'Doom Eternal' doubles the (destructible) demons
And that might be just fine.
Bethesda and id Software teased Doom Eternal at E3, but now we've got a much better look at it. id promises twice as many demons as last time, including reimagined classic enemies from Doom 2 like the Arachnotron. There are destructible demons now too, with chunks falling off as you rip and tear through them.
As far as gameplay goes, the shotgun now has a grappling hook on it for parkouring around environments. Gunplay looks as tight and combat as frenetic as ever. Doom has always been about "killing badass demons with big guns in unbelievable places," and Eternal doesn't look like it'll disappoint in that regard. But there's a twist: You can take control of a demon and invade another person's campaign a la Dark Souls.
And speaking of environments, well, Doom Eternal is Hell on Earth in the most literal sense. Skyscrapers have been overtaken by demonic fungus and stories of yellow teeth. Lava flows like water through the streets and demons get punched until they explode. In other words, it very much looks like a Doom game.
If anything is a little lacking, it's the music. What was shown off in the two gameplay demos definitely sounded like composer Mick Gordon's work, but it doesn't really stack up to his award-winning score for the last game.
Granted, Eternal is still in development, so the score in the demo could be placeholder, but for now it feels kind of stock.
The last time id and Bethesda showed off Doom at Quakecon, it wasn't streamed. This year, we got to see every demon-bursting shotgun blast in 1080p60. Miss anything? Rewind the stream embedded below to the 30 minute mark to catch it all. Nope, there's no release date just yet, but we suspect it'll ship when it's done.