Its Difficulty Makes You Think
Doom Eternal ups the difficulty in its gameplay more so than Doom 2016 did. Granted, the difficulty options in the menu are the same but Doom Eternal kicks it up a notch with its overwhelmingly aggressive enemies.
Compared to its predecessor, there are a lot more enemy types, each with their own specific set of skills and attacks that come at you like you just insulted their mom.
Because these enemies can easily overwhelm you, strategy needs to come into play. You need to prioritize specific demons like the long ranged fighters or the demons that like to get up close and personal. Maybe you need to deliberately group together some of the weaker targets to hit them all with a grenade so they stop bothering you.
And maybe you need to perpetually run like hell around the combat zone because a Marauder wants to become your best friend.
Doom Eternal also features enemy weak points that you can take advantage of to help give you some breathing space in combat. So, to add to the strategy, you need to be thinking of breaking a Revenant’s missile launcher or a Mancubus’ cannon before even thinking about the Hell Knight sprinting towards you.
Doom Eternal really makes itself unique by, instead of simply just being excessively and crazily violent, adding a twist of brain power to the mix.
There Are Loads Of Collectibles
We all fondly remember that Doom 2016 had fun little easter eggs and toys that were nods to the original Doom games and Quake. Doom Eternal takes it to a whole different level by adding a whole bunch more extras. Instead of just various Doomguy figurines, the game adds toys of every different enemy and character you can think of.
Additionally, records of songs from different Doom games, posters of bands and people, and plenty of lore texts can be found throughout the levels you play through. To add to all of that, fun little cheat codes that give you perks like unlimited ammo can be collected for use within the levels.
Getting 100% of the collectibles in the entire game will be a feat all on its own but it will definitely be fun to see all of the nostalgic items and tools the developers decided to put in the game.
The Amount of Equipment Might Be Overwhelming at First
On a similar vein to the game’s strategy, Doom Eternal adds a lot more equipment you can use to fight demons. In addition to the weapon wheel, there are different grenade types, a flamethrower, more than one Super Weapon, two different melees (not including the chainsaw), different weapon mods you can actively switch between, and a few other tools at your disposal.
You have to key different buttons to switch between many of the overlapping tools, so you might have a brain freeze trying to remember or figure out how to get to one or the other using your particular button layout.
In the heat of the moment, it also means that when you have two HP left and you’re trying to get away from the swarm of enemies trying to give you a hug, you might forget entirely how to get to the specific tools you need.
Of course, you don’t need to use every weapon and tool at your disposal, but Doom Eternal emphasizes the fact that you’ll be needing to use quite a lot of them in the many scenarios you’ll be trapped in. Pick out your favorite weapon builds and you’ll be destroying demons in no time.
Exploration Is A Must
Doom 2016 had its fair share of secret areas that gave a few goodies every now and again. It wasn’t detrimental to explore in that game but Doom Eternal practically makes it necessary.
In addition to the collectibles scattered across levels, there are also Praetor suit tokens, runes, Sentinel shards, secret encounters, extra lives, sentinel batteries, and, in the late game, mastery tokens.
There are also Slayer Gates with optional battles that, once beaten, grant Empyrean keys that eventually unlock the Unmakyr, the second Super Weapon in the game.
Missing secret areas in Doom 2016 didn’t really cost much in the long run but doing the same in Doom Eternal means you’ll be missing out on much needed upgrade materials and tools that will help make really hard fights be a little easier.
So, once you reach the end of a level, think before leaving or you’ll be giving up a ton.
Overall, Doom Eternal will be a fantastically fun experience that is a great improvement from the first game. The Doom series is keeping strong with its sequel and we’ll be ready for much more.
Be sure to check out our Doom Eternal review and wiki for guides, tips, and tricks.
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