Doom Eternal

Rip and tear, but obey the lore

- IAN EVENDEN

OF ALL THE LONG-RUNNING franchises, the least likely to reinvent itself was surely Doom. It’s done that already, with Doom 3’s descent into survival horror, rectified with a 2016 game that returned to the shooty mayhem of the first two titles.

Eternal is, on the surface, more of the same. There are demons, many of them horrifying biomechanical creatures, and they’re invading Earth. Actually, they seem to have succeeded. A wonderful early scene depicts an enormous horned creature, like Hellboy with a raging hangover, walking through a ruined city flowing with lava, and showing, for a glorious moment, a giant mech suit. There’s a boss battle there, you think. Us in the mech vs that red abomination. The fact it never happens is a disappointment, but perhaps the only one.

Every iteration of Doom (except Doom 3) seems to increase the speed, the monster count, and the splatter. Eternal doesn’t let us down here, taking everything that was added to the 2016 game and piling more on top. That the starting weapon is the shotgun rather than a pistol should tell you a lot—Doom’s signature weapon relegated to a mere zombie-popper.