Doom Eternal is essentially "Unbridled Fury: The Game."
Rarely does a project feel this staggeringly confident,
and it's even more of a suprise that such swagger is so fully justified.
When thinking about the heavy legacy of a formative series like Doom and the success of the 2016 reboot,
it wouldn't be a stretch if Eternal felt like an expected iteration of what came before.
What's so remarkable, then, is how fearless it feels.
The game blasts out the gate at a face-melting speed and only accelerates from there.
As a result, the sheer intensity of the relentless pace
provides moments when your bones feel ground to dust,
but the sensation avoids ever becoming the wrong kind of frustration.
There's a shrewd design in play, where every weapon, ability, mod, and upgrade has a place.
And rather than being content with letting the player stumble their way into a false sense of victory,
Eternal knows that far greater satisfaction comes from earning the way forward.
Speed is really the beating heart here.
The Doom Slayer has a double jump and a dash that can be used twice before needing a quick recharge.
Although that doesn't sound like much on paper, in practice, it's everything.
You should rarely stop in the midst of a fight, and battles are tuned with frantic movement in mind.
Death can quite literally come in the blink of an eye
as even basic enemies chew through carelessness,
and that problem only scales up with more difficult foes.
The trade-off is that the demons themselves are resources.
Health, armor, and ammo can all be ripped from the entrails of enemies,
and you need a constant resupply of all three.
So many fights have a deliberate and desperate feeling of getting through only by the skin of your teeth.
The way this sort of "take what you need" system affects the tone of each skirmish is astounding.
You feel a sting of panic when the sharp blipping sound that indicates low health flares in your ears.
Yet something like glory-killing for health
or chainsawing for ammo also provides a much needed microbreak.
You're invulnerable while the comically gory animations play out,
so they serve as practical lifesavers, but more importantly,
they allow you to take a quick mental breath and recenter yourself.
All together, these elements keep players in the perfect pocket when it comes to combat.
It's as if the designers made things as fast as they possibly could without being reckless,
putting the right compromises in place to actually make the speed fun.
Of course, a lot of this praise can be given to Doom 2016, but it's worth reiterating
due to how much more refined and dynamic it feels in Eternal.
New additions add so many layers, and the Flame Belch mechanic is a good example.
As the name implies, Flame Belch is a quick burst of fire that can ignite enemies.
While burning, they periodically drop armor,
and killing them during this period creates a small pool of armor.
Although the mechanic itself is intuitive,
efficiently putting it into practice leads to interesting decisions that change seemingly every fight.
Do you use Flame Belch on a single enemy because you need armor that badly
or wait for a more lucrative opportunity?
Do you kill an ignited enemy right away or leave them on fire to wring out as much armor as possible?
Different battles apply different sorts of pressures,
so these kinds of questions get reevaluated all the time.
Everything in Doom Eternal is a fascinating value proposition,
and very little can be taken for granted.
The game's director, Hugo Martin, has often described the enemies in Doom Eternal as chess pieces,
and the analogy is especially apt during the game's many arena battles,
where the player is locked in a small room,
facing different compositions of enemies barreling toward them.
Any particular enemy added to the equation can change the whole dynamic of a battle.
Early on, Arachnotron are massive thorns in your side, with back-mounted turrets
that punch holes in you as if you're made of paper.
Yet the proper weapon or weapon mod can take care of the turret in a single hit.
Because the Arachnotron are such a threat, they become an immediate priority.
Later on, they lose significance as bigger headaches take their place.
Even as things get more difficult, it doesn't mean weaker enemies lose their function.
Again, layers of decisions come into play.
Do you wait to deal with Arachnotron until the bigger threats are handled,
spend the ammo of a more valuable weapon to wipe them out quickly,
or simply take care of their turret and leave them as you deal with more pressing issues?
Even the much-maligned Marauders change up the flow in effective ways.
It's often better to clear a room before dealing with them,
which makes circling an arena while a Marauder chases you genuinely thrilling and terrifying.
Other games feel bland in comparison with Doom Eternal's combat.
Here, the end goal is not the only thing that matters.
The game cares just as much about how you're dealing with things as it does with the fact
that you ultimately have to kill everything in sight.
By forcing players to thoroughly consider their approach,
combat stays engaging longer because there are so many entertaining variables to consider.
Even replaying missions or fighting the same enemy for what feels the thousandth time
isn't a burden because there's so much depth to pick away at.
Doom Eternal insulates itself from repetition
by actually having something meaningful to continually engage in.
Outside of the excellent combat, secret hunting is a huge part of what makes Eternal work.
In every level, there's an abundance of things to find, and often the search is as enjoyable as the reward.
The best secrets offer just the right amount of head scratching,
requiring careful study of the environment and sometimes mentally piecing together a path to the prize.
What's key here is that treasure hunting never turns Doom Eternal into a puzzle game,
and rarely will you spend too long to find what you're after.
Instead, the game smartly uses this as a small getaway from the meat grinder,
creatively flexing the strength of its movement.
None of this would matter if the secrets weren't enticing, and they are exceptionally so.
They range from the practical such as vital upgrades like increased ammo and health,
to the purely fun, like collectible toys for your room.
There is a care in the presentation that turns even the most superfluous trophies into diamonds.
Collectible music tracks come in the form of awesome vinyl records
with custom-made art that’s glorious to behold.
The fact that Doom Eternal expands beyond its own franchise with these tracks is delightful.
There's nothing like rocking out to Quake music in your own personal space fortress.
Unfortunately, the secrets are a bit uneven in implementation.
There are levels where almost all of the collectibles practically collect themselves.
While it could be argued that such levels have a different focus,
secrets are only really secrets if there’s at least some effort in obtaining them.
It can leave you feeling empty, especially
when prior levels did so much to fill you up.
There are also times when levels feel far more rigid than they need to be.
Moments when you can clearly figure out your own way to accomplish something, like
reaching a particular platform,
but the game wants you to do a task in a very specific way, rejecting other ideas.
These instances feel out of place in a game that does so much to prioritize options.
Battlemode, Doom Eternal's multiplayer offering,
is without a doubt the lesser of its two sides.
However, it still feels somewhat worthwhile by trying to be a little different.
Instead of standard versus or deathmatch play,
Battlemode pits one player-controlled Doom Slayer
against two player-controlled demons.
The Doom Slayer works as expected with a full arsenal of weapons and an indomitable spirit.
Demons, on the other hand, offer a different style, relying more on traps
and summoning monsters than point-and-click shooting.
It's an interesting contrast as both sides try to outthink one another.
As the demons, you need to combine your abilities in a way
that can slow down and eventually pin the Doom Slayer.
As the Slayer, you have to find the right tool for the job while not getting overwhelmed.
Battlemode is novel, but it lacks longevity.
Arenas are extremely small and matches tend to be over very quickly.
It's not that either of these things is damning on their own, but
it's very easy to get over Battlemode more quickly than you want to.
There’s an unfavorable samey-ness that lingers from match to match.
You play it, have your fun for a bit, and then feel ready to move on.
While it's difficult to pinpoint precisely what it needs, it definitely needs something to bolster it further,
whether that’s additional modes or more variety in general.
An area where Doom Eternal reigns with an iron fist is in its presentation.
There is so much joy present in its carnage.
The glory kills are simply exceptional,
finding a perfect balance between speed and gory satisfaction.
Eternal also has a much wider array of areas than its 2016 predecessor,
which is overly one-note in its environments.
Here, in addition to the expected hellscapes and industrial installations,
comes frozen wastelands fused with awesome metallic towers
and gigantic gothic castles.
As expected, the music is phenomenal,
with the exceptionally talented Mick Gordon making a strong case
that he's actually able to summon demonic entities through the power of sound.
As far as the story goes, it's actually rather convoluted in ways
that will no doubt frustrate some, especially those
who have no interest in combing through every codex entry.
For those that are willing to take the time, it does all come together, sometimes in surprising ways.
The narrative of Doom Eternal tries to wrestle with the franchise at large,
filling in holes and binding elements so that it all has greater weight.
While such weight may not feel necessary, it's nonetheless appreciated
that the series is heading off in what feels like such a considered direction.
The approach also fits the game itself quite well.
Every codex entry offers a piece of the puzzle,
which works to incentivize secret hunting
and makes you feel like an active participant in what's going on as you seek out answers.
Doom Eternal is a monster of a game, uncompromising and purposeful in its decision making.
Crucial to its success is that it doesn't feel like it's trying to cater to everyone.
Eternal can be unforgiving,
and there will no doubt be those who bounce off its razor sharp edges.
Yet by not watering itself down, Doom Eternal comes away with an incredible focus.
This is a blazingly fast shooter that demands amazing feats of skill.
Those willing to baptize themselves in the fire
will walk away with the kind of satisfaction
that few AAA games have the audacity to give.
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