DOOM Eternal - Review

When Bethesda released DOOM back in 2016, people were floored, here was a series that was one of the originators of the FPS genre, delivering a killer experience, while the attempt at a reboot in Doom 3 some years ago leant more into the horror, 2016’s entry used it, but kept it in the background. Here we are 4 years later, and we have the next entry DOOM Eternal, but has the time between the games been worth it, or was it more of a fluke of a release.

A number of years have passed between the end of DOOM and the start of DOOM Eternal, the Slayer now has a spaceship and arrives at Earth as the demonic invasion has dominated the planet. But the Slayer won’t let a little demonic overtaking stop him, with a simple plan of kill all demons and then kill the ones that run away, the goal is simple, this time though, there is a lot more lore behind that very basic idea. As the game progresses, you get to understand more about what makes the Slayer so dangerous, including where the now populous planet of demons are coming from, a lot of it is filler, meaning you can ignore it, but there are a few times when the game will directly give you this information. I really enjoyed the story, especially with how things fill out the world more, in that people just didn’t find hell, there is a full reason to why it is all happening and while it does seem a little out there, even for DOOM at times, it still fits the tone of the world.

Of course, with a game like DOOM Eternal, following on from the excellent DOOM, there is a lot that they needed to maintain and improve on, and for the most part they did. The game can be broken down into three areas, combat, exploration and puzzles, with the latter being the smallest amount of game, and each area has good and bad points. The combat, which if you played the previous game, feels even more chaotic than before, something I was unsure would be possible, and a lot of this is down to the enemies. Each time you meet a new enemy, the game will give you the lowdown on the week point, for the Pinky demon, you need to get behind it, the Cacodemon, a grenade inside will help you out. While the game will let you experience this nice and peacefully the first time, trying to remember where a weak point is on any enemy, while surrounded by dozens will test your skill and patience, like no other game out there. While it is possible to just break out the mini gun and lay waste to all in front of you, it is not the most ammo friendly way of proceeding, so taking time to learn each demons weakness is your best course of action.

Now while each enemy can be turned into a fine, if bloody mist, they look better and are better for you, if you turn them into pinata’s, something which returns from the first game. Once an enemy has had significant damage dealt, it will stagger, flashing blue and orange, letting you rush in and deliver a killing blow, rewarding you with some health or such. The same problem presents here, as it did with the previous game, you come to a stop in order to hack of a limb, or punch throw a demon and given that the game is more about movement than ever before, this issue is even more prevalent. There are some improvements to doing it though, once you kill any enemy while they are staggered, you will charge up a new move called the Blood Punch and once fully charged, a melee attack will devastate all around you, which is helpful in clearing out enemies if they are crowding you and even dishing out major damage to some, like the Cyber-Mancubus. While there are improvements to it, the fact that the game stops you dead, each time you finish someone off, is still annoying, though not the worst thing the game did.

The other major improvement to the game is movement, something that was part of the previous game, but has been greatly improved upon here, you can now dash for one, which makes some places easier to reach, but can also making falling to your death easier. The dash move does not just propel you forward, but in direction you choose, so if you are not paying attention, you can easily dash off a cliff, or into some pools of lava. Of course, dashing is not just the only new addition to the Slayers movement repertoire, he can now swing on poles, like some sort of demon slaying gymnast and while there are plenty around, the game uses them more as a way to get around arenas, when you are fighting lots of enemies, there are a few instances when they are used in progression, but they are less common. Finally, the other two addition is the bash move, perfect for busting through walls, either for progressing forward, or discovering a secret and the climb, which lets the Slayer climb on selected walls, helpful in gaining altitude. All these parts seem like they should be no brainers, most other games have similar features, the rub here though is that DOOM has never had that before, the original games didn’t even allow you to look up or down, with Eternal though, you have so much movement potential, there are times when it feels to much, but at no point did it fail me, it just felt great.

Where I encountered issues was in the presentation of the game, specifically its performance, but I will get to that in a moment, the actual visuals of the game were spot on, even when I customised my Slayer with flames or a white suit, it never had any issues. The demons as well, looked amazing, complete with more detail than before and while they looked great in their first shot on screen, they looked even better when you started blasting bits off of them. The locations though, tended to feel a little samey, especially in the middle, given that they went to planets unheard of before, they could have gone really different with the visuals, but when I looked upon the world, I honestly felt it looked like Gears of War. While there are not a lot of characters that you interact with on screen, shooting demons aside, the ones that are present, do have solid looks to them, making them each stand out, even when some of them look the same.

The issues with the game stem from a lot of clipping in walls and not loading of assets, which in almost every instance, caused me to have to reload the game, or the game crashed entirely. The most common issue was the wall clipping, usually happening when I would go in for the finishing move, if the enemy was right next to a wall, the animation would play out, regardless of the wall, and most of the time, once it finished playing, I was then stuck on the other side of the wall, sometimes I could get back through, but most of the time, I was stuck for good. Those times though were much more enjoyable than the half dozen times that the game would not spawn an enemy, or it did, but spawned it off map, the best example of this is on Taras Nabad, which is the world that reminded me of Gears, I went into a courtyard, with 8 lives on me and spent almost 40 minutes killing everything in sight and the enemies just kept spawning and the only reason I stopped is because the game hard crashed, right out completely. I left it for a while and when I went back in, I tried again and it happened again, but without the crash, eventually I quit the game, went back in and got through, only for the same issue to happen in the next room. Another problem is I can’t get to the final mission, so I don’t know how it ends, as whenever I attempt to load into it, it hard crashes, this has happened more times than I can be bothered dealing with, so I have moved on. These hard crashes are something anyone playing a PC needs to deal with, but there is usually a reason for it, these there is nothing, at least nothing that the game has deigned be to know about. While not as common, I did have a few instances of audio getting stuck, mostly around enemies dying or guns firing and while not the worst thing, it was annoying.

Speaking of the audio, the game once again features a kick ass score by Mick Gordon and while this is not the kind of music that I would listen to for my own enjoyment, it suits the game so perfectly, that to play anything else now would just be an insult. The game has the tempo ramp up when a room requires you to kill a lot of folks, but even then, the next time you have another room, it doesn’t repeat the same track, it actually takes the music, and just ramps it up even further, so by the time a level is done, there is a sense of satisfaction as the music has finally stopped, because the tension has finally ebbed away. Also, hidden throughout the many stages are scores from past id Software games, which is great, as you can venture around your spaceship and listen to them, and while the tone sounds similar, there is such a variety in the actual arrangement, that they feel like the in-between course, perfect to cleanse the palate before you enjoy the main again, so finding them is something I suggest.

DOOM Eternal is a solid addition to the DOOM Legacy, the multiplayer is there, it is cool, but not for me, though it is a damn site more challenging than last time, thanks to the new movement options. The single player campaign is really solid and somehow manages to keep things moving forward, building up tension, as you push through, I just wish they did something about the finishers, the game still comes to a halt when you execute one and that sucks. The constant issues with items and enemies not loading, and of course hard crashes sucked some of the fun out of the experience for me, but the game is still fun and if you enjoyed the series reboot, you will like Eternal.