effects? [chuckles] Yeah it’s
pretty much peak fanservice, but I admit I enjoy some quality servicing every so often. [classic Doom sounds, demon deaths] Even without the direct references to old
school sensibilities, to me the whole experience feels more like a Doom game than I’ve seen
since, well, Doom II from 1995. Despite the modern upgrade systems and flashy combat,
there’s an array of little touches and broader brushstrokes that evoke classic Doom. From
the floating red, yellow, and blue keycards you pick up, to the massive winding levels
full of traps and secrets, to the more vibrant color palette making use of bright reds, purples,
and greens reminiscent of the DOS games’ 256-color graphics. Addressing another of
my critiques from 2016, the hellish landscapes and setpieces here are far more vibrant and
surreal, with a wider variety in locations compared to before. I was psyched to see the
whole “Hell on Earth” idea fully committed to, with skyscrapers, shopping malls, and
industrial complexes overtaken with satanic insanity oozing from every crack and crevice.
And the horrific torture dungeons of hell are truly an awesome sight to behold, this
is exactly what I was hoping for in a modern Doom game. It takes those original textures
and blocky rooms from the 90s and reiminages them in unsettling detail, I love it. Really
is like strolling through a heavy metal cover, it’s all horns, fire, corpses, and teeth,
props to the artists for going balls-out. I’m glad they’ve included a photo mode
as a result, I’ve already spent far too much time posing my Doomguy in front of all that delectable fire and brimstone nightmare fuel. I also really appreciate how they designed
the maps in such a way that they feel more, I dunno, Doomlike, and less of a string of
obvious combat zones. A complaint I had about the last game was that so many levels relied
on locking you into a room while enemies spawned in waves, then a door opens up and you move
to the next section to do it all again. This time around there’s much less of that, and
when it does happen it’s presented in a less predictable way. You’ll often wander
into a new area and see demons just hanging around doing their thing. Patrolling, in-fighting,
talking politics, whatever demons do. Often the exits are still locked until you clear
the infestation, but levels are overall more conducive to wandering around, even during
combat. Many are also significantly more wide open than in 2016 too, with even more verticality
and nonlinear exploration involved. And some even evoke Half-Life’s Xen with how many
hovering platforms and jump pads are floating around. Thankfully it’s much easier to navigate
than Xen since Eternal features all new traversal mechanics. Grappling onto ledges and double
jumping and such, yep, that stuff’s still here. But so is a button for dashing, helping
you speed along the X-axis to strafe around projectiles and hit far off platforms, especially
useful in finding secrets. And I guess the Doom Slayer has a bit of that radioactive
spider blood cuz he can stick to certain surfaces and climb up and around them like it’s nothing.
Mix all that together with the yellow poles and monkey bars found on any given level and
you’ve got a quite the athletic stew going. Just jump or dash onto a bar and you’ll
go flying out at an angle like the buff shotgun-wielding gymnast manbeast that you always knew you
were. Once again, I haven’t had this much fun swingin’ around virtual worlds in a
long time now, it’s like a demon-slaying Mirror’s Edge meets Uncharted and it’s
fantastic. No question, sometimes it’s tricky. But it’s not super punishing either, even
with all the bottomless death pits. Drop to your doom and you simply respawn with a small
health penalty, no lives lost. And yeah, that’s the gist of the Doom Eternal.
Which I keep wanting to call Eternal Doom for some reason. Probably because I’m used
to saying Final Doom and Ultimate Doom, so Eternal Doom just sounds right but anyway.
About the only other thing I’d wanna touch on are the story details and the boss battles,
which I won’t do cuz spoilers. What I will say though is that the story most certainly
exists, with more meat on its bones that it did in 2016. Yet when it comes to the villain
of the game, well, it’s hard to say if there really is one in particular? There are some
big bads, but they weren’t the primary focus. If anything, one could argue that you are
the villain, a fitting narrative considering the Doom Slayer lore set up in the last game.
And there are a surprising number of cutscenes too, whipping the camera out to third person
and then back to first person kinda like it did in Doom 3. You’ve still got endless
codex entries and audio diaries scattered around as expected. Personally I got more
outta the cutscenes though, so if you’re into Doom Slayer lore then I think you’ll
be pleased. All the Doom wikis are sure gonna have their work cut out for them. But yeah,
I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign the whole way through, with only a few overly frustrating
moments taking me out of the experience. Which was alleviated once I improved my skills,
better-equipped my guy, and went back to revisit the levels I sucked at before. Which you can
do at any time using the Mission Select computer terminal in the Fortress of Doom, allowing
you to replay any map to grab things you missed and redo battles that previously ruined you.
Any progress made applies to your overall save file too, so you can really just have
fun whenever you first play a level and don’t have to worry about grinding for gear since
you can essentially jump into New Game Plus any time. There are also Master Levels to
try out, which are tweaked versions of regular levels but with harder and more numerous baddies
supplying a greater challenge and upgrade opportunities. And finally, there’s multiplayer,
which I can’t talk about yet because it hasn’t gone live. The most I can do is show
some of the offline tutorial for the 1v2 competitive game, called Battlemode. It’s an asymmetrical
multiplayer mode where one person plays the Doom Slayer and two others play as demons.
Each player demon can either attack directly or spawn in more demons to try and overwhelm
the Doom Slayer, while the Slayer player attempts to fend off the demons using the same moveset
seen in single player. Interesting idea, but I can’t play it yet so who knows. The other
online option set to arrive in the future is Invasion, one of those deals where someone
can jump into your campaign as an enemy to try and give you a hard time. Can’t say
I’m typically a fan of that kinda thing in other games, but again, it’s not available
yet so whatever. Fine by me, since single player is still a radically wonderful time,
presuming you’re into this flavor of chaos and have the PC to run it. I mean it’s also
on consoles but yeah, like I said earlier, mouse and keyboard is the way to go if you
can. It does require a somewhat beefy system if you want 4K at 60+ FPS, but on mine running
an 8086K CPU and an 8 gig RTX 2080 SC I had zero problems as you'd hope. No stutters,
no crashes, nothing but silky smooth demon murder. Y'know, looking back on the last twenty-odd minutes, I guess I really haven’t had much to critique, huh? I dunno, I loved the vast
majority of Doom Eternal though I suppose I do have a few little things. As I mentioned
a while ago, I think it teeters on the edge of having too many upgrades and unlockables.
I think some of the upgrade options could be simplified or combined into one skill tree
instead of two or three. There’s also no SnapMap anymore, or any kind of level editor
or official mod support at all at this point. Which, yeah, I guess they’ve promised to
release single player DLC to try and make up for it, but I’d rather have the option
to download fan-made stuff too. And then there’s the multiplayer, and sorry, old man mode fully
engaged here. But this is a Doom game, one that evokes so many old school Doom ideas.
So I’d love to see proper deathmatch available and maybe some other classic multiplayer modes.
Doom Eternal LAN party anyone? I’d be down. I’ve already got it running in 640x480 on
a CRT dude, just gimme some Bawls energy drinks and an ethernet cable and I’m good to go.
All right old man mode disengaged, because no matter what Doom Eternal is such a solid
single player shooter that I can’t help but gush about it. Once again, no one paid
me, this isn’t sponsored. Frankly I’ve no idea how I ended up with a code for this.
But yeah, I just really enjoyed my time with Doom Eternal if you can't tell, I can’t
wait to play some more of it. It goes without saying, but I absolutely recommend the hell
outta this one. [combat chaos, sad death] [Mick Gordon music is Mick Gordon music] And if you found this review informative or
enjoyable, then great! You’d probably like the others I’ve done on older Doom games,
or any number of computery things I cover on LGR. Either way though, thank you very
much for watching!
