Doom Eternal-Retrospective

Doom Eternal is, up to this point, probably the most badass Doom game of all time. And that’s a really impressive achievement when you put it into perspective. It’s also one of the best shooters of all time, so much so that it arguably transcends the genre itself. It’s funny because it absolutely nails the “shooter” part. But whens you look at the context, the thing it maybe nails most if the “first person” part. No game, Doom or otherwise, has ever made you feel so powerful and in tune with your character and never has it been done so organically through the gameplay. In every other Doom game, you were the Doom Marine/Doom Slayer, but you could play it your own way. But tight, restrictive mechanics of Doom Eternal leave no doubt- you are the Doom Slayer and you fight the way he fights. Doom Eternal may not be a pure masterpiece, but it is absolutely a tour de force in ways video games rarely reach.

Doom Eternal picks up 14 years after Doom (2016) and the situation has changed drastically. No longer are the demons raiding the UAC facility on Mars. Oh no- now they’ve undertaken a full on invasion of Earth and been wildly successful. Most of Earth has fallen and the cities are in ruins. Whatever humans remain, it’s unclear where they are. But fear not- the Doom Slayer, equipped with a new floating fortress powered by VEGA (the AI from the previous game) and a badass new suit, arrives to save the day. And he immediately begins kicking ass. No, like, immediately, His mission is seemingly simple- kill the three Hell Priests commanding Hell’s forces on Earth. But it’s bigger than that. This is part of a grander conspiracy involving both Heaven and Earth. And it gets pretty damn weird.

Right away, you’re thrown into a Hell-infested city in California. Unlike previous starter missions in DOOM, this time you’re slaughtering a lot of enemies early and often. This game throws you into the fire and it’s suprisingly brutal when you consider the way combat flows in this game. This is game that requires you to move fast and use all the tools you have at your disposal. But early on you don’t have many and the encounters get hectic quickly. It’s actually pretty hard for the first three missions because you don’t have a huge arsenal at that point and things get heated very quickly.

Nevertheless, it does a great job of establishing how this will be different, story and setting wise. “Hell on Earth”, the name of the first mission (and a DOOM II reference) is a fitting name. This is a warzone and Hell has significant infrastructure here, even affecting the way physics works. Shit is just floating around and there’s a big temple you go to at the end where you see the other Hell Priests and meet the Khan Makyr, who is sort of like the CEO of Heaven, called Urdak in the game. She’s like a giant armored squid creature that floats and operates much more like a figurehead than like an actual deity. It’s your first indicator that Doom Eternal is a little out there with it’s story. Doom (2016) had some “cosmic elements to it but it wasn’t as in your face here’s a cutscene with God level".” Classic DOOM was on Earth, Mars, Phobos and Deimos, Doom (2016) is on Mars and Hell. This game? You start in space and go to three distinct dimensions/planets within two dimensions. And then it just gets weirder and usually cooler.

Right away you’ll notice a few aesthetic differences. The graphics and style is a little more cartoony. It’s not unserious, but it lacks some of the hardened realism of Doom. New weapons glow green, enemies look a lot more like they did in the original 90s games and there’s just more indicators and UI on-screen. It’s immersive, but more so because of gameplay as opposed to realism. You’re managing a lot and you need to keep track of it. But it doesn’t feel as gritty or grounded as the previous game. But I don’t think that’s a problem. It’s just different and if you’re not a nerd like me, it may not even feel that different.

This game consistently plays to sequel stereotypes. It’s bigger, more bombastic, longer, more dramatic, has more enemies, more abilities, more features and its overall a more maximalist experience. Despite the narrative time gap, for the most part, the gameplay itself feels like it’s picking up from the last game in terms of intensity. Mechanically, it’s more complex and varied, but I would compare the early stages of this game to the later stages of Doom in regards to overall violence. And then it just gets crazier.

The second mission, Exultia, is sort of a transitional mission that expands the world. You go from Exultia, an old Sentinel city you have some sort of history in, then you take a quick trip to Hell. It’s the first mission I can recall ever taking place in two dimensions and it feels like it too. It’s at this point, you realize this game is going to much more like action movie sci fi thing (plotwise) rather than the usual subdued gritty narratives of previous DOOM games,

Then it’s off to the Cultist Base, which, partnered with the follow up mission, the Doom Hunter Base, is an iconic sequence of missions in modern DOOM. But it’s also subtly humorous because in a way it makes no sense and yet that makes it awesome. You go to this secret base in the Artic that belongs to the demons, who shouldn’t need a secret base because they run the planet. And you go through this secret base of rooms that are just traps and cool shits and then it leads you to…another secret base, the Doom Hunter Base, which you go to by train. This base is very different and requires a lot of climbing. I’ve always wondered- could the demons have won by oiling up the walls of their bases. You fight a boss, the Doom Hunter, who is kind of easy once you figure out his weakness and then you fight two more. It was a satisfying stretch where you were forced forward. You come out of this Base sheninigans a much better player.

Doom Eternal’s central maxim is simple: fast, frenzied, relentless, deep combat. You’re flying around, using the fine tuned jump abilities and new dash mechanics, chucking grenades, gunning down demons, switching weapons, chainsawing demons and the whole time dodging projectiles while being mindful of what weapon mod you should be using and what part of which demon you should be targeting. That was a long winded sentences and it feels exactly how playing this game does. It’s mix of instinct and strategy and by the end of the game, both of those things will be a reflex. There’s a lot of new systems to learn and all of these new systems play off one another to build a much more refined and complex combat system than in the first game. You’re much faster and mobile, but also stronger and more equipped.

The pacing of this game is admittedly a little strange, but it’s good. You hit the midgame and it feels like you’re near the end and in reality you have a lot more to go. The story clips along at a good pace and you’re always doing something. There’s no wasted mission. You’re either advancing your goal or dealing with an urgent matter. You’re always on your toes but you also feel like you’re moving with purpose. And there’s so many moments distributed throughout the missions too. Each one, in their own way, has a defining moment. Whether it’s the bluntness of your arrival in Mission 1: Hell on Earth, the moment you control a Revenant!!!! in Mission 3: The Cultist Base or…yes, the moment you shoot a hole in the center of MARS in Mission 7: Mars Core. Each one has their own distinct flavor and even if some of them are more similar than others, none of them feel the same.

After being sidetracked by The Super Gore Nest (Mission 5), you head to the ARC Research Complex. Without spoiling too much, a scant two missions later, you accomplish a major story goal. The kind that signals “the game is done.” Only for another antagonist to take center stage, which leads to another sequence of mission that finally leads into the ending. It’s a bit of unique and even sophisticated structure for a shooter, but it really works. Especially because those last few missions are increasingly alien and/or interesting lore-wise.

Doom Eternal may have a teensy bit too much story but overall it works and it works well. It’s a delicate balance that is handled well and expands the universe without turning into a full on lore-fest. Some might think it’s a little bit cringe, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience. Some of the stuff really grows on you by the end of the game. I went from thinking “this is maybe a little lame” to thinking “this is kinda cool” after sitting with it for a few hours. That’s how it goes sometimes. This game is ultimately driven by it’s unique shooting experience. It’s narrative focus may be new, but it’s priorities as a whole are not. This is still DOOM.

One cool new addition is the Fortress of Doom. It’s just a hub for you to hang out in, but it’s really cool. It’s bigger than you think and has a fair bit of content, including upgrade items you can unlock with items you pick up in missions, new skins, the Unmakyr from DOOM 64, a battle arena, an office area with a PC that runs Classic DOOM and DOOM II and just lots of little secrets and easter eggs here and there. Normally this would feel a little out of place in a DOOM game, but here it really works. It functions as good change of pace area and it gives the game’s collectibles a little more value because they show up here.

There’s a lot of new systems implemented here that weren’t in Doom (2016) and the game as a whole has a fundamentally different loop at it’s core. Ammo is now given from chainsaw kills, which takes the chainsaw from being a badass instant kill weapon to being a necessity in every single fight. You can get armor using the new Flame Belch system, which causes enemies to drop Armor shards whenever you damage them. These are all one button moves that you can use quickly and perfectly fit the fast pace of play of Eternal.

Then there’s the ammo itself. Unlike Doom (2016), your ammo count in this game is extremely limited by nature. We’re talking like 18 shells for the shotguns, 90 bullets for the machine guns, 185 plasma rounds. So, in total, plenty of ammo for a fight but not enough to base a playstyle around a single weapon. As such, it’s important to use the Chainsaw often and it’s imperative to switch weapons and keep your eye on your ammo count. Otherwise you could end up stuck in a situation where all you have is a Chainsaw charge and you’re fighting enemies who are too big to chainsaw.

Upgrades are still around, as are weapon mods. The weapon mods system is unchanged. Upgrades use slightly different items but more or less work the same way. Pro tip: health and shield upgrades are way better investments than ammo. You will literally only get 1-2 shells per ammo upgrade for the shotgun and you can only upgrade a few times. You can also get weapon points and armor points…it’s actually quite a deep system and honestly I wasn’t as impressed with some of the upgrades. Rune Trials from the previous game are gone. I enjoyed Rune Trials, but I didn’t miss them that much here.

The Meathook is a very well known and popular upgrade people get. It’s the final upgrade of the Super Shotgun and you’re gonna get it very early if you play the game at all. The Super Shotgun is still the best gun in the game, it’s just nerfed by having way less ammo. In the previous game you had 50 shells, which is 25 shots. Here you have 18 which is 9 shots. That’s a crazy dropoff and honestly half the time I use my chainsaw is to refill that bad boy. Anyways, the Meathook is this chain-hook that you can use to grapple towards your enemies and if you upgrade your Super Shotgun- it catches fire and drops Shield. Just another example of how damage and power level in this game kind of compounds. Soon every action stacks benefits, even as the fights get crazier. It’s hard to truly explain, but the combat loop really is like an “economy” within itself.

The environments in this game are really cool. I think the atmosphere might suffer a little bit compared to the other game because you jump around from place to place much more. It’s not the same as the brooding dread of exploring the UAC, or the Hell portal in the UAC, but the areas are still very cool and there is some weight to their design and the feel. I felt like some of these are better than others. Like, Urdak (pictured below) the level is just okay, but the area is awesome to look at. The same with Nekravol, which is this Hell fortress (pictured above.) It’s interesting because for the most part, the coolest looking areas aren’t always the best levels and the best levels are often more vanilla areas like plain jane “Hell On Earth” settings. The exception would be Mars Core, which is the best mix of both and is just awesome.

Well, I’ve written a lot. I’m not sure if I’ve said a lot, but it’s a lot of words. Doom Eternal is a weird one where I could get into minutiae for 5 hours but a cursory retrospective would always look like this. But the key point is that this game is bad ass and different from the previous one in some hard fundamental ways. And it is hard. It is a hard game, one of the hardest non-Souls games I’ve ever played. It’s not quite a bullet hell, but there’s a lot going on and you’ll find yourself being “annoyed” more often than you think. Fun annoyed, but still annoyed. I don’t know if it’s my favorite DOOM game, but it’s probably top 2. And considering how feature complete it is, it’s probably #1 most of the time but it does scratch a different itch from the previous game.

As a total package (including the DLCs we’ll talk about next), it’s hard to beat. I also think we’ll look back and see this as a landmark shooter and FPS experience. You rarely get a game with this kind of combat loop that works this well. And you rarely see it pull this off at scale, which this game does. And then you throw in that it’s a franchise, literally one of the most important in all of gaming, ever, and that despite being this unique experience, it still feels connected to those games…it’s a feat. This game doesn’t have a 99 on Metacritic, but almost everyone who’s played it would say it’s impressive regardless for what is pulls off.

I think Doom Eternal really brings something that no other game can replicate and no other game will. The new Doom: The Dark Ages comes out soon, which is why I’ve been playing so much DOOM. It’s guaranteed to be different so Doom Eternal is sort of one off with this great combat loop. Which is okay but I think it should be noted. There will never be another game like this. It’s something to celebrate.