There’s no more stereotypical gamer’s game than Doom. Does that make sense?
The last Doom (of this generation) landed in 2016 and let you disembowel demons with a chainsaw, all while heavy metal music played in the background.
There wasn’t much story beyond killing demons with fire (and shotguns) and it was all terrific fun.The game was also a huge commercial success, and so a follow-up was always on the cards.
Thankfully, that follow-up has arrived. And today I had a few brief hours to get to grips with the shooter ahead of its launch next month.
Doom Eternal: What’s the story?
I played three hours of Doom Eternal, and for the life of me I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it was about.
Something about demons from hell invading earth?
All I can say for certain is that the player takes on the role of ‘Slayer’ a muscle-bound man wearing Halo armor (or perhaps as the original Doom came out in 1991, Master Chief in fact wears Doom armour?) who has a serious addiction to shooting things in the face.
Levels are based around a dystopian future world where vast cityscapes have crumbled under the sheer force of evil, and those levels are inhabited by all manner of disgusting demon creature (some of which have guns for hands).
It is your job to destroy these demons. Enough said.
Doom Eternal: How does it play?
Doom isn’t about subtly, and it doesn’t play as such.
There’s no need to crouch to better control recoil for example, or any levels based around stealth.
Each mission seemingly is a collection of different arenas for you to sprint and double-jump about in, while smashing the living snot out of various demon enemies. Some demons do little more than shamble towards you making for an easy kill, while others will take a hell of a beating before going down.
Doom Eternal differs from its predecessor mainly in the fact that glory kills are now 100 per cent necessary.
Things like health and ammo are always low on the ground, and to stay alive (and slay alive) you’ll need to tear of a demon’s limb and beat him for it (that gives you a health boost) or pull out your chainsaw and make that hell spawn choke on it (for extra ammo).
It makes battles a fun chain of shotgun blasts, chainsaw kills and grizzly death animations (while heavy metal music once again plays in the background).
While that makes this Doom a tad more complicated to play than last iteration (where you could pretty much just hold down the right trigger), the extra element keeps things fresh and fun.
Doom Eternal: What about the gore?
Doom has always been the type of game that makes parents fearful their kids will grow up to become some sort of serial killer. This one is no different.
Due to the necessity of glory kills, most battles include more than a few grizzly death animations – everything from smashing a demon’s head-in with the floor, to chainsawing a nightmarish terror in two.
There are blood, guts and gore (galore) – and that’s not taking into account what happens when you fire your shoulder-mounted grenade launcher at a bunch of baddies (that ain’t rain you’re seeing).
It is Doom after all.
Doom Eternal: The verdict
Beyond the usual ‘if you liked the last one, you’ll love this one” guff – Doom Eternal is a solid game.
Yes, it does get a bit intense (and I am talking about those death animations, not just the gameplay) and you’ll die more than a few times, but that all adds to the charm.
