Rip and tear, a significant line that’s been embedded in our brains since first booting up the instant hit DOOM revamp in 2016.
Despite being placed on a deserted colony on Mars filled with monstrous and immensely powerful beasts out to destroy you, being put in the shoes of the legendary DOOM Marine empowered gamers to the point that there’s nothing to fear – instead, everything fears you. That’s a rare feeling to have in a game, and it seems impossible that its sequel will top its satisfyingly wrath-filled gameplay.
But, developer id Software knows what its mass fan base wants, and it’s already looking like DOOM Eternal will make its predecessor obsolete. Lucky us.
Eternal follows on from the original’s heightened sense of fast-paced clashes and elevates it, bringing new move sets including a swift double dash and grapple hook to get gamers face-to-face with enemies. That makes those flashy ‘glory kills’ more frequent, and they’re needed, given the amount of foes swarming around.
To level the playing field this time, Doom Guy now has new equipment to keep him alive and keep, well, tearing. There’s the Flame Belch that engulfs enemies and provides armour drops, and the Ice Bomb, freezing foes and dropping much-needed health.
And only then do we come to composer Mick Gordon’s rock-fuelled soundtrack. It certainly says something about a game’s tunes when a single track racks up more than four million views on YouTube, and it hasn’t even come out yet. That’s insane, but players of the 2016 remake won’t find it surprising (and neither would the comment “I still can’t believe Mick Gordon’s new album comes with a free game”). DOOM’s soundtrack goes hand-in-hand with the game itself, and Eternal delivers even more by integrating each note into combat – the faster the combat, the more adrenaline-pumping the beats.
Tt’s time to rip and tear, gamers – and then some.
Available March 20 on PS4, Xbox One, PC.
