It is getting hotter than hell in the UK so I thought it would be fitting to review my latest platinum: Doom Eternal.
Strap yourself in and get ready to rip and tear - Spoilers throughout.
Doom Eternal
The Game
"Doom" is a word that has been a part of my gaming vocabulary since I was a child. In the summer of 1993, I managed to get a copy of the game from a friend, and well...things have never been the same. Fast-forward to 2020 and here I am playing through the second chapter of the current-gen remake of this demonic classic.
To start, the graphics are hellishly good (ok no more easy jokes...) The levels have some jaw-dropping scenery, the enemy design gives nothing new but is full of detail, and the colour palette is gorgeous. The set-piece that takes place under the BFG when it is firing was a moment that will stick with me for a while. The other big point I need to praise is the music. Doom (2016) was a game-changer for metal as Mick Gordon decided to grab modern video game scoring and shove a 9-string guitar down its throat. The score this time around does not disappoint. The music fits each fight to a tee and the aggressive nature of the score made me more and more pumped for each fight.
Another big plus for me is the weapon design. I love the variety of weapons and the ability to mod them is something that I am glad that they kept in this iteration. I found myself sticking to my "build" throughout and it was good to find mods that suited my playstyle.
With all this praise comes the main let-down for the game: the bosses (or lack of). A memorable boss is something that a game like Doom Eternal needs and sadly it did not deliver on this. Gone are the days of the "end of level boss" and it felt like Doom Eternal threw in a few fodder bosses before the big guy at the end. When I heard about the Idol of Sin, I was frothing at the mouth to fight him. I will say, the first phase showed variety and was fun but then the second phase was...well, exactly the same. This made me look back at the game with a bitter taste in my mouth. Shame really, as the game ticked most other boxes.
The platinum
This platinum is a tale of two halves. The single-player trophies are fun, straightforward, and gives you a challenge that you can control the difficulty of. Sadly, this was not the case with the multiplayer. Without boosting, you could find yourself spending a silly amount of time amassing the 200 kills needed for that trophy. The good news is that even with all of this faff, this was not a difficult platinum to achieve.
My go-to guide for this was https://www.powerpyx.com/doom-eternal-trophy-guide-roadmap/
My roadmap consisted of:
- Play through the game on whatever difficulty I fancied
- Go back through the game with the guide to mop up collectibles
- Finish the game on "Extra Life" mode
- Mop up individual trophies
- Tackle the online trophies
The extra life mode is worth completing on easy as you need to finish the game with at least 10 lives spare. This isn't too challenging to achieve but if you increase the difficulty then you could get cornered and die a few times. I tried this at first and it put unneeded pressure on myself for no real gain. The main slog for me was the online trophies:
Doom Eternal boasts one online gameplay mode: BATTLEMODE
You can choose to be a Slayer or a Demon. If you pick a demon, you get to work together with another demon friend (do demons have friends?) to kill the slayer. If you pick the slayer, you need to kill both demons within a few seconds of each other or they will resurrect at half-health. To be fair, I did enjoy this game mode but I was getting frustrated at being matched against people who were 100+ levels above me and were annihilating me within seconds. This is where I decided to boost. I met two nice chaps and we spent the next three hours trading kills until we all hit our 200 and then I ordered pizza to celebrate. To me, that is what gaming is about. Chilling with like-minded people, killing demons, and eating pizza.
The choice to boost is completely up to you but I do not have the time anymore to sink into heavy online play. Plus, it was nice to chat with other trophy hunters about their favourite games and trophies.
Overall, I enjoyed this platinum. The game itself was a ton of fun and the online was good but I know that I would have enjoyed the platinum a lot less without boosting those 200 kills.
Notable trophies
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I'm putting this one as this level was fantastic. It spawned some amazing quotes: "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars", and the best response to loading yourself into a cannon: "That is a weapon, not a teleporter". Great stuff
This was more forgiving than I thought that it was going to be. Stick to the collectible guide and you will be fine. There are a few niggly items to get but your runes will be able to help you if you get a bit stuck. If you get the suit upgrade that shows you hidden items then you can do this without a guide!
I am putting this here because whilst the boosting process is easy (and trackable). This trophy is not. It tells you how many weapons you have completed but it will not tell you which ones. Do yourself a favour and kill demons in clockwise weapon order until you get it. Also, the BFG counts as a weapon for this trophy so make sure you plan ahead in your game.
This trophy is notable as it is easy to miss (boosting or not). My tactic was to pick Mr. Big Boom (Mancubus) and make sure that I picked a defensive loadout to drop my heals whenever I could. This trophy popped at roughly 100 kills.
I challenge anyone to make this the final trophy that they achieve before the platinum. I don't even know if it is possible but hey, stranger things have happened!
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