Released on March 20th, the same day as, ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’, was a game that was equally hyped, ‘Doom Eternal’. Just by the name, you can already tell that this game is not for the faint-hearted. ‘Doom’ itself has had a history of success and influence since its debut in 1993 as shareware. For those that do not know, shareware refers to a type of software that could be installed for free but would require purchase if the user wanted to keep using it. Since then, it has been revered as a technical, creative, and genre-defining achievement in the early realm of first-person shooters. ‘Doom eternal’ stands tall next to both the classic and modern shooters with its gameplay, soundtrack, and fan-service.
In ‘Doom Eternal’, you do what you have done in every other ‘Doom’ game, you shoot and maim demonic entities into gut-splattered mosaics. The violence is a part of the fun though. In ‘Doom Eternal’, you have a prominent ‘Glory Kill’ mechanic returning from the ‘Doom’ reboot released in 2016 where the player can weaken an enemy demon until it flashes. Pressing the melee button when close enough will kill it with a really awesome animation that can change depending on where you are to the demon. After these amazing spectacles of destruction, the demon drops health for the player to pick up, so there is a function to it.
The player can find robots around the levels that give weapons a mod for an alternate fire. For instance, you can find a grenade launcher mod for the shotgun, which is great for exploding weak spots. Yes, I said weak spots. It is a mechanic also added to ‘Doom Eternal’ for some of the demons you face. You can shoot the cannons off of one of them so it can be easier to dispatch and disable its flamethrower or shooting off a laser cannon to give the enemy less range.
The soundtrack is a very notable thing to gush over. Mick Gordon is the composer returning from the ‘Doom’ reboot, which had an absolutely exhilarating soundtrack of its own thanks to his talent. His metal-derived music playing in the background while you shoot the head off of an imp or jump around rocketing projectiles will have you on an adrenaline-high worthy of a warrior.
Lastly, there are lots of interesting nods to the original ‘Doom’ games that are way too cool to explain here, and cool collectibles in the shape of floppy discs hidden around that let you replay levels with things from unlimited ammo to an unlimited speed boost for the entire level.
To summarize ‘Battlemode’, it is an online multiplayer mode where two players play demons and the other player is the ‘Slayer’ (the main character you play as in the campaign). It isn’t all that exciting to me and it feels like the matchmaking is very lacking. It isn’t as good as the previous online mode
‘Doom Eternal’ is an amazing game. It was clearly created by a passionate team of developers and artists that wanted to faithfully capture the thrill and appeal of earlier ‘Doom’ titles while also bringing in modern graphics and fresh gameplay mechanics, so the game doesn’t feel one-note. I’d rate this a solid 9/10.
Categories: Editorials, Opinion, Video Game Reviews
