Doom: Eternal Is an FPS Masterpiece Held Back by Its DLC (2025)

Doom: The Dark Ages — the prequel to the Doom series' 2016 reboot — is just a few months away from release. Fans and casual gamers' expectations couldn't be higher, especially since the prequel promised to give them a First-Person Shooter (FPS) the likes of which no one has seen before. It also helps that the highly anticipated game is coming out a few years after Doom redefined the FPS game, not through its soft reboot, but its sequel, Doom: Eternal.

Then and now, Doom: Eternal was a video game sequel like no other. It completely rewrote the rules of combat and demon mass murder that both the original and rebooted Doom seemingly set in stone, and then it went further than that. Gamers heralded the game as one of the greatest shooters ever made when it was released in 2020, and this high claim holds true even now. But as incredible as Doom: Eternal is, it's not quite perfect.

Doom: Eternal’s Combat Is an Improvement in Every Conceivable Way

The Game Made Doom (2016) Look and Feel Slow

To say that Doom: Eternal greatly improved Doom's gameplay is an understatement. Words are not enough to describe how different the sequel is when compared to its predecessor. If Doom was an update of its namesake's classic playstyle, Doom: Eternal is the kind of exhilarating celebration of movement and combat that can only exist in today's systems. For better and worse, Doom was an old-school, run-and-gun shooter where the player just sprinted around the arena and shot demons in the face. But in Doom: Eternal, the player can now fly across the level while killing demons in countless ways. The sequel's story and level design may be linear, but the combat is anything but. Everything great about Doom's combat is back now, only faster, better and more enjoyable than before.

Once again, the true star of Doom: Eternal's gameplay is the weapons. Unlike before, when players could prioritize their favorite firearm and leave the rest — especially the pistol and grenade — behind, all of Doom: Eternal's weapons are absolutely necessary. Certain enemies' weak points can only be exploited by a specific gun, explosive or melee attack. Others can only be taken down by cycling through the Doom Slayer's entire weapon wheel in a matter of seconds. Combined with the demons' tricky timing and their ever-increasing numbers, the creative gunplay forces the player to learn how to switch their weapons on the fly. More importantly, it encourages them to master the game's rapid style of fighting and killing. The moment players get into the Doom Slayer's rhythm, they'll unlock Doom: Eternal's power fantasy and never look back.

Every other game, including Doom, will look and feel slow when compared to this adrenaline-fueled sequel. Even better, the sequel has tons of replay value thanks to the countless collectible cheats, challenges and items scattered throughout the game. No two playthroughs will feel the same thanks to the dynamic combat, variety of enemies and new ways to play the game that are just hiding in plain sight. The worst that could be said about the gameplay is that platforming still sticks out like a sore thumb and tends to kill a level's momentum. Jumping across platforms and bars can still be frustrating, but thankfully, this is somewhat mitigated by the sheer amount of slaughter the player will get to commit once they land.

Doom: Eternal Turned the Series Into an Epic Dark Fantasy

The Game Recontextualized Everything About Doomguy

Doom's biggest and only real drawback was its story, which was really just an excuse to bring the Doom Slayer and players back to a demon-infested Mars. Although Doom isn't exactly known for its narrative depth and complex characters, the reboot missed the chance to truly modernize the series and push it to the next artistic level. It didn't help that the game was littered with many cool hints at a bigger world and story, only to never actually do anything with them. Thankfully, Doom: Eternal addressed this fault head-on by transforming Doom from a gory sci-fi shooter into a full-blown dark epic. Instead of just being a sci-fi game with some horror elements and Satanic iconography, Doom: Eternal is a sprawling epic that sees the Doom Slayer fight on Earth, Mars and beyond.

Doom's most basic elements now have more meaning to them, and the player has more reason to keep killing demons beyond the catharsis of winning a level. All these are told through cutscenes and visual storytelling that never overstay their welcome, and only strengthen the story's mood. Even better, the story's presentation has more personality to it than Doom's did. Where the 2016 reboot had little in the way of story or humanity due to its priorities as a shooter, Doom: Eternal throws in some much-needed levity and perpetually-increasing stakes. The game isn't above making a few jokes — such as the demons' comical expressions of fear when they're Glory Killed — but it also knows when to make things apocalyptic and dire. The same goes for the characters, who are now more than just one-dimensional archetypes.

For one, Doom: Eternal turns the Doom Slayer's one-man war against Hell into the stuff of legends. The game doesn't just give the silent protagonist newfound depth, but acknowledges his godlike status both in Doom's world and in reality. From a narrative perspective, this makes it one of the best and most self-aware gaming power fantasies. Even better, the game accomplishes this without changing anything about him. He's still the same unstoppable audience avatar who terrified demons almost 30 years ago, only now with a better-defined backstory, personality and motives. The supporting cast of allies and enemies only really exist to prop up the Doom Slayer's myth, but they at least do a lot more than just tell the player what to do next. They have their own goals and beliefs that either support or contradict those of the Doom Slayer's, making the conflict more dynamic than just slaughtering Hell's armies.

The worst thing about Doom: Eternal's story was that it didn't know how to end. Besides the fact that its real finale had to be bought in the two-part DLC The Ancient Gods, the game abruptly ended the decisive war between humanity and Hell with an underwhelming final boss. Without spoiling too much, the final boss' identity was perfect, but their rivalry against the Doom Slayer should've been developed throughout an entire game. Instead, it was a footnote that was sporadically visited throughout the DLC, and one that was barely alluded to in the main game. The Ancient Gods had many good ideas and subplots, but it should've either been part of the main campaign from the start or its own fully-realized sequel. As it is, the DLC feels more like an underdeveloped deleted chapter than a fitting coda.

Doom: Eternal Is Still the Gold Standard for FPS Games

The Game Has Yet to Be Surpassed

Doom: Eternal did the impossible and surpassed its already great predecessor in every regard. Its few flaws aren't the result of a lack of effort. On the contrary, they're the inevitable hiccups that come with the developers' ambitious attempts to do everything they envisioned for this sequel. Naturally, not all their ideas will work as well as they intended. But even so, Doom: Eternal remains one of the most innovative and empowering FPS games of recent memory. Time has been and will be kind to this game, especially given how the rest of the FPS genre has yet to reach its level. It won't be surprising if the only thing that dethrones Doom: Eternal is Doom: The Dark Ages, and there couldn't be a worthier usurper.

Doom: Eternal is now available to play and own physically and digitally.

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DOOM Eternal

Hell has taken Earth, so it's up to the Doom Slayer, the ultimate demon-killing machine created by a mystical force, to rip and tear the forces of Hell apart. However, Hell is not alone in this fight.

FPS

Action

Platform(s)

Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch

Released

March 20, 2020

Developer(s)

id Software

Publisher(s)

Bethesda

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Pros & Cons

• The combat is even faster and better than that of the first game's.
• The story is much deeper and larger than ever before.
• The game never gets old thanks to its diverse combat mechanics and rewards.

• The game's ending could've been better written.
• The platforming can still be annoying and distracting.

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