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E3 2019 Hands-on: Doom Eternal’s Demons More Fun to Kill than Wolfenstein’s Nazis

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

ā€œIf it was possible to improve on 2016ā€™s Doom, Doom Eternal does it.ā€

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Appropriately for a series all about taking everything completely over the top, Doom just keeps on topping itself. The 1993 original didnā€™t invent the first person shooter genre, but it baptized it in blood, rocketing the genre to a cultural omnipresence that has lasted to this day. The following yearā€™s Doom II took everything that made the original great and added biomechanical brain spiders, and 2004ā€™s Doom 3 was a genuine technical marvel, even if it wasnā€™t as much of a bona fide phenomenon as its predecessors. The impossibly high upward trajectory of the series somehow continued with 2016ā€™s lean, mean Doom, an experience so brutal and no-bullshit that it didnā€™t even bother with numerals or subtitles. Now, if Yahtzee Croshaw is to be believed, Doom has done it again. Is there any ceiling on this thing?

ā€œMore traversal options including climbing, pole swinging, dashes and grappling hooks add new depth to both exploration and combat without reducing any of what 2016ā€™s Doom did so well,ā€ Croshaw crowed, gushing about the game from the E3 2019 show floor. ā€œThe monster design and glory kills are improved with more impact. Huge, crazy outdoor scenery. Iā€™m keen for more.ā€ Thatā€™s a hell ā€” cough ā€” of an impression for a 15 minute demo to impart.

Not all was well at Bethesdaā€™s booth, however. Doom may have codified the first person shooter, but Wolfenstein invented it, and the latest entry in the Nazi-killing adventures of B.J. Blazkowicz didnā€™t leave Croshaw nearly as satisfied. ā€œWolfenstein: Youngblood I played for about 40 minutes, and I was pretty bored of it by the end.ā€

Among Croshawā€™s gripes were overly long cutscenes (who puts cutscenes in an E3 demo?) and the inelegant insertion of a multiplayer mode into what has historically been a story-driven, single-player series. ā€œI canā€™t say co-op has improved the Wolfenstein: The New Order gameplay any,ā€ he specified, ā€œas is often the case when co-op is suddenly crowbarred into a solid single-player experience.ā€

Reflecting a bit, he came up with another hypothesis: ā€œMaybe Iā€™m just bitter because it meant I could only get 15 minutes with Doom Eternal.ā€ Rip and tear, Yahtz.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood comes out July 26, and Doom Eternal on November 22. Both titles are coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and Stadia.


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Patrick Lee
Patrick Lee is a writer, illustrator, photographer, designer, and serial arsonist from Toronto. He has written for The AV Club, and for his personal website, About Face.