Developer: id Software 
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: March 20, 2020
Completed: March 26, 2020
Rated: M for Mature
I suppose if there's one good thing about living through a pandemic it's that I can play more video games. March 2020 is a pretty big month, containing two of this year's most-anticipated games which couldn't be further apart in content: Ori and the Will of the Wisps and DOOM Eternal.
I salivated over every piece of video footage, every screenshot, and every morsel of info I could get for DOOM Eternal. Classic enemies like the arachnotron, zombie soldiers, and the (goddamn) archviles returning? Oh hell yes! The new grappling hook looked awesome. Even many of the returning enemies were redesigned, bringing them closer to the designs found in the original DOOM games of the 90s. After the unexpected awesomeness of DOOM 2016, I was sure Eternal was going to blow it away with these new inclusions and upgrades. It had Game of the Year written all over it.
Settle in, kids, this may get bumpy.
DOOM Eternal is a maddening series of contradictions. The combat has never been more visceral, frenetic, or fun. Switching weapons while dodging incoming projectiles, prioritizing threats, constantly moving, and using everything at your disposal to keep your health and armor up amidst the chaos is pure adrenaline-pumping insanity, and I love it. It feels like classic DOOM, notably DOOM II where the enemy counts were bumped way up.
What does not feel like DOOM is the platforming. Dashing in mid-air and swinging off ledges in first person is not fun. It's difficult to gauge your position, resulting in unfortunate and avoidable deaths if someone at id hadn't thought, hey, you know what people love? First person jumping puzzles!
There is so much platforming and I hated every second of it. It drags the entire game down. Every time an FPS incorporates platforming, it is invariably the worst part of the game, yet still developers insist on including it. A little jump here or there, perhaps to find a secret area, is one thing but it shouldn't be one of the core mechanics of the game where you cannot progress until you dodge a fire wheel straight out of Super Mario Bros. in mid-air to land on a platform that will begin descending immediately, forcing you to dash-jump to a ledge and click a thumbstick to grab the handhold before you fall to your death and have to do it all over again. And if you think that's an annoyingly long run-on sentence, congratulations, that's what it's like to play DOOM Eternal's goddamn platforming segments.
Eternal also switches things up by introducing a hub between missions. Here, the Doomslayer can unlock additional power-ups, suits, or collectibles such as vintage Bobby Prince music tracks from the old games. It's OK, but like the platforming, I felt it slowed the game's pacing unnecessarily. You can go back and replay levels from here to find things you may have missed or complete optional objectives, which I appreciate, but the moments spent wandering around, listening to lengthy dialogue clips is the antithesis of DOOM 2016's awesome opening minutes. Nobody plays DOOM for the story. We just want to shoot some demons. That's the story. There are demons, now go kill them. We don't need to be told demons are bad. We get it. Shut up and let me blow their faces off with my super shotgun.
As with any sequel, there are the requisite new weapons and enemies. Early on, you'll obtain a shoulder-mounted flamethrower that causes enemies to drop armor shards. Your standard issue pistol is replaced by a combat shotgun as the default weapon, a change I'm both for and against. On the one hand, most people didn't use the pistol much anyway unless there was no other option, but on the other it's one less tool at your disposal. I suppose it incentivizes the use of the chainsaw, which causes enemies to drop copious amounts of brightly colored ammo, so ultimately it plays into the strategy of combat.
Yes, the combat is strategic. I'm not talking about hiding behind cover or squad tactics. DOOM Eternal is about constant movement. The moment you stop, you're dead. It requires quick-thinking and perception, taking note of the most dangerous enemies and their locations, and careful but hyperactive strategizing to whittle enemy mobs down to a more manageable size. The new meat hook grapple attached to the super shotgun is key to moving around the battlefield quickly, preventing you from becoming an easy target while also allowing you to get up close and personal for a devastating double-barreled blast on yours.
On the flip side, the new marauder enemy can suck everything that can conceivably be sucked. They're just a chore to fight, especially if you're dealing with more than one at a time, because they're invulnerable to attacks outside of a brief window when their eyes glow. So again, you're left waiting for the opening, which seems completely at odds with the SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE nature of the rest of the game's combat. Even though I hate them with every fiber of my being, it is nice to see the iconic archvile return, annoying and deadly as ever. Some enemies even have weak points, such as the arachnotron's turret, which again adds a little additional depth to the already excellent combat.
A word of warning: DOOM Eternal can be brutal, even on the standard difficulty. The same difficulty setting from DOOM 2016 may suddenly feel exponentially harder. It's no wonder, given all the extra enemies on screen, but those looking for a challenge will definitely find it here. Expert and god-tier players can crank the difficulty up even higher, but for casual players it might be a good idea to take it down a notch unless you want to see your death animations frequently.
The tech that drives the game is impressive. There's so much going on during any given combat scenario, yet the engine never stutters or drops frames. id was always known for pushing hardware limits with amazing tech, and even with all the original founders long gone, it's great to see it's still part of their culture. Environments are impressively massive, chock full of extraordinary levels of detail with gorgeous lighting to boot. It all runs at a screaming 60 frames per second that, once again, never seems to waver - at least on the Xbox One X.
Mick Gordon also returns to deliver another heavy metal soundtrack designed to enhance the carnage. Again, he smartly incorporates motifs from Bobby Prince's original scores but does something totally new with them, rather than just remaking them metal-style. Unfortunately, it seems he and id had a falling out, so don't expect him to return again.
Even with such frantic gameplay, DOOM Eternal plays well with a standard controller. I can't speak to how it compares to a mouse and keyboard, having never played it that way, but it's pretty intuitively laid out. On consoles, Eternal utilizes a weapon wheel that slows down the action briefly while you make your selection, but you can also hot swap between the last two you've used with a tap of a button. Other buttons allow quick access to the flame belch, chainsaw, and of course the dreaded jump button. The controls don't factor into the difficulty of the platforming for the most part. There are times when you'd swear the Doomslayer should have grabbed that ledge, but that's more because the platforming is just garbage.
I have a love/hate relationship with DOOM Eternal. I absolutely love the combat, but I hate the platforming. The pacing is all over the place, and the whole game doesn't feel as cohesive as the 2016 reboot did. The increased difficulty could lead to frustration for some, although veteran DOOM players will probably be less bothered by it. I did also want to mention that the final boss is one of the coolest final bosses I've ever fought, but whoever designed the marauder can burn in hell along with whoever decided to double down on the jumping puzzles. When it's all said and done, I definitely like more of DOOM Eternal than I hate. Perhaps it's the surprise of the reboot being so unexpectedly awesome, or I'm a victim of my own hype, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the last game in the series.
DOOM Eternal was completed on an Xbox One X with no cheats.
