Doom Eternal is a FPS game for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, Stadia, and PC. It was developed by Id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, and it is a sequel to Doom (2016) and the fifth main game in the Doom series.
In 5 years back when I reviewed the Doom (2016) which is a reboot of the whole franchise, as I had labelled the game as one of the best FPS game that the series made a massive comeback with excellent combat gameplay with new mechanics and upgrades, darker presentation filled with more evil and sinister looking, gory extreme graphics with their body getting ripped and tears apart, awesome metal soundtrack by Mick Gordon, and more fast-paced shooter madness with lots of single-player action that is the reason why I really liked the game so much.
Going back to this review, I have finally returning back to hell with the Doom Eternal which I am looking forward to play another rip and tear single-player action with new features, more demons, and design elements in this game.
I will explain the important aspects of the game including the combat gameplay, environmental level design, various of demons, platforming segments, and difficulty system that the things that I like or dislike about how the game went and does it give a players an satisfaction? the answer is yes it is one of the game that is highly aimed for pro FPS fans looking for a well challenged combat action and being able to progress through the game flawlessly.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in the event after the the 2016 game, as it follows badass silent protagonist known as Doom Slayer once again, on a mission to end Hell's consumption of Earth and foil the alien Maykr's plans to exterminate humanity.
To keep you in mind that the doom franchise aren't very known for its own storytelling, as I have previously mentioned about the Doom (2016) had lacked the proper backstory before the invasions starts happening at the beginning of the first level, but going back to this now you see the opening intro in this game where the whole earth has been invaded by hordes of demons wiping off entire humans, meanwhile you are the Doom Slayer in the spaceship preparing the arsenals of weapons, heading to the planet earth, and ready to kick the demon asses which is sounds cool, but the issue is that it focuses way too much on the story sequence which I fully understand the game needs to have a bit of storyline, but it is likely going to slow down the pace of the speedruns gameplay like you may see 1 or 2 mid-cutscenes at the middle of the level felt gonna distract the players when trying to beat the level in newest record as possible without being interfered by the random cutscenes.
Aside with the story, I got to say the main protagonist is one hell of guy with cool arsenal suit and loaded with the weapons, so that he can rip and tear all the demons apart filled with blood and guts everywhere, and of course being a silent with less about talking is the way it should be that makes him one of the badass video game heroes that you should never f**k with him.
The game has the returning demons from the classics Doom game such as Imp, Pinky Demon, Hell Knight, Pain Elemental, lost soul, Arachnoton, Arch-Vile, Baron of Hell, Cacodemon, Mancubus, Cyber Demon, and Revenant, while introducing the new monsters in the game such as Marauder, Whiplash, The Gladiator, Carcass, and others which I really liked how these monsters been designed in the game to make them look more like the mixture between classic and modern appearances.
I got to say the game's presentation is very well done for its demonic settings and darker tone of the game itself, as I really liked the mixture between earth and hell of the levels and atmospheres.
The location such as Citadel of Hell took place in San Andreas Chasm where Arctic side of this location filled with ruins and remains of demonic skeletons appear to be dug up and used in the research, while the Nekravol side has massive facility in hell.
Argent D'Nur has terrestrial stuff like craggy landscape with mountains and rocky formations, blue-green hue of sky, and numerous of environmental stuff like trees, grasses, and mosses.
Immora is a city of crimson which is a hellish city with spires and towers stretching all across featuring technological and smooth style similar to other location such as Urdak.
Sentinel Prime is the city where the ancient arena is located and is concidered a holy place for the people of Argent D'Nur which has cascadian landscape, single moon with reddish surface color of sky, and big gladiatorial arena.
I like how they designed the concept to make it look and feels more gothic and gritter than just the traditional Sci-Fi tone in the game which in fact I really liked the way the settings in the level had been created.
Overall, badass protagonist, awesome cast of demons, and hellish presentation design.
Gameplay
In single player campaign, you take control of Doom Slayer in first-person perspective to wipe out the countless of demons until you reach at the exit area to move on to next level. It does have a same objectives as the classics such as finding the key or hitting switch to unlock a door that leads to next area, but it's more heavily on the open-world map where you can explore and discover the secrets to find the collectables, upgrades and items which can be seen on the map options screen, as well as several of platforming segments which I will explain further on this review.
Using the left stick to move the player around, while right stick are used as aiming and turning. The player has ability to jump while pressing it again allow you to double jump to reach the higher platform.
You have two different melee system such as finishing blow will allow you to perform glory kills such as ripping their chest off and decapitate their heads off when the enemies appears with highlight flashes and using the chainsaw will tear them down in shreds which drops down the resources items such as ammo and health.
You will later obtain a new manuvering skills like dash which can be used as evading the enemy's projectiles and platforming through stages, the blood punch is just one single striking with additional damage, and flame belch can be used as flamethrower weapon will enhance your ability to move, while others may help you in combat, so these sets of skills will help you completing the next stages of the game.
You will have a choice of weapons which can be all carried on your weapon selection such as combat shotgun and super shotgun are perfect for close range combat, the heavy cannon and plasma rifle are good for far distance range, some powerful weapons like chaingun and rocket launcher deals with heavy damage, and the BFG 9000 (A.K.A Big F***ing Gun 9000) is definitely blows the whole demon away with one shot kill.
The game also introduce new weapon such as Ballista that fires a single high-powered shot which deals damage against the flying enemies.
What I liked about the combat system in the game is that it has three types of upgrades such as runes, praetor suit, and sentinel crystals which allows you to unlock various of upgrading skills.
The runes allows you to perform glory kills faster, launch into enemies from far distance, increase movement control while in mid-air, decreasing the recharge time for equipment, temporary slow down time while in mid-air, and gaining a speed boost after performing glory kill.
The praetor suit range from resisting environmental damage, buffing your grenades, making the dashing and reloading faster, taking less damage from exploding barrels and toxic sludge, larger automap radius, and dash refills more quickly.
The sentinel crystals will allow you to maximize your health, armour, and ammo, while unlocking two sentinel route will give you a perk such as dropped resources items get pulled in from further away, big huge demon stay on fire for longer, flamethrower takes less time to cooldown, and their armour drop at a faster rate, so these improves the player's performance with more capacity on the attributes the longer the player last during the fights.
I also liked the various of weapon mods including shotgun's sticky bombs and full-auto, heavy cannon's precision bolt and micro missiles, plasma rifle's heat blast and microwave beam, rocket launcher's lock-on burst and remote detonation, chaingun's energy shield and mobile turret, and stuff like super shotgun's hookshot, so my favourite mods for the weapons are sticky bombs, precision bolt, remote detonation, and mobile turret because these works effectively against the heavy shielded enemies are easier to shred down their armour pieces.
There are a 2 special weapon that I considered as the most lethal thing which is crucible sword, a energy-based sword that allow you to cut through demon very easily, and you have sentinel hammer which uses to launch up into the air and slamming the hammer into the ground causing a shockwave around the point of impact which temporary stunned or kills outright, so these special weapon are works pretty well against any type of the enemies that are heavily shielded or stronger looking buff which I kinda like it during the battle.
I liked how the combat system actually works because of the skill based upgrades and effectiveness of weapons that really improves the playability makes easier to staggering the enemy's weakpoints and knowing the tactics by evading them which requires your dashing and jumping to be perfect as possible without dying in the battle are part of the strategic ways to play.
Upgrading the new skills and perks are part of the game's elements that feels very rewarding for player to be very satisfied with the combat gameplay design.
I got to say the variety of the enemies are very good in the game such as Arachnoton that shoots out blue plasma, Mancubus welds with twin-blast while wearing the armour protection, Arch-Vile can summon hordes of monsters, Pain Elemental spits out floaty heads of lost soul, Cyber Demon has attachable rocket launcher, Revenant can fly with jet pack, and others has their own advantages which I got to say it is very well executed for having types of enemies with different abilities.
From outside of the combat, I also got to say I really liked the exploration of open-world map which filled with hidden secrets can be located somewhere in the levels where you can able to discover a things such as gate key that leads to slayer gate location, and collectable items stuff like figurines and albums.
The platforming segments is actually spectacular which I really like the idea of being able to reach at the higher platform area such as jumping onto the bar to swing through, dashing through the platforms, launching hookshot into attachable hooks, and climbing on the wall is somewhat worked perfectly for larger level design.
I've enjoyed fighting with the hordes of the enemy which is outstanding because it gives the player an achievement when playing on the higher difficulty is what makes the game brutally tough, but made everything fun to play at the same time is what really matters the most.
I also wanted to say that as much I loved the original campaign, there are an extra new campaign called Ancient Gods which comes with 2 expansion parts adding an extra new levels, new monsters, and new weapon which is just as fun as the original that you can also get these 2 as a standalone or standard DLCs through digital store. You can also take part at master levels mode will put the player's skill to their test and force them to adapt to the increased challenge.
The game also has online only 2 vs 1 battle mode where two playable demons must face off against one fully loaded Slayer in a best of 5 round based brawl which is different from the Doom (2016), but I heard several of players had an issue with unbalanced matchmaking during the battle, so it is also confirmed that they will slowly improve the online battle by overhauling this mode with slightly better matchmaking progress through the later updates should be good enough for players to enjoy the online battle matches.
It's a shame that it didn't include the offline split-screen for multiplayer which could have been cool to have it on this game, so that we could have fun playing a player vs player or player vs bots for battlemode.
That being said, I loved the single-player campaign in all thanks to combat, large environment, exploration, difficulty, and fighting with bunch of demons is what makes the game so flawlessly entertaining.
Overall, it has excellent combat system, epic horde fights, and awesome single-player action.
Graphics
The graphics is genuinely outstanding in many ways, as you can see the whole map in the game has the larger environment design which really maximises the use of the exploration and bigger focus on platforming aspects. I like how big the outside of the level which has huge terrestrial objects and massive buildings is just looks everything so good from the draw-distance.
The textures mapping is looking so crisp on the environmental surfaces such as sculptures, runes, and manmade statues, and the details of colours usage, lighting design, and visuals effects is looking magnificent throughout the levels.
The animation of demons is surprisingly look just as impressive as you expected in the game which felt like it is a great redesign of the original enemies from the classic doom (1993).
I got to say I f***ing loved the gory effects in the game where all the enemies gets ripped apart in half, spurts out blood from their body, and their particles of guts got chunked out is looking brutally graphic, but makes the best part of the whole game for those who loves the ultra-violence content in the game.
If you own the PS4 and XBONE copy, you can also get a free upgrades for PS5 and XSX/S console which gives the game's advantages of the enhancements running on these console including fully rendered 4K native and ray-tracing support which adds the significant details of the game itself with better resolution with less jaggy details, runs on 120fps for smoother performance, and makes the visuals feels more next gen is definitely makes the best looking game I've seen so far.
Overall, it has larger environmental design, crisp texture mapping, great animation of demons, and brutally gore effects.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack of the game is sounds incredible throughout the game that makes the player pumped out for the action and ready to kick ass. Doom franchise was also credited for Heavy Metal music really fits the game's action packed where the badass music starts kicking in and screams with gritty guitar riffs and has aggressive drum percussion that gives the player an edge to beat the shit out of these demons which makes it one of the Mick Gordon's best video game soundtrack I ever heard.
The sound effects in the game is absolutely stunning for its ambient effects and environmental sound design, and the voice of the demons is roaring out aggressively during the battle is sounds fantastic in the game.
Overall, it has kickass music, stunning sound design, and aggressive demon roars.
Special Features
The game has 2 expansions including Ancient Gods part 1 and 2, unlockable icons, costumes, and others for customisable players, and free upgrades for next gen consoles.
It is also confirmed that they will add an horde mode, new master levels, and battle mode overhaul for later update soon.
Overall, an excellent package.
Advantages
Hellish presentation design
Excellent combat system
Epic horde fights
Awesome single-player action
Outstanding visuals
Kickass music
2 expansion packs (Ancient Gods)
Disadvantages
Lack of offline split-screen multiplayer
Story mid-cutscene slows down the game's pace
Final Verdict
Presentation 9/10 - badass protagonist, awesome cast of demons, and hellish presentation design.
Gameplay 9.5/10 - excellent combat system, epic horde fights, and awesome single-player action.
Graphics 10/10 - larger environmental design, crisp texture mapping, great animation of demons, and brutally gore effects.
Music and Sounds 10/10 - kickass music, stunning sound design, and aggressive demon roars.
Special features 9/10 - 2 expansions including Ancient Gods part 1 and 2, unlockable icons, costumes, and others for customisable players, and free upgrades for next gen consoles.
Adding an horde mode, new master levels, and battle mode overhaul for later update soon.
Overall 9.5/10 - Doom Eternal is definitely not just a much bolder and better sequel, but as the another legendary FPS title that gets everything right will not disappoint the fans of the series can get a hands on with this awesome shooter game.
So glad with the single-player campaign had turned out successfully executes with the combat system filled with upgrades and skills, bigger map to explore and uncover the hidden areas, and strategic fight that relying on dashing and shooting mechanics are greatly increases the overall challenge that makes Doom Eternal a king of modern shooters for today's gaming.
This is definitely must play for all hardcore FPS players as well as the fan of the series should able to get it on depending which platforms do you own, and it is also featured on Xbox Game Pass as well.
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