Doom Eternal – Review

The demons from hell have returned in the newest release in the Doom series, Doom Eternal. In 2016, the series got a great reboot and now, a new game has been released that will task the Doom Slayer with saving the earth from a demon invasion. Doom Eternal has taken many things from the last game and improved them, while also taking some things from the older games. Doom Eternal is once again, a great FPS that will let you shoot demon spawn to your heart’s content and we got the chance to review it on the Xbox One.

Story

As you arrive at earth with the fortress of Doom, you’ll see that it is overrun by a huge demon invasion. A big part of the human race has already been wiped out and it is your task to defeat the demons, kill the Hell Priests and save humankind from extinction. The demon invasion is led by three Hell Priests and you’ll get rid of the first very soon as you start the game. On your path, you’ll travel to different locations like the Doom Hunter’s base, the ARC Complex, Nekravol, and many other interesting locations. After completing a mission, you’ll return to the Fortress of Doom that functions as a hub where you can continue the story and retry missions with Mission Select. Here you can also unlock additional upgrades for your weapons and armor, check your collectibles, unlock a few skins for the Slayer, or play an old classic on the PC in your personal office. In every level, Codex pages can be found that will offer you a lot of interesting lore to read through if you want to know more about Doom’s backstory.

Graphics

Doom Eternal looks outstanding. Even on the regular Xbox One, the graphics of the game look very refined and you can see that a lot of work has been put into creating everything the game offers. The enemies all look brutally good and when they’re damaged, their flesh will get wounded which makes it pretty realistic. The weapons all look awesome as well with a lot of detail and an eye for design. The areas you visit are very well designed with a lot of gore and great architecture. The removal of weapons on some of the heavier demons is also visualized very well as there will only be a small part of that weapons sticking out.

The Glory kills that have been introduced in the last game look even more gruesome in Doom Eternal. There are multiple Glory kill variants for each enemy and they are all brutally awesome to see. If you’re into this type of violence, many of these glory kills will put a smile on your face. As a bonus, there are many toy figures scattered across the levels of the game. All these Toy figures are very cute miniatures of the Slayer and the demons in-game.

Sound

The music has been done in a marvelous way in Doom Eternal. Every time you get near a spot where you will fight big hordes of enemies, the tension will immediately start building up with heavier music and the sounds of demons roaring. When in a fight, the music will turn up the heat even more when you’re low on life, making it an even more exciting experience to try and survive the incoming demons. If you’ve bought the Doom Eternal Deluxe Edition, you’ve also acquired the Classic Weapon Sound Pack that lets you relive the old days with some classic weapon sounds.

Gameplay

Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter that lets you control the Doom Slayer, a very powerful warrior that is tasked with the destruction of all the demons that stand in his way. The gameplay of Doom Eternal has some classic FPS controls, while it also some modern aspects that were already introduced in Doom (2016). You move around in a fast pace, which makes the ability to sprint rather unnecessary. Later on, you’ll unlock the ability to dash to quickly evade incoming attacks from those pesky demons. Like in the classic Doom games, you won’t have the option to aim your weapon because this button is used to use weapon mods that are unlocked as you progress in the game. The glory kills offer a great way of finishing demons while also replenishing your health amidst a battle. These Glory kills were introduced in Doom(2016) and have been improved with a lot of new gruesome executions.

Doom Eternal has a great arsenal of weapons available to purge the world of the creatures from hell. From a shotgun with a grenade underbarrel mod to a plasma crossbow that can slice through multiple enemies with one shot. New weapons are unlocked as you find them throughout the campaign. With this progression, you’ll also find mod bots that carry a case that will provide you with a new weapon mod. Each time you encounter one, you can choose which weapon you want to add a mod to. These mods offer some great new capabilities to the already awesome weapons. These mods can then be further upgraded by spending weapon points that are earned by destroying enemies, completing Slayer Gates and defeating the secret encounters. Each mod has a mastery challenge that becomes available after unlocking the two upgrades available for that mod. Completing this challenge will add the last upgrade to that mod which will improve it even more, like dealing additional damage or not having to reload between bursts of fire.

Each level has a range of different hidden items and locations for you to find. These vary from collectible items like toy figures, albums with soundtracks from earlier games and cheat codes to upgrades and secret encounters. These secret encounters will spawn some enemies close by when activated. You’ll have a short amount of time to kill all of them to complete this secret encounter. If you failed to kill them all in time, they will disappear and you can try again. Then you have Slayer Gates, which are portals to a small battle arena where huge hordes of powerful enemies spawn. To open these, you need to find the Slayer Key that is hidden somewhere close by. When you’ve opened the gate and enter it, you need to kill every single enemy inside to complete it. After completing the Slayer Gate, an Empyrean Key will drop. There are six Slayer gates scattered in Doom Eternal’s levels and when you’ve collected all six Empyrean Keys, you’ll be rewarded with a special superweapon that can be unlocked in the Fortress of Doom. The Slayer Gates are one of the biggest challenges in-game.

Aside from the game’s standard campaign, you can also try to take on others online in Battlemode. In Battlemode, one Slayer takes on two players as Demons. As the Slayer, you require some skill to take on the demons while the two demons need to work together to kill the Slayer. The first side that wins three rounds will claim victory. As the Slayer, well, the gameplay is pretty much the same as in the campaign, while as the demons, the controls and playing style will vary per type of demon you’re controlling. As the Slayer, you need to kill both demons in a short time window to win. When a demon dies, they will automatically resurrect after twenty seconds if the other player demon is still alive. The abilities of the Slayer have been widely introduced to you in the main campaign, but each individual demon has a special set of abilities too, so if you’re done with the campaign, or in need of a change of gameplay, Battlemode could definitely be a lot of fun to play.

Conclusion

Doom Eternal is once again a great FPS with some great classic gameplay with some modern mechanics to boot. The weapons are awesome and all the demons look amazing. Doom Eternal has a great story with the addition of a lot of lore that can be found within the Codex pages scattered throughout the levels of the campaign. Each Glory kill is an awesomely brutal execution of a demon which will never bore you as there are many for each type of demon. While at the higher difficulties, the game is a big challenge, the difficulty can also be lowered to offer a great experience for less experienced gamers. All in all, Doom Eternal is an awesome FPS that already offers a great experience, but with the upcoming campaign add-ons, it will be sure to add even more awesome story content in the first year after its release.

Nickskuh

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Administration is my job but gaming is my passion!

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