In 2016, the original hellshooter made a full comeback with iD/Bethesda’s reboot of the DooM franchise. Not only were DooM (2016)’s ammo drops, health/shield packs and absurd weaponry a nod to the glory years of first-person shooter, DooM reminded players of the joy that comes with very literally grinding up demons and walking corpses. I would like to add that it brought bombastic heavy metal back to video games soundtracks, earning my eternal respect.
With the official tease of the upcoming “The Ancient Gods: Part one” DLC in fans blood thirsty sights, let’s take a look at what made the base game go amazing. DooM: Eternal aims to please the populace with another explosive new take on the original formula. It absolutely succeeds.
I’ll Be Your DooMSlayer!!! (HateBreed anyone?)
The spiritual reboot of DooM 2, DooM: Eternal sees the DooMSlayer take on the hellish oblivion that is now Earth. Then you continue to kill stuff until there is no more left to kill.
While there is a little more to it than that, it’s obvious that iD know they shouldn’t take DooM seriously. By carving out a niche and delivering what fans want, iD are making a honest and critically -acclaimed packet.
Putting the Gory in Glory
Glory Kills feature more expressive and gorier animations replacing the previous, more realistic approach. A no-nonsense menu emulates the early days of the no-nonsense arena-shooter. Such attention to detail ties up my first impressions perfectly – the vibe is flawless.
iD have always taken deep pride in their own brand of killing things and making it look beautiful. Suitably, the presentation overall in DooM Eternal is gorgeous. Attention to detail is key when creating hell on Earth – from the corporeal inner walls of pop up satanic Cathedrals to the backdrop of eternal hellfire. A fantastical immersion is at the forefront of Doom: Eternal‘s formula. Texture mapping, lighting and overall visual quality is spot-on, even on OG Xbox One.
Fuzzy yet chunky guitars, double-bass pedal and epic beatdowns pull players into carnage of DooM Eternal in the most ‘Nineties’ way possible. So much so I’m tempted to buy a pair of DD’s and strap a few bike chains to them for good measure. The soundtrack and effects for DooM Eternal are adrenaline converted to soundwaves: DE‘s audio fits its subject matter perfectly.
But Where Does All the Demon Meat Go? (Ed: it’s used in inexpensive pet food)
Gameplay has cognitively evolved since 2016, introducing a greater depth of strategy to the art of spraying anything that moves with bullets. Zombies, imps and other fodder are now farmable for ammo by using the DooMSlayers trusty chainsaw.
Bigger enemies such as Cacodemons and the Arachnotron have certain weak points and methods of quick execution which cleverly breeds strategy and skill development in-game. This brings an amazing sense of self-accomplishment when overcoming horde-battle sections and dealing with waves of various demons.
DooM Eternal‘s skill tree is based on upgrading weapons and upgrading stats such as overall health, maximum armour and total ammunition on the back of it. This, in turn, unlocks bonuses via Sentinel Crystals.
DooM but With a Greater Selection of More Moddable Guns
Players can also look forward to upgrading the Praetor Suit to achieve feats such as becoming immune to certain blasts. Collecting runes provides certain perks. Players bully the usual vending robots to upgrade weapons and add secondary-fire modifications such as the Super Shotgun’s grenade launcher.
The controls are tight and keep players locked into the meat grinding zone. The traditional button/trigger layout feels perfect and allows for swift exploitation of the player’s mobility and most importantly, its range of weapons.
DooM has long had a rhythm to its hazes of gore and grime. The carefully-planned maps and the monsters that lived there forced a player to dance to the tune of the game. Eternal knows you want to move to that soundtrack and create you own ballet of blood. The game gives you the tools to do so and let’s you revel in it.
Final Battle
DooM Eternal is a perfect FPS formula that has been refined to being something new to the table in terms of challenge. At the latter end of the 13-15 hour campaign seasoned players will probably feel overpowered and a little unstoppable. However budding DoomSlayers who have worked hard to get there will find that ultimate power rewarding.
My only complaint is the lack of Deathmatch/CTF options with multiplayer and only including 2 vs 1 gameplay. A big push was made of DooM (2016)’s excellent multiplayer and it’s a crying shame that we haven’t seen this in 2020.
