Thoughts On: Doom Eternal

In 2016, ID Software accomplished the impossible task of rebooting a franchise for the modern era while still retaining the spirit of the originals. Doom (2016) was my favorite game that year. The exhilarating combat, which is both alike and a reinvention of Doom (1993), was a bloody joy to experience, and shockingly original at that. Between the incredible violence, brutal metal inspired soundtrack, and self aware humor such as the over the top satanic vibe of Hell as well as a story the Doom Slayer himself found boring, Doom (2016) was the video game epitome of the philosophy of not giving a fuck. As a sequel that attempts to be bigger and better, Doom Eternal succeeds on many fronts, but it flounders when it starts to give a fuck.

The core of Doom (2016)‘s gameplay remains the same with some tweaks and adjustments here and there. A solid positive change would be the melee system, which has been improved significantly. Smacking a demon has real weight to it now and the rework allowed ID to incorporate a new attack, the Blood Punch, into the sandbox attacks. Speaking of which, by the end of the game you have a whopping fifteen methods of killing demons available at all times and that isn’t including the numerous upgrades and secondary functions all guns and equipment have. Just one more item would’ve been overkill. Mobility has also been greatly enhanced through the introduction of dashing, grappling, and swinging, which compliments the gameplay loop nicely. The loop never gets stale, unlike the former, as the game constantly introduces you to new mechanics, environments and situations. Doom Eternal is also much harder overall, particularly the boss fights which are now worthy of such a title.

The gameplay change with the greatest negative effect you’ll notice right away is the significant decrease in your ammo pool (how much ammo you can carry). I suspect this change was made to put more emphasis on the chainsaw, which just like it’s predecessor gives you ammo when used to massacre a demon, as well as keep players from becoming too comfortable with a couple weapons, but a constant need for more ammo kept me from getting into the rhythm of the dance with death that makes Doom so much fun. Even with your ammo progression maxed out, you can deplete all of it within forty five seconds. The Super Shotgun is the weapon I have equipped at all times and it’s ammo capacity is maxed at just twelve shots. With a reservoir that pitiful, and all other guns in the same suite, you’ll have to break your rhythm and run away to find a little minion to chainsaw constantly. While ammo management should be a crucial aspect of the gameplay, your main focus should be on not getting your head ripped off as opposed to finding more ammo after merking only seven demons, forty more of which are actively attacking you.

Even more so than its predecessor, Doom Eternal is a very “video gamey” video game. That’s a stupid way of saying it contains a lot of video game tropes. 1 UP’s, little health potions, and swinging fireballs that look ripped out of Bowser’s castle are littered through levels that are clearly designed to function for platforming and combat with little to no effort made to hide this fact. This gameplay clashes with the story, which is far more fleshed out this time. Gone are the days where Doom Guy demonstrates his boredom when someone delivers such exposition. Now, what’s going on is actually considered important and the Doom Slayer actually has stakes involved. I’m not opposed to Doom having more of a story, but when its not very good or interesting, you’ve become everything that you made fun of in the last game. There’s all these different worlds and factions and shit, and while it does offer good environmental variety, none if it is particularly interesting beyond a surface level. If you want a deeper story, I think Doom should be set in the biblical Heaven and Hell we’re all familiar with, as it would be both incredibly interesting and incredibly controversial, especially if the angels start interfering with your demonic destruction.

But my biggest complaint about Doom Eternal has to do with the overall aesthetic of the game which I think I can best explain by simply comparing the UI to Doom (2016). Take the menu that displays your runes. The rune symbols in Doom (2016) look like something from the occult which are carved into stone that lights aflame with sparks when chosen. It’s dark and tactile. Doom Eternal‘s rune selection screen consists of flat holographic panes with little boring icons. These aren’t runes; these are emojis! Doom Eternal beams far into the sci-fi vibe and I don’t like it as near as much. The demon design, despite taking more inspiration from the originals, is a massive downgrade from 2016. Every design that’s changed, the mancubus, possessed, soldier, revenant, etc. all look less scary, less threatening, and less metal than before. You know what new demon I do live the design of? The Marauder. He’s wearing ancient battle armour, carries a worn double barrel, has two demonic horns, and just a hint of sci-fi making up the blades of his red battle axe which flow with those symbols, giving off the impression the axe is powered by a spell, keeping it from being a god damn lightsaber. In my mind, the only beautiful thing in Doom should be that of utter violent destruction, i.e. the ripping and tearing of demons with your own fists, not the colorful labyrinth of trees and clean sci-fi tech you find yourself in near the end of the game. Doom is fire and brimstone, not aliens and lasers.

I remember watching an interview with the creative director of Doom (2016), as well as Doom Eternal, around the time the former was being released, in which he explained why the revenant was his favorite demon. The revenant was so violent, so tortured, and was “just screaming all the time” that it made him smile. That’s the attitude I think is missing a bit from Doom Eternal. There’s this part where, instead of spending a bunch of time searching for the entrance to a lost city in the middle of Mars, he just, with a giant version of the classic BFG (Big Fucking Gun), shoots a hole into the center of the planet because he doesn’t give a fuck. More of that, please.

Battle Mode, the multiplayer offering, is a nice addition but is by no means something you’ll be coming back to. I wish ID could figure out how to incorporate a good multiplayer into a Doom game. So far they’ve haven’t been able to crack the code yet, which is a shame.

Other than everything I just said, I think the new Doom is a really great game that largely succeeds as a sequel. The gameplay is fun as hell (no pun intended), Mick Gordon continues his trend of being the best composer in the industry right now, and the extreme levels of violence are as gorgeous as ever. If ID continues making Doom games like this, the Doom reboot series could go down as one of greatest shooters ever developed.