Doom Eternal was my favorite game back in 2020. At first glance, it seemed like a sequel that I wanted from Doom 2016 because I was flabbergasted by how action-packed Eternal was. I was also enjoying some of the new mechanical changes like how you were able to spam grenades from your standard Shotgun and of course, the meat hook on the Super Shotgun.
I’m no stranger to the Doom series. I’ve been around the block during my childhood and I grew up on the first two games. Those games are very important to me and someday I’ll write articles about them, but for this one, I’ll be mostly focusing on the modern titles.
From Doom 4 to Doom 2016
I remember feeling terrible about the development of Doom 4 and they were dodging multiple Quakecon events which was concerning. I honestly thought id Software was never going to live up to their legacy and the impact they’ve done on the first-person shooter genre from the early to late ‘90s.
But then Doom 4 was replaced by Doom 2016. From the trailers and gameplay footages, it looked promising. What do you know? The game turned out to be awesome.
Doom 4’s concept arts have always been mesmerizing I must say.
Doom 2016 was the ultimate comeback game for id Software. I actually got my first hands-on experience back when the multiplayer was in closed alpha when I bought Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Later on, there was a public multiplayer beta for gamers to enjoy and of course, I also participated and reviewed it back in the day. To make things brief, I’ve always thought the multiplayer was fun and a decent mode, but it never felt like a proper successor to the games that perfected arena shooters, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament.
However, you know what they say: don’t bite the hand that feeds. The early access to Doom 2016’s multiplayer was basically my chance see how the game was played and it was a positive experience in hindsight.
Doom 2016 was released on May 13, 2016. It’s been so long since Doom fans got an official game at the time because Doom 3 was the previous installment. That game was released back in 2004!
Foundry has always been one of my favorite levels due to its classic design.
I was instantly hooked on it. I remembered I didn’t want to play any other games because 2016 was everything I felt a modern Doom title should have at the time. A great campaign, decent multiplayer, and there was an in-game map editor called SnapMap.
This feature allowed users to play custom made levels from the community which felt like a nod to the classic Doom wads which is one of the main reasons why the old games are still being played to this day.
SnapMap did take some time for it to feel competent and actually have maps that felt like it could rival the base campaign’s levels. Thanks to the many free updates provided by the developers, the fans were able to do that.
Doom 2016 was jam packed with so much content that I found myself just getting distracted by all the game modes. I could be playing campaign and then all of sudden, wanting to play multiplayer. Maybe the next day, I play multiplayer, but then I have the urge of wanting to play SnapMap.
This game was one of those games where sometimes I don’t even know what to do at times. I was enjoying every aspect of 2016’s massive amount of content because it is the perfect game you can simply go autopilot, play for long hours, and what do you know? Five hours just passed by.
For four years, I was enjoying Doom 2016 to the fullest until Eternal was announced and I did say I loved this game during its early years. However, the more I played Eternal, the more I started to realize something was missing.
Doom Eternal is a blast, but…
The first thing was I thought Doom Eternal was just lacking content outside of its campaign. If you want my honest opinion on Eternal campaign, I personally believe it is better than 2016’s. I enjoy the greater emphasis on its challenge, combat, and the bosses were also very fun to take on. I still remembered loving how intense the combat was in Eternal because the game definitely increased the density of enemies you had to fight through.
The beauty of Exultia.
There were also many cool and diverse locations you were able to go and that made the game’s pacing interesting and diverse. Some of the things like the balancing of the runes were definitely needed because in 2016 there were some runes that were just too strong (Rich Get Richer and Ammo Boost).
Then there’s the Master Levels which was an interesting feature that id Software implemented for the modern Doom experience. They were remixed levels from the base campaign or The Ancient Gods expansion designed for a decked out Slayer to test the player’s skill.
The World Spear Master Level – Tough, but fun!
Master Levels were definitely fun and it’s basically the developers blatantly flexing Doom Eternal’s combat system. To survive a master level on Nightmare or Ultra-Nightmare difficulty, one must know how to use Doom Eternal’s mechanics to its fullest and that’s what made them so engaging.
My favorite one was the one that was released during Update 6 and I believe that one is also the best one out of the base campaign maps they’ve chosen. As you can see, Doom Eternal offered a lot to the table when it comes to the campaign portion. But outside of that, it’s severely missing so much.
I’ve tried to get into Doom Eternal’s multiplayer component titled Battlemode, and I thought it was fairly lackluster and forgettable. It was a demon vs. slayer type of experience which when the game was still in development, it seemed rather interesting at first. I had a feeling this was going to be downgraded from 2016’s multiplayer component.
I did love the idea of playable demons in 2016, but this just wasn’t the same and I honestly stopped playing Battlemode when I realized I was trying to make myself like it. It made 2016’s multiplayer looked like it was Halo 2 which is one of my favorite multiplayer games ever.
This weapon mod was broken, but satisfying to use at the same time…
Doom 2016 might’ve lacked additional quality content in its campaign portion. There were the classic levels you can play while finding the secrets in the main campaign, but they were more or less a novelty. It’s no Master Levels at the end of the day. Eternal might be the better campaign experience overall, but there’s one thing I believe it truly lacks when compared to 2016.
I would argue 2016 had better resource management mechanics overall. Both 2016 & Eternal forces the player to learn how to manage their resources (health, armor, and ammo) to survive.
In Eternal, you have the ability to regenerate them; thanks to being able to glory kill/execute or using an Ice Bomb to get health back, using your flame belch for armor, and chain sawing for ammo.
All of these core mechanics are important to any skilled Doom Eternal player when entering an arena. Once you know how to manage them properly, you simply feel unstoppable at times.
When id Software released Horde Mode, believe it or not, I did not die a single time while playing it on Nightmare difficulty on my first playthrough. I basically completed Horde Mode on Ultra-Nightmare because I knew how to efficiently use my resource management to my advantage and I didn’t feel like I needed to learn the item placements on the map.
By no means, I consider myself an amazing player. I will never live to up to the skill level of this particular player right here, but I believe Eternal’s resource management mechanics is simply not as interesting compared to 2016 in the long run.
The most feared 2016 enemy on Nightmare & Ultra-Nightmare difficulty: IMPS.
In 2016 especially on Nightmare difficulty, the way the player manages their resources is very different. It’s much harder to get your resources back in that game due to the higher damage input from the demons. This is very relevant to the early stages which I considered them to be some of the hardest portions.
There’s also a heavier emphasis on learning the item placements within the arena which is much more interesting and players are not going to be able to just rely on mechanical skill. This is extremely crucial when playing the community made SnapMaps because players aren’t going to know the item placements on their first playthrough.
This means players have to be more strategic overall when facing an encounter in 2016. Learning when to take control over items, knowing the enemy spawn placements or composition, and since players can’t regenerate their resources as well, 2016 is more punishing on the player’s mistake.
Some user made maps can get real spicy at times!
All of this aspect was completely gone and this is why the more I play Eternal, the more it doesn’t necessarily feel like a 2016 sequel. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the way Eternal handles its resource management mechanic, but it doesn’t feel right to call it a 2016 sequel after a drastic change like that.
Remember how I mentioned I enjoyed Doom 2016 because of the additional and fun modes it had outside of the campaign? Eternal doesn’t have that aspect. I only play Eternal for the campaign.
A Different Direction
Lead designer Hugo Martin said something in a YouTube video titled, “Designing DOOM Eternal with Hugo Martin – Noclip Podcast #22” that always left a mark on me when Eternal was still in development.
“You won’t be able to play Doom 2016 after you play this,” Martin said.
I sincerely disagree. I still come back to Doom 2016 because Eternal never scratched that itch I wanted a perfect 2016 sequel would have. The fact Eternal removed Multiplayer and SnapMap was already the wrong direction.
In my perspective, it should’ve kept it, but improved upon it. Multiplayer could’ve probably been re-designed to have a focus on a four weapon limit system instead of two. I understood why they went with the two weapons just to make it play well on a gamepad, but four could’ve still been possible.
Having the ability to carry more than six weapons and forcing pad players to use the weapon wheel to pick a particular gun would put controller users at a disadvantage against mouse and keyboard users.
Many great memories were made on this map.
Mouse and keyboard players simply just need to press one of many key binds on a keyboard and they’ll be able to quick switch more efficiently. Quick switching has always been an important factor to survivability and damage dealing in the modern Doom titles.
I believe with four weapons set up, which should be enough for players to smoothly quick switch on a controller without relying on a weapon wheel. It also allows players to have some customization in figuring out their preferred weapon combos.
One can argue having a four weapon only system isn’t the same to match the spirit of a Quake deathmatch. Let’s be honest here, you did not need to have every weapon on a map to do well in a Quake deathmatch.
The developers could’ve also tweaked certain things just to make the game being more interesting, aka more skill based. A movement system would’ve been welcoming, there needed to more emphasis on item control, and rebalancing the lightning gun because it was fairly cheesy to use.
Doom Eternal’s The Ancient Gods expansion replaced SnapMap.
There isn’t much I can comment for Doom SnapMap, but having more updates to allow users to get more creative with their projects was always the ideal quality of life I wanted Eternal to have.
I always thought having backwards compatibility for Doom SnapMap would be a massive feature for long time map designers who have put hundreds and thousands of hours into their work.
That means players will still be able to play the maps that were made on Doom 2016 and the old maps will be preserved.
Doom Eternal did use a new engine, so I believe those suggestions weren’t possible from the start. It also makes me wonder if Doom Eternal should’ve run on same engine as 2016 to make it possible.
The Future of Doom
This isn’t a bash to Doom Eternal. Like I said, I love Doom Eternal and I believe it’s a great modern Doom experience and a great standalone title after 2016’s release. I still play the game from time to time because I enjoy doing so.
If id Software plans on making their next Doom title to be more in lines of Eternal, I wouldn’t be against it. I know there are people who love Doom Eternal with all their hearts and believe it’s the greatest game of all time, so I understand it from that perspective.
But after what 2016 has done to reinvent the modern Doom experience, I can’t help but feel like so much more could’ve been done to make Eternal feel like a proper sequel.
Doom Eternal may be a great game and it certainly got me through the pandemic, but I’m still waiting for my 2016 sequel since May 13, 2016.
