My Spoiler Free Thoughts on DOOM Eternal

I was always pretty lukewarm on DOOM when I was younger. I knew it was around and lots of my friends enjoyed it, but it never captured me. It was one of those games that was always producing sequels or spinoffs, and it was always in the background of my gaming awareness.

For whatever reason, I decided to give 2016’s DOOM a try and OH MY GOD IT WAS THE MOST METAL THING I’VE EVER PLAYED. I’m not big into first-person shooters but holy shit that game was satisfying. The opening lines just ignite something in me. I can’t explain it. So when DOOM Eternal was announced, I got super excited.

I just got around to finishing the campaign this week, so here are my spoiler-free thoughts on it:

The soundtrack is fucking amazing. It’s so goddamn metal. Hell yes.

I hate guns in real life, but in DOOM Eternal I love them. They’re outrageous, over-the-top, and everything I want from a sci-fi heavy metal arsenal. But even those take a back seat to the old-school joy of the Crucible.

I did not like the platforming parts of the levels at all. The less I say about them, the better.

I really enjoyed the expanded story, but I wish more of it was told in-game and not in multi-paragraph lore entries in the Pause screen. I wanted more of the story to play out before my eyes, not in the downtime between levels scrolling through Parts 1-8 of the History of Hell.

Glory Kills are so much better this time around. The Doomslayer is, as far as I’m concerned, the most terrifying Paladin ever created and his Glory Kills give wonderful new imagery to the classic Smite Evil ability of tabletop RPGs.

Whoever designed the Marauders is getting the bill for my new blood pressure medicine. Fuck those guys.

The final boss fight is the most fun I’ve had with a difficult boss fight. I lost a lot, but amazingly I was never frustrated. It was, for me, the perfect balance of insanity and thrills, with razor’s edge excitement and nail-biting tension. What a great boss fight.

No game is perfect, and parts of DOOM Eternal got under my skin, but overall I think it’s a great successor to 2016’s resurgent entry to the series. Give it a try, then RIP AND TEAR UNTIL IT IS DONE.