This feature was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

Doom 2016 was lauded by critics for its incredibly tight gunplay, and loved by fans for its gruesome, over-the-top demon slaying. It’s surprising then, that Doom Eternal - despite a return to Mars - takes an entirely different approach.

The player is sent on a diplomatic mission, with the Doomslayer leaving the guns at home in an attempt to broker a peace agreement. Branching conversational paths with the planet’s hell-born inhabitants offer the player multiple avenues in which to resolve the conflict, with higher scores awarded for avoiding any bloodshed.

I kid. The Doomslayer is still very much from the ‘shoot first and what the hell is a question?’ school of diplomacy. Michel Barnier he is not.

Tool Up

This will be great news to fans of the previous game of course. The means by which you dispatch of the grotesque aggressors has gotten even more gloriously OTT if anything, helped along by some awesome new weaponry.

My personal favourite was a shotgun that had been outfitted with a grappling hook. Launching it at an unsuspecting demon was a great way of moving around the self-contained combat areas. Pulling the trigger just as you landed to see your unwitting hookshot target explode in a shower of blood and sinew was spectacularly satisfying too.

***The grappling hook addition to the shotgun is an absolute riot.***

As in the first game (first in this case being the 2016 release, not the PC original), utilising different attacks yielded different drops from enemies. If you’re low on ammo, carving a demon in two with the chainsaw will reward you with extra shells and bullets, while glory kills will give you some health. This mechanic has been expanded for the second game though, as you can now use a shoulder-mounted flamethrower to barbecue enemies and gain armour pieces (I have to say, this was a lot of fun). Plus, if you chain multiple glory kills together you can then use a devastating blood punch. Moving through hordes of enemies and switching up your attacks to replenish the necessaries whilst simultaneously delivering the most fatal blow to your foes makes you feel truly godlike.

Combat has added another neat twist in that some of the bigger baddies have specific areas you can target to gain a tactical advantage. What was once a formidable hellspawn becomes a helpless sack of bullet riddled meat once you’ve disabled his mechanical guns. These subtle extra elements don’t distract from the run-and-gun fun that fans of Doom are familiar with, but they do add another layer to proceedings that mean you’ve got to use your brain just a little. Successfully clearing out an area with nary a scratch on you becomes much more satisfying as a result.

This evolution has been applied to the Doomslayer’s movement too, as you can now double jump, dash in the air as well as along the ground, and climb or cling to certain walls too. All of this means there’s an added verticality to the areas that make Doom Eternal’s combat areas much more fluid and much more dangerous than before. You really need to be on your toes and constantly moving around to avoid being attacked from behind or above.

Eternal Evolution

Essentially then, Doom Eternal takes what made it’s predecessor great and dials it up a notch or five. The core gameplay will be instantly familiar, but the additions and upgrades on offer make it the ideal evolution of 2016’s effort.

It’s a shame that the Switch version has been delayed to a TBC release date and we’ll no longer be playing it alongside the other platforms in March. I should note that the build I played was a PC one, so there’s no telling if the delay to the Switch iteration is because it needs extra polish. It certainly looked spectacular on PC, and the environments would have been well worth stopping to drink in were I not so busy trying to avoid having my head blown off. There’s lots of little details that go barely noticed in the maelstrom. I’m intrigued to see how many make it over to the Switch version given the additional delay.

Still though, Doom Eternal is shaping up to be a rip-roaring return for the Doomslayer, and the demo I played at EGX unquestionably left me wanting more.