DOOM: Eternal has off course gotten lots of attention. It is still the first person shooter game we all know and love but this time… it’s bigger. Much bigger. More demons, more areas, more kills, more style, more variety, more weapons and off course more DOOM Guy, also known as the Slayer. Let’s take a look.

DOOM: Eternal is being developed by ‘Id Software‘ but published by ‘Bethesda‘. The developers wanted to go in a bit of a different direction. It’s now more than just a game with chapters. There are worlds for players to reach and battle demons there. Their website says the words “never before seen worlds”. So DOOM: Eternal looks like it will play like Metroid and Destiny in terms of there being different locations and players can travel to them with lots to do in each one. It definitely feels like an open world but not as big. We can tell from the surroundings that Hell has been brought to earth. There are destroyed buildings, ruined roads and pavement, large chasms, lava around, fire around, bridges destroyed etc. Looks like things are getting real bad for humanity. Either Hell has been brought to earth or certain places on earth was brought to Hell. It’s more likely the former. We can say right now that if you enjoyed DOOM, then DOOM: Eternal is something for you.

There are some new weapons like the ballista which can spear demons with a explosive bolt. it’s almost like the Slayer had some training with the elves. it’s fires accurately and in a straight line but looks like a laser. The Slayer has his own super shotgun which has a device called the meat hook which you can fire at enemies and then zip line towards them at speed to get close for the kill or for increased mobility. Each of the weapons are suppose to be made in a way that one doesn’t outshine the other all together. Each one allows destruction of the enemy. The combat shotgun has the launch able grenades but now they can stick into enemies and then explode which will come in handy. The combat shotgun also has a feature where you can use an attachment that allows the combat shotgun to fire rapidly as the attachment rotates like a chain gun barrel. It does look awesome. The heavy assault rifle also has a second mode where if you zoom in, it becomes like a zoomed in single fire powerful rifle that is lethal with headshots. It can also pierce through enemies by the way, so get that double headshot with one bullet. 

In terms of combat mechanics, there has been a lot of upgrades. for starters DOOM: Eternal has given players far more mobility than before. Players can jump into horizontal poles and pipes and can swing of them which you can then jump once again allowing the reaching of further and higher places. Players can now do a quick dash at great speeds and can also dash in the air. You can combine these movements with the meat hook to become nearly untouchable as you can double jump there, swing of a pipe, dash and then grapple a demon at a distance to zoom across in that direction, then jump off all while firing at anything and everything. That sounds crazy. The Slayer also has a shoulder mounted cannon weapon that can fire a grenade or even spray fire at enemies for assistance or just that additional damage. The Slayer now has a wrist extendable blade, sort of like what the Predator has. The Slayer uses it to stab enemies and mainly for glory kills in brutal but clean fashion.

An event can take place warning the player of ‘Incoming invaders’ which again suggests that it’s still earth or mars (whatever) that we are fighting on. When the invaders show up there job is to take down the Slayer. Now a gameplay did leave us some clues concerning the invaders. The Revenant and Mancubus we say had names above their heads. The Revenants was “D00t76” and the Mancubus had “Daisy121” Sort of like a gamer tag maybe… like what alpha and beta builds of games have where players have these given names when they play. That’s right, just like with Dark Souls, players can invade other players as demons to take them down. Imagine just playing and slaying and then all of a sudden two highly skilled Doom players invade and come straight for your head. It just got real… but wait… there’s more! Players can team up and form Slayer hunting teams. This will make your campaign more unpredictable. Off course players have the options to choose whether to play alone, or set their campaign to no invasions.

As for the demons themselves… well… there is a lot of them. Some of the old ones are back like zombie guys, off course imps, hell knights, Pain elemental and Mancubus (this is just some of them). There are also some new ones too who are going to be a real problem. The goal of the developers was to obviously make players feel powerful but making Doom Guy (the Slayer) feel powerful by having him defeat powerful enemies. There’s one who’s known as the arch enemy of the Slayer. This enemy is large, mechanical, hovers, got a double chainsaw for one hand while the other hand holds a big cannon, which we think is for blowing us up and right next to the hover jets are what looks short of like mini chain guns. There is also what looks like mini missile launchers too. Scary. There is also the Marauda (not sure if spelt correctly) which is confirmed to have a story behind it. It looks like the Slayer and we think it’s a fallen Slayer because we know there were more than one Slayer in DOOM history. The one we saw has it’s own super shotgun, demon energy battle axe and some armour. Basically a real problem when encountered in the battle field. The enemies like before are numerous, hurling projectiles and doing everything they can to bring you down. There are demons in the air, demons on the ground, fast and slow enemies and enemies with projectiles while others are trying to run you down to get melee with you. The demons aren’t playing around this time, that’s for sure.

We checked out some gameplay and everything looks very good indeed. The graphics are excellent and they are using a powerful engine which was called the Id tech 7 engine. The sounds are great also. In terms of environments and different areas, there is the hell on earth area which looks completely destroyed but there are some new places in Hell also. There is the new UAC and it has gotten far more cult like and technology based. There is also some places that has never been seen before. Off course their is some emphasis on the environmental story telling so look around for details and clues. We saw where the Slayer ended up on Phobos and everyone was scared of him. No one got in his way and no one tried anything crazy. Even the armed guards realised who he was and just let him take his weapon. Very different to Master Chief from Halo who has everyones respects and is loved, instead of feared. So you can Cleary see the difference. Love vs fear. Master Chief vs the Slayer. Awesome.

Overall DOOM: Eternal looks like an awesome game. The developers ‘Id Software’ did an fantastic job with this game without a doubt. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to DOOM: Eternal. Killing demons is awesome for people like us. Now DOOM: Eternal may have a new and improved Slayer but even he is a joke and can’t compare to the ones who do… the ‘Earth Walk!’