Already typed my GotY post but I can't hold this in all year. My apologies.
DOOM 2016 was an important game to me. I played it shortly after its release while I was in a bit of a slump. You see, I kinda hated Uncharted 4, which released shortly before, for all of its pace-breaking, cinematic, low-interactivity moments that were ramped up from the previous games. DOOM 2016 quite literally throws all that aside in its opening minutes and, while the game forgets about this a few times, it generally makes good on its commitment to be a no-nonsense video game ass game where there are things to kill and find, and Doomguy is the perfect character to do that. DOOM 2016 was ultimately my game of the year, but over time and after a few playthroughs, the cracks started to show. While the game looked, sounded, and felt amazing, there was a strategic and tactical depth that was lacking. Several mid-game upgrades were ultimately too powerful and led to the combat playing out as a visceral, yet shallow affair – a hollow power fantasy. Enemy variety dropped off hard around the 2/3 point, and there weren't enough level gimmicks and environments to make up for it. There was also an emphasis on large-scale locked arena fights, with few smaller-scale fights in between to vary up the pacing. The game served as a great foundation for a sequel, but I still wasn't ready for how DOOM Eternal blew me away.
I consider DOOM Eternal to have one of the best combat systems ever developed, and possibly the best action combat ever devised by a Western studio. It's quickly rising to be one my favorite games of all time. Nearly everything I enjoyed about DOOM 2016 has been ramped up significantly, and new elements are added to strengthen the game even further. And all of this is wrapped in a package with gorgeous graphics, fantastic music, quick load times, and a buttery smooth 60 FPS on console, even at high resolutions on Pro consoles. But we gotta start with the combat.
DOOM Eternal's combat is ridiculous. It's audacious. It's almost overbearing. And I love it so much. There a million things I could start with, so let's throw a dart at the proverbial wall and talk about weapons. While most weapons are carried over from 2016, there have been numerous refinements to both distinguish and strengthen many of the lesser utilized guns from that game. The Super Shotgun, Gauss Cannon, and Rocket Launcher were the go-tos in 2016 for good reason: they provided ridiculous damage with few drawbacks or situations they weren't optimal for. Eternal encourages the use of the player's entire arsenal partly because ammo is severely limited this time around, but also because each weapon has a more defined purpose with at least one of its alt-fires. The Heavy Cannon (previously the Heavy Assault Rifle) was all but useless compared to the tier 1 guns of 2016, but its sniper shot mod now has the added utility of being able to one-shot enemy weakpoints, which are new to Eternal. The Chaingun's primary fire no longer has a spin-up time, so it ditches the faster spin-up mod from 2016 for an energy shield that can both block incoming shots and let the player ram enemies to knock them off balance. The Ballista, essentially a reskinned Gauss Cannon from 2016, remains a ranged beast but refines the overpowered Siege Mode mod into the Destroyer Blade, which is a wider projectile that might actually be stronger, with the detriment of a longer charge up time leading to less general usefulness. The Plasma Rifle trades its stun bomb mod (now repurposed as an ice bomb that the player always has access to) for a microwave beam that can lock down slippery enemies or finish others off with an area of effect explosion, its Heat Blast is a forgiving option for blowing off enemy weak spots, and its primary fire now overloads enemy shields. The Combat Shotgun's new full auto mode is also much stronger than the underwhelming burst shot from 2016, and its grenade launcher is a particularly effective alternative for destroying enemy weak points. The Super Shotgun and Rocket Launcher might both be stronger than in 2016, though the Super Shotgun trades its all-powerful double tap mod for the enhanced mobility of the meathook, while the Rocket Launcher now fires slower projectiles that deal more self-damage. Director Hugo Martin has talked a lot about polishing the game's "chess pieces", and I feel that the team accomplished this greatly not only with the weapons, but also the enemies.
DOOM 2016 had a pretty good cast of bad guys to blast, even if the game ran out of new ones long before it ended. Not only does Eternal nearly double the enemy count from the last game, but it also refines each one into a clearer role on the battlefield. Fodder enemies like Imps, Soldiers, and Gargoyles generally aren't too strong from a distance but this time their melee is a massive threat. The Revenant hits a lot harder now, as does the Mancubus, who has been tuned to immediately use a highly damaging AoE blast if the player gets too close. The new Arachnotron performs like a mobile turret, and the Cyber Mancubus and Dread Knight use area denial tactics. New "super heavy" demons like the Tyrant and the DOOM Hunter have an imposing presence on the battlefield and encourage dispatching less powerful enemies before taking them on, while the Marauder damn near demands this due to the pure reflex test of fighting him. Pressure units like the Hell Knight do a better job than ever at keeping the player running around the arena, while the teleporting Prowler can easily get behind the player if they feel inclined to hunker down in a corner. Other new additions include the Whiplash, which acts as a close range distraction unit, and the Maykr Drone, which serves a similar turret function as the Arachnotron but has a quirk where it explodes into a shower of health and ammo when headshotted, leaving the player to evaluate when to leave one alive and when to take it out for loot. The Carcass is a particularly devious new foe that becomes a high priority due to its ability to spawn shields that can be tactically overloaded by the Plasma Rifle as a makeshift explosive barrel, though it also stops the Slayer in his tracks and can lead to self-harm if it blocks a rocket. Introducing an elusive Archvile into a fight changes the dynamic completely as the player has to make it top priority due to its resurrecting capability, and the Cacodemon is now a ridiculously damaging glass cannon with a glaring weakness, but pray to Baby Jesus if he sneaks up on you and starts chowing down. Enemy have generally been buffed across the board, though the addition of weak spots like the Arachnotron's turret and the Revenant's rocket launchers give the player an opportunity to pull off a clutch shot to make a foe much less effective. This is a top tier rogues gallery with both mooks and heavies being distinct, interesting, and satisfying to take down. They're tons of fun to kill, too, with a destruction system that turns their bodies into impromptu health bars as each bit of damage knocks chunks off them. Glory kills return from the first game, and id's animation team outdid themselves with some fiendishly satisfying kills. Shout out to whoever animated the glory kills for the Prowler and Whiplash, goddamn.
The DOOM Slayer's weapons are powerful, but enemies have been tuned to be more lethal than ever. To compensate for this, the Slayer now has a large suite of innate abilities that he can use to better control the fight. The new dash can be used on the ground or in the air for quick escapes, relentless pursuits, and tricky dodges. Frame perfect single dashes on the ground became my go-to movement somewhere near the midgame, and doing this makes you a speed demon. The new Blood Punch is a super charged melee attack that deals massive damage in a shockwave and falters enemies. The Slayer's plethora of underwhelming throwable equipment from 2016 has been refined into the shoulder launched frag grenade, which falters enemies, and the ice bomb, which freezes enemies in place. Both grenades open up combos and follow-ups with weapons and the Blood Punch, and are vastly more interesting than similar offerings in 2016. Finally, the new Flame Belch lights enemies on fire and makes them drop armor, which is crucial given how hard the enemies hit. The Flame Belch and the grenades operate on cooldown, along with the ammo-granting chainsaw that now recharges back up to one pip for effectively infinite use on fodder enemies. What's really great is how these systems all bounce off each other. The Mancubus' close range AoE can be sidestepped by faltering him with a frag grenade before closing in, and freezing enemies is a great way to set up for a multi-kill after setting them on fire for mass armor shards. Or, you could simply ice bomb a powerful foe and unload on them with a Blood Punch and your strongest weapons for a quick kill at the cost of going narrow instead of wide in your assault.
So all that's a lot right? Numerous weapons, each with two alt fires and situations they're good in. Numerous enemies, each with their own attacks, strengths, synergy with other demons, and weapons that fare well against them. Numerous Slayer abilities, with the Flame Belch to regain armor, the frag grenade to damage and falter enemies, the ice bomb to lock enemies down, the dash for some crazy mobility, the chainsaw to recover ammo, and the Blood Punch as an enemy-faltering "get out of jail free card" that can also be used as a high damage attack or crowd clearer. Wait, did I mention that the Slayer also gets the screen-clearing BFG-9000 and a fucking one hit kill energy sword? The game rolls out these mechanics and enemies one at a time, but at some point you have to put it all together. And this is where it's sink or swim. The game is overwhelming, full stop. There's so much you can do, and the enemies are relentless enough that you almost never get too much time to think about your next move. There aren't just a couple enemies at a time, either – even as soon as the third mission, there are arenas that can last minutes at a time with numerous strong foes thrown at you like a demonic carpet bomb of intensity. But if you stick with it, at some point it clicks. You go from forgetting to recover armor with the flame belch, misusing grenades for minimal effect, fumbling with precision shots on enemy weak points, to become the Destroyer, mixing and matching abilities and weapons and enemies while effortlessly flowing through each intricately designed arena, ping ponging through portals and off jump pads and across monkey bars, sniping enemy weakpoints with the Heavy Cannon, blowing up energy shields with the Plasma Rifle, seeing a group of three fodder enemies, spraying them with fire, blowing them up with a frag for a shower of armor shards, and freezing a Mancubus and killing it in seconds with a Blood Punch and a helping of point blank Super Shotgun you piece of shit. This combat is unreal.
Let's break it down a bit more. DOOM Eternal is full of metagames, or small goals you're encouraged to accomplish on the road to winning a fight. Here's a scenario: You're midway through a fight, and a Cacodemon spawns. Cacodemons hurt like hell but can effectively be put down with a single Combat Shotgun sticky bomb to the mouth. Problem is, you're a big fan of the Super Shotgun and you've run out of shells. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a fodder enemy to use your single pip of chainsaw fuel on to get more shotgun ammo to then use on the Cacodemon. You must now deftly navigate the arena, dodging enemies and projectiles, in search of a fodder enemy. When you find one, he's grouped with a couple heavies. You go in for the chainsaw anyway, and you use a faltering Blood Punch to escape the heavies, get to safety, and kill the Cacodemon with your fully loaded shotgun grenade.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE - a wild CYBER MANCUBUS appears! The Cyber Mancubus is a tough armored foe, but has a hard counter in Blood Punch, which knocks off his armor with a single blow. Problem is, you just used your Blood Punch to escape the heavies flanking the victim of your chainsaw. Blood Punch recharges after the player performs two glory kills on staggered enemies, so you're now pushed to play the metagame of glory killing two enemies to recharge your Blood Punch to then weaken the Cyber Mancubus enough to easily kill it. You switch to a weapon like the Heavy Cannon or the Combat Shotgun, which have primary fires that easily stagger enemies. Dancing across the arena like a space marine ballerina, you use the right weapons on the right enemies to recharge that Blood Punch, use a smart frag grenade to falter the Cyber Mancubus so he can't AoE you, and finally give him what for.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: PART DEUX. These metagames aren't occurring in vacuums; actually, you're often juggling many of them at the same time. While in either of the above two scenarios, you might be low on armor, and therefore you now must multitask to find a good use of Flame Belch to replenish that armor. Or perhaps before you go out to seek shotgun ammo to take down that Cacodemon, you need to get into a good position to snipe the turret off that Arachnotron that's pinning you down. Or maybe you really want to take out that Carcass that's going to throw a wrench in your other plans. The micro-level goals of Eternal keep the player constantly on their toes and make each fight dynamic and exciting. The combat isn't as much of a "put key in lock" affair as I may have made it sound, either – the Ballista's Arbalest mod is as effective against a Cacodemon as a sticky bomb from the Combat Shotgun, for example. A pesky Arachnotron can be neutered by taking off its turret with the Heavy Cannon precision shot, the Combat Shotgun sticky bomb, a Plasma Rifle heat blast, a Rocket Launcher remote detonation, or maybe you just start spraying with the Chaingun's mobile turret, or maybe you freeze it before letting lose with the Super Shotgun. While some tools have distinct solutions, there are a ton of ways for players to express themselves depending on how skilled they are and what resources they're willing to trade in the process.
Replenishing resources, threat prioritization, and maximizing the value of weapons based on their distinct strengths and weaknesses are the kinds of things you're forced to think about while playing DOOM Eternal. Oh, and it's all happening at a million miles an hour. Stop moving for more than a second or two and you're dead meat. There's really no mental downtime like in 2016 when the solution to every problem was obvious. Combat in DOOM Eternal, once got to grips with, is like being in full galaxy brain mode at all times, constantly doing genius level shit while the game tries its hardest to kill you at lightspeed. Brief pauses in the action from glory kills, chainsaw kills, and the weapon wheel slo-mo are all you get to take a breath. I've had tons of fights where after it's over, I loosen up and notice that my body was incredibly stiff the whole time, my heart was pounding, and I hardly blinked. A game hasn't pushed me this hard since Sekiro, and this was happening from relatively early on in the game while playing on the third of four difficulties. Also unlike Sekiro, which is more lax outside of boss encounters, Eternal reaches a point where nearly every fight had me sweating. How the fuck did this combat make it into a AAA mass market video game? The kicker is that Eternal pulls a Metroid Prime 2 or Hotline Miami 2, assuming the player already played the first game, and quickly ramps up its demands to the equivalent of the midgame of the previous outing. For all the demonic adversity, I didn't find Eternal to be a frustrating game. Lost armor and health can always be recovered in some way, and I felt that my bad decisions led to my deaths. Eternal also has an interesting tutorial and codex system where it straight up discloses all of the strengths and weaknesses of each enemy when you first encounter them. This may be off-putting to some but given the frantic pace of the combat and the many enemies it throws at you, I was happy to skip the experimentation phase and move right along to the git gud phase.
Good combat can carry an action game, but level design is what can take it to the next level. Games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden Black are particularly adept at using action-adventure elements and incidental encounters between big arena battles to vary up the pacing and provide more variety in the experience. DOOM 2016 was somewhat lacking in this – while there were plenty of interesting secrets to find, combat was severely underdeveloped outside of the arenas. Eternal addresses this with gusto in two ways. First, platforming sections build off the stellar Argent Tower stage of the previous game to provide numerous jumping challenges that feel satisfying to pull off and incorporate the dash, monkey bars, and a new wall climb mechanic to great effect. Second, smaller encounters between the arenas are much more of a thing now. The first level has a cute section involving an Arachnotron and a few goons in a subway station while projectiles are spat out from the walls, and another level has the player ambushed by two Hell Knights in a narrow passageway. In the latter case, the game can get away with sudden ambushes because the ice bomb is a core part of the player's moveset and is always accessible. Most levels have their own quirk, either visually or mechanically. I love the forward momentum of ARC Complex, for example. It feels like a high-intensity action movie as the Slayer barrels through streets and office buildings as enemies are constantly jumping through windows and busting through walls to ambush you. Mars Core is an epic mission where you start out fighting up to the BFG-10000 as it bathes the area in green light whenever it fires, then you platform across vast distances above the surface of Mars before finally taking down a horde of demons in an ancient city near the planet's core. Super Gore Nest follows an interesting structure where three keys are needed to unlock the stage's final area, and it ends with a thrilling timed escape. There are no losers here when it comes to levels, and each one stood out to me for one reason or another.
I found the levels to be well paced overall, with a good amount of environment and design variety within them. Secrets return from DOOM 2016 and are as fun to seek out as ever (except for a select few *glares at Taras Nabad*), and there's a great quality of life addition with fast travel being enabled at the end of every level so that the player can mop up collectables in different areas of the stage that might no longer be accessible from the end. This feature in particular really goes above and beyond for this kind of game, and its inclusion really speaks to the game's level of polish and thoughtfulness. You'll want to find those secrets too, because they power the DOOM Slayer up in a way that feels almost necessary to combat the game's challenges. Weapon upgrades, perk-like runes, and tokens for passive suit abilities are earned in the stages for much of the game. While all levels have ample collectibles to find, the player will likely be stocked up on all the rune and suit upgrades they need by the final third of the experience; still, weapon mastery tokens and mastery challenges help keep the progression fresh deep into the experience.
Here's what's crazy: all this game design nirvana doesn't really come at the cost of much. For starters, Eternal is a stellar looking game, with dense, detailed environments and some great art direction. Visually, there are vistas aplenty here that tell stories about the world, enemies break apart in satisfying ways when you shoot them, and even the weapons have some neat animations despite having no reload mechanic. Framerate isn't a cost either, and the game ran sharply and silky smooth for me on Xbox One X at 110 field of view. And hey, load times are somehow short, with fast travel within levels being nearly instant (even when the environment changes drastically). This is kind of mindboggling to me. But it's music that really ties the experience together, and composer Mick "What if David Wise, but Metal?" Gordon returns with an OST that tops the first game's. I like DOOM 2016's OST a lot in context, but it wasn't super listenable to me outside of fan favorite BFG Division. Eternal's OST continues the thumping metal and electronic aggression from the previous game, but its music feels a bit cleaner to me in execution than 2016's, with clearer, more sustained melodies for each track that are easier to follow. Several tracks stand alongside BFG Division, with the
Nekrovol combat theme being a huge standout to me - it's so fucking heavy and mean and makes me want to rip an army of demons in half, and
the first level theme is also great when the drop hits. When I'm firing on all cylinders in combat with the music blasting, it's like I'm in a raging trance. It's fucking glorious. Ambient stuff is no slouch either, with the Heavy Metal Choir™ coming in with a force that nearly makes me shudder. The sound design is also greatly improved from 2016, with beefier weapon sounds and clear sound cues for the different cooldowns.
Also, little shout out to some of Eternal's music cues. I don't recall 2016 having any moments like in Eternal when the first Hell Knight spawns and
THIS FUCKIN SONG kicks in, or when a Revenant busts through a wall later in the game, accompanied his own hype music. Always a nice surprise when that happens.
Also also, little note on Battlemode. I've played several rounds as both the Slayer and the demons and it seems…decent? The Slayer can wreck the demons 1v1 with his stronger weapons, but once he gets on the back foot it can be tricky to recoup if the demons loot block him effectively. There's some jank in the networking, but it's intriguing and I plan to play it some more. A neat little value add when the lag isn't too bad.
Few more things: Okay, so I went back and forth on prefacing this whole thing with "I played this on an Xbox Elite controller with all four paddles." This is a demanding game for a regular controller. I honestly wouldn't argue with someone who said that it wasn't comfortable to play on a standard gamepad. It's been super helpful for me to have jump, dash, and Flame Belch on paddles for easy access while moving, shooting and looking. But damn, they're at the edge of what a stock controller can handle. Is this a good or bad thing? I don't know.
The story here isn't much to write home about. Doomguy's comedic aggression isn't as frontloaded as in 2016, and I wish the wackiness of the Phobos mission was replicated in more of the campaign. Things get a little more interesting once a character from 2016 returns, though the story is generally a lot of high fantasy meets sci-fi nonsense that barely strings together the missions. This isn't really a con (Khan? :p) for me since I'm pretty much just here for the gameplay and aesthetics, though the story could have worked harder to elevate the overall experience. Some cutscenes now take place in third-person which can be hit or miss, but thankfully they're all skippable rather than locking you in Samuel Hayden's office for a minutes-long monologue.
The Slayer's hub, the FORTRESS OF DOOM, is a neat place to chill out between missions and unlock some upgrades. I was worried that this could tank the overall mission to mission pacing, but the missions are often so long and grueling that I didn't mind a break every once and a while. The hub is ultimately pretty shallow, though it didn't detract too much from the experience.
Lastly, the boss fights here underwhelm me personally compared to 2016, but I've made peace with it because the combat just has a different vibe. DOOM 2016's "one size fits all" approach to combat likely made its bosses a bit easier to navigate than they would be here in Eternal, where ammo is limited and the tools are more specialized. Eternal is more about crowd control and metagames than the previous game, so I guess it makes sense that boss fights took a bit of a hit. The bosses themselves are mostly good. I won't count the DOOM Hunter since he's basically a regular enemy, but I enjoyed the Gladiator for being the most traditional boss, along with the penultimate boss for its satisfying gimmick factor, and the final boss for adding one extra thing to juggle on top of the massive juggling act that is DOOM Eternal's combat. Different approach, but it mostly worked…even if I'm all about the pure 1v1 me bro contests.
I remain baffled that the intricate and technical gameplay in DOOM Eternal is presented with this level of quality. This is the apex predator of single player FPS combat – demanding, ruthless, and ridiculously satisfying to get good at. Comparisons to character action games like Ninja Gaiden Black are well deserved. Did I mention that the game is also meaty in length? There's a level of care and attention to each of the numerous elements of the experience, from the weapons and enemies to the movement and the player's mechanics, that I really feel this is probably one of the best action games ever made with very possibly the best single player FPS combat in existence. The fact that the level design, aesthetics, and technical performance are all superb puts it over the top. This is a special game, one clearly made with an abundance of care from the developers, and I couldn't recommend it enough to fans of combat-based games. There's a significant learning curve, but mastering each of the tools and implementing them in a hypnotically brutal torrent of destruction is fuckin' something else. If FPS campaigns never gets better than this…my smile and optimism will still be Eternal.
