The same demons that wiped out the UAC base on Mars have moved on to Earth, destroying most of human civilization. After getting teleported off to an unspecified destination at the end of the last game, the Slayer starts Eternal by showing up in Earth’s orbit in a strange, baroque spaceship called the Fortress of Doom. It also feels a lot like you’ve missed a chapter. While it all comes together in the end, the early levels are rough going, as you haven’t accumulated enough guns or upgrades to make the combat system sing just yet.
Instead, Eternal tries to take it all to the next level, with more guns, more enemies, and a handful of bizarre, arcade-ish new mechanics, including an air dash and extra lives. If they’d produced a game that was simply a mission pack for the 2016 Doom relaunch, they’d have been raked over the coals for being content with repetition. To be fair, for id Software, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. My run through it was also punctuated by a few frustrating glitches, a couple of really obnoxious enemies, and some new mechanics that didn’t really have to be there.
On the other hand, many of its attempts to innovate on the formula from the 2016 Doom don’t really feel useful or necessary, particularly early in the game. It’s a visceral, high-speed thrill ride, full of spurting blood and creative dismemberment, like a roller coaster with a bad safety record.Įternal does get off to a slower start than its predecessor, and it starts with a couple of its weaker levels, but there’s a handy breakpoint about halfway through the game where you’ve got enough upgrades and weapons that the action simply flows.
In its best moments, Doom Eternal recaptures the pure, desperate adrenaline rush of the 2016 Doom, where every fresh arena full of enemies is a bloody playground.
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