DOOM Eternal

 PC
User Score
8.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5639 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,798 out of 5639
  2. Mixed: 378 out of 5639
  3. Negative: 463 out of 5639
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  1. Beduin777
    Apr 2, 2020
    1
    Piece of crap. DooM from 2016 is much better game. This is good only for fanatic Doom fans, because it's "Doom" name. Glory kill + saw animation = kill tempo. They exaggerated with gory killings, you hit two or three times, you kick once, it destroys the pacing horribly.
  2. Deadraque
    Dec 6, 2020
    2
    It lost completely the soul of what doom was at some point in time, fast action shooting without all those rpg elements and stupid upgrades and more. then all the stupid jumping and dashing. I miss the simple levels searching for keys with rooms full of monsters. All those adds destroyed the fun for me and gave up after about 5-6 hours.
  3. angrywombat
    Jul 28, 2020
    4
    Nothing like Doom 2016, all the fun grinds to a halt as the designers force you to “play it their way” by using weak spots on enemy’s as the only way to kill them, super low amounts of ammo so you have to keep chainsawing then for more, uninspired levels too.
  4. SchindlersFist
    Jul 15, 2020
    0
    It's astounding to me just how much this game doesn't want you to have fun. Did you enjoy jumping around shooting enemies in whatever order you like with whatever weapons you want? Too bad. Did you like going into a room, clearing it and happily heading to the next segment to kill even more stuff in interesting arenas? Too bad, you get invincible enemies, enemies that can only be killed byIt's astounding to me just how much this game doesn't want you to have fun. Did you enjoy jumping around shooting enemies in whatever order you like with whatever weapons you want? Too bad. Did you like going into a room, clearing it and happily heading to the next segment to kill even more stuff in interesting arenas? Too bad, you get invincible enemies, enemies that can only be killed by playing the way Bethesda wants you to play, low ammo forever, next to no carrying capacity for ammunition, and a bunch of awful cooldowns. No more fun, you only play the way they want you to and you have no other option or you will die forever. No room for creativity, no flexibility. F*** Bethesda, this should've been a slam dunk, "Just DOOM 2016 with a new campaign" would have been perfect. DOOM 2016 was a masterpiece and they've gone against every design rule that made DOOM 2016 stand out and be amazing. This is worse than if they had just cranked out a generic FPS game. They utterly ruined this. Won't be buying any sequel. **** BETHESDA.… Expand
  5. kindlerob
    Sep 8, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Doom E starts off quite good but becomes tiring & tedious very quickly. I will just say now that Doom was a hard act to follow. It had an addictive balance like no other. The balance is not here at all. It's harder, faster, longer, less atmospheric, & even the story is an over-bloated mess of Cult-clichés. Once the upgrades are out the way, & you have another second half a game to wade through in precisely the same manner as the first, it becomes frustratingly frenetic. Every level is far too long, battles always involve waves of many enemies which increases predictably each time, & the weapons are set to kill particular enemies is particular ways. If you do not kill them in the way the Developer has premeditated; you die quicker. This takes away all the fun of the original - where every gun was an over-powered cannon of devastation.

    The Devs seem to think that Challenge, equals, enjoyment. Even on Easy, it is a frantic mess, where everything bombards you if you stop moving, & by getting stuck on any of the surroundings results in your demise. This makes for a game, not of skill, but of luck.

    The graphics: are large, colourful, & detailed. Probably what they concentrated on the most. Yet the touch-screens & on-screen data pads have once again reverted to squint-inducing thumbnails. The Guns & pickups are bright & treat you like an idiot. (The first game did it better!) The environments are nice when bright & open, but soon revert to corridors, alcoves & lift-shafts. Many don't feel like Doom in any sense, because all of the Religious ramifications they see fit to shove down our throats constantly.

    The Story:
    It's daft! Call me simple! But Doom guy always seemed like a modest soldier down on his luck; sticking UP for his species, to me. A guy so neglected by society & Military hierarchy, he didn't even have a name. He busted out of confinement, got himself a gun, & had no alternative but to become a badass to defend his outpost! Now, they want to turn him into another ‘Dr Who’ Jesus Christ saviour figure. It takes away ALL your intrigue; knowing that everything you do has been ordained & is your destiny. I don’t want to play in this universe anymore. It’s stuffy, irrational, superstitious, & ostentatious. It totally bogs the game down for the sake of trying to make sense of a totally implausible situation. Just because you CAN achieve something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it. If you are in control of your skill & technique, you are thus liberated from it. But here, the technique is in control of the game’s structure.

    The Audio is a mixed bag. Some sounds are an improvement such as the Aslt Rifle, whereas the Ballista is so underwhelming that you hardly notice it upon releasing the trigger! You knew when The Gauss Cannon fired! BOOM! The music is a disaster. A total calamity. There is no quality control. There are a few standout tracks in the game that are indeed very good, if strictly suited to this universe of carnage! But apart from the fact they are truncated, they are all re-engineered & mixed badly – fatiguing you, due to the Loudness Compression of already loud music. There are times where I had no alternative but to turn off the music in the options menu! Repeating a single phrase over & over offers nothing creative & is an insult to all those composers who over-composed to fit every possible situation.
    There are a lot of tracks which seem to be more ‘sound fx’ than music. These grate on you so bad, it just sours the experience. I liked the energy in more aggressive tracks during combat, because it makes sense. But when you are just trying to wade through all the mundane jumping routes, you just want something mellifluous & expansive.

    Although I completed this game, I have no desire to return. A strange reaction, considering the original had the opposite effect & kept me coming back for another playthrough. There is just so much wrong with how this game was built, that it begs the question of competence. The entire game is now segregated & laid out into wave-bars in the top right hand corner – letting you know exactly how far you are, how many more waves, unique areas, etc. you have left; removing any connection to the world, & to the discovery. It tells you right at the start! Doom2016 felt like a journey, with exploration, & a narrative being created as you progress.
    It reminds me of Gears of War Judgement – where they forced the Wave system into the main story campaign. You’d be constantly concentrating on perfect scores, head shots, & other pointless gimmicks when I should just be enjoying the experience. DoomE is exactly the same. You’ll get to the end of a typically protracted level, just to be faced with a “You SUCK!” score board of missed secrets, failed challenges, incomplete waves, & “The Princess is in Another Castle”.    … Expand
  6. DrShepherdLIVE
    Jul 4, 2020
    4
    Why I give it a 4/10:
    Its like Fast Food. It tastes good and it smells good in the beginning. Its all made so you buy it.
    Sensational so to speak. And while playing it you think. "not bad". But you always wait for that "click" or that "wow" effect. But it never comes. Its all just a trick. Like Fast Food. You feel satisfied, but only for a couple of hours and then you are hungry again    Why I give it a 4/10:
    Its like Fast Food. It tastes good and it smells good in the beginning. Its all made so you buy it.
    Sensational so to speak. And while playing it you think. "not bad". But you always wait for that "click" or that "wow" effect. But it never comes.
    Its all just a trick. Like Fast Food. You feel satisfied, but only for a couple of hours and then you are hungry again and you body didnt even get enough vitamines and nutritions.
    Same can be said about DE. It is so hyped you think the game playing will be a great experience.
    But it is just playing Mortal Kombat for 20 hours straight.
    No real highlights in the story whatsoever.
    Beating monsters has to follow a rotation cause you need to use the chainsaw. You NEED to use that weapon and NEED to switch to a different one all the time.
    If you dont learn and train your muscle memory you will have a hard time beating the game on a higher difficulty.
    It feels like somebody fired the genius from the company and now the ones that are left are trying to fill up the gab of creativity and ideas whit whatever they have.
    Thats ID 2020.
    Game is probably a 6.5 but I see that all the fanboys are giving it a 10/10 which is nonsense. But it isnt a 0/10 either. So a 4 is low enough to not be unfair and not high enough to camouflage the hype and fanboying this game gets for no reason.    … Expand
  7. ZeroBANG
    Aug 1, 2020
    4
    After being a huge fan of Doom 2016... i absolutely hate everything about Doom Eternal.

    - They dropped Snap Map, have not bothered to replace it with any other kind of Modding tools or support... BOOO! Companies like id and Bethesda in particular should know the immense value of a vibrant modding community, after the lackluster 2016 Snap Map i expected them to step up their game and    After being a huge fan of Doom 2016... i absolutely hate everything about Doom Eternal.

    - They dropped Snap Map, have not bothered to replace it with any other kind of Modding tools or support... BOOO! Companies like id and Bethesda in particular should know the immense value of a vibrant modding community, after the lackluster 2016 Snap Map i expected them to step up their game and learn from their mistakes, instead they just dropped it and did nothing.

    - Battlemode sucks ass. Maybe 1 in 10 matches results in something i would call "fun gameplay", you either roflstomp noobs or get roflstomped like the noob that you are.
    In comparison, Doom 2016's multiplayer was not well received but after the 6.66 patch that made the Season Pass content free and revamped the progression system i think it was really well rounded and fun mode. It was no Quake of course but it was worth playing an hour here or there... with Battlemode i just feel like i'm wasting my time to grind XP for that stupid Battlepass, it is not fun, it is not good.

    - Singleplayer, 2016 was a standout game, GOTY material, i played it start to finish at least 5 times and then some.
    I am not gonna while about running out of ammo in Eternal, instead i want to point out that it is indicative of the overall bad game design. The first level they hand you only 2 guns, you get the minimum amount of ammo pool from the skilltree which makes it that much more important to understand how the chainsaw works or you gonna have a bad time. Anybody coming from Doom 2016 who get interrupted by a tutorial screen about how a chainsaw works is gonna be arrogant enough to think "i played so many hours of doom, thank you i know what i'm doing" and then the game proceeds to kick your ass for it.

    Later i got the flamethrower, didn't understand why it only spat out a tiny flame, was i pressing the button wrong? Do i need to upgrade it? ... it felt wrong, a flame thrower is a weapon and it shoots out a consant stream of fire. So i thought it was just a weapon that sucked and played the next 3 levels without using it at all... well i had a lot harder time playing without the ARMOR that drops from enemies on fire... because that is the most intuitive thing ever, set a guy on fire, collect kevlar bits for your Space Marine armor totally a logical thing to expect what a flamethrower does, right?

    This type of gimmicky and unintuitive design is true for practically the entire game.
    They re-invented the wheel, added a ton of gimmicks that no one asked for ...when they had a winning formula already.

    I'm mad this is not the continuation of the 2016 game... but i'm more mad that the game is just and exercise in frustration.

    The level design is not on par with 2016, it is much more linear and interrupted by jumping sequences, there is even one level, i kid you not where you don't get to fight any demons, but have to listen to exposition and then collect a TON of CODEX ENTRIES... literally text, and if you want to have any chance of understanding what even goes on in this convoluted mess of a story then you better read all of it. ...and if you think remembering the names of the Hobbits is hard you have seen nothing yet.

    Doom 2016 literally punched the exposition in the face before the game even started, that was a mission statement for the entire game, there was a bit of story here and there but in Eternal it is constantly in your face, interrupting you and even better none of it makes any god damn sense unless you really dig into the codex text files... in my eyes when you make me read text in a videogame, you failed at making a videogame, i do not need a multimillion dollar game and year of R&D high tech CPUs and RAM and GPUs and 4K HDR 5.1 Surround Sound... to be entertained by TEXT... a storytelling format that works on a piece of PAPER.
    Do they think this is Mass Effect now? Codex Entries in a DOOM game, what a joke... if those existed in 2016 then they were not this annoying.
    Even reading them is a pain because of all the weird names.
    in 2016 we had a few places with buttons that you pressed and a Demonic voice would tell you a story, that was atmospheric and fit together with the interactive Metal soundtrack of the game so well they put it in the soundtrack.
    That demonic voice doesn't exist in Eternal. But i hear a lot of teenage girl voices recording log entries or playing holograms with the lamest cringy lines you've ever heard.

    ...and yet between the 80% of the game that are either lame, cringe or infuriatingly frustrating... there is some good DOOM gameplay trickeld in with it that is actually fun enough to keep me suffering through the bad, which makes me unable to drop it.
    But while i burned through 2016 in a mad rush and then played it 5 more times, it's been months and i have not even finished Doom Eternal yet.    … Expand
  8. Edgecrusher34
    Jan 5, 2021
    0
    This is by far the worst entry in the Doom franchise due to its revamped mechanics. Not only did they add Mario-esque platforming elements that force you to jump, climb, and monkey-bar around, Doomguy's ammo-carrying capacity has been stripped to laughable levels. Furthermore, your reload button is a chainsaw. That's right, you have to switch weapons to reload in this game, and even worse,This is by far the worst entry in the Doom franchise due to its revamped mechanics. Not only did they add Mario-esque platforming elements that force you to jump, climb, and monkey-bar around, Doomguy's ammo-carrying capacity has been stripped to laughable levels. Furthermore, your reload button is a chainsaw. That's right, you have to switch weapons to reload in this game, and even worse, the chainsaw runs out of fuel so you have to constantly get glory kills too! This game is awful and I don't count it as a Doom. Stay away. Played a few hours and uninstalled.… Expand
  9. caleca54
    Nov 5, 2020
    4
    Это дум 16 года со специфичными изменениями. Объективно назвать ее хуже прошлой части нельзя но я считаю что итернал это стагнация и в общем выглядит как неудачная попытка переосмысления вызванная то ли жаждой денег то ли идиотской мыслью о том что можно будет сделать тоже самое что и 4 года назад и оно тоже выстрелит. По сути ничего координально нового в отличии от того как перевернулЭто дум 16 года со специфичными изменениями. Объективно назвать ее хуже прошлой части нельзя но я считаю что итернал это стагнация и в общем выглядит как неудачная попытка переосмысления вызванная то ли жаждой денег то ли идиотской мыслью о том что можно будет сделать тоже самое что и 4 года назад и оно тоже выстрелит. По сути ничего координально нового в отличии от того как перевернул представление серии прошлый дум и в этом вся проблема. Нам пихают тоже самое просто под другим соусом. Отсутствие такой радушной реакции на новые изменения может даже не говорить о том что стало хуже а о том что эмоции от того дума вызваны не только качеством реализации фич но и тем что до него подобного небыло в отличии от нынешней ситуации.… Expand
  10. danielfm123
    Jun 27, 2020
    0
    First spyware with denuvo, had to stop playing for a month, now Icome back to he game and i get sudden crashes all the time. Ijust cant enjoy the game
  11. silentassassin
    May 20, 2020
    3
    Why the hell do I need to have a Kernel-mode driver running to play a single player campaign??? Really Betheshda? Maybe consider a separate binary for multiplayer and not bother people who will never play Doom Eternal multiplayer with **** like Denuvo Anti Cheat? Shame on you! The game itself is perfect from a gameplay perspective but the level design feels so lazy and relies too heavilyWhy the hell do I need to have a Kernel-mode driver running to play a single player campaign??? Really Betheshda? Maybe consider a separate binary for multiplayer and not bother people who will never play Doom Eternal multiplayer with **** like Denuvo Anti Cheat? Shame on you! The game itself is perfect from a gameplay perspective but the level design feels so lazy and relies too heavily on the platforming. Why rely so much on platforming in a first person shooter? The story is a bit boring and leaves out a LOT of detail. A bit of a mixed bag, but with the introduction of the anti-cheat it's just not worth it anymore. I refuse to play any game that requires a Kernel-mode driver to be installed for no good reason.… Expand
  12. Midnight708
    Jun 27, 2020
    2
    I've only played the opening mission and I have an overwhelming temptation to just refund the game now. I have no idea if the rest of the game is better but the start left a terrible first impression

    Positives first: -It has pretty good performance besides one hefty frame drop which is great. -The music is classic doom fair -The guns feel similar to their 2016 counterparts And now    I've only played the opening mission and I have an overwhelming temptation to just refund the game now. I have no idea if the rest of the game is better but the start left a terrible first impression

    Positives first:
    -It has pretty good performance besides one hefty frame drop which is great.
    -The music is classic doom fair
    -The guns feel similar to their 2016 counterparts

    And now for the negatives:
    -The game feels needlessly convoluted now.
    The glory kill system from 2016 has been split into 3 different abilities which award either ammo, health or armour rather than all 3 like 2016's glory kill system. This change is a shame as it cuts up the honestly quite good glory kill system to seemingly do nothing but allow them to claim they added new features. Combat isn't harder or improved because of it, you just have more stuff. Stuff that I personally find less fun than the elegantly simple combat rhythm from 2016. Spending more time in cinematics kill scenes because you always need resources is not fun.
    Additionally, they added more movement mechanics for platforming sections. From the feedback id received from the first game making the doom slayer into spiderman was something I imagine didn't come up much if not ever. The wall latch in particular just looks weird in action and I now understand why most games with climbing aren't in first person.
    -Ammo economy
    This might be an early game problem as I only had 2 guns unlocked when I stopped playing but you are almost constantly running out of ammo and there's no pistol with infinite ammo to swap to if you run dry. Ammo economy was never something I considered in Doom 2016, I always had a plentiful supply of shots in at least one of my guns so I could keep swapping between them and never have to worry about finding ammo as you picked it up from kills and glory kills. Here acquiring ammo is locked to the chainsaw (which thankfully recharges) and pickups from the map. This is mixed with a low carrying capacity which causes ammo economy to be a constant issue. Having to worry about where I am going to get more bullets to blast demons with feels antithetical to the never stop shooting combat loop from the first game.
    -Story and world-building
    I'll admit I never paid a huge amount of attention to the story from Doom 2016 and didn't read the lore from that game. However, starting Doom eternal made me wonder if I had missed a game because you suddenly have a space station and have to worry about the demon priests worshipping a robot angel called the Khan Makyr. To the best of my knowledge, neither of these plot elements appeared in Doom 2016 so just suddenly having both of these thrust at you with no setup or explanation feels jarring and confusing. The space station in particular just feels like a lazy way of implementing a hub area because there was probably a cool story of how the slayer got access to it but no, you're just there and that's it. Also the fact there is what looks to be a hub area is concerning to me, you return to it after the first mission, which didn't have a boss or a remotely fun conclusion. You went into a tower, up a lift and had a cutscene then went to the station. This makes me worried that the rest of the game will be like this and constantly returning to a hub will ruin pacing.
    -While the music is great I did not like the default sound balance as I could not hear it properly over the guns and enemies.
    -Some weird keybinds, grenade was on ctrl by default for some reason.
    -You need to sign into some Bethesda account in order to even play the game.

    If I don't refund the game and play the rest I'll update the review.    … Expand
  13. studentLoan
    Aug 11, 2020
    2
    I am largely a big fan of id Software as their games got me into programming/3D engines etc. I have enjoyed Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 4. I did not like Wolf3D though I appreciated the raycast engine for the time, I did like Doom (Original DOS doom) but I liked games like Heretic and Hexen more for some reason. So my friend bought me this game (pre ordered) and I have a decent gaming rigI am largely a big fan of id Software as their games got me into programming/3D engines etc. I have enjoyed Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 4. I did not like Wolf3D though I appreciated the raycast engine for the time, I did like Doom (Original DOS doom) but I liked games like Heretic and Hexen more for some reason. So my friend bought me this game (pre ordered) and I have a decent gaming rig (2070 super, 2k 144hz gsync monitor with amd 3700x) and I appreciate the engine and the way the game runs, I also appreciate the gameplay and mechanics to some degree but this game was putting me to sleep, for my friends sake I played through this game and disliked it so much that I created a Meta Critic account just to review this game. I wouldn't call this game total garbage, it's fantastic from some perspectives but as a game it just is too dull, and the art direction was very limited and not atmospheric. I also did not like Doom (2016), I liked Doom (horror one) slightly but all in all after playing so many more games I would say this game is just not worth buying or playing for that matter, it is just fueled by nostalgia and other emotions that lead to nonobjective and dishonest experiences. I disliked the level art diversity of environments but that said I liked Control which has very little to no environment diversity. The art and visuals also looked dated and it was tough to appreciate this as I was just playing Kingdom Come Deliverance/CODMW which looks tons better. Though the Doom engine runs smooth as butter, it's important to remember it's not really doing much, levels are constrained, visuals are lackluster. Sad dated shader effects etc… Expand
  14. Hk32234
    Aug 21, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a Jumping game its disappointing . Its all about jumping, Doom since it was in PC it was never for jumping I stop playing the game its boring .

    It should Named Doom Jumping not Doom eternal    … Expand
  15. 1XanaX1
    Sep 29, 2020
    0
    I liked Doom 2016, but this just sucks. It is a **** Platformer and not a good shooter anymore. Not enough Ammo and so many **** annoying Jump passages, i hate it! Would not recommend at all
  16. muldjord
    May 4, 2020
    6
    If you haven't played Doom 2016, play that instead. If you have played Doom 2016, go and play it again.

    I am quite disappointed with this game. It feels like they took the good stuff from Doom 2016 and just decided to tack more stuff on top of it. They seem to think that would make it better. Well, this is a great case of less is more. Doom 2016 felt cool. It felt slick and polished.    If you haven't played Doom 2016, play that instead. If you have played Doom 2016, go and play it again.

    I am quite disappointed with this game. It feels like they took the good stuff from Doom 2016 and just decided to tack more stuff on top of it. They seem to think that would make it better. Well, this is a great case of less is more.

    Doom 2016 felt cool. It felt slick and polished. It made you feel like a no-nonsense bad-ass.

    Doom Eternal feels more like a single-player arena-shooter. Bright and colorful. Wacky and goofy. It's not all bad, but I just couldn't take it seriously when DoomGuy suddenly grabs hold of a wall and crawls on it like a spider. What!? And the platforming doesn't even try to disguise itself. It's literally platforms, in the air, you have to jump across. And swinging poles and... It's just so silly.

    Monsters are redesigned a bit. For some reason they have all new faces. And it makes them look more cartoonish. I love how the monsters fall apart slowly when shooting them. It's the one thing from Doom Eternal I am absolutely in love with. That's a valuable edition to D16's design.

    I don't care for the shooting mechanic design. There's too much stuff to keep track of. And you basically have to play the game a certain way to win because the uses of the different "tools" are so specific. Upgrades don't feel like they really matter beyond the weapon mods. It feels more like you are removing restrictions, than upgrading equipment. It just feels poorly designed. Like they forgot to design the upgrade properly and instead just decided to remove everything that makes him badass, only to let you slowly unlock it all again throughout the game. I couldn't believe how restrictive the game feels at the beginning. It's just no fun.

    And the exploring is no fun either this time around. Why? I have no idea! I loved exploring the levels in D16, it was part of what I did on each map. Now? I just want to get on with the game so I can finish it.

    I am about 12 hours into the game, and I've simply lost all interest in it. I'm not even sure I want to complete it.    … Expand
  17. ecto1a2003
    Apr 7, 2020
    5
    If this game was called anything else it'd be a 7 out of 10 for me, somehow the 4 year wait for this game has produced a game that feels like a rushed sequel with mario 64 platforming, music that goes unnoticed during battle instead of amping you up, bullet sponge enemies, terrible neon punch blocks, purple goo that exists to make sure you move at a snail's pace, secrets in plain site, mapIf this game was called anything else it'd be a 7 out of 10 for me, somehow the 4 year wait for this game has produced a game that feels like a rushed sequel with mario 64 platforming, music that goes unnoticed during battle instead of amping you up, bullet sponge enemies, terrible neon punch blocks, purple goo that exists to make sure you move at a snail's pace, secrets in plain site, map design that is call of duty levels of linear, and a giant hand wave of plot and story that wraps this crap sandwich together. Buy 2016 and play that instead.… Expand
  18. Purplebleaf
    Feb 17, 2021
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is like total **** Brainles killing bad mechanics wtf happend with doom when you had to use a dying lantern on a dark corridor… Expand
  19. MCmetacritic
    Nov 10, 2020
    5
    This whole game feels like DLC, which is to say the story is very pat and thin while maintaining an air of fullness and profundity. The gameplay isn't bad, but is a step back from the previous game. Simplicity gave way to needless complexity. Predictably, Betheseda let greatness give way to mediocrity.
  20. petriAND
    Dec 15, 2020
    6
    Well doom is doom a damon killer simulator and that is about it. Is fun and all but it has such a plain story almost inexistent even though is a way longer story and you can even call it a story.. i guess.. than the one they made in doom 2016. Combat is fun, animations are cool, the controls of the character feels old, without wheight like and that is all what i can say about this game.
  21. FifthWheel
    Mar 31, 2020
    6
    Doom Eternal is probably best summed up in one word, "confusion." It retains a lot of Doom mechanics and adds on with even more mechanics, upgrades, and puzzles. Early on, you can't hardly take two steps forward without seeing some tutorial for a new mechanic. There is a LOT more to try to remember when playing this game. The environments, while pretty, are extremely confusing to navigateDoom Eternal is probably best summed up in one word, "confusion." It retains a lot of Doom mechanics and adds on with even more mechanics, upgrades, and puzzles. Early on, you can't hardly take two steps forward without seeing some tutorial for a new mechanic. There is a LOT more to try to remember when playing this game. The environments, while pretty, are extremely confusing to navigate despite them being linear. There are lots of environmental puzzles and not as much in the way of corridor shooting. On one occasion I encountered a bug where a puzzle was slightly bugged and I was stuck as I didn't realize I was experiencing a bug.

    There's too much story in this game. While Doom 2016 mocks its own story by letting you ignore it, showing the Doom guy rage on the environment while characters talk, Doom Eternal is a parody of itself in this aspect by including crazy priests, humans that are in awe, and demons that are literally so scared of you they hand you weapons. It slows the game down and just comes off as weird.

    While it's somewhat fun, it's definitely not as well polished as Doom 2016 and tries to add too much, ultimately making it a bit of a slog to get through and a confusing mess. It's also much, much harder than Doom 2016, which isn't a bad thing, but if you were expecting Doom 2016's difficulty again, you're in for a rude awakening.

    Overall, fans of Doom 2016 will probably enjoy this, but classic Doom fans might not.    … Expand
  22. loevenbalk
    Mar 23, 2020
    6
    First, two quick things about me to show you my bias going into this.

    1, I am fundamentally disinterested in FPS games, first-person viewpoints, challenges that test speed and dexterity, and break-neck pace in my games. However... 2, Doom 2016 forced me to reevaluate all of those preferences with such persuasion that I've slowly started branching out from my comfort zone of strategy    First, two quick things about me to show you my bias going into this.

    1, I am fundamentally disinterested in FPS games, first-person viewpoints, challenges that test speed and dexterity, and break-neck pace in my games. However...
    2, Doom 2016 forced me to reevaluate all of those preferences with such persuasion that I've slowly started branching out from my comfort zone of strategy and management games.

    So it's safe to say that I was looking forward to Doom Eternal. Jaded as I've become from watching the video game industry load me up with hype time and time again, I've started to expect disappointment in places where I really shouldn't. But Eternal was not one of these places. When I replayed the predecessor last year I had such a good time with it that I didn't have the heart to uninstall it and free up space on my SSD until Eternal was released. Now I'm wondering whether I should uninstall Eternal and load up on some more of its predecessor because that particular fork of lightning did not strike the same place twice.

    Now, to be clear let me just acknowledge this. I think the devs made the game they set out to make. The game is polished and everything that you might want to work perfectly in a Doom game does so here. So in that sense I cannot fault the product. This is not an absolute failure, which is of course why I havn't scored it as such either. The arcady feel that they are going for is evident right from the get-go with the colour scheme. And it is perfectly understandable why. The 80s are delightfully retro at this point, and as we have seen from the mainstream media, if you do it right this formula is almost guaranteed to deliver success.

    But this game fails to deliver on several of the core premises that made its masterful predecessor appeal to even a sceptic like me, and the switch to a more arcade feel in this game is one of the first things that let me know changes were coming with this game. Changes I was scared of because 2016s release really didn't need many to be a 10/10. While the audio-visual feedback of slashing gore fed to me through a tube made of unholy metal tunes was the primary source of my enjoyment, several other pieces also played a pivotal role. Like the fact that almost nothing would break the pace. I felt like I was actively part of the speed metal giving me a rush as I was storming through the levels grinding my way through this demon or that. Even picking up little stashed away toy dolls wouldn't slow down my pace. My silent and faceless protagonist would simply pick it up, admire it for a bit, and whoever wanted that fan servicing would have had it without players like me feeling slightly short changed after discovering a secret location.

    In Eternal the pace simply isn't the same. While the combat may be slightly more chaotic (in a good way) and certainly more rapid, the additions to traversal mechanics alone make sure of that, anything that doesn't revolve around turning demons into goop with a bulletstorm actively feels like it is there to power you down. Picking up toy dolls stops your movement dead. Using almost any elevator locks you in place, and you can't even change weapons while riding it. The tutorials, that still show up half-way through the game, pause the action and hits you with an info dump in a text prompt. Everything about this makes me think the developers forgot their winning formula of minimalistic and unobtrusive story telling of 2016. I am met with an expositional dump in every mission, which really isn't all that interesting.

    The storyline of 2016 was mediocre, and relatively speaking it was the weak point of the game, but it didn't matter because the protagonist showed you with almost every one of his scripted actions that it wasn't what was important - shooting demons in their stupid faces was. In Eternal the story line makes up almost a fifth of the runtime of the game - which is substantially increased if you're a veteran speedrunning through the action and not mucking about like a casual like me. I haven't tested it, but it seems most cutscenes can be skipped but this doesn't excuse the fact that the story line is put into more of a central position in this game, and it is worse than the already mediocre story of the predecessor. 2016 showed us that the way to solve that issue isn't to introduce a skip button, but to layer the exposition into the background of the action.

    Now, is all this to say that I didn't enjoy Eternal at all? No it isn't. I am simply trying to qualify why Eternal failed to wow me in the way that 2016 did. It invited me to come play with toys I had overlooked. Eternal on the other hand is loaded with attempts at fan service, so perhaps this game simply wasn't aimed at drawing in newer players.    … Expand
  23. skeletorone
    Sep 8, 2020
    5
    DOOM Eternal is a major disappointment. It is overdesigned and frustratingly limiting. You are not the Doomslayer in this one. You are just a monkey that is supposed to jump through hoops and hurdles the game throws at you and you can't avoid it. In fact the game is entirely designed around that. The low amount of ammo you are allowed to carry feels wrong at every moment. It is not likeDOOM Eternal is a major disappointment. It is overdesigned and frustratingly limiting. You are not the Doomslayer in this one. You are just a monkey that is supposed to jump through hoops and hurdles the game throws at you and you can't avoid it. In fact the game is entirely designed around that. The low amount of ammo you are allowed to carry feels wrong at every moment. It is not like there isn't enough ammo available, it is the fact that the game funnels you into a very specific combat loop to acquire the ammo. The platforming sections are absolutely annoying and sometimes just badly designed. I remember one section where I clearly was able to reach a certain platform with double jump and double dash but the game uses an invisible wall to deny this because it is expected that the player follows a different path. That's basically DOOM Eternal in a nutshell to me. You are not allowed to do it your way because we [id Software] have this very narrow, rigid synergy designed for you. The platforming aspect destroys the idea of taking a breath between the combat sections and it completely killed my desire to explore the levels the way I did in DOOM 2016. Yellow monkey bars, Super Mario style fireball traps, purple goo that sticks Doomguy to the ground... Really? The upgrade system is bloated. Technically the game is fine. It looks good and mechanically everything works as intended. Sadly, it just isn't a fun game overall and it is certainly not "shooter perfection".… Expand
  24. Francky
    Mar 28, 2020
    5
    Такое ощущение, что создатели вдруг решили: "Постойте, ведь игрок может просто начать бегать и крошить демонов, как и стоило бы палачу рока! Но ведь разве мы зря делали эти лишние механики ползанья по стенам, прыжкам и т.д.? Натыкате в игру побольше всяких испытаний и постоянно напоминайте игрокам, что без выполнения всей этой чуши прохождение не считается. Пусть эти сучки почувствуют себяТакое ощущение, что создатели вдруг решили: "Постойте, ведь игрок может просто начать бегать и крошить демонов, как и стоило бы палачу рока! Но ведь разве мы зря делали эти лишние механики ползанья по стенам, прыжкам и т.д.? Натыкате в игру побольше всяких испытаний и постоянно напоминайте игрокам, что без выполнения всей этой чуши прохождение не считается. Пусть эти сучки почувствуют себя гребанным марио"

    6 баллов просто за приятные анимации, сносную стрельбу и попытку показать себя олдовым думом.    … Expand
  25. Onyxdreams
    Apr 30, 2020
    5
    Game COMPLETELY RUINED by gratuitous platforming that makes no sense.
    Save your money.
  26. Nifi
    Apr 1, 2020
    5
    After completing the campaign i can safely say combat is a HUGE step up from Doom 2016. Even though people complain a lot about the new mechanics being overwhelming, 2016's combat was too basic and slow (not saying it wasn't fun), so they fixed it.

    Unfortunately same can't be said for other stuff Story: 2016's story was side gameplay (if that makes sense). The kind of person who    After completing the campaign i can safely say combat is a HUGE step up from Doom 2016. Even though people complain a lot about the new mechanics being overwhelming, 2016's combat was too basic and slow (not saying it wasn't fun), so they fixed it.

    Unfortunately same can't be said for other stuff

    Story: 2016's story was side gameplay (if that makes sense). The kind of person who would play the 2016 and give it a 10/10 is generally bored of stories and just wants sheer gameplay. But in eternal, combat is background gameplay. And it tries to explain EVERYTHING. Stop, let the fans wonder why something happened or why someone did something.

    TL;DR: 2016: story for combat. Eternal:Combat for story

    Level Design: The familiarity of human engineering and the stranger environment of mars and hell made a great combo between feeling home and feeling lost.

    Eternals level design feels more like it was made for a Nintendo game.And between level platforming is really not what we asked for. The heaven like nature of sentinel prime and hell like environment of earth feels more like a fantasy game.

    Character design: 2016 Doomguys armor made him inhuman, you couldn't tell if the person under the armor was actually a human or not, which made him look stronger. Also he didn't speak even for once (again inhuman)

    Eternals Doomguy is much more human and the "Rip and Tear" removes a lot of motive from his actions

    Also change in demon design made them feel more like toys rather then actual demons.

    Other stuff: colored ammo drops look bad, less gory, rune system was better in 2016, GIVE ME MY GAUSS CANNON BACK

    5/10, 5 for beauty of combat, the flow, the power. 0 for story and other side elements    … Expand
  27. fredblack
    Apr 15, 2020
    7
    I am truly dissapointed. It seems that the developers (or at least just one of the main managers) were not able to decide that they wanted doom or a mariolike arkham game:they took such logical obstacles into the game that has nothing to do with a doom game. The doom series is NOT about solving logical riddles that stopes you during the gameplay. (Call me stupid,but in many cases I had noI am truly dissapointed. It seems that the developers (or at least just one of the main managers) were not able to decide that they wanted doom or a mariolike arkham game:they took such logical obstacles into the game that has nothing to do with a doom game. The doom series is NOT about solving logical riddles that stopes you during the gameplay. (Call me stupid,but in many cases I had no patience to figure them out,but watched walkthroughes in youtube.) The gamers dont play for this stuff:instead of logical riddeles they want actions and simple rapidness,what we got in the 2016 doom game in a very high quality.

    Others:

    - it is neceserry to use chainsaw,but this obviously too much,sometimes i felt that i am in a lumber mill not in a doom game
    -you cant chose your weapon,this not else but a complete disaster in an FPS game.
    -for me its a bit a hard to decide whether the story schemtic or not. I did not like it but thats very subjective. However I must mention it had some logical disorder with the argent energy. Also the place where soul extraction happens is not realistic. (For example its stupid that the whole worlds soul extraction happen in very small room.)    … Expand
  28. Tronyx12
    Dec 28, 2020
    5
    The game is good. But thats it, its ok. What got me in Doom 2016 was the environmental exploration, there are some neat QoL improvements here, but also, it feels shallow. The new additions to the combat didn't click with me, and the way they told the story this time around also didn't peak my interest. All in all, fun combat, but not an improvement in any way to Doom 2016.
  29. vunder
    May 12, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. overly difficult on normal mode, easy is not much different. heavy enemies are bullet sponges and the critical attacks to make them less lethal feels bad. the weapons feel weaker across the board. just not as much freedom in play style as the last game. all down time and exploration has been replaced with very poor platforming. entire game feels like a survival mode with constant scrounging for resources. not enough ammo and the guns are just to weak. glory kills should have given armor as well, the flamethrower is super annoying.

    the hub and the story are good, from an art standpoint its good, but i didn't want to buy a survival platformer with a doom backdrop and honestly with i would have just read the story online.    … Expand
  30. zzz_DeV1L_zzz
    Jun 7, 2020
    6
    The game is upset. I don’t know why everyone likes her so much. As if in Doom 2016 they simply introduced DLC to the new interface, improved the graphon and added a small plot, so you can make another 100 games about Doom. The game has become brighter, which of course is a minus. I wanted to see the relationship between Hayden and the executioner, but in the game there is simply zero talk.The game is upset. I don’t know why everyone likes her so much. As if in Doom 2016 they simply introduced DLC to the new interface, improved the graphon and added a small plot, so you can make another 100 games about Doom. The game has become brighter, which of course is a minus. I wanted to see the relationship between Hayden and the executioner, but in the game there is simply zero talk. Some NPC killings, after 30 minutes already become bad and have to take a break. In the middle of the game it was already so boring that I really really wanted to finish it as soon as possible. In Doom 2016 I felt the strength of the executioner, that he really is invincible, in this game, even at normal difficulty, with the slightest error, he loses all hp. Could tell more the story of his ordinary life, but got a couple of minutes of videos that tell the story very briefly. A lot of minuses, but still playable, so 6.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Best PC Game of 2020
3
#3 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 61 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 61
  3. Negative: 0 out of 61
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 22, 2020
    80
    The murderous amok simulator returns and is even more furious than before. Fantastic presentation and great fighting system are harmed only by annoying platforming sequences. [Issue#302]
  2. PCMag
    May 1, 2020
    90
    If you're looking for a deep and thought-provoking gaming experience that changes your outlook on life, look elsewhere. However, if you want a fast-paced, visceral shooter full of non-stop action and outrageous violence, you can't do better than Doom Eternal. If you liked 2016's offering you will love this follow up. It's a hell of a good time.
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  3. Riot Pixels
    Apr 19, 2020
    77
    Like Jason Statham’s character in Crank, Doom Eternal needs adrenaline every waking second. So long as you drown hordes of demons in their own blood, it feels like a perfect GOTY contender, but during quiet moments, Doom Eternal withers and forces you to ponder unpleasant questions. id Software needs to course-correct, otherwise we’ll be playing Super Doom Slayer’s Bros in a few years.
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