Doom (2016) was a shot of adrenaline, it was fast, it was stylish, it was well presented, it was well balanced. It left everyone wanting more. Doom Eternal gives you all of that, possibly a little too much in specific areas (I'm not a total fan of the flame belcher and fiddly grenade launcher but I get their existence) but on the whole this is the game purified, distilled, and then giving you a slew of ways to build out your slayer for maximum carnage.

Most of the ways will be inherently familiar (praetor tokens for ammo/armour/health, runes for specific abilities, weapon tokens to upgrade and master your guns), a few new additions have been thrown in, cosmetic in the main, along with the addition of hidden cheat code disks which allow you things like infinite extra lives, infinite ammo, silver bullets (instakills staggered enemies) and so on.


Enemies this time start heavy duty out of the gate, there's no ramp up like there was in the first game, here you're -expected- to deal with cacodaemons and spiderbrains right out of the gate, and learning how to exploit their weakspots is important (Critical on difficulties starting at Ultra-Violence and higher). You either get real comfortable lobbing grenades into the mouths of the bad guys and stripping spiders of their turrets, or you can safely expect to have a bad time.

Equally, the rinky-dink pistol has been retired, with your starting weapon now being the shotgun, again, a significant step up indicating that yes, the firepower has moved on a step or two. Said shotgun gets a sticky grenade launcher and full-auto mode as the two mod options (full-auto being a significant upgrade from the burst fire it previously had), and whilst you don't have a mass of shells in your pocket, full auto mode will absolutely -wreck- heavy duty demons in short order.


Ammo on the ground is slimmer, in the main because you now have a rechargable chainsaw that means fodder enemies are your primary ammo supply, after about 30 kills with the thing (thus mastering it) the recharge to the first pip is pretty quick, meaning you can keep your ammo topped off for your weapons fairly easily. The other two pips can only be recharged with gas cans, but having three pips means you can nix a heavy enemy with the chainsaw in a pinch.

Your melee now is relegated to a stagger option or if your blood punch is charged, a means of stripping armour and killing weaker enemies for health. This gives the game a very specific rhythm you must quickly grasp if you are to prosper, kill the big or dangerous demons with the -correct- gun, then chainsaw the little things to refill ammo. Blood punch small demons if you need a health refill, or blood punch armoured demons to make their armour explode.

You also have a few extra tools - Flame belch sets demons on fire, whilst they are on fire, shooting them makes armour shards drop out of them like big green demony pinatas, and a grenade/ice grenade, the former of which you'll be using in the main as it staggers anything it makes contact with, thus buying you precious breathing room whilst you finish / kill other, more immediate threats.


On a system that can max the settings, the game once again showcases what ID can bring to the PC. This game will make your speakers rumble in ways that'll loosen your bowels, it'll feed you music that'll cause your bones to shake, the graphics will make you go "How is this even possible?", and the level design is -huge-, with sprawling open areas mixed with arenas, winding little mazes and nooks and crannies packed full of secrets including music tracks you can play in your base hub, toys that fill up your personal quarters, and cheat codes which you can use at will (the only thing they lock out is slayer areas).

Downsides?

The game wants Bethesda.net to unlock all the goodies, that's annoying as sin. You need Twitch Prime for the Doomicorn, that's *criminal* considering that the Doomicorn is the only -legitimate- way to play as the Slayer in the campaign. The platforming bits are fiddly, and the new wallclimb mechanic isn't totally ideal, having to use flame belch to refill armour can be a bit of a pain at times, relying on scripted bunches of fodder to hang together rather than just tossing a few more armour drops in the right places. But these are lesser issues in a game which is by and large, magnificent.

JUST GIVE EVERYONE THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DOOMICORN.


It's Doom. It's all the Doom. It's the Doomiest Doom that Doomed the Dooms that could Doom.

It's Death Metal Videogaming made real. It's set the volume to 11 and it's playing ID's best tracks, as one big loud concert for you. If you don't like the music, kindly leave and let the rest of us get our eardrums wrecked as we enjoy another mindblowing performance by the masters of Death Metal Videogaming.

Verdict: DOOM

NOTE : Denuvo shennanigans have been resolved. But this game has lost the Essential tag as a direct result of said idiocy. Let this be a lesson. You do not get to keep your Essential rating from the Tiger purely because you got it on the 1.0 release.

If you decide to balls things up and introduce a kernel mode driver as a patch and then through public backlash decide to remove that kernel mode driver, that only shows you're able to reverse course, not that you (AND MISTER CARMACK YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THIS) understand why Kernel Mode anti-cheat is a bad idea.

This game is still very recommended, but keep Bethesda on their toes. For they are fleabags.

[H1]Doom Eternal. It's Doom cranked up to 11, and it stays there. If you don't like the music - *Leave*[/H1] Doom (2016) was a shot of adrenaline, it was fast, it was stylish, it was well presented, it was well balanced. It left everyone wanting more. Doom Eternal gives you all of that, possibly a little too much in specific areas (I'm not a total fan of the flame belcher and fiddly grenade launcher but I get their existence) but on the whole this is the game purified, distilled, and then giving you a slew of ways to build out your slayer for maximum carnage. Most of the ways will be inherently familiar (praetor tokens for ammo/armour/health, runes for specific abilities, weapon tokens to upgrade and master your guns), a few new additions have been thrown in, cosmetic in the main, along with the addition of hidden cheat code disks which allow you things like infinite extra lives, infinite ammo, silver bullets (instakills staggered enemies) and so on. [H1]This time, the game doesn't ease you in nicely, it throws you in at the deep end and tells you to get killing, or die trying.[/H1] Enemies this time start heavy duty out of the gate, there's no ramp up like there was in the first game, here you're -expected- to deal with cacodaemons and spiderbrains right out of the gate, and learning how to exploit their weakspots is important (Critical on difficulties starting at Ultra-Violence and higher). You either get real comfortable lobbing grenades into the mouths of the bad guys and stripping spiders of their turrets, or you can safely expect to have a bad time. Equally, the rinky-dink pistol has been retired, with your starting weapon now being the shotgun, again, a significant step up indicating that yes, the firepower has moved on a step or two. Said shotgun gets a sticky grenade launcher and full-auto mode as the two mod options (full-auto being a significant upgrade from the burst fire it previously had), and whilst you don't have a mass of shells in your pocket, full auto mode will absolutely -wreck- heavy duty demons in short order. [H1]All of the weapons have had at the very least, a subtle rejig, and all of the enemies feel faster, and nastier[/H1] Ammo on the ground is slimmer, in the main because you now have a rechargable chainsaw that means fodder enemies are your primary ammo supply, after about 30 kills with the thing (thus mastering it) the recharge to the first pip is pretty quick, meaning you can keep your ammo topped off for your weapons fairly easily. The other two pips can only be recharged with gas cans, but having three pips means you can nix a heavy enemy with the chainsaw in a pinch. Your melee now is relegated to a stagger option or if your blood punch is charged, a means of stripping armour and killing weaker enemies for health. This gives the game a very specific rhythm you must quickly grasp if you are to prosper, kill the big or dangerous demons with the -correct- gun, then chainsaw the little things to refill ammo. Blood punch small demons if you need a health refill, or blood punch armoured demons to make their armour explode. You also have a few extra tools - Flame belch sets demons on fire, whilst they are on fire, shooting them makes armour shards drop out of them like big green demony pinatas, and a grenade/ice grenade, the former of which you'll be using in the main as it staggers anything it makes contact with, thus buying you precious breathing room whilst you finish / kill other, more immediate threats. [H1]The level design and music is ... unreal. So are the graphics.[/H1] On a system that can max the settings, the game once again showcases what ID can bring to the PC. This game will make your speakers rumble in ways that'll loosen your bowels, it'll feed you music that'll cause your bones to shake, the graphics will make you go "How is this even possible?", and the level design is -huge-, with sprawling open areas mixed with arenas, winding little mazes and nooks and crannies packed full of secrets including music tracks you can play in your base hub, toys that fill up your personal quarters, and cheat codes which you can use at will (the only thing they lock out is slayer areas). Downsides? The game wants Bethesda.net to unlock all the goodies, that's annoying as sin. You need Twitch Prime for the Doomicorn, that's *criminal* considering that the Doomicorn is the only -legitimate- way to play as the Slayer in the campaign. The platforming bits are fiddly, and the new wallclimb mechanic isn't totally ideal, having to use flame belch to refill armour can be a bit of a pain at times, relying on scripted bunches of fodder to hang together rather than just tossing a few more armour drops in the right places. But these are lesser issues in a game which is by and large, magnificent. JUST GIVE EVERYONE THE GODDAMN DOOMICORN. [H1]Closing Thoughts[/H1] It's Doom. It's all the Doom. It's the Doomiest Doom that Doomed the Dooms that could Doom. It's Death Metal Videogaming made real. It's set the volume to 11 and it's playing ID's best tracks, as one big loud concert for you. If you don't like the music, kindly [b]leave[/b] and let the rest of us get our eardrums wrecked as we enjoy another mindblowing performance by the masters of Death Metal Videogaming. Verdict: [b]DOOM[/b] NOTE : Denuvo shennanigans have been resolved. But this game has lost the Essential tag as a direct result of said idiocy. Let this be a lesson. You do not get to keep your Essential rating from the Tiger purely because you got it on the 1.0 release. If you decide to balls things up and introduce a kernel mode driver as a patch and then through public backlash decide to remove that kernel mode driver, that only shows you're able to reverse course, not that you (AND MISTER CARMACK YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THIS) understand why Kernel Mode anti-cheat is a bad idea. This game is still very recommended, but keep Bethesda on their toes. For they are fleabags.