Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The sequel to Doom (2016), and the fifth main game in the Doom series, it was released on March 20, 2020, for Windows, PlayStation 4, Stadia and Xbox One, with a version for Nintendo Switch being released on December 8, 2020 and versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S being released on June 29, 2021. Set some time after the events of the 2016 game, the story follows the Doomguy once again, on a mission to end Hell's consumption of Earth and foil the alien Maykr's plans to exterminate humanity.
Along with the single-player campaign, a multiplayer mode titled "Battlemode" was introduced. In this mode, players can either play as the Doom Slayer or as a demon, and fight until either the Doom Slayer defeats the demons, or vice versa. Another mode, Horde mode, is currently in development. Players will be able to join other player's single-player campaigns and fight each other. The Ancient Gods, a two-part standalone campaign DLC set after the events of the main game, was released between October 2020 and March 2021.
Upon release, Doom Eternal received critical acclaim, with praise for its campaign, graphics, level design, soundtrack and combat mechanics, though some disliked the increased focus on storytelling and its platforming sections. Doom Eternal received five nominations at The Game Awards for 2020, including Game of the Year and Best Action Game.
Plot[]
Main campaign[]
Some time after the events on Mars, Earth has been overrun by demonic forces, wiping out 60% of the planet's population, under the now-corrupted Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC). What remains of humanity has either fled Earth or have joined the Armored Response Coalition, a resistance movement formed to stop the invasion, which has gone into hiding after suffering heavy losses. The Doom Slayer, having previously been betrayed and teleported away by Dr. Samuel Hayden, returns with a satellite fortress controlled by the AI VEGA to quell the demonic invasion by killing the Hell Priests: Deags Nilox, Ranak, and Grav. The priests serve an angelic being known as the Khan Maykr who seeks to sacrifice mankind for her own race's survival. The Slayer teleports to a destroyed city and kills Deag Nilox, but the Khan Maykr transports the two remaining priests to unknown locations, forcing the Slayer to continue searching.
After retrieving a celestial locator from the Sentinel world of Exultia, the Slayer travels to Hell to retrieve a power source from an exiled Sentinel known as the Betrayer, who gives him the power source and a dagger that he asks Slayer to use to kill the heart of his son, whose body was turned to that of an apocalyptic demon, the Icon of Sin. VEGA directs the Slayer to Deag Ranak's citadel in the Arctic, where the Slayer kills him after taking out his cybernetic Doom Hunters. In response, the Khan Maykr moves Deag Grav to a hidden location and accelerates the invasion of Earth. With no leads on finding the last Hell Priest, VEGA suggests finding Dr. Hayden, who knows his location. The Slayer goes to an ARC compound where he retrieves Hayden's damaged robot chassis and the demonic Crucible.
Upon uploading Hayden's mind into the fortress, he reveals Deag Grav is hiding on Sentinel Prime, the only way to get there being a portal located in the lost city of Hebeth in Mars' core. The Slayer travels to a facility on Phobos where he uses the BFG 10000 to shoot a hole in the surface of Mars, then reach Hebeth. After reaching Sentinel Prime, flashbacks reveal the Slayer to be Doomguy. Found badly wounded by Sentinels sometime after Doom 64, Doomguy was brought before the Deags and was forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. Impressed by Doomguy's ruthlessness in battle, the Deags inducted him into the Sentinels, while the Khan Maykr inquired into Doomguy's knowledge of the demons. In the present, the Slayer finds Deag Grav in the arena, defeats his guardian, the Gladiator, and kills him, but is excommunicated from the Sentinels for murdering Deag Grav on sacred ground and returns to the fortress.
Upon the Slayer's return, the fortress is shut down remotely by the Khan Maykr to prevent any further interference in her plans. She reveals her intentions to resurrect the world-eating super-demon, the Icon of Sin, to consume mankind. Instructed by Samuel Hayden, the Slayer uses the demonic Crucible's latent Argent energy to reactivate the fortress and travels to the Sentinel homeworld of Argent D'Nur to retrieve his own Crucible from his time in the Sentinels. Further flashbacks reveal that during the ill-fated battle of Argent D'Nur, a rogue Maykr known as the Seraphim imbued Doomguy with superhuman abilities by putting him in the Divinity Machine, transforming him into the Doom Slayer. After retrieving the hilt of the Slayer's Crucible, it is revealed that the Khan Maykr had made a pact with Hell to produce Argent energy, which is created through the mass sacrifice of human souls. In return for providing worlds for Hell to invade, the Maykrs receive a share of the Argent energy produced by Hell which allows their own dimension, Urdak, to survive.
Hayden directs the Slayer through Hell's massive citadel, Nekravol, until he finds a portal leading to Urdak. He finds the Khan Maykr and halts the awakening ceremony by using the Betrayer's dagger to destroy the Icon's heart. Free from Maykr control, the Icon of Sin awakens and teleports to Earth. With the dimensional barrier destroyed, the demons break their alliance with the Maykrs and proceed to invade Urdak. The Slayer kills the Khan Maykr before returning to Earth to confront the Icon of Sin, although VEGA is left behind to ensure the portal stays open. After an intense battle across the cityscape, the Slayer kills the Icon of Sin by stabbing the Icon's exposed brain with the Crucible, putting an end to Hell's invasion of Earth. As the Slayer walks away, King Novik, ruler of the Sentinels, states how his fight is "eternal."
=The Ancient Gods - Part One[]
Despite having defeated the Icon of Sin and halting Hell's invasion of Earth, the Doom Slayer's victory did not come without cost. The death of the Khan Makyr and Hell's conquest of Urdak have given the demons a chance to dominate all dimensions and reinitiate their invasion of Earth. To prevent this, the Slayer, along with Samuel Hayden and ARC scientists, embark on a mission to find and liberate the Seraphim. The Slayer travels to the UAC Atlantica Facility, where the Seraphim's containment pod resides. He uploads Hayden's consciousness into the pod, and it is revealed that he and the Seraphim are one and the same.
The Seraphim turns out to be suffering from a terminal illness called transfiguration and tasks the Slayer with retrieving the Father's Life Sphere from the Blood Swamps of Hell, located within the Ingmore's Sanctum, in order to return him to physical form. After fighting his way through the Blood Swamps and passing the Trial of Maligog, the Slayer finds the sphere. However, he chooses to destroy it rather than hand it to the Seraphim and instead retrieves the Dark Lord's Life Sphere with the intent of resurrecting and then destroying him, which in turn will destroy all demons outside of Hell by extension.
The Slayer returns to Urdak, which has been corrupted by the demons' occupation, and reaches the Luminarium where anyone who has a Life Sphere may activate it. However, the Slayer is confronted by the Seraphim, consumed by degenerative transfiguration, and defeats him before he is teleported away by the Father. Despite being warned that bringing the Dark Lord into physical form is irreversible, the Slayer proceeds to summon him and discovers that the Dark Lord looks almost identical to him.
The Ancient Gods - Part Two[]
Having summoned the Dark Lord into existence, the Doom Slayer attempts to kill him but fails as blood cannot be shed in the Luminarium. The Dark Lord tells the Slayer he will be waiting in Hell's capital city of Immora for their final confrontation.
In order to reach Immora, the Father informs the Slayer that he must activate the Gate of Divum, the only portal capable of reaching the city. The Father sends the Slayer to Argent D'nur to recover a Wraith Crystal, which is needed to power the portal. The Slayer heads for the crystal's location inside the World Spear, a massive crystalline alien ship that had landed on the planet long ago. On the way, the Slayer encounters the Betrayer, who has reassumed his original name, Valen, after the defeat of the Icon of Sin. Valen gifts the Slayer with a Sentinel Hammer energy weapon to replace his lost Crucible. The Slayer lights the Torch of Kings to rally the remaining uncorrupted Sentinel forces, then enters the World Spear and recovers the Wraith Crystal.
Returning to Earth with the Crystal, the Slayer activates the Gate of Divum. Traveling to Immora, the Slayer is greeted by the city's formidable defenses consisting of a massive wall and an army of demons. He is assisted by an army of Sentinels led by Valen who also teleport in and assault the city. While Hell's main forces are occupied with them, the Slayer breaches Immora and follows the Dark Lord's trail to another portal.
Teleported to an arena, the Dark Lord and the Slayer fight. The Dark Lord reveals that he was the true creator of the multiverse and that Jekkad (later known as Hell) was the first dimension. The Maykrs, including the Father, betrayed him and rewrote history to show the Father as the first being, which, in turn, led to the enraged Dark Lord influencing Samur Maykr to turn Doomguy into the Doom Slayer, whose original purpose was to (unintentionally) contribute to the destruction of the Maykrs and the Father, fulfilling the Dark Lord's revenge. The Slayer stabs the Dark Lord in the chest, killing him. With the Dark Lord's death, all demons outside of Hell are instantly destroyed, finally saving Earth, Urdak, and the Argenta from the demonic invasion. Being also one of the Dark Lord's creations, the Slayer falls unconscious before being sealed inside a stone sarcophagus at the Ingmore Sanctum by the Seraphs.