Doom Eternal

(available on PlayStation 4, X Box One, Google Stadia and PC)
(Nintendo Switch version in development)
(PlayStation 4 version used for Review)

During one of the worst E3 press conferences in 2019 Bethesda redeemed themselves with an excellent trailer for Doom Eternal which made the game look really good. I was not the hugest fan of Doom 2016, it’s a well made game but I’m not the biggest fan of First Person Shooters. I don’t have any moral objection over them or hate them outright it’s just isn’t the first genre I’ll gravitate towards. The only ones I tend to play are more competitive like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. When I took on the task of playing Doom Eternal I came out with almost the exact same outcome. This is a very well-made game. it has a well-designed campaign, good graphics and some cool combat that has evolved well from the first game but I ultimately was not clicking with it. I tend to enjoy the Halo games but they have great multiplayer and have cool mythology I want to explore, Doom is more a b-movie turned into a game rather than a sci-fi epic like Mass Effect and Halo, nothing wrong with that but when I didn’t motivate me to see so much more of this world. That being said it’s certainly not boring or bad by any means and it’s actually one of the better games Bethesda has put out (and that’s not a backhanded compliment in regards to Fallout 76)

Pros

• Graphics: this game is really excellent with it’s look everything is well designed for creating a pure hell scape. It looks like a Lamb of God music video brought to life. Plus the gore effects are so well realised with some bone crunching sound and visual effects that justifies it’s mature rating.
• Combat: it’s an incredibly well designed combat system which really puts your skills to the test. Certain enemies go down easy and can make you feel invincible but other enemies will require more thought.
• Soundtrack: it’s a proper Metal soundtrack, that’s all that’s required to point out that it’s awesome

Mixed

• multiplayer: the online multiplayer is actually quite fun if you get into the right match but I found my enjoyment inconsistent, now I freely admit I only played a few online games so I don’t have the best opinion on it but I much preferred playing as a Slayer to one of the demons. This is not the greatest FPS online multiplayer mode and I’d sooner recommended other games for online multiplayer but this is not the worst and I’d still rather play this than Resident Evil 3’s online multiplayer .

• camera: I’m in the minority but I don’t like the camera in this game, I just found it a bit jittery and often lead to me feeling overwhelmed, however I accept it’s possible to get more used to the camera and it won’t be the same for everyone

Cons

• overcrowded environments: I think each environment has a few too many enemies that can often overwhelm the player. You will get used to it but you are pretty much going to have to die a few times before you can figure out how to tackle each environment.
• Bethesda account is required: yeah this ridiculousness requiring a Bethesda account to play the game is still here and it’s once again utterly ridiculous that it’s required for all the game including the single player.

Overall Thoughts

I’ve put a lot of my thoughts out about the game so I’ll keep it short, I think it’s a good game but I personally don’t really want to play too much more of it but recognise that this is going to be a lot of people’s favourite games this year, hence the excellent review score’s it has received from other publications. I certainly hope Bethesda makes more games like this but considering their latest release is the utterly pointless port of Elder Scrolls Blades to the Switch I’m not counting on it

Score: 7/10