The review of the game Doom Eternal – the devil is in the details
Yuriy SheremetDoom Eternal develops only in the best way. When it comes to killing demons, it is still second to none.
The sequel of the original Doom, Hell on Earth, which was released in 1994, looked more like a pack of new missions but both games were so sensational that no one considered it to be a disadvantage.
Lots of Inspiration from this work can be found in the recent Doom Eternal and it looks like a reboot of the brand in 2016 but it would be unfair to consider it to be only «a pack of new levels». Doom Eternal improves the previous game’s mechanics, introducing some new things at the same time and also significantly expands the universe of the game in terms of the story.
Many players even have a feeling that there are too many new elements and not all of them fit Doom’s simple and time-tested standard. Fortunately, the quintessence of Doom, namely the massacre in hell, appeal to this nostalgia and develops more than ever. The authors managed to create a perfect harmony between the dynamic action, spectacular and a bit of comic violence, and a need to use absolutely all Doom Slayer’s gadgets. You can also feel the perfect symbiosis of permanent movement, shooting, and melee strikes, and the rules of the extremely smooth fight become intuitively clear after a while. Doom Eternal is just a massive massacre in hell!
ADVANTAGES:
- almost every element of the previous game are changed a bit and refined;
- extremely dynamic and smooth battles, which require to use all your arsenal;
- the need to collect all the resources, which are dropped from the spectacularly-killed enemies;
- the step-by-step disintegration of demons under fire;
- the significant development of the hero — we feel that we become stronger and stronger;
- the sensational changes of climate and locations, especially in hell and at Earth cities;
- many details and references to the classic Doom II;
- lots of “easter eggs” in the Fortress of Doom;
- a nice soundtrack;
- smooth animations, there are almost no mistakes;
- a way more complicated, exciting, and demanding multiplayer mod.
DISADVANTAGES:
- not that spectacular and too ambitious story;
- the Fortress of Doom would be better a secret level to explore;
- bloody chess-style battles
The creators compare battles in their game to «speed chess» - it is a kind of chess, in which the decisions are made quickly. They have improved the mechanics, which mixes killing demons and collecting various resources: health, armor, and rockets. The chainsaw, which is available from the very beginning of the game, turns enemies into ammo, a flamethrower turns them into armor, and impressive kills increase your health. Some of these features were in the previous part of the game but now, their role is way more important. All these actions create a continuous chain of connections and you should «dance» to survive on the arena full of demons!
Slayer among this demonic horde looks like a bloodthirsty shark among its victims, so, besides juggling types of kills, you should keep moving always — you will die in a few seconds.
Dynamic sprints across the arenas are supported by energy trampolines and crossbars, which are set up on walls. In practice, the first ones work because they require less accuracy and button pressing to use. The big addition is a hook, which is shot from Super Shotgun, it pierces a demon and pulls Slayer towards it to allow him to make more pain.
In such a way, you can combine a sprint from a hot spot with an opportunity to heal yourself. As soon as we learn how to combine all these elements in order to make them follow one after another, battles become extremely interesting, so even accident deaths will not stop us.
The devil is in the details
These small but useful changes and improvements can be found in many other places. The ineffective pistol was removed, two special grenades were replaced on an ice bomb, runes, and perks can’t be blocked. Glory kill animations look better.
The creators took care of the right feel of the power of different weapons, demons receive visual damage after every shot. The whole pieces of «meat» or various implants are dropped from them, and some of them, including Macubus and Revenant, can be shot into their deadly rocket launchers.
Combined with the rapid and heavy soundtrack, all these elements create such a sensational symbiosis of a shooter, arcade, and blood, so I started returning to random levels after the end of the story and replay them. Killing by Doom Slayer just attracts you!
In addition to the standard wall to climb, we have double jump and double strafe, which should be refilled sometimes by catching the appropriate booster in the air to continue your flight and pass a special ring.
However, the real problem is platforms and walls that disappear after a while, which can lead to rage. The interesting fact is that it is not that difficult to find secrets. This is the path to the battle arenas with demons.
…to hell and back
New way more various locations are also connected with a story. Some of them remind fantasy citadels. Some decorations even remind the first Quake, the refusal from the dominating brown color gamma in the favor of the brighter color palette, actually, seems to be positive.
However, one map — the city Urdak — does not fit the Doom atmosphere. The design is not related to science fiction, you can feel the same discrepancy in the fifth chapter of Red Dead Redemption 2 but the boss fight appears to be pretty cool.
Fortunately, we spend a lot of time in the ruins of the Earth city, which is a modern version of the old map of the Forgotten City, and in the depths of hell.
Both places make a special impression with the help of art design because we definitely experience breathtaking exploration with hidden keys, secrets, additional challenges, and traps, which should be avoided.
But nothing can be compared to the hell city Nekravol, especially the place where souls leave human bodies. Grim bloody baths with hundreds of bodies make a great impression and at the same time, they hide the fact that the graphics on this level are a bit different from modern standards. You notice the general absence of details and copy-pasting of the same objects everywhere. Generally, all graphic efforts were focused on demons and skill of shooting fragments of bodies and armor, and locations impress the most only when there is a distance. Perhaps, it was a compromise to save smooth animations even on average PCs.
Another a bit controversial innovation in Doom Eternal is the Fortress of Doom, which serves a base for our hero. As a rule, it is a separate difficult level, on which we can unlock some improvements for armor and weapons, find some secrets, armor skins, learn how to fight demons and, first of all, enjoy the growing collection of artifacts in the form of the hell statues of demons and listen to soundtrack fragments from id Software’s classic games.
The reboot of Doom was successful in terms of the single campaign but the widespread passion of playing deathmatch at internet cafes can hardly be repeated. The previous version of multiplayer matches appeared to be pretty mediocre, so id Software prepared something absolutely new in Doom Eternal — the asymmetrical battles for three people, which play as Slayer and two demons.
On one hand, it is a more interesting mode, on another hand, it is less accessible for newcomers or random players. The developers notice that it is «difficult to master». It requires the perfect skill of using Slayer’s abilities and weapons, while playing like a demon, it is not enough to know how to fight way slower characters.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.