Review: DOOM ETERNAL Is an Intense, Hellish Rush
When Doom came out in 2016, it brought back the powerful intensity of the original Doom games. Doom Eternal brings that same energy with a variety of small improvements to make monster killing even better than the 2016 version.
The campaign could have been a boring, “end of the world” tale, but Doom Eternal gives us an interesting and entertaining story that gives nice cool-downs between the crazy action sets. Throughout the campaign, players are constantly challenged by new enemies, puzzles, and platforming challenges. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the game would perfectly pace these things so that I could catch my breath after intense battles with dozens of enemies. To help players fight hordes of demons, there are a bunch of weapons with a pretty outstanding amount of modifications that help players play how they want.
Let’s talk about combat as a whole, it is very different from most shooter games because of one major thing, ammo scarcity. In most games, players will almost never really deal with a shortage of ammo, but DOOM Eternal makes players work for every bullet and then make sure to put them to good use. It is a great flow of shots, executions, and abilities that keeps players engaged and challenged. It can be difficult to get used to at first, but it is a fresh perspective (like in 2016) for FPS games.
I was playing on the Playstation 4, and the design and overall atmosphere were amazing! The journey into deep hellscapes with terrifying castles and disgusting caverns had me walking slowly to just admire the great environmental design. However, the lack of power in the Playstation 4 (and probably the Xbox One) really downgrades the textures and blurs a lot of things in order to keep smooth action and gunplay. It is understandable and doesn’t ruin the game, but it is fairly noticeable how much of a downgrade is made to have it run on Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
The last thing to address is the new multiplayer mode, Battlemode. A fairly simple mode pitting one player as our main Doom guy versus other players who are two demons. I was really impressed with how much fun the game mode was playing as the Doom Slayer or the demon. As a man versus the hordes of evil, it is cool to play against smarter humans players and test your skills at Doom in general in a new and challenging arena. But playing as the deadly demons is just as entertaining. With various attacks, specific abilities, and minions to summon in order to kill the one super soldier, it is pretty fun to control the demons. It is hard to say how long the game mode will last with no competitive mode or major incentives. But as a standalone mode, it is extremely entertaining and offers a lot more than expected.
Doom Eternal is a worthy successor to 2016’s great game and even surpasses it in a couple of ways. This game will satisfy the action addict, FPS fiend, Doom veteran, and more with a grand campaign, several difficulties, challenges, and well-made multiplayer mode.
