GameTech: Doom Eternal is just what we need
Trouble spreading across the Earth. People hiding away in their homes. You’d swear doom had arrived. And it has! Just in time.
Doom: Eternal has hit our digital shelves with the force of a rocket launcher, a perfectly timed release for the strange moment we are living through. Cathartic and soothing (well, not for the demons), it’s the adrenaline shot gamers needed during quarantine.
The original Doom is one of gaming’s timeless kings, an all-time classic that remains just as playable today as it ever did. Doom has been released on practically every platform and every country.
In fact, we would go so far as to describe id’s masterpiece as the Star Wars of gaming — the ‘special effects’ and universe were so advanced for their time, that they still remain accessible and iconic today.
Doom: Eternal doesn’t change the world in quite the same way, but it does a fantastic job of honouring the spirit of the series while building on its own predecessor, Doom 2016.
For a start, it takes the balletic carnage of Doom 2016 and refines it in a way that will make players rethink their previous strategies.
In Doom 2016, the game taught players to combine gunplay with melee work, as you bounced from enemy to enemy, getting up close and personal wherever possible to earn the resulting drops.
Doom: Eternal still requires bouncing from demon to demon, but the approach has been tweaked. Now you can’t just rush in and punch demons from the off — you need to soften them up with guns first. The chainsaw, powered by fuel, also becomes key to close encounters.
The result is that Doom: Eternal becomes far more tactical than before, a kind of puzzle-shooter, where choosing which enemy to target and when (and how) become vital to managing your ammo, health and fuel reserves.
Even better are the changes to the universe itself. Doom was never renowned for its story. In fact, it didn’t really have a story at all. Now, suddenly, this is a world of myth and legend, a kind of twist on sci-fi Vikings in which heaven is competing with hell, with humans caught in the middle. And the only man to stop them?
The Doomslayer, a badass former marine, the only one they fear.
It’s silly. It’s metal. It’s perfect for the moment we’re living through.
SUGGESTION BOX
With everyone confined to their homes, here are a few games that will make you feel better about the four walls around you:
Stop torturing your family — and start torturing your Sims, instead. There’s nothing worse than being trapped inside with your family all day, searching for things to do. So why not take it out on your Sim family?
You could endeavour to create a family just like your own, with shambling, hungry, aimless people wandering around a terrible designed house that lacks toilet paper.
Or you could fight those demons (although Doom is better for that) by creating a Utopian household where everyone is happily pursuing their life goals.
There won’t be many people moving house in the current climate, so you’re stuck with the four walls you’ve got.
If you start to get frustrated, give House Flipper a go. We’ve mentioned this game a few times on the column – no surprise, considering the state of the Irish housing market — and it might provide you with a few cathartic moments during the quarantine.
In House Flipper, you are tasked with taking a run-down property and turning it into something that can turn profit. You need to paint, re-floor and generally turn your ‘quaint’ property into a must-have.
Yearning for the fields at this time? Go back to your Irish roots and become a farmer. You’ll be planting crops, breeding various animals and generally trying to be the best farmer possible.
Perhaps you’ll become such a believer that you will attend future FarmCons, the event where fans come together to celebrate their favourite series.
In fact, this might even become your real job — if you get good enough at game, you can enter the Farming Simulator League, which has a prize of €250,000.
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