Doom Eternal is inferior to Doom 2016.

Doom Eternal is Doom 2016, with more action, slightly better graphics, more enemies, more collectibles more varied environments and...more bad decisions. It's not a bad game and there's really a lot to like about it but if you played Doom 2016 and you followed up with Doom Eternal, you'll be confronted with a litany of odd decisions that focus on game perception, reputation and "street cred" rather than player flexibility and enjoyment. Doom 2016 focused on the gameplay, first and foremost and Doom Eternal doesn't. That is why this game isn't a classic, but instead, simply a good example of the genre.

The graphics engine is still a wonder to behold. Graphics are crisp, clean, and amazing. The graphics engine is an efficient brute, rendering incredible HDR environments, advanced texture surfacing and staggering levels of visual fidelity at fast framerates (4K Ultra Nightmare - 80 fps). If you want to see what the game looks with all the dials cranked to eleven, check out some of my screenshots. The atmosphere, aesthetics, character designs, fluid animations and building/environment architecture demonstrate an impressive level of focus/dedication. And unlike many attractive games, Doom Eternal looks bleeding edge but performs wonderfully. I did encounter three crashes, during the Gladiator, that were fixed with the latest drivers (released a full MONTH after game release!). Disappointing to be sure, since the predecessor crashed only once.

My only graphical caveat is that the game's design focused on larger environments, with more Q3A-like movement, than Doom 2016. That's not necessarily a bad thing but between the Metroid Prime-like fruity pebbles pickups and the lighter, brighter and more open environments, Doom Eternal loses quite a bit of its claustrophobic horror identity. Doom 2016 looks meaner, feels leaner and feels more alien than a Doom Eternal, despite Eternal's alien landscapes, precisely because its alien worlds are often so overdone and Unreal/Quake-like, that they stop feeling relatable. The voice acting and soundtrack are impeccably good and I hope that iD can salvage its relationship with the talented Mick Gordon. The game features a ton of collectibles this time around, ranging from armor/weapon power ups, to perks, to Doom dolls, previous soundtracks, banners/icons, character models/skins, and more. These unlocks definitely encourage campaign replayability. Interestingly, and for the first time in a Doom game, you now have the Fortress of Doom, a home base, which is also upgradable and explorable.

The weapons still feel good, with meaty sounds, great animations and plenty of punch. The shooting play is still best in class with muscular controls and fantastic responsiveness. The game is smooth, tactile and accessible. While the upgrades may feel overwhelming at times, discovering new improvements is part of the fun. The Doom Slayer is now able to not only double jump, but also double dash, as well as side-dash, allowing for new dimensions of evasion, as well as complex Mario Bros-like jump puzzles. There're also Tomb Raider-esque wall-climbing pieces. All of these new additions work quite intuitively. Combined with monkey bars placed throughout the map, Doom Eternal affords players with unprecedented levels of FPS shooter mobility. Unfortunately, some players may not appreciate being caught in a 20-death jump puzzle loop. Consequently, some jump sections feel like unnecessary padding. Doom also loses some of its identity when even Quake 3 Arena or Quake Live feel tame when compared to the monkey-bar hijinx afforded by Doom Eternal.

So far everything about Doom Eternal seems great. Unfortunately, Doom Eternal has several weaknesses. Firstly, the game lacks SnapMap. SnapMap is a very intuitive, flexible and powerful tool released by iD software with Doom 2016. SnapMap allows enterprising players to create new game modes, maps and mini-games. Thousands of SnapMap projects were downloaded by the community and such additions provide tremendous value for customers. SnapMap is gone in Doom Eternal. What replaced it? Nothing, as far as I can tell. Sure, the campaign is longer and has more collectibles but really, that doesn't make up for the massive play you lose from lacking SnapMap. Additionally, while the multiplayer isn't a vanilla, unpolished CoD clone this time around, Battlemode isn't any great shakes either. The idea of asymmetrical gameplay between monsters and humans has been done to death and, while novel for Doom, isn't something most people will likely plonk more than a few hours into. The addition of a far more robust storyline, replete with cutscenes, isn't unwelcome, however Doom Eternal's storyline is fast approaching the levels of nonsensical absurdity only previously attained by Platinum Dev Games, Resident Evil sequels or the Mortal Kombat series. Sometimes less is more.

However, most of these criticisms are basically nitpicks. So what is Doom Eternal's unforgivable sin? They fundamentally altered the perfect gameplay and pacing of the preceding game. While in Doom 2016, you'd occasionally have to use the chainsaw and obviously tailor weapon use to best vanquish enemies, you weren't forced to constantly do so. You had a pistol that never ran of ammunition and you predominantly used glory kills to refill your reserves. Sure, some weapons were more effective than others against certain foes (often based on intuitive principles like range, movement patterns or hitboxes) but every weapon was useful against enemies. Doom Eternal throws that all out of the window. Ammunition reserves are miniscule compared to Doom 2016. This means you're constantly running around trying to chainsaw peons to generate new ammunition. In theory, this would nudge players into utilizing other weapons and to constantly respond to threats with the best weapon. Sure, ideally that sounds like a great concept, but this isn't a job; it's a game. Developers shouldn't be forcing players that paid $60 to do anything. Players should experience the games on their own terms, flexibly and organically.

The real flaw in this new paradigm, within Doom Eternal, is that some weapons are absolutely worthless against certain enemies. Ammunition expends quickly. Sometimes you're facing super-normal amounts of one type of enemy and you run out of ammunition, forced to revert to inferior weapons that make the game dramatically harder than it should be. Worse, it undermines the gameplay philosophies rooted in power fantasies afforded by being the Doom Slayer. While you frenetically run away from enemies, desperately looking for peons to bully and beat up on so you can coax a few more rounds of the only 1-2 weapons that really work well for one particular enemy type. That kind of fearful gameplay is actually the opposite of what Doom is about.

Couple this with an developer preoccupation with making Doom Eternal more "hardcore" than its predecessor, and you quickly experience frustrating encounter after frustrating encounter in the game. Doom Eternal is significantly harder than Doom 2016 but the difficulty curve isn't enjoyable. The game starts of easy in the first 2-3 maps, quickly ramps in difficulty to practically unbearable levels for the next 4-5 maps and then crashes when you unlock the BFG 9000 and Crucible blade. Many players will experience nigh-Dark Souls levels of grinding at least at one point during the campaign. As an experienced fps gamer, I found myself feeling quite dissatisfied during many of these grueling mid-game maps. I finished the game on normal difficulty but too often, Doom Eternal just felt like "pro-MLG" work rather than the dizzying, demon-stomping frenzy that the predecessor captured so joyously. This might explain the useful cheat codes.

Doom Eternal is a very good game but not a masterpiece we waited for.

Recommended.

8.5/10.

Doom Eternal is inferior to Doom 2016. Doom Eternal is Doom 2016, with more action, slightly better graphics, more enemies, more collectibles more varied environments and...more bad decisions. It's not a bad game and there's really a lot to like about it but if you played Doom 2016 and you followed up with Doom Eternal, you'll be confronted with a litany of odd decisions that focus on game perception, reputation and "street cred" rather than player flexibility and enjoyment. Doom 2016 focused on the gameplay, first and foremost and Doom Eternal doesn't. That is why this game isn't a classic, but instead, simply a good example of the genre. The graphics engine is still a wonder to behold. Graphics are crisp, clean, and amazing. The graphics engine is an efficient brute, rendering incredible HDR environments, advanced texture surfacing and staggering levels of visual fidelity at fast framerates (4K Ultra Nightmare - 80 fps). If you want to see what the game looks with all the dials cranked to eleven, check out some of my screenshots. The atmosphere, aesthetics, character designs, fluid animations and building/environment architecture demonstrate an impressive level of focus/dedication. And unlike many attractive games, Doom Eternal looks bleeding edge but performs wonderfully. I did encounter three crashes, during the Gladiator, that were fixed with the latest drivers (released a full MONTH after game release!). Disappointing to be sure, since the predecessor crashed only once. My only graphical caveat is that the game's design focused on larger environments, with more Q3A-like movement, than Doom 2016. That's not necessarily a bad thing but between the Metroid Prime-like fruity pebbles pickups and the lighter, brighter and more open environments, Doom Eternal loses quite a bit of its claustrophobic horror identity. Doom 2016 looks meaner, feels leaner and feels more alien than a Doom Eternal, despite Eternal's alien landscapes, precisely because its alien worlds are often so overdone and Unreal/Quake-like, that they stop feeling relatable. The voice acting and soundtrack are impeccably good and I hope that iD can salvage its relationship with the talented Mick Gordon. The game features a ton of collectibles this time around, ranging from armor/weapon power ups, to perks, to Doom dolls, previous soundtracks, banners/icons, character models/skins, and more. These unlocks definitely encourage campaign replayability. Interestingly, and for the first time in a Doom game, you now have the Fortress of Doom, a home base, which is also upgradable and explorable. The weapons still feel good, with meaty sounds, great animations and plenty of punch. The shooting play is still best in class with muscular controls and fantastic responsiveness. The game is smooth, tactile and accessible. While the upgrades may feel overwhelming at times, discovering new improvements is part of the fun. The Doom Slayer is now able to not only double jump, but also double dash, as well as side-dash, allowing for new dimensions of evasion, as well as complex Mario Bros-like jump puzzles. There're also Tomb Raider-esque wall-climbing pieces. All of these new additions work quite intuitively. Combined with monkey bars placed throughout the map, Doom Eternal affords players with unprecedented levels of FPS shooter mobility. Unfortunately, some players may not appreciate being caught in a 20-death jump puzzle loop. Consequently, some jump sections feel like unnecessary padding. Doom also loses some of its identity when even Quake 3 Arena or Quake Live feel tame when compared to the monkey-bar hijinx afforded by Doom Eternal. So far everything about Doom Eternal seems great. Unfortunately, Doom Eternal has several weaknesses. Firstly, the game lacks SnapMap. SnapMap is a very intuitive, flexible and powerful tool released by iD software with Doom 2016. SnapMap allows enterprising players to create new game modes, maps and mini-games. Thousands of SnapMap projects were downloaded by the community and such additions provide tremendous value for customers. SnapMap is gone in Doom Eternal. What replaced it? Nothing, as far as I can tell. Sure, the campaign is longer and has more collectibles but really, that doesn't make up for the massive play you lose from lacking SnapMap. Additionally, while the multiplayer isn't a vanilla, unpolished CoD clone this time around, Battlemode isn't any great shakes either. The idea of asymmetrical gameplay between monsters and humans has been done to death and, while novel for Doom, isn't something most people will likely plonk more than a few hours into. The addition of a far more robust storyline, replete with cutscenes, isn't unwelcome, however Doom Eternal's storyline is fast approaching the levels of nonsensical absurdity only previously attained by Platinum Dev Games, Resident Evil sequels or the Mortal Kombat series. Sometimes less is more. However, most of these criticisms are basically nitpicks. So what is Doom Eternal's unforgivable sin? They fundamentally altered the perfect gameplay and pacing of the preceding game. While in Doom 2016, you'd occasionally have to use the chainsaw and obviously tailor weapon use to best vanquish enemies, you weren't forced to constantly do so. You had a pistol that never ran of ammunition and you predominantly used glory kills to refill your reserves. Sure, some weapons were more effective than others against certain foes (often based on intuitive principles like range, movement patterns or hitboxes) but every weapon was useful against enemies. Doom Eternal throws that all out of the window. Ammunition reserves are miniscule compared to Doom 2016. This means you're constantly running around trying to chainsaw peons to generate new ammunition. In theory, this would nudge players into utilizing other weapons and to constantly respond to threats with the best weapon. Sure, ideally that sounds like a great concept, but this isn't a job; it's a game. Developers shouldn't be forcing players that paid $60 to do anything. Players should experience the games on their own terms, flexibly and organically. The real flaw in this new paradigm, within Doom Eternal, is that some weapons are absolutely worthless against certain enemies. Ammunition expends quickly. Sometimes you're facing super-normal amounts of one type of enemy and you run out of ammunition, forced to revert to inferior weapons that make the game dramatically harder than it should be. Worse, it undermines the gameplay philosophies rooted in power fantasies afforded by being the Doom Slayer. While you frenetically run away from enemies, desperately looking for peons to bully and beat up on so you can coax a few more rounds of the only 1-2 weapons that really work well for one particular enemy type. That kind of fearful gameplay is actually the opposite of what Doom is about. Couple this with an developer preoccupation with making Doom Eternal more "hardcore" than its predecessor, and you quickly experience frustrating encounter after frustrating encounter in the game. Doom Eternal is significantly harder than Doom 2016 but the difficulty curve isn't enjoyable. The game starts of easy in the first 2-3 maps, quickly ramps in difficulty to practically unbearable levels for the next 4-5 maps and then crashes when you unlock the BFG 9000 and Crucible blade. Many players will experience nigh-Dark Souls levels of grinding at least at one point during the campaign. As an experienced fps gamer, I found myself feeling quite dissatisfied during many of these grueling mid-game maps. I finished the game on normal difficulty but too often, Doom Eternal just felt like "pro-MLG" work rather than the dizzying, demon-stomping frenzy that the predecessor captured so joyously. This might explain the useful cheat codes. Doom Eternal is a very good game but not a masterpiece we waited for. Recommended. 8.5/10.