Released in 2020, Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. Doom Eternal is a descendant of the original FPS, making it a ‘boomer shooter’, and with that definition it brings with it high octane and fast-paced action with an arcade-like feel. A Game of the Year nominee from 2020, Doom Eternal proves itself worthy of the accolade through its fun and intense gameplay, awe inspiring visuals and rousing soundtrack. I logged about fifteen hours into the campaign of the game, playing it on ‘Ultra Violence’ or hard difficulty. This review will be mainly aimed at the campaign. I have not touched the horde or multiplayer modes this game offers for it does not interest me. The DLCs for the game, The Ancient Gods Parts 1 and 2, will be revisited on a later date in 2023. Be warned this review will contain spoilers.

Game reviews done in my style are organized into five categories, with each being graded on a scale from one to five. At the end of the review, all the categories will be summed up to determine the game’s letter grade. The five review categories include: gameplay, story and characters, visuals, soundtrack and sound design and quality of life. Gameplay is game and level design, the quality of the combat, traversal mechanics and skill tress. Story and characters judge the narrative and character development. Visuals discusses the quality of the graphics and art direction. Soundtrack and sound design looks at the original score, sounds and ambient music that fills the world with sound. Finally, quality of life grades the game on user interface and game stability.

Gameplay

Doom Eternal’s gameplay defined in a word is speed. The core of the game’s strategy is keeping on the move, for if you stay still the high-powered enemies will tear you to shreds. The high amount of enemy variety provides numerous challenges and obstacles. Each enemy has a designated role that when working together create intense combat encounters that can kill even the most veteran players. The weapons in Doom Guy’s arsenal are varied in their own way, with attachments and upgrades to have a solution for each challenge the game throws at you.

Level design for Doom Eternal follows a pattern in all of their levels. Generally, each level opens with traveling through small and long hallways that are dotted with weaker enemies led by a major demon. This is followed by a traversal section, be it a parkour section or a simple puzzle that requires the player to use the traversal system. Then design sets up a major fight. These fight arenas, with each level having somewhere between 3 to 5 fight arenas, are easy to spot once accustomed to the design. These areas are flooded with ammo, health, and armor to resupply you during the fight. Traversal options are also heavily present in the forms of jump pads, portals and monkey bars to encourage the run and gun speed the game is designed for. Once the encounter is over, the game allows the player’s adrenaline to cool off by resetting the loop with hallway section. Now having a level design loop is not a bad thing if done well, and Doom Eternal’s loop is done very well, however this is because the common layouts are camouflaged by the different world designs and enemy varieties.

Combat is intense and rewarding. I have said it once and I’ll say it again Doom Eternal’s combat is fast paced and staying on the move is crucial. Many of the demons have their own projectiles that are sent your way on top of the heavy melee demonic knights charging toward you, so staying on the move, firing your weapons on the go is critical. Failure to do so often results in a death. I have died many times by unintentionally backing into a corner or running into an enemy because I was so focused on running and gunning. Doom Eternal adds a very satisfying touch that your damage to demons is visible as the meat of the demons are chipped away with each hit. For weapons, Doom Eternal gives you access to 8 guns and a sword (the sword coming very late in the game). Each weapon has two mods/upgrades that give more versatility to each weapon. For example, I frequently used the combat shotgun with the grenade mod, the battle rifle with the micro missile mod and the plasma rifle with the heat blast mod. My general strategy using these mods over the others is to have space clearing possibilities, the micro missiles and the grenade mod are very strong in this goal. Doom Eternal gives each enemy a weakness that can be exploited using the different mods, but I grew into a suitable groove so that it wasn’t necessary. This isn’t a problem because in my opinion having more options that aren’t used is better than having too few options. In addition to the weapons, the Doomslayer’s armor also sports weapons, although I find the mechanical uses of these features as more defensive weapons. The flamethrower and the suit grenades (I used the freeze grenades) are used to buy you time to maneuver. The flamethrower creates a debuff on enemies that after you shoot them drop armor, while the freeze grenade freezes enemies in place. I love to freeze enemies, followed by a flamethrower blast, to allow me to breathe and recover armor. The combat of Doom Eternal is the most refined part of the gameplay.

Traversal and movement in Doom Eternal is simple enough to move around the level designs. The Doomslayer’s base movement is set to the same speed throughout the game. There is no sprint option, instead the Doomslayer can double jump and can dash twice. There are also map interactions such as climbing certain types of walls, monkey bars and hoisting up ledges. Where Doom Eternal thrives with brilliant combat and enemy design, its biggest weakness in terms of gameplay is in its parkour and movement. During parkour segments, moving can feel clunky and it is easy to get lost, for the solution isn’t always apparent. Getting stuck on invisible walls and the need to get the timing exact with minimal tools for traversal, make these segments frustrating.

Doom Eternal’s gameplay is centered around its combat, allowing the satisfaction of glory kills, sword swings, and blowing up demons to mask over the minor flaws. Although level design is made in similar loops and traversal isn’t the best, they aren’t game breaking. These small problems are only hiccups in an otherwise well designed and fun game. When the player is leaning in complete focus and lets out a sigh of relief after winning a tough fight, like I have numerous times when playing this game, it is a sign of a difficult yet enjoyable game.

Doom Eternal get a 4/5 for its gameplay.

Story and Characters

id Software clearly put most of their development time into their art design for their levels and perfecting the combat. This left the story of Doom Eternal as a simplistic tale about a superpowered man killing demons and seeking revenge, while saving the Earth and humanity is kind of the side show. And that is okay! I didn’t play Doom for a in depth story, I played it to kill demons. But I still delivered a story that made sense (at least in the Doom universe).

The story beats of Doom Eternal are essentially this: Following up on the events from Doom (2016) the Doomslayer arrives on Earth to defeat the demonic hordes that have been taken over most of the planet. His objective is to eliminate the three hell priests who are spreading Hell’s corruption across the planet. Through this journey the Doomslayer rediscovers his origins and the connections his enemies have to his past. Then the big bad, the Khan Makyr, summons a big ass demon, the Icon of Hate, which they lose control of because the Doomslayer barges in and kills them. Then the Doomslayer teleports to Earth for the final fight and kills the Icon. The end. As for the main character, Doom Guy, the game does not change the mythos of his character since his creation, but instead adds to it and makes him more of a powerful figure, almost angel like. Most importantly though, id Software does not change any of his motives. Doom Guy still only wants to kill demons.

In addition to the story, Doom Eternal scatters collectable notes that offers more backstory information about the world and characters of the game in an encyclopedia type menu that the player can access at any time. What this says about the game’s history and story is that it is optional content for the gamer to read. There is no critical information about enemies on how they fight or any hidden story clues to a mystery you need to solve. This is just information for those who are curious about the Doom universe and that is a fine in a game not designed for elaborate storytelling.

Doom Eternal does in fact tell a story but does so in brief cutscenes and through visuals rather than long dialogues. This entertains a simplistic story that works and more importantly does not take away from the gameplay. It does its job, give purpose for the character’s actions, which is of course to kill demons.

Doom Eternal gets a 3.5/5 for its story and characters.

Visuals

Doom Eternal develops a world full of color and inhabited by horrifying creatures. Doom Eternal excels in delivering beautiful world designs and creative character models through a strong graphics engine.

By far my favorite part of Doom Eternal’s visual presentation is the world design. Throughout the game you travel to different environments, war-torn cities, the depths of hell, space stations, a medieval castle and even a realm of gods. All of which are awe inspiring locations that are well drawn and planned out. On multiple occasions I took a moment to say wow as I look out at the world id Software had built. Each level you visit has a different color scheme and different aura as you traverse its depths, all have the same amount of detail.

Character models for the Doomslayer and the demons he fights have the same amount of detail as the worlds they inhabit. Each enemy type has their own build and anatomy that can be easily ascertained even at a distance. The Doomslayer himself is depicted in awesome armor that stands out against the bleak terrain.

There is not much to be said about the visuals for Doom Eternal other than it is like playing through art. Clearly there was a labor of love put into the world environments and character and the graphic artists have earned their keep. The graphics for Doom Eternal are near perfect.

Doom Eternal gets a 5/5 for its visuals.

Soundtrack and Sound Design

Before getting into the evaluation of the sound of Doom Eternal, a brief note. What has occurred between id Software, mainly executive producer Marty Stratton, and the composer Mick Gordon, should have never had happened. Mick Gordon should have been treated with professionalism and respect throughout the process and paid properly for his work. This review will judge the music and sound itself, not the controversy. I do not blame the small, low level workers on this part of the project, instead I blame the upper level executive.

With that out of the way, the soundtrack for Doom Eternal is like the score from its predecessor, Doom (2016). If you enjoy heavy metal, then you will enjoy the score here, especially one full of guitar riffs. Now I am not a huge music fanatic, and I am not one to evaluate music alone on its quality, however what I can judge is how well the score fits to the gameplay, which Doom Eternal does well here. But I should note that I do slightly prefer Doom (2016)’s music versus Doom Eternal’s because there are some difference in the quality of the music that even I can tell. The score is still strong in its role, it’s just a minor difference (this coming from someone not attuned to music).

Sound design on the other hand has improved greatly. Each weapon in the player’s arsenal having their own sound when used or shot. Enemies shouting and screaming go in tandem with the music that swells in the background. The minimalvoice acting in the game is good enough to achieve its goal. The overall sound design and soundtrack quality of Doom Eternal compliments the game versus hindering it.

Doom Eternal gets a 4.5/5 for its soundtrack and sound design.

Quality of Life

The final category of this review looks at the quality of life in Doom Eternal. The presence of glitches, the number of extra features, and the number of crashes, if any. During my playthrough of Doom Eternal, I experienced one crash, however this was caused by my machine rather than the game, so I do not really count it. In my fifteen hours of play, I did not come across any bug or visual glitch. The user interface is player friendly, and I enjoy the touch of color that each weapon on the weapon wheel and each armor ability use to differentiate them from each other. The UI also doesn’t get in the way of the camera, providing the player a clear view of the action. The amount of extra features and modes is a nice touch, although I am not a completionist and have not touched the horde modes, as I said previously, it is good for games to have extra content for players to enjoy. The battle pass looking reward system in the game is a bit much and unnecessary in my opinion, but thankfully progress is only earned through playing the game. Doom Eternal’s quality of life has a clean bill of health in my opinion.

Doom Eternal gets a 5/5 for its quality of life.

Final Verdict

Doom Eternal by far, mostly because I haven’t played too many games in 2022, was my game of the year last year. The gameplay was engaging and enjoyable and pushed my skills to the limit at times, which was a fun change of pace to many more casual multiplayer shooters. The only real flaw the gameplay has is the parkour and traversal mechanics. The story may be a bit simplistic for my taste, but provides enough cause for the action and does not interfere with the mythos of Doom Guy. Visuals and sound design brilliantly enhance the experience, while quality of life in the form of features and the lack of any game breaking glitches making Doom Eternal worthy of its accolades.

The final verdict for Doom Eternal is that the game has earned a 22/25 or a B+ grade.