Doom
Eternal by developer id
Software and publisher Bethesda
Softworks—PC
(Steam) review written by Robert
with a purchased copy.
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Doom Eternal is the long-desired follow-up to 2016’s reboot of the
franchise. In a move not common for ground-up remakes, Bethesda left
the core game alone; many remakes these days try to simplify things
or change them for the modern gamer. 2016’s Doom was different; it
didn’t change any core concepts and it was clear that it was a
super-charged gory love letter to the originals; Doom Eternal is a
bit more of a departure, but maintains much of the same elements.
While the game is excellent, some of the changes / introductions feel
out of place and feel more like Bethesda trying to push the game in
new directions at the expense of the adrenaline pumping goodness that
made Doom (2016) so special.
I understand that games often need to evolve in order to stay
relevant; see the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. Both have
had to change their formulas in order to maintain their dominance in
the industry (and those changes aren’t necessarily welcome either).
Doom Eternal is no exception to the idea of relevancy and in a
really, really weird move, Bethesda has managed to turn Doom
into an extraordinarily wicked adrenaline dump that’s broken up by
bizarre puzzles and platforming. There were times that it felt more
like a first person Tomb Raider game (specifically the 2013 reboot’s
tomb puzzles) or an Uncharted game than a Doom game (folks I know
liken it more to Metroid Prime puzzles, but given my stance on
Nintendo and how horrible of a company they are, I haven’t played
those games so I can’t comment on them).
While Doom has always had puzzles and platforming, it was always
simple with some basic backtracking and it never broke the
pacing of the game. With Doom Eternal I have found that you’ll be
in an adrenaline driven fury as you’re shoving your double-barrel
shotty into the throat of a nasty demon only to have it come to a
grinding halt as you’re trying to find some obscure switch or key
or you have to go rock-climbing to some off-the-beaten-path location.
It’s jarring and detracts from what makes Doom so special.
Where it really excels is in making you feel like you should
be feared; you’re the friggin’ Doomslayer for heaven’s
sake, you should be feared (and not wandering around a level
with your thumb up your butt as you’re trying to solve some asinine
puzzle). From the get-go you’re a beefy, green, demon-killing
machine and it’s so smooth, so righteous, and so gory. Little
things like the eyeball that pops out of the giant floating mouths
when you do a Glory Kill on it are so satisfying that it can’t help
but bring a smile to your face. Even cooler is if you’re doing it
right, you can glory kill your way through difficult parts of the
level.
I found that spraying splash damage with the rocket launcher, then
using the grapple effect of the double-barrel, plus the slow-motion
rune can see your zooming around the field of battle like some brutal
reincarnation of The Flash. However, that can all come to a
screeching halt relatively quickly … because of the damn junk
laying around. I was comparing the levels in Doom and Doom Eternal
because I was getting frustrated at getting stuck and dying regularly
in Doom Eternal whereas my Doom playthrough was far more fluid.
The reason?
In an effort to make the levels seem more interesting, Bethesda’s
thrown in all sorts of doodads and props in the levels and they
litter the floor and it’s very easy to get stuck on them.
Doom has always been about circle-strafing and weaving throughout the
enemy’s fireballs or plasma bursts, but Doom Eternal turns into a
slugfest of who can out-tank the other. I don’t even want to get
started on the Marauder things with shields that make them impervious
to the BFG (seriously, it’s the only unit in the game that I found
can survive a BFG shot … with exactly zero damage).
Doom Eternal is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but it no longer
feels like a Doom Game for the entirety of its lengthy campaign;
instead it feels like a weird hybrid and though there are key
elements of a classic Doom game in there, the things that were added
or expanded upon (or straight up removed … I miss the pistol!) take
more away from the experience than add to it. That said, the few bugs
encountered, while annoying, are easily addressed with a reload of
the previous checkpoint and with the fast pace of action, most
restarts only take a minute or two to get through.
Hopefully whatever comes next in the Doom franchise returns its focus
on the gunplay, excellent locomotion, and over-the-top action and
takes a step back from the overly intricate puzzle design and
off-putting platforming. Here’s to the next demon-slaying
experience.
Score: 8.5 / 10
