DOOM Eternal review

Recommended

by tmello

Just completed today and this is a really solid evolution from 2016's gameplay. Definitely significantly more challenging as well. I like the gameplay loop more here than 2016's since you're not reliant on ammo/armor/health pickups around levels. The combat is very fast paced as a result (and the demons match this). This game is definitely not forgiving if you don't have everything down or if you slip up.

The combat is further improved here by giving enemies specific weaknesses which allows for more mastery of mechanics instead of them just being bullet sponges. Idk how i feel about the game telling you enemy weakpoints before you even encounter them for the first time (should maybe have to figure it out on your own initially) but it sure as hell saved me a lot of strife. Facing axe-bro with no knowledge beforehand might be a little rough. 

The increased movement capabilities are also amazing. I just love how fast this game moves.

Once again, the soundtrack SLAPPZ. My playthrough was probably 30 minutes longer than it should have been because i was jamming to the menu music. 

Lore is further expanded here and i'm very down with it. 

A few cons of this though
- Had some performance issues (playing ps4 version on ps5). In the grand scheme this didn't affect my playthrough that much but this definitely wasn't flawless like 2016 was. Had some frame rate drops, glitched through the map twice. At points i couldn't glory kill enemies, had perpetual stun flashing, also couldn't fire at one point. 
- The design of one particular level was not great imo. 

Overall another must-play fps.

In my opinion, this is the greatest FPS game ever made. It took the excellent Doom 2016 game and improved upon it in basically every aspect to the point where the 2016 game simply feels obsolete and sluggish compared to Eternal. This game makes you play smart and it's such a refreshing experience compared to every other FPS game I've ever played. You can't brute force the game with a Super Shotgun and you have incentive to use every weapon and weapon mod at your disposal. Health, armor and ammo being tied to glory kills, flame belch and the chainsaw is straightforward and despite some people saying Eternal's difficulty is nigh-impossible, you have a lot more chances to survive than you ever did in 2016. The combat flows so smoothly as well; being able to dash and double jump feels so good, each weapon feels great to use, each weapon mod has a purpose and is great against a specific enemy, grenades being a fired by a launcher on your back instead of wasting precious seconds arming and throwing them, health and armor upgrades unlocking additional bonus abilities when you unlock them in a certain order. Enemy designs are all fantastic and look very much like they did in the OG DOOM and DOOM II (so do the weapons). Mick Gordon's soundtrack is one of my favorite in any video game, rarely does an OST flow so perfectly with the combat. Lore is pretty interesting and the codex entries are always fun to read. The platforming also isn't that bad and I don't understand all the hate towards it. It's nothing special and it's over in a few seconds. The id engine is the stuff of miracles; it runs so smoothly and the areas look gorgeous, whether it's the hell-torn cities of Earth, the eerie calm of Sentinel Prime, the technologically advanced Urdak, or the landscapes of Mars. 

This isn't even covering the Master Levels or the DLCs which are also amazing (albeit DLC 1 >>> DLC 2 overall).

id Software has created a masterpiece and it's a real shame that it wasn't recognized at all in any game awards. I'm going to savor this game for as long as possible, because it's going to be a very long time before we get anything remotely close to the quality of this game.