Brilliantly designed Doom Eternal keeps you intrigued and addicted

Do you suffer from irrepressible frustration due to the sudden lack of global infrastructure? Maybe an unquenchable thirst for the total destruction of all things demonkind? Well, well, fellow human, do I have the perfect ass-kicking demon-eyeball-crushing feed-it-its-own-heart-so-it-chokes-on-it-and-explodes-in-a-glorious-hail-of-blood-and-guts adventure for you in these trying times! Here, have this scarlet-stained copy of Doom Eternal, and go save the Earth in quarantine, why don’tcha?

Sooo, this is my first Doom game. I felt like the daughter going to my first death metal concert with my tatted up, beard-to-the-knees dad, and being equally as afraid and in total wonder as the flames of the piled up, burning demons flickered warmly in my eyes. Ahem, I might be getting ahead of myself. In short, don’t attack me for being deprived of witnessing masterpieces. I think that my view could actually be useful for the newer generation entering the gaming world.

The first thing I noticed about Doom Eternal is that it’s basically the best kind of sports dad you could ask for. He takes your hand and shows you every little ability, and every piece of info you’ll need to get you to understand the game right off the bat. He doesn’t punish you for being really bad at the game, there are always new zombies to punch during or after a fight to get you to full health or little tips in the loading screen.

He’s taking every step along with you and clapping on the sidelines when you do it correctly on your own. Yes, there are a lot of dad references in this review. Yes, I noticed it looks like I have daddy issues. No, just because I wore chockers ironically in high school doesn’t mean I still wear them ironically today. It’s unironic, and it’s in fashion.

There were many parts in Doom Eternal that left my jaw agape in excitement, and there were also parts where my smartwatch congratulated me on a workout where in reality I was fighting a boss for the seventh time and beat him with only half a life left, no ammo, and only my blood punch left as a counter attack.

Doom drops you into a world where demons have taken over yet again and only something like 29% of the original population still exists. It’s now your job to go down and kill the priests that decided to cleanse the earth, but with demons instead of hand sanitiser.

Doom features lots of collectible components to pimp out your Doomguy, including three main types – tokens, crystals, and runes. Tokens and crystals can be found around the map in secret locations, and help you with new abilities.

Runes are like a trap card you pull out for advantage in a fight. All three of these items allow you to retrofit him according to your play style, and lets you to put points in where it counts – like double-explodey frag grenades and more ammo.

Doom Eternal has some of the best map and overall design I have seen in a while. They went above and beyond to make the sounds and the look of the demons anatomically correct [… how would you know? – ed], and there’s nothing more satisfying than ripping out a cacodemon’s eyeball and hearing the rest shoot back in with a satisfying shlooop. With a solid reward feedback loop during and after the game, it keeps the player wanting more – especially if you’re a completionist.

Bethesda has made a platform for players to sign up and earn rewards and points for playing the game, similar to Borderlands 3, where you get more for following them on Twitter or reading a blog update or whatever. I did find this a strange choice to put into a game with such a cult following, but it seems that they are actively trying to reach out to the newer generation of gamers.

On to the multiplayer! Doom Eternal’s take on a multiplayer is the Battlemode, where you can either play as a Doomguy slayer, or a demon. Here, two player-controlled demons go head to head with a player-controlled slayer and you fight however many rounds it takes to show who reigns supreme. Battlemode takes you through a quick tutorial to show you how to control the demons and then sends you in to try and make the best of the sudden role reversal. I must say, I did find it quite fun playing a massive chonk of a demon flying around with my jet-arms.

Doom Eternal

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