A huge success and a way to make it clear What is the franchise that laid the foundations for a genre that has already established itself as a titan for the video game industry. That is what the return of the Doom saga meant with the DOOM reboot launch in 2016. Frenzy, demons, shell and ultraviolence condensed in a video game that did not leave a second of breath and that delighted shooter lovers while wiping the drops of blood from their foreheads.
Four years later, one more than initially planned, the saga returns to claim its throne and put on the bloody crown of the shooter king with DOOM Eternal. The new thing about id Software is, in the mouth of its creators, the best they have done so far. An odyssey of shots and creatures from beyond the grave that takes us on a bloody journey from Earth to the heart of Mars and places never seen on the IP.
A cascade, action, reflex and glory kills parade that makes you wilder and stronger than ever, but also more self-conscious and eager to explore new terrain. This Friday March 20 comes to stores, and we have already played it from cover to cover to bring you our analysis of DOOM Eternal.
DOOM Slayer is back
Neither Hell Slayer, nor Doom Guy, nor marine of Doom. DOOM Slayer is back after the huge cliffhanger that left us the previous game. His return is more ambitious and more complete in each and every way possible. A first-person shooter with an eye toward PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia and Nintendo Switch (somewhat later here) to fill all platforms with their purest essence. A red as blood and black as the abyss from which demons come.
Many lessons learned from the previous game and a constant eagerness to not always maintain an unstoppable pace of play. Those are the two messages that have become clearer to us after playing DOOM Eternal to the point of dreaming about the butcher hook of our super shotgun. The guys from id Software have taken good note of a game that was already postulated to be the best of the genre, and they have given it a twist in every way to improve an aggressive, direct and unforgiving formula. The result? The best DOOM to date, one of the best shooters ever.
Hell on Earth
Nothing defines what DOOM Eternal is better than its launch trailer. That phrase that opens the promotional footage of the new Bethesda and id Software makes it very clear where the shots go with this game, never better said: “It is in the inner circle of death that he lives, hunting them at the ends of the earth and beyond. And in him resides salvation. There is only one dominant life form in this universe, and wields the steel cannon sword of vengeance”.
Exaggerated to rage, with the heroic epic by flag, but very far from the heroic prototype of video games. Here you are the DOOM Slayer, and you are ready to finish once and for all with the demonic threat that plagues humanity, although that implies ending all that civilization that made you what you are. There is no place for words, only for the action, the shots and the largest amount of liters of blood and kilos of dismemberment per screen that you could have imagined.
Unlike 2016 DOOM, in Eternal the story becomes much more relevant. When in the first we opened with a sequence that made it clear that the protagonist was not for talks, here we ran into a beheading that serves to clarify that we are also getting to the point in this installment. But the approach is different now, because the narrative has become more important. So much so, that the cutting sequences are more abundant, and necessary to understand the history of our character (much more interesting than it seemed), although in id Software they have done well to distribute the greatest historical load among some in-game collectibles .
So, you start on planet Earth, seeing how the demons have invaded him and looking for how to end this invasion. Something for which you have to finish with three priests that you must search in different corners of the universe, through portals that open in your new space base, a combination of futuristic engineering with Gothic structures very much in the style of the saga, which makes HUB times to access missions, get upgrades and even unlock the odd interesting skin. A journey through different worlds that, from the outset, guarantees a greater variety of settings and broader levels both vertically and horizontally.
The bloodiest gameplay, although this time more varied
Whoever comes from the previous game will quickly discover a major change in game mechanics. The Glory Kills, execution movements that are made when the enemy has little life left, no longer give life and ammunition, they only give vitality. To keep your weapons well fed and continue burning powder and launching energy beams, you will have to make more use of the chainsaw, which you must know how to manage fuel.
A very important ceasefire, which completely changes the strategy with which to approach fighting. If in DOOM 2016 you had to keep your enemies weaker in order to have ammunition reserves and health in the most difficult shootings, in DOOM Eternal you also have to add good chainsaw management to avoid running out of ammunition against the hordes demonic. A change that seems small, but that greatly influences gameplay at a general level.
Gameplay that has bet more on variety, but who still knows how to maintain intensity. DOOM is gunshots, and DOOM Eternal knows this perfectly, which is why it continues to have some shootouts that are truly frenzy. However, you also know harness your environments more than ever and levels that are absurdly large compared to the reboot of several years ago.
More verticality, new movements for the DOOM Slayer, such as the ability to swing on poles or climb certain walls. All of this causes many more situations in which you have to throw away pure and simple platforms to advance or to find the many available secrets (collectibles, secret confrontations and even rooms crowded with enemies to obtain rewards). Because, in addition to action, exploration is another component that this delivery delves into, and it is logical given the scale and breadth of its levels.
Blood, demons and Rock & Roll
The purest core of this saga is the same that served to define the FPS as early as the 90s: the most excessive action. DOOM Eternal bets for it from minute zero, without cutting a hair in showing all the violence that it can and turning it into part of its game rhythm. Not surprisingly, Glory Kills are a fundamental gameplay mechanic.
Our protagonist he's more armed than ever. In addition to the new possibilities of movement, it has a very varied armament and perfect to always have something with which to respond to enemies, but now it also adds more tools. Fragmentation grenades, freezing grenades, a flamethrower, a new Dash… It is an authentic killing machine designed so that each game is a blast of violence and shooting, one of those that give pleasure by downloading action when it comes out.
And here is an important caveat. The breadth of the levels and their new structure, with more nooks and crannies to explore and even the odd puzzle, can cause the pace of the game is sometimes somewhat slower than that experienced in the 2016 DOOM. In fact, this new game design can be somewhat criticized, along with the change of the rewards of the glory kills, with respect to the previous one.
They are the most important changes that have been made to the core of the gameplay of this game, but they make a lot of sense, because they help make the 2016 formula evolves and does not have the shortcomings that could be attributed to it at the time. At no time are you going to feel here that you are following a hall-shoot-hall-shoot structure, as it happened especially in the final stretch of the previous game. Everything has been expanded, more secrets have been added, more challenges, more options, even the maps have been better used. All so that the player always feels that the rhythm of the game is not limited to walking until new enemies arrive.
A Slayer with more possibilities than ever
Fights where standing still is dying, a bestiary much richer in variety and challenge, with some bosses designed to make you sweat really well. DOOM Eternal is quite a challenge, especially when you beat the first half of the game. It begins by teaching you crudely and quickly, and ends by demand that you polish your skills and your reflexes to the maximum to take advantage of every second and every bullet or cartridge left in your weapons.
It is a challenging game, especially because it forces you not only to have good aim and speed, but also because now it requires you to better control your resources and know how to take advantage of them. Using the flamethrower makes your enemies drop armor pieces, the chainsaw gives you ammo, the glory kills life. The Holy Trinity of DOOM Eternal is a feast of dead demons when you get used to it, a particularly satisfying one, but one that you have to get used to quickly because of the challenge it imposes.
Although it also helps that our Slayer is more equipped than ever. Leaving aside all the changes I have already mentioned, the protagonist of Eternal can enjoy important improvements to be obtained by showing off in combat or exploring every possible corner of each map. Weapon points for secondary firing such as stick grenades or remote detonation controls, additional enhancements earned by overcoming challenges for each weapon, runes with passive abilities, upgrades for the Praetor Suit… There are many more options than ever in the saga.
And exploiting all of them is necessary in order to face this infernal threat that hangs over all of them. In fact, the options also apply to enemies, and that is that it has now been implemented a weak point system with which to disable some of their weapons, or even dismember them in real time to weaken them even more until they are prey to your fist or your blade. When I say DOOM Eternal is much more varied and broad than its predecessor, it's for a reason.
The id Tech 7 is pure witchcraft
And of course, this installment would not have that sadistic charm that it had if it were not for the technology that shapes it. It is wonderful to see that the closed facilities and hellish areas of DOOM 2016 have given rise to temples, buildings, streets, and even icy moors in DOOM Eternal. The id Tech 7 has given it all in this installment, and it shows in both the creative and the technical.
This review has been done with the PC version of the game, and the optimization in the title is commendable. An Alta-Ultra configuration with an AMD FX 8350 processor and NVIDA GTX 1060 has allowed us to enjoy the game by 60 frames per second rock solid, and we could even have raised the frames even further through the game settings.
It goes like silk, with a fluidity that I consider essential for a game like this. Let's be clear, if you want to enjoy this dance of gunshots, blood and demons well, you need that there is not a single jerk. A frame at the wrong time may be more than enough to fall prey to these hordes of people who want to eat meat from Slayer.
Finally, it has been impossible to test the new online mode that this game incorporates, BATTLEMODE. The 3 vs 1 game devised by id Software, with one player playing DOOM Slayer and another 3 playing demons is not active until launch day; but rest assured that we will be there to check how this new formula designed to differentiate itself from the conventional options of Internet shooters works.
DOOM Eternal is here to sit on the throne of shooters
More violent, more exaggerated, more brutal, faster, more demanding, more mindless. More DOOM. I thought id Software was overreacting when I said DOOM Eternal was the best thing they had done to date, but I was wrong, and how glad I am that.
A brutal ode to the Shooter full of debauchery and adrenaline, ideal to relax after a long and stressful day. They have managed to shape and improve an almost perfect formula, focusing on the purest essence of the genre to squeeze it to satiety in order to fill our screens with demon blood. Get ready, because the DOOM Slayer is back to sit on the throne.
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