What makes the DOOM franchise remarkable is how it managed to survive the new millennium (and a terrible movie). Something Duke Nukem could not pull off. Other FPS franchises as successful (or even more) in terms of longevity and cultural impact include Wolfenstein (3D) and Quake.
id Software’s 2017 reboot was a clear return to form for DOOM, even though 2004’s DOOM 3 was not necessarily a bad game. It just lacked the core DOOM identity. It was a survival horror as opposed to a fast-paced action looter shooter. I hope that DOOM Eternal can carry the flame and give avid DOOM fans what they want.
Since DOOM Eternal’s release is nigh, we thought we should compile a helpful guide which includes information on when DOOM Eternal will be released, a few rumors, news, and everything else we know so far.
DOOM Eternal Release Date, Trailers, Rumours, and News
DOOM is one of the best first-person shooters of all time. Yet, Bethesda and id Software have not been shy about sharing as much information about DOOM Eternal as possible. All the lucky attendees at E3 2019 got the chance to play the DOOM Eternal demo. Despite the developers and publishers being very forthcoming about details, there are a few hidden surprises and spoilers that players will get to unravel when the game comes out.
So this guide is a compilation of what we have heard, what we have seen and much more. Without further ado…
DOOM Eternal Release Date
After years of false release dates and rumors, a concrete release date was finally confirmed in late 2019. id Software will release DOOM Eternal on the 20th of March 2020.
It will be available on the Sony PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC (Microsoft Windows). The developers have yet to make an official announcement when a Nintendo Switch version will be released.
You can still pre-order the Nintendo Switch version of the game from Amazon. According to Amazon, the game will be released on the 31st of December, which is obviously unlikely.
You can also pre-order the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions of the game from Amazon. Perks of pre-ordering the game include a digital copy of DOOM 64, the DOOT revenant player skin, an additional and unique campaign/level (Cultist Base Master Level) and a throwback shotgun weapon skin that resembles DOOM’s original shotgun.
DOOM Eternal Trailers and Videos
Over the past three years, Bethesda and id Software have not been shy about releasing trailers to ensure that they keep fanning the flames of our excitement. In this section, we will cover the most notable DOOM Eternal official trailers and gameplay videos. We will also discuss what we’ve learned from each trailer.
The publisher (Bethesda) first announced DOOM Eternal in 2018 during an E3 conference. The following teaser trailer accompanied the announcement:
As you can see from the trailer, the game is set in a more open environment. It was first speculated that the entirety of the game would be set on either Mars or Earth. From the trailer, you can already see that all your favorite original DOOM beasties will be in the game. This includes the Cacodemon, Cyberdemon, and Imp.
Surprisingly, id Software and Bethesda wasted no time in unleashing some full gameplay footage later that year during a QuakeCon 2018 presentation.
2018 Quake Con DOOM Eternal Gameplay Footage
The gameplay footage starts at the 4:30 mark. From the gameplay footage, we can see that the fast-paced action of the 2017 DOOM reboot was preserved. A large chunk of the game is set on Earth after all hell has broken loose (literally).
This means we will get more warped urban environments. However, in most levels, the sci-fi-meets-hell architecture and decorative style of the first games remains intact. You will also be able to travel to the Martian moon Phobos and even Hell.
I hate to state the obvious but the gameplay footage affirms that this is definitely a modern DOOM game. The developers have not stripped this sequel of its identity. As a DOOM fan, the first few bits of gameplay have me excited. I hope you feel the same way too.
On the first day of E3 2019, Bethesda Software works released a very short story trailer. The trailers predating the story trailer showed off the action while leaving the story for us to figure out.
DOOM Eternal E3 2019 Story Trailer
From this trailer, we can ascertain that as the DOOM Slayer, you will meet God who seems displeased at how you are trying to stop the apocalypse. We can also speculate that we will be able to rip and tear, not just through hell, but heaven too.
The full plot and story still remain somewhat enigmatic. Which is okay. A large chunk of the trailer is just more gameplay footage of the action. From this trailer, you can once again see the classic Cyberdemon, classic Zombieman and Shotgun Guy (don’t you just love DOOM’s naming conventions?).
Something else we can see from the trailer is that DOOM Eternal was scheduled to be released in November 2019. Now we know that the developers pushed the release date to March 2019.
Nevertheless, the Story trailer was only a small part of the DOOM Eternal’s full showcase presentation. We also had a chance to see a trailer for the multiplayer Battle mode (stylized as BATTLEMODE).
DOOM Eternal BATTLEMODE Trailer
The trailer shows us that the multiplayer battle mode will allow players to challenge each other in a two-versus-one game mode. One player can choose to play as a fully kitted DOOM Slayer and the other two players get a chance to control demons. Players have a maximum of three rounds to win a match (best two out of three).
During Bethesda’s QuakeCon keynote presentation, more details were released about the game, particularly its multiplayer battle mode. Three weeks later, Bethesda dropped a video overview of the BATTLEMODE multiplayer.
BATTLEMODE Multiplayer Overview
The overview exhibits some of the demons players will be able to control. In total, there are five playable demons including the Revenant, the Pain Elemental and the Mancubus. The overview also explores some of BATTLEMODE’s maps and game mechanics.
The last most noteworthy DOOM Eternal trailer of 2019 was a reveal of the DOOM Hunter.
DOOM Hunter Reveal
According to the trailer, The DOOM Hunter is basically the DOOM Slayer’s arch-nemesis. Unfortunately, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to control it during multiplayer mode.
On the 14th of January in 2020, Bethesda finally unshackled the second and final trailer for DOOM Eternal.
DOOM Eternal Official Trailer 2
The second trailer is more epic than the first. You get your rip-and-tear gameplay action but this time it reveals a bit more about the story than the first trailer. In this trailer, we can see that we’ll be able to travel to the Sentinel planet and learn more about the DOOM Slayer.
You also get to see new enemies and levels. The most exciting enemy reveals are the Marauder and the Gladiator. Both may be boss battles.
DOOM Eternal News and Rumours
As stated before, in an attempt to keep DOOM Eternal in the minds of the public, Bethesda has tried to market and share as much of DOOM Eternal as possible. But revealing too much kills DOOM’s mystique.
Knowing the plot or ending may not spoil or kill your desire to play a game in the same way it may destroy your interest in a film or series. Nonetheless, you might want to skip this section as it discusses possible theories that may contain spoilers.
God is The Final Boss
This rumor has been flying around the Steam and Reddit communities for a while now. If you watch the story and final release trailer, it makes perfect sense. DOOM Slayer tries to save humanity from an Apocalypse that Heaven fully endorses.
Why wouldn’t the Slayer go after the source of all the calamity on Heaven, Earth, and Hell? As the DOOM Slayer, you’ll probably be on a quest to find a sword or gun badass enough to end God’s life.
Invading Other Player’s Campaigns
When Bethesda originally showcased DOOM Eternal, they highlighted how players would be able to invade other player’s campaigns, Dark Souls style. In addition to this, Bethesda announced that when invading another player’s campaign you will be able to take control of a demon and form a Slayer hunting party.
When DOOM Eternal’s release was delayed, it was we were told that we would get the Invasion Mode as a free downloadable post-release update. We hope that it will still be everything the developers initially said it would be.
Cantered Weapon FOV
Another feature of the game that Bethesda discussed during their initial E3 and Quake-con conferences is a classic centered weapon field of view. Players can toggle between the modern view (weapon on the right and side) and a classic view mode where the gun is at the bottom center of the screen.
Don’t you just love nostalgia? This feature will be great for old school keyboard and mouse players. It will be fun to see how you can adapt this FOV to a modernized version of DOOM. This isn’t limited to PC gamers as we all know you can hook a mouse and keyboard up to your Xbox One and start playing FPS games like they were meant to.
DOOM Eternal Campaign Playtime
As a man who loves long single-player games, I am praying for a long campaign or at least one with a lot of replay-ability. According to Marty Stratton, the games executive producer, the game will have an estimated playtime of 18-22 hours. In my view, this is pretty decent.
VR Version
Rumour has it that a VR version is on the cards – but at this moment, it is pure speculation. DOOM Eternal is a great way to improve on 2017’s DOOM VFR, which was released on the PS4 and Vive. By no stretch of the imagination was it the best PSVR Game on the market. But it had great potential.
DOOM Eternal Engine
DOOM Eternal will be the first game to be developed using the id Software id Tech 7 engine. DOOM 2016 was created using the id Tech 6 game engine.
SnapMap Mode
Since DOOM Eternal’s multiplayer was developed in-house, some elements from its predecessor have been scrapped. Particularly SnapMap mode. Players can still create their own custom maps.
Downloadable Content
The developers have made it clear that there will be a lot of post-release downloadable content and updates. A lot of it will be free for gamers.
DOOM Slayer New Abilities
Much of the Slayer’s original abilities and moves have been preserved. DOOM 2016 players will find the controls and gameplay quite intuitive. However, it wouldn’t be a sequel without some improvements. This time Doomguy comes with improved armor, a new dash ability, a shoulder cannon and much more. And of course, you’ll have a large selection of new and old guns as well as various mods.
DOOM Eternal System Requirements
At the time of writing this article, neither id Software or Bethesda had released a list of system requirements. Nevertheless, from the trailer and gameplay demo, we can try to predict what DOOM Eternal will require.
Since DOOM Eternal is a fast-paced shooter, your system must be able to run it at a frame-ate of 60 FPS. Here are our predictions for the DOOM Eternal’s system requirements.
DOOM Eternal Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (64-bit)
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / AMD Radeon HD 7870
- CPU: 2nd Generation Intel Core i5/ AMD FX-8320
- VRAM: 2GB
- System RAM: 8GB
- Storage Space: 80 GB
DOM Eternal Recommended System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (64-bit)
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 290
- CPU: 4-core 3rd Generation Intel Core i7/ AMD FX-8350
- VRAM: 4GB
- System RAM: 16GB
- Storage Space: 80 GB
We also suggest that you at least have a quality 144 Hz gaming monitor that can keep up with the games frame rate.
DOOM Eternal Score and Soundtrack
As with DOOM 2016, Australian born composer Mick Gordon will score DOOM Eternal. If you’re unfamiliar with Mick’s work, he’s composed music for various games including Killer Instinct (season one and two), Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Project Cars and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
Over the years, he has accumulated a slew of nominations and awards. One of the best parts about DOOM 2016 was how the soundtrack and score matched the very fast-paced and fluid gameplay. If you listen to the music in the trailer, it seems that we can expect more of the same from DOOM Eternal’s soundtrack.
Mick further reaffirmed this theory in an interview with Fandom.com where he stated: “I always feel really disappointed when I play a game and I think the music is great, and then by the time the second one comes around, the music is completely different and it loses the feel of what you liked about the game in the first place. We spent so much time defining the sound of DOOM; we’re not going to abandon it now.”
While we’re uncertain when the DOOM Eternal soundtrack will come out, you can still purchase the digital, CD, vinyl versions of the DOOM 2016’s soundtrack from Amazon.
DOOM Eternal Story and Premise
DOOM Eternal will be a direct sequel to 2016’s DOOM reboot. In fact, DOOM Eternal is set two years after the events of DOOM 2016. It seems that DOOM Eternal may finally bring closure to that story.
As the DOOM Slayer, you find Earth overrun with Demons. Whether it is because something went disastrously wrong while humans were trying to farm Hell’s energy or just a matter of Hell finding its own way to Earth is uncertain.
DOOM’s story has never been its selling point. However, as a huge fan of theological fantasy, I’ve always found the game’s story to be intriguing. I’m left a bit uncomfortable with the direction of the story in the reboots.
Either way, in order to save humanity, you will have to travel through Earth, Mars, space stations, Heaven and Hell. You’ll face humans, demons and angels. Hopefully, you’ll get to see Samuel Hayden again as the last game ominously implied. He is most likely the main reason behind Hell’s infestation of Earth its subsequent destruction.
It seems that DOOM Eternal will re-use some concepts and elements from the previously canceled DOOM 4.
Final Word
DOOM eternal is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2020. It brings a tear to my eye knowing that Bethesda Softworks is still around bringing us classic games such as Wolfenstein and DOOM. Maybe, they will one day pull some magic off and bring Duke Nukem back. I’m not sure it would survive today’s politics but I digress.
I hope you are as excited about DOOM Eternal as I am. Its March 20, 2020 release isn’t far but either way, this guide should keep you company while you wait. I hope you have enjoyed perusing through it. Thank you for reading.