Doom Eternal

A Strategy Game but at Breakneck Speed

I really enjoy strategy games, often turn-based strategy games. Into the Breach, Battle Brothers, Slay the Spire, make up some of my all-time favorites. These games give you an infinite amount of time for analysis between every one of your moves. It’s slow, methodical, and challenging as you think through options and way the pros and cons. Now what if you removed the turn-based mechanic, so now the game no longer pauses, and kept the plethora of strategic gameplay options while throwing decisions at the player faster than they can handle? I think you get Doom Eternal… it’s a strategy game at breakneck speed.

I am not well-versed in what I’m going to call action FPS games. I’ve played classic Id Software titles like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein and the Half-Life and Halo series are some my favorites from the 2000s. That being said, I’ve found action FPS games to be fun but lacking in depth. They’re mechanically engaging often because of the slick movement and gunplay but as the novelty wears the repetitiveness is revealed. The Id Software games then rely on tight, maze-like level design for quick bite-sized flurries of action, while Half-Life and Halo have more expansive, lived-in levels to explore. However, when it comes to strategy these games boil down to which gun am I going to use to shoot which enemy and honestly it often doesn’t matter… All of this is to say Doom Eternal is this but more. Slick movement and gunplay, expansive and maze-like levels, it’s all there, but now there’s another gameplay pillar and that’s strategy.

Coming Up for Air

Now I want to run through a gameplay scenario to illustrate the mechanical and strategic depth Eternal presents the player. Let’s use the example shown in the screenshot below. So, a couple key bits of information standout as needing problem solved: (a) player has low health, (b) player has low armor, (c) the player’s plasma rifle is out of ammo, and (d) there’s demon’s needing slain. Now be aware, that effective problem solving in Eternal typically requires the player to address multiple problems at once and actively disincentivizes players doing one thing at a time. For instance, we could turn around and look for a medpack on the ground somewhere and that would address problem (a) but it’s more than likely that problems (b)-(d) will rear their ugly heads if you do so. Taking your eyes off demons will result in taking more damage, that damage will go straight to HP without armor, the number of demons will only grow, and the plasma rifle ammo will still be out. So, let’s run through a couple potential solutions together:

1. Swap to combat shotgun with sticky bomb mod, fire sticky bomb at cacodemon putting it into a glory kill state, perform glory kill, then flame belch remaining demons. Pros: Eliminates the biggest threat, glory kill drops HP, flame blech can drop armor. Cons: Other threats still present, ammo still a problem.
2. Swap to super shotgun and use the meat hook mod on the revenant and try to eliminate his turret weak points, then chainsaw the cacodemon. Pros: Eliminates the biggest threat and cripples long range threat, meat hook drops armor, chainsaw drops ammo. Cons: Other threats still present, HP still a problem.
3. Swap to ice grenade and toss in the center of demons, swap to heavy cannon with precision bolt mod and eliminate the revenant turret weak points. Dash in and glory kill revenant. Pros: Eliminates long range threat, other threats neutralized, glory kill drops HP. Cons: Ammo and armor still a problem.

Obviously, Eternal does not give you time to breakdown and analyze every situation quite like this. Nevertheless, this illustrates the strategic options available to the player, the pros and cons you want to weigh but don’t have the time. And this gets back into the “run away and look for a medpack” option I mentioned earlier. While that’s clearly not optimal, it does give you time… maybe… There were many times where I became overwhelmed and simply ran away to give myself a chance to think. The mental fatigue is real! During a grueling arena battle, waves and waves of enemies will continuously test your ability to react and think on your feet and at a certain point you mentally throw up your hands and must reset. The best analogy I can give for Doom Eternal’s arena combat is swimming as fast as you can underwater and when you come up for air someone lets you get half a breath that shoves you back under. It’s exhilarating.

The Slayer’s Toolkit

Laced into the solutions I presented earlier was a bunch of references to the Slayer’s toolkit. And while a player in any game can run headlong into action and try to rip and tear, it’s the Slayer’s toolkit that strongly encourages this playstyle in Eternal. Glory kills, the flame belch, and the chainsaw fill out the toolkit providing HP, armor, and ammo respectively. These options are activated, and their rewards reaped at closed range, driving the player into the mayhem. Weapons and enemies both have interplay with this toolkit as well. Enemies have weak points that can be targeted by certain weapons putting them into a glory kill state. Certain weapons stagger enemies so when combined with the flame belch one can maximize armor drops.

One thing of note that tripped me up in my first playthrough was equipment progression. It might be due to other games I’ve played recently, but I wasn’t expecting to be able to upgrade literally everything fully in one playthrough, well before the end of the game. Eternal is a full-on power trip, albeit with stiff opposition, so maybe this is the point and the developers wanted you to have a fully upgraded arsenal at the end of the day.

Verdict

★★★★1/2

Doom Eternal is the best action FPS I’ve ever played, hands down. No other game has ever had me glued to the screen so intensely. Other games have drawn me in just as much but the pace at which Eternal operates leaves your eyelids completely peeled back and your eyeballs popping out, scraping across the screen trying to take in all the information presented. Seriously, it’s hard to describe the sensory experience the occurs during an Eternal arena fight, there’s nothing quite like it. And it really comes down to the layered strategic options: resource management, enemy weaknesses, navigating the arenas, weapon combos. So, while you’re trying to take in all the visual madness on screen, audio cues are also going off in the background, add on top of that your brain frantically trying to make the right decision or more likely scrambling to correct the mistake you just made. And while I’ve spent so much time gushing over the gameplay, I’ll quickly mention that everything else about Eternal is just top notch. The art and world design are just gorgeous and imaginative, soundtrack and sound design are mixed just right to convey information while revving up the intensity, and the performance is phenomenal. Id Software absolutely optimized the hell out of Eternal and what game could possibly benefit from that more?