One lone soldier against the endless armies of Hell resulting in bloody bloody carnage with heavy metal music playing? IT’S DOOM TIME BABY!!!
I mean what can I say about this beloved franchise, it truly has made its mark in history as one of the oldest and greatest first person shooters to exist. Without Doom most first person shooter games wouldn’t be around today. I’ve always been a big fan of the Doom games. Four years ago Bethesda brought Doom back to life, revamped and packed with a huge punch after the franchise went dark around 2004 to 2005.
Doom 2016 was a truly outstanding game offering not just fun, gory, adrenaline running action game but also an engaging and competent game with unique lore driving it. It was a great game with excellent single player and a somewhat decent multiplayer. And now we have Doom Eternal probably one of the most anticipated games of this year with a new campaign and new multiplayer take (although there is more still to be added).
Doom Eternal takes place two years after Doom 2016, in which Earth has now been invaded by the armies of Hell and have wiped out most of humanity. It is now up to the Doom Marine to wipe out the leadership of the invasion and put an end to Hell’s plans, using all resources at his disposal. He must rip and tear until it is done.
One of the most interesting and intense aspects of the last game was making the player feel like an absolute beast when it came to fighting, and so they gave us access to various weapons and mechanics to play with at high speeds and throw the deadliest creatures at you for you to fight. A relatively simple formula, but one that is fun and gets increasingly challenging as you progress in the game.
Here in Doom Eternal the game designers decided to upgrade everything to make the players even feel more like a killing machine than before. New weapons, new gadgets, new movements, new terrain to traverse, new monsters and more difficult challenges. This is an absolutely great game with even more replay value in it than the last installment.
The campaign is a linear story that has huge amounts of interesting lore and characters all around, and has truly massive levels to explore. Visually this game is incredible, with gorgeous graphics and a vast array of uniquely designed enemies and set pieces. Lots of familiar foes come back in this game, along with new hell beasts that require new tactics to be dealt with, and new weapons. The Player is given a vast array of new tools to work with and at first it can seem overwhelming, but you can get used to it over time, and the game even allows time for the player to practice new skills and weapons they acquire in the levels.
The game has a hub integrated within it that you return to after every level or nearly every level. This hub can be explored as it has a number of locked areas that can be unlocked after collecting a number of various collectibles in the game. The last game had collectibles too but there are way more here and the are more challenging to find and they serve various purposes. These collectibles add on to the replay factor of this game as well as offer the chance to upgrade and even customize your Doom Marine. For the first time in a Doom game we can customize our single player characters with various skins that can be unlocked by completing challenges or unlocking from the hub.
The game also offers some helpful additions for completionists, such as fast travel to allow people to travel back in various parts in the level to explore any secrets they may have missed that are shown on the mini map. You can easily miss a lot as you are going through endless hordes of monsters. The game has you always on edge at every corner as some monsters can surprise you from nowhere and potentially damage or kill you without warning.
There are so many ways to approach all these creatures with what you have in your inventory and ultimately it’s up to you on how you take on the enemies, but you do have to really strategize in this game. This isn’t some mindless game, it makes you think on how you want to conserve resources and what enemies to deal with first. And if you are not careful you can drain lives fast and then be forced to restart from a checkpoint, depending on which mode you choose for the story.
There are some new modes they have added to this game that again add to the replay value, but also are required for achievements if that is your thing. The story itself has a lot of lore you can explore through collectibles, but also as it is there are certainly a few surprises the game offers that certainly expand beyond what we have seen.
As far as multiplayer is concerned… well it’s kind of unfinished. Right now there is only one mode to play, but more is said to come, including a unique game type where you can invade people’s campaigns as playable demons and impede their progress for rewards. But the mode we have currently is a 2 vs 1 mode, where one Doom slayer faces a horde of AI and two player controlled demons, and one side has to eliminate the other and win three rounds. A lot of it is based on skill plus the progress you have made in the campaign for upgrades and weapons. There are useful tutorials on how to play the demons but I find it kind of unfair for one doom marine against two demons and AI. Wouldn’t it be better to do 2 v 2 and make things a bit more even? It can get very repetitive and not fun, depending on your skill level and what side you are on. However since they plan to add more to multiplayer I won’t fully criticize that aspect of the game since it’s not completed.
Overall, Doom Eternal is a satisfying sequel and another excellent addition to the violent yet fun video game series. If you get the chance to play it do so you will have a HELL of a time! I’m giving Doom Eternal an A.
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