Grapple-Hooked on a Feeling

A review of DOOM: Eternal, and the best feeling mechanic in video games.

"Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce, we will send unto them... only you. Rip and tear, until it is done."

DOOM: Eternal is a great video game; let’s start there.

“Why am I playing through this now?” you must be asking. “Surely, there are newer games to play?”

It’s simple: I had never finished Eternal when it came out initially in 2020, and with the imminent release of its sequel, DOOM: The Dark Ages, it felt like a great time to catch up. I had at least played every DOOM game up until this one, so I am very familiar with the series on the whole.

My favorite title thus far was this series’s previous entry, colloquially dubbed DOOM (2016): a gobsmacking reboot of the long-dormant franchise. That game was fantastic. It was my game of the year, the year it came out, and I play it fairly regularly, even years after its release.

When DOOM: The Dark Ages was announced last summer, I felt the urge to come back to DOOM: Eternal after having put it down. After finishing both the main game and its two accompanying DLC episodes, I am happy I did!

I enjoyed playing through Eternal and the DLC content, but I had some core issues that took it down a peg or two, in my estimation. I still think it’s brilliant to play and fantastic from start to finish, with a couple of minor detractions. Honestly… I still think I prefer DOOM (2016) over it, even if Eternal is a far better playing game.

DOOM: Eternal’s combat, sound design, visuals, and thrashing metal-laced rock soundtrack that accompanies its gameplay all come together to compose a beautifully grisly cacophony of bloody viscera and ripped innards that thrills you throughout its roughly 14-20 hour run time.

Every heavy-footed, cyber-booted step of its lengthy campaign is designed to entice you to consistently engage with its complicated systems and figure out the complex ‘combat ouroboros’ that become the intricate ‘verbs’ of your hellish descent into DOOM: Eternal’s shockingly lore-rich stageplay of space opera.

Id Software has spent years perfecting the frenetic dance of gunplay that makes up the skeletal structure of the DOOM series of first-person shooters, and DOOM: Eternal is by far the pinnacle of that core principle.

It just feels damn good to play.

Every weapon feels like a key cog to the clockwork ‘circle of life’ that makes up DOOM: Eternal’s combat philosophy– and each weapon, gadget, and movement ability afforded to the Doom Slayer allows this carefully designed and maintained ‘dance of death’ to thrive and be exciting throughout.

Once you get going, the Doom Slayer becomes a whirling dervish of mad intent: a singularly brutal being hellbent on slaughtering every shape and size of demon he encounters with extreme prejudice. He is not an evangelical savior meant to cleanse the world of sin– he is a reaper of lost souls driven by the only purpose he has in life: ripping and tearing through Hell’s demonic hordes.

The Doom Slayer dashes across the battlefield easily, accompanied by quick dashes and a nimble series of jumps that allow for greater lateral and vertical maneuverability when confronted with a crowd of horned beasts.

Armed primarily with his trusty ‘Super Shotgun’ (fitted smartly with a grapple-hook itself), the Doom Slayer uses an entire arsenal of UAC weaponry to bring the hammer down on Hell. This shotgun’s inclusion in particular is the specific thing that makes DOOM: Eternal so great.

The ‘hooked’ crosshair that tracks enemies in range so you can engage from afar beckons with the opportunity to get up close and personal with your target if need be. The need arises quite often, as it turns out. Pulling yourself to a marked enemy is the core fundamental interaction that makes DOOM: Eternal sing in its gameplay. Without this mechanic’s implementation, the game would be drastically poorer for it. It is the axis on which the cycle of combat spins.

I cannot stress how amazing it feels to fly around– dodging massive cacodemon fireballs, hurled imp energy projectiles, and acidic phlegm from armored mancubi. It’s a hailstorm of frenzied firepower being tossed your direction, and it seems unending as you pirouette your way between DOOM; Eternal’s cavalcade of foul beasts.

The key to the shotgun’s grappling implement is to wait for the right moment to launch your meat hook. It feels great to time this mechanic at the right moment so that you can rocket yourself like a spiteful death missile into a bewildered demon. Grappling an enemy and unloading a devastating shotgun blast into its mug is one of the best feelings I have ever had in video games.

This mechanic never got old either, even as I drew closer to finishing the game’s campaign. It is the lifeblood of id’s intricate combat dance.

Every combat mechanic symbiotically feeds off another in DOOM: Eternal. From using a chainsaw to reap ammo from ‘trash-mob’ enemies for your depleted cartridges, or using the shoulder-mounted ‘flame belch’ spray on demonic foes to generate shield chips, to the myriad of health, shield, and ammo pickups littered across each battleground– each resource system feeds into the next.

It creates a constant loop of resource management and item gathering that keeps the pace of play going even as you harvest combat ‘capitol’ to take on your next challenge. It’s this considered yet breakneck pace of play that keeps DOOM: Eternal from becoming stale in its moment-to-moment gameplay.

All these mechanics, weapons, and resource management coalesce with the enemy encounters to create a beautifully designed combat puzzle.

Each distinct foe that isn’t a weaker mob enemy has a weak point. When broken by a specific type of weapon from the Doom Slayer’s toolchest, it allows that enemy to be staggered or pressured into a lower health state, which makes that enemy that much easier to dispose of. Sniping off the Arachnotron’s brain-mounted energy gun to cripple it’s offensive capabilities never got dull, for instance.

I especially liked shooting the secondary missile fire on the machine gun to take out the mancubi’s arm cannons. Each enemy has a specific way to cripple them and allow for a glory kill that rewards both ammo and health.

When confronted with a large number of these types of enemies, all with their own set of weak points makes for a satisfying gameplay solve as you navigate an increasingly hectic arena, with all manner of bullets, magma, and ammo slugs whizzing past you as you attempt to get your bearings. Trying to solve the combat puzzle on the fly is one of the most satisfying and thrilling loops ever devised for a first-person shooter game. I will couch that opinion with some amount of criticism, however.

The intricacies of the combat loop, mechanical depth, and button input do levy a ‘skill-ceiling’ on players who interact with it. The added complexity of Eternal’s new features makes it a tougher game to play than its predecessor.

It can be more difficult for new and returning players to get into it if they are unable to understand the core ideas of the combat or if they lack the skills or proficiency to play the game since the developers have created the game to be played a specific way.

It feels not unlike From Software’s Sekiro: Shadow’s Die Twice, in this way, where the developers' intent supercedes the player’s expression that usually comes with the differing ways people approach and play games. There isn’t much wiggle room to do your own thing outside the developer’s intent in both of these titles, and as a result, it makes for a less accessible game for some people.

Since this is the case, if players can’t get on DOOM: Eternal’s ‘wavelength’, it’s more likely those gamers will be filtered out by what the game asks of them ability-wise.

It is not as accessible inherently as the previous game due to this fact. For those who see this game through, however, it’s mostly a wonderful experience from start to finish.

I do have some gripes about how many enemies they throw at you and how long each battle ends up taking as a result– but the whole act of engaging with the loop of combat is so satisfying that even if I felt exhausted by the end of an encounter it felt good every time to solve the puzzle each time.

The thing that annoyed me the most in playing through the campaign however, is the over-reliance on first-person platforming. It’s not always tough to finish a certain platforming challenge, but it is required at points to progress the game, and there is a LOT of it. The double jump for the Slayer can be unreliable, and the wall climbing in these segments isn’t automatic like I feel it should be.

By default, you have to press in the right joystick on a controller to magnetize to a cliff face. That mechanic specifically feels like that should be something that happens automatically for the character, instead of an awkward stick click in.

On the whole, the platforming is not great, and it feels like filler to break up the pace of action that makes up 80 percent of the campaign. It’s the portion of the game I am the most mixed on.

The thing about Eternal that shocked me the most is how hard they go with the story. It’s surprising how much lore and story they had written for this game, especially in comparison to the reboot, which had far less plot integrated into the campaign.

Where the previous game had a minor story that was filled in with codex collectibles to flesh out the proceedings, Eternal has full-on cutscenes with elaborate storytelling that dive deep into the world and characters that make up the universe of DOOM.

It’s a startling change from 2016, which felt more interested in having a thinner plot to drive the combat in the campaign, but the doubling down on the story isn’t bad, per se. It would be if it wasn’t interesting to see through. There are environmental, enemy, and story-focused codex entries, which describe segments of the universe of DOOM writ large, as well as numerous callbacks to previous games in its series.

The most thorough story in DOOM (2016), though, comes in the form of the Slayer’s Testaments. These are part of the collectible codex entries littered throughout the hidden nooks of DOOM (2016), and each is a bespoke and interesting look into the mysteries that make up the backstory that is the legacy of the Doom Slayer as viewed through the yellow lenses of Hell. These particular documents are read by what seems to be a ‘scribe’ from Hell, regaling us with the horrors of the Doom Slayer’s history as a mythical terror from old.

Each entry into the Testaments comes off as a spooky tale whispered around an ancient campfire to warn the hordes of hell of the might of the space marine, and its inclusion is a highlight of the reboot.

DOOM: Eternal takes this re-contextualization of the Doom Slayer as a primary antagonist to the hordes of Hell and sprints forward with it.

Codex collectibles return in Eternal, and similar to the Slayer’s Testaments from 2016, comes the ‘Story of the Sentinels’ codex entries that tell more story of the Doom Slayer from the perspective of the Sentinel army’s rank and file that trained him. This further tells the backstory of the Doom Slayer and hints at the goings-on in the as yet unreleased sequel to DOOM: Eternal– DOOM: The Dark Ages, which (as of the time of this writing) is hitting digital and physical stores just over a month from now, in May 2025.

I love the little story tidbits that are tucked away in the documents of each game, but the idea that we will be getting more of the larger, more epic details in the sequel is very exciting to me.

Another small gripe I have with the game is that the music of DOOM: Eternal isn’t as good or as catchy as 2016’s soundtrack, and although it isn’t bad or poorly made, I think I prefer the previous entry’s music.

Composer Mick Gordon returns to Eternal, having come off of the previous game as well as other FPS titles in Bethesda’s stable of franchises— such as MachineGames’ ‘Wolfenstein’ duology. But for some reason, it doesn’t feel as punchy or as visceral as DOOM (2016) felt at the time it came out.

I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I suppose it's because it was so unexpected that the soundtrack for the reboot was as good as it was that when Eternal came out, it was maybe more of the same. Not a bad thing, but it perhaps isn’t as novel this time around. It is very quality to be sure. There was some well-documented strife between the studio heads and Gordon that may have contributed to this, but it is not clear if that is the case.

No matter what, it is still good and offers the game some more of the quality heavy-metal chorus to listen to while you play through a rocking good campaign.

Another feature that the game shipped with is BattleMode, an asymmetrical multiplayer suite that has long since been abandoned. In playing upon release, it felt perfunctory at the very least but not inoffensive. DOOM (2016) also shipped with a multiplayer mode but it was more specifically tailored as a PvP matchmaking mode. It seems like id Software did not work on this mode as well as the previous suite in DOOM (2016) and it shows. The multiplayer is not the ‘point’ of these new batches of DOOM games and that’s just fine with me. The next game, DOOM: The Dark Ages, will be strictly a single-player affair, and the re-focusing on the campaign is a welcome change.

By the time I finished DOOM: Eternal, I was satisfied and exhausted. The final boss, the ‘Icon of Sin’ (a callback to DOOM II), is a drag and takes entirely too long to defeat, for my tastes. It’s a bitter back-end to what is a fantastic campaign full of blazing action, gruesome combat, and an entertaining plot.

The entire boss fight consists of blowing chunks of armor off its metal hide, and the whole process of doing so whilst being accosted by myriad enemies felt both tedious and annoying.

While I was not a fan of how it finishes, the campaign of DOOM: Eternal kept me engaged and invested throughout. I cannot stress how much I enjoyed the combat of the game, even with the minor quibbles I had between the campaign’s bookends.

I feel like I prefer DOOM (2016) on the whole as a game; between the tone and the pacing. But I think DOOM: Eternal is a far better and more satisfying game to play, even if I have a few gripes about its core ideas.

I love the philosophy behind DOOM: Eternal’s combat, the way it feels to play as well as how it feels to interact with its loop. It feels confident in the way that few games do. DOOM: Eternal is a video game ass video game, and even if it isn’t the most accessible title you can play– damn does it feel good if you get what it’s going for.

I think the team at id Software outdid itself here in the gameplay department.

Though it may suffer from the issues I mentioned previously, with some tedium and bloat toward the latter bits of the campaign, DOOM: Eternal feels unique in its boldness, execution, and gonzo style.

In covering the Ancient Gods Parts One and Two DLC’s I will say they are more DOOM: Eternal, and that is not a bad thing. As this is not a scored review, I will not put a number on my thoughts regarding its content.

Each episode is around 3-4 hours and length and, in many ways story-wise, feels like it could be the end to the character of the Doom Slayer as a character in the story.

Just like with every character in media however, no one ever truly dies. It could be that the Slayer is being kept in stasis, a la Master Chief at the end of Halo 3’s campaign– waiting for just the right time to be thawed out for another, bloody romp.

My criticisms with the main campaign carry over to its DLC, but all of them have been compounded in various ways here. I think the platforming is still poor, and while there isn’t as much of it as there was in the main game, it is still present here. The battle arenas can take too long to finish, with some encounters taking up to 15-20 minutes apiece if you are efficient enough in taking down enemies.

The number of enemies you are fighting at a single time is also ratcheted up even a step further, with more challenging variants of enemies showing up to complicate each battle. Finally, there are even harder combat challenges to face through each episode’s ample runtime if you want to be punished further.

The final boss fight is even more tedious than the Icon of Sin from the original campaign, with only one or two opportunities to do damage at any given time. It feels like an even worse version of the Marauder alpha-enemies from the base game (which the less said about these pricks, the better).

All of these examples are worse than the main game’s issues in differing ways. I think the DLC is fundamentally less enjoyable because of these aspects, but I am glad I saw each episode through.

To end this review, I still think DOOM: Eternal is a great game with amazing combat, stylish pizazz, and great visuals galore.

While I found the music a bit more of the same, the platforming bad and unnecessary at points, and the game itself a little inaccessible to anyone that identifies as more of a casual enjoyer of games, DOOM: Eternal is a special game that deserves your attention if you can give it.

While the skill curve may be daunting for the majority of players, if you can understand the uniqueness of its systems and learn the loop that comprises its combat, DOOM: Eternal will leave you thrilled and satisfied by the end.