You know, paying full price for this game way before it released and finally playing it made me realize how much my standards, as a gamer, have been lowered by so many AAA games that I have always preordered on sight (Specifically, every single CoD).


I'm gonna try to be as descriptive as possible, without making the review too long, so I don't distract whoever is reading this from buying the game and immediately getting into action, without further of due, let's begin with my experience with the 2020 DooM. Before anything, I'm gonna be reviewing just the singleplayer, as I haven't tried out the multiplayer yet. Once I do, I'll update the review.

I have to say straight away that id has not lost it's crown as a professional video game developer. Right off the bat, you can see the amount of detail that has gone into the new idTech 7 engine, which looks absolutely incredible. To my surprise, the game runs on a 4 gig GTX1050Ti at 60FPS on near-max settings without a single hitch. The visuals are stunning, the enemies are really good looking and the sound design is just on point. This is all I have to say about the technical aspect of the game, I'll get into the actual gameplay now.

So, obviously, the reason everybody plays DooM is for the ultra fast-paced action, movement and demon slaughtering. id knows this, so they went balls to the walls with Eternal.

The combat has never been so satisfying, ever. I had my complaints about 2016's DooM, where some of the enemies were straight up bullet sponges, this isn't a problem here. Weak points is an incredibly useful and clever mechanic that has helped me countless times, there's nothing better than knowing the exact way to kill every demon as efficiently as possible, it is difficult to get used to it at first, but learning and mastering every mechanic, grenades, weapons, runes and all that turns you into a killing machine and there is nothing more fun than dispatching an entire room of super demons with ease.
It is quite hard to describe the amount of joy I get from the insane combat, all I can say is that it's the best I could've asked for. Enemy placement is great and I've never been stuck somewhere or even died a single time, it was really smooth moving around blasting demons at the same time. The flame belch, grenades, ice grenades, crucible, all the utilities were always used and I've never had cases where I didn't feel like I needed them.

I've heard a lot of complaints about the lack of ammo throughout the game, I felt the same way at first, but then I started using the chainsaw way more than I used to, which was exactly what I was doing wrong. The reason why you run out of ammo is because we're really used to 2016 system of ammo everywhere and chainsaw being the get-out-of-jail-free card, which isn't the case here.

Level design is questionable at times, but as I said previously, the art style and visuals are absolutely incredible, while 2016 had 2 simple backgrounds - Mars and Hell, Eternal has multiple levels, Earth, Demon fortresses, Phobos and so on. However, platforming made a return and as I expected, was sometimes annoying. It may have been just bad luck or simple bugs, but I've had multiple times where I have no idea where to go, or have somehow not grabbed that damn ledge I was clearly on. There are several cases of terrible invisible walls, but I understand that this game is way more open than 2016, therefore there has to be a way to stop players from going outside the map, possibly exploiting it. I do like the fact that you don't get instakilled when you fall anymore, so that soothed the pain a little, at least.
What I love most about the level design is the fact that the AutoMap is now so much better, I rarely used it in the 2016 one, because it was quite linear and easy to navigate, but here, there is nothing more satisfying than locating the secrets which are neatly placed, not too confusing, not too obvious.
Secrets are really cool, toys, soundtracks and the sentinel batteries that reward you with good stuff are really clever. There is nothing I love more than listening to the Doom 3 menu theme while putting sentinel batteries inside those gates to get extra suit upgrades!

Animations, oh wow, they are crazy. Some nostalgic ones from 2016 made a return, but most of them are very unique and extremely gorey, not at all annoying to perform. I have had some issues with them, sometimes props get in the way, and they're stuck in the screen while I'm ripping that Prowler's chest apart. Again, very rarely, but still a bug. I haven't died a single time throughout the game (I mean an actual death, I have used extra lives), but I've seen the animations of the Slayer dying, which suck. 2016 had all kinds of crazy ones, even a Terminator reference, but it's nonexistent here.

Enemy design, as I mentioned, is really good. I've seen many fans complaining about how it's a downgrade from 2016, but honestly, we should realize that 2016 has a completely different setting. Wouldn't it be worse if the models stayed the same? That would be lazy. I don't think it's fair to compare the demons, as they're two different games in different times. The DooM Slayer was in stasis for a long amount of time, who knows how the demons would change meanwhile?

Guns, yes. THE GUNS. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of the pistol, which I completely understand. Weak, infinite ammo weapons aren't a "DooM" thing, there was no reason for it being there, as you're supposed to be using heavy as ♥♥♥♥ weapons to terrorize those demons. All the weapons just sound incredible, the animations are equally great and the mods were also really fun and useful. In 2016, most mods were obsolete, but here, you utilize them way more, each of them have their very own challenges and master unlocks, which are also hellishly (pun intended) good.

Suit upgrades made a return as well. It was confusing at first, but I quickly learned what upgrades to go with and when to use which runes, furthermore strengthening that the game wants you to understand the enemies, yourself, and master the way of demon slaying, which I absolutely adore.

I was skeptical at first about the story, I couldn't understand a single thing and I thought it was just lazy writing for an otherwise incredible gameplay, but when you get to Doom Slayer's backstory, it gets way more interesting and you understand all that's going on (if you're not a moron, obviously). After which, I got invested in the gameplay even more to find out what happens next. Well, not like I didn't know, Doomguy (AKA DOOMSLAYER) kills literally everything demon-related in existence, including the pathetic bosses that were super fun to battle against).
However, I was really annoyed by the cutscenes, yes, you can skip them, but not the ones that appear after you've killed every demon in an arena. I've had multiple occasions where I've killed the last Imp and I'm about to kill a possessed, but the game thinks the possessed isn't a threat at all, so the cutscene interrupts my gameplay the second I kill the Imp, ultimately catching me off-guard and getting hit by that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, which on the max difficulty is a real pain. They've also caused me to drop down in the pits of hell, because I happened to kill the enemy the game considers last in mid air, while jumping from one wall to another.

Don't think I have to mention the soundtrack, you all know what Mick Gordon is capable of. Whoever thinks the music is bad, see you in hell alongside Michael P. Shipley.

They've really stayed true to the series by making the game as fun and arcade as possible, I doubt this game is "innovation", but it is certainly a call from the past, a call that tells us never to take a good game for granted and keep our standards high. Thank you so much id.