Doom: Eternal, more to this than meets the eye

I haven’t really played Doom in the past. By the time I got access to video games the first Doom was already relic. I touched Doom 3, but I was left cold and annoyed by having to switch between gun and flashlight. Since then I haven’t really cared about Doom game releases. Players talk good about this game, but when I watch the gameplay, it doesn’t really look that exciting.

So last week I decided to try it out and see what the fuss was about. I got to admit, it is actually more than it looks. When you look at Doom, it looks like a game where you just run around, shoot demons and that is it, essentially a corridor shooter. If you play on difficulty that is way too low for you then most likely that’s about it, but once you get on right difficulty and don’t steamroll over everything, that is when Doom game design starts to shine.

Generally in shooters to regenerate your health you need to take cover and wait a little bit in safety. In Doom you’re given these different actions that generate different ressources. To get health, you need to do execution. To get ammo, you need to do chainsaw execution and to get armor, you first have to use a flamethrower and then shoot burning enemies. When you have the right difficulty it becomes really interesting as you have to properly use each resource generator and pay attention to what is happening around you. I am playing almost on highest difficulty, what is Nightmare difficulty. Every now and then on each level I get to this part where I have to survive in a room or zone and wipe out all the spawning demons. Sometimes I spend almost an hour trying to clear it and yet I don’t get bored of it. Doom game design is so simple, yet it is keeping me entertained.