DOOM 2016 was one of my favorite games of that year, and DOOM Eternal successfully improves on almost every aspect of that game. The sometimes clunky ground movement has been remedied with the inclusion of an airdash, something all of the large, layered arenas have been designed around. The flamethrower is a nice addition, allowing players to not only recharge their health and ammo, but their armor as well. Shooting feels even better, with demons now falling apart and taking visible damage as you blast them. The air-dash when combined with the meat hook from the super-shotgun (maybe the push from the ballista too) raises the skill ceiling for movement, allowing one to swing to a demon, blast him, double jump and dash to swing off a pole, etc. The combat has a very distinct rhythm to it, and the game expects you to use the many resources it gives to you, even on the normal difficulty, and is downright required for anything above it.

The visuals see an upgrade as well with more varied environments; the back and forth between hell and the mars base did grow a bit old in the last game. Despite being one of the best looking games I've ever seen, it ran very well on my older system

The music is bricked out, and intense to the point of being silly at points, which fits perfectly with the gameplay. Yet the composer Mick Gordon seems to have used a bit of restraint: there are still blaring djent and alt metal riffs, but it doesn't go as over the top as some tracks from the Quake-inspired DOOM OST (Skull-hacker, Vega core, Flesh and Metal). Instead that sensory overload was replaced with new elements to the music: ambient, throaty singing from the demons pops up on quite a few tracks, most notably in Kar En Tuk and Gladiator. Those along with BFG 10,000 and Super Gore Nest were some of the stand outs for me.

More than anything this game is one for fans of the doom series; the guns and enemies all resemble their older doom and doom 2 counter parts, with some exceptions. The Doom Slayer is sporting a more familiar look with exposed biceps and 'abs' covered by armor, and he even has a little room filled with references to all sorts of in-jokes and series references. The fan-service given to the super shotgun was a little much, but I can excuse it as a wink to long time fans of the series

Overall, it's DOOM. The most intense gameplay, accompanied by the most intense music, all happening in the most over-the-top, power fantasy story ever created for a video game, maybe even media in general. It's going to be a ♥♥♥♥♥ to top this one.

10/10