MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus had the opportunity to play DOOM Eternal at PAX East in Boston. Although he failed quite a bit, he had a blast – at least in hindsight.
Kick to the face, pump to the chest, and glory kill! Ha, take that, demon spawn, I will show you who here… and respawn. Well, that didn’t quite go as planned, my first hour of DOOM Eternal. But it was really fun.
At PAX East, I finally got to see for myself the shooter from id Software, the latest installment of the famous DOOM series. As you can read from the title, it wasn’t so easy.
In my test I had the chance to check out the first level of DOOM Eternal as well as take a small ride in the DOOM Fortress. I also got familiar with the various progression systems.
For a few questions, the Associate Brand Manager from Bethesda, Derek Salisbury, was there to help me.
I played on the second easiest difficulty, “Hurt Me Plenty,” which already gave me a run for my money. If DOOM maintains this level of difficulty, I will need a while for my first playthrough.
I wasn’t able to record any gameplay, but I have integrated a bit of gameplay for you further down. My gaming experience was quite similar.
For the past few years, he has been playing a lot and regularly Rainbow Six: Siege, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty (Black Ops 4 and Modern Warfare). Overall, he has already accumulated over 1000 hours in various shooters.
Hard Start, nothing for Softies
What are the first minutes of DOOM like? The intro to DOOM Eternal is amazing. And I don’t even mean the first few minutes of gameplay, but the intro. Just like in one of the trailers, the much-praised story is told and hard metal shreds in my ears.
This is how DOOM should be, it feels good, especially as a metal fan and as someone who expects exactly that from the shooter. Then it goes straight into the game. I start in a room with not much more than a combat shotgun and ammunition.
For the first steps, I am still pretty guided. The controls (I played with mouse and keyboard) are mostly quite clear, but the game explains to me how to perform glory kills. Weakening enemies, press the button, replenish health points.
All of this happens in a confined space, which takes me a bit out of the action. A training room with stationary demons that I am supposed to take out one by one after the explanation. Quickly done, moving on.
Such explanations come up repeatedly in the first level for various actions – such as for killing demons with the chainsaw. Sometimes there is just an info popup that I have to confirm quickly. A little less explanation would also have been fine, but it really doesn’t bother me.
This is how tough DOOM Eternal is: In the first larger room, I am immediately met with dozens of demons, including new enemies with special abilities that are a bit tougher to kill. Here I already notice: They are not stupid, I can’t just mow them down.
Despite the second lowest difficulty, the hellish beings dealt quite a bit of damage to me – so much so that I bit the dust on my first encounter with an elite enemy.
Fortunately, there are extra lives that prevent death for a short while. Unfortunately, I had none of those and wasn’t at any checkpoint either, which meant I had to start over.
As Derek explained to me, it’s not surprising that DOOM Eternal feels so hard. The enemies aren’t any “dumber” on lower difficulties than in older titles. Their behavior is always the same.
Only the damage they deal and the damage I take are affected by higher difficulty levels. This makes DOOM Eternal overall simply harder.
Eternal Gets Better, the Longer You Play
This is how DOOM Eternal plays: The first hour of the game is tough, and until I earned my second weapon, the demons gave me quite a beating. It was a rapid-fire rifle for which I quickly found a sniper mod.
However, I noticed myself that I enjoyed the game more and more towards the end of the level. Despite the good intro, the first half of the first level was rather boring, and then it got better and better, and I would have loved to play Level 2. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible in this version.
Mechanically, DOOM Eternal is great. Ripping enemies apart with firearms and then sending them to the afterlife with a glory kill feels great over and over again, looks cool, and has an important tactical component for survival, as glory kills grant health.
It takes a little time for me to get the hang of this system and master all the actions correctly. After that, however, it flows better and is more enjoyable. I have a feeling that the longer I play DOOM, the better it gets.
My colleague from Gamestar, Michael Obermeier, also shares the same opinion about DOOM Eternal. Michael has been able to play DOOM a bit longer, but found it just as tricky as I did. We have embedded his video with his assessment here for you:
The musical accompaniment is hard and metallic as usual, unlike what some fans criticized in the trailer. I can imagine quickly taking a liking to DOOM Eternal, even permanently.
Visually, DOOM Eternal also makes a statement. The graphics are extremely nice, it runs smoothly, and the glory kills are just amazing. It’s also something for the eye and those with the right hardware can even play at 1000 FPS – if they want to.
Nice Fortress with Limited Access: At the end of my test, I was also able to check out the Fortress of DOOM, one of the features that the developers want to offer for more long-term motivation.
Here I was able to pick up a new weapon, a flamethrower, and get a bit familiar with the menu. However, there wasn’t much more to see since the majority of the Fortress can only be unlocked during gameplay.
From videos, I already know what can be discovered there. That’s why I was a bit disappointed to see so little, but I’m also eager to see everything starting from the release on March 20.
Interesting Progress for More Depth: Especially interesting in the Fortress was my first Sentinel Crystal, which provided me with a kind of talent point. They serve as one of the many progression systems in DOOM Eternal.
In response to my questions, Derek was able to explain quite a bit about it. DOOM Eternal offers:
- Sentinel Crystals that improve the Slayer’s armor, health, and ammunition and equip him with special perks.
- Upgrades for the Praetorian Armor and weapons that are gathered in the game through performance (i.e., killing enemies).
- Challenges to unlock special weapons.
- Nine different runes that grant special abilities, three of which can be active at the same time and can be switched at any time.
According to Derek, it should be possible to unlock everything in a single run – but it’s really hard. Things like the Sentinel Crystals aren’t too hard to find, but you really have to put in the effort for the upgrades.
However, doing multiple runs is worth it, especially with the new Master Levels that spice up the chosen difficulty with tougher enemies and bosses sporadically scattered throughout the levels. But it’s still too early for me to think about that.
I haven’t been able to check out all the features of DOOM Eternal yet, but I already think I’ll enjoy it. Moreover, more content is supposed to come, which additionally excites me:
