Upcoming addition to iconic Doom shooter franchise aims to go deeper than spray-and-pray shooting

The original game set the course for modern first-person shooters, but an upcoming sequel wants gamers to use their brain as well.

Doom is one of the most iconic games of all time, released in 1993 by iD software and being largely responsible for the popularity of first-person shooter games as we know them.

The 2016 reboot (also called Doom) took everyone by surprise, being a superb first-person shooter that stayed true to the series’ origins while adding a 21st century spin.

Bloody, brutal, hardcore and relentless, it was an all-killer-no-filler experience, so when Bethesda announced a sequel, Doom: Eternal at E3 in 2018, it piqued the interest of hell-fighters everywhere – an interest that has remained unabated even though the game was supposed to have been out in November last year and is now on track for a March 20 release instead.

Doom Eternal maintains the up-close-and-personal combat of its predecessors.

Having had several hours with a preview build of the game at Bethesda’s Sydney offices last week, I can confidently say the wait looks like it will absolutely be worth it.

The preview build covered the first three levels of the game and provided a pretty good variety of environments, enemies and weapons to test out – and it was a lot of fun.

The plot, in true Doom style, is perfunctory: The forces of Hell have invaded Earth, and it’s up to you, as the legendary Doom Slayer (aka “The Doom Guy”) to stop them. Cue the sound of a pump-action combat shotgun being dramatically cocked and a chainsaw being fired up.

The new game is just as violent as the old ones but now in better graphics.

I loved the 2016 reboot so went in expecting more of the same (which wouldn’t be a bad thing), but the preview showed me iD and Bethesda don’t appear to have been kicking back and relaxing in the intervening years and have been working to make sure the game offers some new experiences too.

While the hardcore, up-close-and-personal action was there, the game now includes what can be described as “combat puzzle” elements, with the addition of environmental puzzles to navigate (such as leaping through a temporarily open doorway to latch onto a climbable section of wall on the other side).

While initially sceptical of this inclusion when I heard about it, I have to say it worked really well in the levels I played and did a great job of breaking up the combat sequences.

Most of the puzzles were pretty straightforward – there was only one where I had to ask for help – and fit well into the levels; none of them felt especially shoehorned in.

There’s also new puzzle elements to stop the game becoming a mindless spray-and-pray shoot fest.

Another neat touch was some tweaking to the power-up system, including the ability to find “extra lives” in the game. That means if you get killed, you respawn on the spot instead of having to restart from the previous checkpoint.

The demo PCs we were using were running the game at 1440p and it was silky smooth all around – the game looked amazing, ran beautifully, and combat was intuitive and rewarding, especially as the weapons got upgraded.

The Doom series’ trademark ultraviolence is there in spades too – blood everywhere, demons getting their heads blown off with a shotgun, possessed enemies getting cut in half with a chainsaw – so depending on your point of view that’s either extremely awesome or a good reason to run in the opposite direction.

My time with the Doom: Eternal preview build has left me confident the developers are onto another winner here, and I will be eagerly awaiting the chance to don my Doom Guy armour and start unleashing righteous fury on demonic hordes when the game releases on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 20.

Are you excited for the latest addition to the Doom franchise? Let us know in the comments below.

Originally published as Upcoming addition to iconic Doom shooter franchise aims to go deeper than spray-and-pray shooting