DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One

The difficulty options for The Ancient Gods – Part One all have “…but more demons because it’s DLC” appended to their usual descriptions, and man, does that ever set the tone. The predominant opinion regarding this campaign extension is that it’s unnecessarily difficult, which is somewhat true. DOOM Eternal’s combat worked in such a way that once you became good at it, the only difference between battling 5 demons and 50 demons was how long it took, so when The Ancient Gods is merely increasing the scale of combat, it’s perfectly fine. A line is crossed when the demons’ movement and attack speed are buffed so that they’re basically damaging you all the time, however.

It’s a testament to how exhilarating the rapid-fire brutality of DOOM Eternal was that even when it’s repeatedly kicking your face in, it’s still an absolute blast. It also shows how ancillary all the various upgrade mechanics were, because it doesn’t feel like anything is lost with their absence. As before, no expense was spared on the presentation, and as before, the focus on story is an ill-advised one, because while the story is interesting, each plot turn will make you think you accidentally skipped a cutscene or two. On the other hand, the soundtrack feels muted and underwhelming compared to the roaring crunch of the original.