*This review only covers the single-player campaign*
I’ll get this out of the way now: Doom’s 2016 reboot is one of the greatest first-person shooters of all-time. The gunplay, the fluidity, the music; all coming from a game that I had absolutely no expectations for going in.
On its own merits, Doom Eternal is a very good game. But as a follow up to a generation-defining release, it is a step back and a far muddier & overbearing experience.
Taking place two years after Doom (2016), you play yet again as the Doom Slayer. Now on demon-infested Earth, you are tasked with killing the three Hell Priests (hell yeah) who serve Khan Maykr, a demon trying to sacrifice mankind. You fight your way through a truly fucked Earth, shotgunning demons and ripping and tearing ghouls all the way.
Luckily, Doom Eternal’s main strength is exactly what it needed to be: its gameplay. Tasked with your trusty arsenal of shotguns, rocket launchers & assault rifles, you take on dozens of demons at once, ranging from smaller, zombie-like enemies to the terrifying Marauder and Doom Hunter. The pacing is furious, forcing you to feed your resource loop: Glory Kills for health, the chainsaw for ammo and the new Flame Belch for armor shards.
Rather than allowing the player to pick the systems that fit their play style, it is all but required that the player interact with each and every system. The results of this necessity are mixed: it turns each enemy encounter into its own combat puzzle, forcing the player to decide when to back off and when to charge in, but it can also become frustratingly difficult to manage in the game’s latter sections. Add in a dash and wall-climbing, and it is incredibly easy to become overwhelmed.
Even with this influx of systems, when Doom Eternal is on, it’s on. The mix of gunplay and movement is virtually unmatched by anything besides maybe the Titanfall series; the tense combat situations and the pounding soundtrack can feel otherworldly at times. There really are few things as satisfying in gaming as charging in for that Glory Kill when you are on your last bits of remaining health.
But gameplay alone does not make a modern Doom game. If you asked me about the story or tone of any Doom game prior to the reboot, I’d say, “Who the hell cares? It’s Doom!” But along came Doom (2016), and in addition to it’s frantic gameplay came a story so pitch-perfect in its tone & humor that I’d honestly say it’s one of the stronger stories of the generation. There is this underlying level of camp that is so subtle it seems like it could be an accident, and the Doom Slayer’s total disregard for anything besides his mission paired perfectly with the melodramatic, self-serious nature of every other character.
Then along came Doom Eternal. It seems id Software learned all the wrong lessons from its successes, and as is the case with seemingly every other aspect of their game, they doubled down and added more. More story, more jokes, and way, way too much more of the Doom Slayer. Gags are constant, and so few of them work that it is teetering on embarrassing. And instead of his old portrayal as a machine-like destroyer, we see all of the Doom Slayer, all the way down to his unmasked, way too clean face.
If you were looking to Doom Eternal as a pure FPS experience, or if you could not have cared less about the reboot’s story, this won’t disappoint. It has enough brutal slaying to please even the most sadistic of players. If you are looking for a continuation of Doom (2016), I definitely recommend Eternal, but don’t expect nearly as polished of an experience.
Rating: 4 out of 5 | Reviewed on Xbox One
Screen Warped 