Doom Eternal

This review was originally posted on my personal blog.

My feelings on DOOM: Eternal are more complicated than I thought they were going to be leading up to the game’s release. I loved the crap out of 2016’s DOOM. Hell, it was my game of the year that year, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to say the same about DOOM: Eternal once the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, 2020. Don’t get me wrong, DOOM: Eternal is a great time, but I couldn’t help shake the feeling that something was just pushing back against me during my play through and some of the original content that was added to Eternal feels like it goes against the core philosophy that made DOOM (2016) so special. When DOOM: Eternal is firing on all cylinders, it’s one of the most enjoyable first-person experiences around, however there are a few elements of this game that I wish were left on the cutting-room floor.

DOOM: Eternal - Review

A Familiar Feeling

Anyone who played DOOM (2016) will be familiar with the loop of DOOM: Eternal. You blast your way through a hoards of demons with your wide and varied arsenal of weapons, ripping through them with your bare hands (and now wrist-blade) to recover some health, and cutting them in half with your chainsaw to replenish your ammunition. This time around, you also have a shoulder-mounted flamethrower that will cause enemies to spurt armour pickups when hit, and frag and ice grenades to help with crowd control.

Starting to feel like a little much? There’s also the new additions to your mobility. Doomguy can now swing off of conspicuous poles to add a bit of verticality to your running-and-gunning and can double dash to cover a bit of ground quickly and move out of the way of projectiles.

All of these elements, when working in tandem, feel sublime. However, they can be a lot to stay on top of. DOOM: Eternal is the type of game that really benefits from you engaging with all the mechanics, and taking even a day off from playing the game can leave you feeling stranded when you come back to it.

To make things a little easier, many enemies in DOOM: Eternal now have weak points. These mostly come in the form of a mounted gun on an enemy that you can shoot off, which in turn makes the enemy start to come after you with melee attacks. It’s pretty cool the way your opponents will change up strategies when you take away their ranged attacks, but this adds yet another wrinkle to the gameplay that you have to keep in mind when you’re trying to take down twenty to thirty demons. If you were already starting to get overwhelmed by the enemy encounters, this can certainly take them from stressful to frustrating pretty quickly.

Nobody Puts Doomguy in a Corner

Speaking of frustration, I found that I would frequently get hung up on the environment in tense firefights. While trying to gracefully dispatch whatever adversaries I was up against, I would constantly find myself jammed in a corner with two Mancubusses (Mancubi?) And a revenant chomping at my face. While this isn’t altogether a fault of the games, it was an occurrence that was common enough I felt it deserved being pointed out.

When not blasting your way through the legions of Hell, Doomguy can be seen traversing the environment with a bit of the old 3D platforming! Honestly, I never found this to be much of a problem. I know there are those who have been vocal about the fact that ‘DOOM shouldn’t have platforming,’ but it never bothered me. That’s not to say I ever thought the platforming was spectacular - I don’t think I’d really miss it if it was gone - but it’s definitely not enough to tarnish the game.

That Guy is the Worst

What does tarnish the game - and again, I’m aware that people have been very vocal about this - are the Marauders. A new enemy type that causes you to stop the action and focus on only them. You can argue until the cows come home that you can remain mobile while fighting this enemy and that I’m just ‘bad at the game’ and need to ‘git gud’, but I don’t buy it. I don’t buy that anyone has fun fighting these things. Even if you’re the best Marauder fighter in the world and you can take them down reliably without taking a single hit, they’re at such odds with the central design philosophy of DOOM.

Here’s how Marauders work. If your’e too close to them, they hit you with a shotgun blast. If you’re too far, they hit you with an energy blast. Sometimes, they’ll spawn a ghost wolf whose bites will cause you to slow down. What you need to do is stand right in the sweet spot, stop, wait for him to attack, move just out of the way, and counter with your own attack. In a game that seems to value its mobility and frenetic combat above all else, the inclusion of this enemy type just seems baffling. There was not one time throughout the game where fighting a Marauder did not completely halt the action. The worst part is, near the end of the game, they insist on throwing this guy into the fray with several other tough enemies, each of whom are fighting for your attention. This was almost enough to get me to shut the game off. Marauders are just not fun to fight and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Other additions to the game are pretty cool, though. Archviles from Doom II: Hell on Earth are back to set you on fire and constantly spawn new enemies into your combat arena until you manage to kill them. A new enemy called the Doom Hunter flies around the stage protected by an energy shield and presents a decent enough challenge when they’re first introduced. Luckily, to help you take them down, you’ve got some help in the Crucible - an energy sword that will cut through just about anything in one hit. It’s satisfying to use, but charges for it are scarce.

This Game's Setting is Extremely Metal

I’m a fan of the setting of DOOM: Eternal. You’ll be bouncing around maps on Earth, on and in Mars, and in the pits of Hell. The atmosphere is well-realized throughout, especially in the Tower of Doom, your between-world-hub where you can spend sentinel batteries to unlock more upgrade points or costumes. However, I’m a little disappointed by the game’s tone sometimes.

The humour in DOOM (2016) worked because it poked fun at the self-seriousness of other games in the first-person-shooter genre. Samuel Haden would ask Doomguy to carefully do something and Doomguy would respond by ripping a monitor out of a computer terminal. That sort of irreverent tone was consistent throughout and it was really enjoyable. There’s some of that in DOOM: Eternal, but too often it leans in the direction of goofy and it never hits for me the same way. It’s a lot of “funny” popping sounds when you’re ripping out a Cacodemon’s eye, or a space marine candidly saying “I’m not afraid of that guy.” Without realizing that Doomguy is RIGHT BEHIND HIM! OH MY GOD, HOW EMBARRASSING!

Better to Play Alone

Doom: Eternal also features a multiplayer mode, but it’s hardly worth mentioning. It’s a nice addition to the game that might encourage some longevity, but the mode itself doesn’t seem great. The concept is, it’s one player as Doomguy against two players as their selection of demon with a variety of special moves and ability to summon fodder enemies. It’s hard to give my full thoughts on the multiplayer in Doom: Eternal though, because I only played three matches of it. each time my opponents picked the Pain Elemental and completely wiped the floor with me. All I can say is that it seems unlikely that anyone would be picking up this game for the multiplayer mode.

Despite anything negative I’ve had to say about this game, I still feel that the combat is among the most satisfying I’ve ever experienced in a first person shooter, maybe in any game. So much so, that I didn’t really mind hopping right back into earlier levels to mop up secrets that I’d left behind…even if the fast travel system is kind of crummy (you can only use it once you’ve gotten to the end of a level, and the functionality ceases if you replay it).

Doomguy Would Fit Right in in the Mushroom Kingdom

The feeling I get playing DOOM: Eternal is, strangely enough, not unlike the one I get playing a 3D Mario game. The control is so tight and precise that the enjoyment comes from the sheer act of playing it - the set dressing and story are nice, and can tilt the scales, but are not really what I’m coming to the game for. Like a Mario game, I return to previous levels to unlock everything because making my way through them is satisfying each time. Plus, both Mario and DOOM: Eternal have ridiculous floating fire sticks that you need to avoid when you’re jumping around.

I don’t want it to come across that I’m completely down on DOOM: Eternal. I think, as far as gameplay is concerned, it’s one of the best experiences you can have with a first-person shooter. However, as a follow-up to the masterpiece that was DOOM (2016), I think it misses the mark in a few spots and leaves a little something to be desired.