The main goal of a sequel is to expand and improve upon the many problems it’s predecessor has. Sometimes a sequel is so big that it outshines the predecessor, but other times the sequel doesn't live up to what everyone expected. This isn’t the case for today’s game, because what we are about to talk about is probably one of the most important games this year. In 1991 a company known as Id Software was founded by four individuals. Tom Hall, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, and finally John Carmack. Together with a small group of developers they created a game named Wolfenstein 3D, one of the first shooters to ever be released. Wolfenstein 3D was such a revolutionary game for it’s time, the first person perspective was unlike anything gamers have seen before being able to immerse players into the world they were in. Wolfenstein 3D was such a success that it became the top shareware seller of 1992. That must have been a lot of downloads. Pulling together from what they learned from Wolfenstein 3D, the four founders decided to make another first person shooter but this time with a twist.
Rather than let players shoot their way through corridors full of Nazis, they decided to take their audience to the pure depths of hell to gun their way through hordes of demons. In 1993, Doom was released and it had the biggest impact the game industry has ever seen. The gorey details and fast paced gameplay made one of the most addicting and popular games in the 1990s. It was so addicting that several colleges and workplaces had to ban the game because their students and workers spent a majority of their time playing Doom. Id Software then followed up with Doom 2: Hell on Earth, and while it borrowed a lot of the assets from the previous game fans still loved it for being more Doom. More grey action and fast paced shooting. Doom spanned an entire cult following, ported to almost every major console, and became one of the greatest games of all time. It would be awhile until Id Software would make another entry in the Doom series, and by 2004 they released the highly anticipated Doom 3. Unlike the last two games which were action packed and were highly reactive gameplay wise, Doom 3 was focused more on horror and slowly creeping your way through tight corridors. It strayed towards modern first person shooter design and ditched anything that made the first two games enjoyable in the first place. This led to mixed reviews of Doom 3. Some fans adored the change in pace while others hated it. .
The team at Id Software wanted to regain the followers they had, so they began development on a fourth entry. Id Software struggled to find out what to do for the fourth game as they wanted to avoid what happened with Doom 3. Not stray away from their fast pace gameplay again, but also reinvent the wheel so that both the old and new audience can enjoy it. Doom 4 spent quite some time in development hell. Soon Id Software was bought out by Bethesda Softworks and with the help of a bigger team they finally got back on track. They soon announced the development of a new rebooted entry given the same name of the original, Doom, which was set to be released in 2016. Gamers were speculating whether Doom 4 would be a good game or not since modern gamers at the time were now used to slower linear story focused shooters like Battlefield and Call of Duty. When Doom 4 finally came out, the world was taken by complete surprise. Everything that made the original few games great was revamped and better than ever. The gameplay was nothing but high octane action, the soundtrack was kickass, and almost every aspect of the game was perfected. Gamers welcomed Id Software back into the gaming world and even called Doom 4 one of the best games of the year. A reminder of how great the shooter genre was.
I played Doom 4 one year after it’s release and fell in love with it once I ripped my way through my first Imp. Doom 4 is one of the most important games I ever played and you wouldn’t imagine how excited I was for the announcement of a sequel. With the massive success and sales of Doom 4, Id Software set out to make a sequel and unlike before they wanted to make this one of the biggest games yet. They announced the sequel at E3 2018. Jaws dropped as the kickass music began, a hellscape was shown before them, a heavy iron boot crushed a skull, and the title of the sequel revealed on screen. Doom Eternal. It took two years of development for Doom Eternal, quite a few delays, and finally in 2020 the full version of Doom Eternal released. It came out one day after my birthday and my brain was screaming, wanting to play more Doom. However, 2020 hasn’t been a good year so far. Stupid people doing stupid things and now a worldwide virus threatens us all. Now I’m stuck inside all week, but in the meantime I played Doom Eternal to cheer me up. It’s everything I wanted from Doom sequel: more challenge and more bloodshed. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved Doom Eternal and why it deserves your attention. Rip and tear until it is done!
Story
Two years after the events of Doom 4, when the Doom Slayer defeated the evil scientist Olivia Pierce and closed the gates of hell on Mars, a portal to hell opened on earth and an army of demons began to invade. More than half of the planet’s population has been wiped out and the chance of surviving the demonic invasion is at an all time low. Far away at a distant mystical space station lies the Doom Slayer who survived the events of the last game. He’s gearing up with some new demon stomping equipment and is ready to face the new challenges and threats that stand before him.
Turns out a godly being is in charge of the demonic invasion, a mysterious angel known as the Khan Maykr. Her heavenly world is dying and she requires more human souls to replenish it. She sends out three sacred Hell Priests to lead the demon army and the gates of hell can’t be closed until all three priests are killed. So off the Doom Slayer goes, to blow up anything that stands in his way and prevent the human race from going extinct. I know this isn’t much of a story, but might as well explain what makes vague storytelling so awesome. What makes vague storytelling great is that the developers get to focus more on creating a fun well designed game. If players wanted to learn more about the world they could take the time to do so. Listening to audio logs, reading random documents they pick up while exploring the world, etc. I wouldn’t say the story and lore of the Doom universe is bad, it’s actually really good when you look deep into it and why heaven and hell are such divided worlds.
What matters at the end of the day is making your game engaging and working from a mechanical perspective. There’s a reason why I can’t play a majority of modern shooters and it’s because they forgot what it means to be fun. Scripted cinematic moments, cover based fights that force you to turtle up, regenerating shields and health that make the player play defensively, limited movement speed and a two weapon restriction which limits creativity and the flow of action, reloading that interrupts combat and gunplay, unskippable cutscenes that make replaying levels or specific sections tedious, and many other annoying aspects. You don’t need to constantly stop the player to make them give a damn about what is going on in your world. Just let them figure stuff out on their own by playing the game. It’s why I like games like Bloodbrone and Hollow Knight so much, because the player can take their own personal time to understand the world around them. While we’re on the topic of gameplay……. yeah we’re moving on to the gameplay section now because that’s what you people care about most. Is Doom Eternal f*cking awesome to play? YES!
Gameplay
The gameplay of Doom Eternal is more systematic than the last game, actually things have drastically changed. Your ammo capacity is much smaller than usual, enemies now rely on weaknesses to be taken down rather than pumping them full of bullets, you take more damage than the last game, and like usual standing still is a death wish. You want to constantly be moving around, picking up ammo and health pickups, and shooting whatever ammunition you have into the faces and weak spots of demons. So Doom Eternal is much harder than Doom 4 due to these systems, but that doesn't mean it’s a step towards the wrong direction. Doom Eternal took leaps forward to make a faster and more brutal experience that forces you into a better playstyle. By forcing the player to get better you make them reach the point where the game starts being fun. You engagingly force them into having the playstyle you knew would be fun. Kind of like how Bloodborne ditched shields to make the player fight more reactively.
The low ammo capacity now encourages players to switch to different guns more often, wanting them to utilize every tool they have on them. Each gun you unlock has different playstyles, mods that give the guns secondary firing modes that open up weaknesses, can be upgraded to devastating effects using weapon upgrade points, and can be extremely overpowered once you figure out their strengths. The god old classic Super Shotgun is extremely powerful up close and can kill most enemies within a single shot, the Plasma Rifle shoots big circular projectiles rapidly and easily stuns foes, the Rocket Launcher can blow up crowds and shatter demon parts easily, the automatic Heavy Cannon w is good for laying down suppression fire, etc.
The mods and upgrades I mentioned earlier are more creative than some of the bland mods Doom 4 had in stock for the player. That Super Shotgun may have short range, but what about the newly added Meat Hook which attaches to enemies across the battlefield? You can use it to zoom around big open areas, gain more mobility, and get up close to enemies easier within having to hop around wildly and leave yourself easily exposed. Your Chaingun has a turret mode that overheats the barrel within seconds, but suppresses each bullet and increases the rate it fires. The Heavy Cannon has the micro missile launcher from the previous game which attaches missiles to foes and blows up demons like the Rocket Launcher. The Combat Shotgun has an automatic barrel, the Ballista has a charged shot that covers mass amounts of ground, the Rocket Launcher has remote detonate missiles, and much more. You can have one mod equipped at a time and some mods are better during specific scenarios. Whether it be hitting a tiny weak spot by attaching a sticky bomb or going all out and unloading every bullet you have into a tough demon before it overcomes you.
The Doom Slayer has a few new abilities himself. A few new mechanics include the mini cannon locked onto his shoulder. It can shoot grenades, spit out fire, and shoot ice bombs to freeze enemies. Flame Belch is useful if you want to refuel your shield gauge as enemies lit ablaze with it spur out shield pickups. The Ice Bomb is useful for stopping enemies to easily open up their weakness or shatter them into bits without having them gang up alongside other foes. The Doom Slayer can dash around to avoid incoming attacks or traverse across large gaps, but it has a recharge rate so you have to be careful when using it. He also has the Blood Punch, a melee attack which can chip away enemy skin and armor. It replenishes through glory kills, so play aggressively.
There are various enemies to fight, each one having unique abilities and weaknesses. What’s new to the game is a system called “Destructible Demons”, where if you shoot them in certain areas and chip away their armor you can weaken them easily and glory kill them faster. Glory kills being a special melee animation that restores health. Cacodemons can instantly be killed if you shoot a sticky bomb into their mouths. An Arachnatrons cannon can be blasted off, decreasing it’s attack power. An armored demon like the Super Mancubus can have their armor be blown off revealing his extremely weak flops of fat. Every demon has a weakness and you have to exploit them if you want to survive each fight. There are various secrets throughout each level including collectibles, item stashes, upgrades for weapon mods, hidden challenges, extra lives that revive you during fights allowing you to continue, you name it. So look carefully, some of these items may drastically benefit you on your journey. Besides that there really isn't much else to say about the gameplay besides that it's awesome. With superhuman strength and a barrage of weapons you should be able to chase off the forces of hell. Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Rip and tear!
Thoughts
Doom Eternal is one of the shooters I've played in recent memory, but not really surprising as I held the previous game to high regards. It’s more aggressive, challenging, and engaging than Doom 4 and while that may scare a couple people off I do think the design decisions they made this time around compensates. The combat is kickass and the number one reason why I loved this game so much. It encourages you to optimize your opponents and understand their weaknesses, just like the last game. This time you have to hit specific weak point or use certain weapons, and that gets you to utilize certain tools more often. Back in Doom 4 you could use any weapon you want for a long time without punishment, but I like what they did here. Once you master the new direction for combat and work your way around each foe you start to feel the power fantasy Doom Eternal advertises itself as. It's brutal, vicious, but above all awesome.
The environments are more varied than Doom 4 and contain more color variety unlike the several shades of red and brown Doom 4 had. The soundtrack is still awesome, it’s as Mick Gordon did a killer job delivering sick riffs as you rip and tear your way through demons. The story isn't a focus point , but there is more lore and depth. Exploring how easy religion and ideologies can abuse peoples' minds, and the measures an ideology will take to keep their power. The controls are tight and nothing feels like it’s the game's fault rather than the player not learning how to master the mechanics. I saw a few PC players zooming around at breakneck speeds and getting through combat scenarios within five minutes, so I wonder how the controls on PC affects player performance. I was playing on the PS4 and my skills with Doom Eternal were mostly great.
Almost everything Doom Eternal introduces to the formula is spectacular and for most people it’s going to be a far better game than Doom 4. However, I'm a little bit dividied on whether I like it more than Doom 4. Again, this is a great game, but Doom 4 holds a place in my heart and some elements of it stand out for me more. There are quite a few platforming sections in Eternal, and some of them go out longer than they should. It’s forgiving this time around because when you fall into a pit you don’t instantly die, but half the time I didn’t know where to go due to the environments and inconsistency of the level design. Some areas look like solid ground you can stand on top or reach but they are actually slide you right off. Other times there are invisible walls on slopes that you will just slide off of. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith, and generally speaking these platforming sections grinded the pacing to a halt.
I love the new equipment in the game, but remembering the multiple components you have gets confusing especially during stressful moments. Yet again, this frustration is something that differs depending on the player’s skill level so no judgment. I like the art design of the demons from the previous game more than the ones here. I know they were trying to go for the classic artstyle of the original games, but the demons from Doom 4 looked more threatening and maintained the sci-fi horror feel. Eternal is more challenging than Doom 4 which is great, but some enemies get really annoying to fight. The Carcasses summon a shield of light blocking you from enemies who could have been killed in front of you, and this sucks as the glory kill window lasts for only a few seconds. The Tentacles, which I don't even know why they are enemies. You have this lesser versions of the Cyber Demon who cover the entire arena full of missiles making fights in small areas hectic. They weren't too bad to detract from my experience.....
Then there’s the Marauder, an enemy you have to counter attack at the right time to actually hit him. You know what I'm just going to rant for a little. The space you're supposed to activate the counter window is stupidly specific. Get to close and he blasts you with a shotgun. Get too far away and he fires a slicing projectile. He can only be fought with shotguns because he blocks every other type of firepower you have with a shield including the BFG 9000. He summons a dog who bites away at your health bar if you fire too much at his shield or run away. Finally you can only parry him when he flashes green, the window of opportunity to parry is small, and you can only land in one-two shots if you do parry him. An enemy like this mostly works in third person action games like Devil May Cry or Sekiro, because in Doom Eternal a game where you're constantly bouncing around like a pinball firing away bullets it breaks the flow of gameplay when you have to circle strafe around this guy. I have seen people also easily exploit him, and I do have to admit once you beat the Marauder it feels rewarding.
Doom Eternal is a really challenging game at times, but the thing about challenging games is that they reward you for taking your time, learning from mistakes, and mastering all the mechanics. When you overcome a hard area you feel rewarded and remember the struggles you went through to overcome that challenge. That mastery is also what forces the player to have fun without the game dragging you by the hand. Doom Eternal is for the most part the sequel I hoped for. Eternal strives in the areas it's strong in, has high replay value due to fun combat scenarios, and is just good to play. Just plain old stupid fun. It's not my Game of The Year because it’s quarter one of 2020 and we still have a way to go as well as new releases set for the next few months, but it is a nominee. In the end I give Doom Eternal a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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