DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 1 | Review

This 2020 videogame has been able to give us authentic masterpieces; indelible experiences, destined to become milestones of their own kind of belonging. DOOM Eternal represents, for first-person shooters, just that: a wonderful and spectacular ode to old-school titles, capable of plunging the player into a whirlwind of pure frenzy, where every single moment or action can mean life or game over. br>
The solid gaming sector set up by id Software has immersed us in a satisfying single player campaign, but so well articulated as to leave room for a great desire to play. For this reason, the arrival of the first stand alone expansion, DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 1, could only be welcomed with extreme joy and desire to return to play the role of DOOM Slayer again!

Speaking of which, in recent days we have completely immersed ourselves in this DLC, letting ourselves be carried away by a rather satisfying and fairly demanding additional content, which certainly deserves to be played by buyers of the main title.

Hunting for the Seraph

The Ancient Gods Part 1 is set shortly after the DOOM Eternal finale: our DOOM Slayer is engaged, once again, in the fight against the infernal forces and in search of the Seraph, the only figure able to guide him towards a fearsome enemy that is invading Urdak. In this new journey, the protagonist, who has now become a real living legend, must make his way through hordes of demons and hostile environments to overcome with bullets and punches.

Under the playful level, DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 1 does not introduce anything new, leaving the game model well balanced but addressed to those who have already necessarily played the original game. Being a stand alone expansion, in fact, it can also be played for those who have not purchased the original, however making the initial approach more difficult. The DOOM Guy starts with all the arsenal and skills unlocked, putting us in front of fights that are sometimes quite challenging, which manage to keep us busy even for several minutes. To give you an example, one of the expansion's Slayer gates kept us glued to the trigger for nearly 25 minutes. This additional content is therefore considered to be the playful culmination of DOOM Eternal, the place where you can really test the skills learned in the past.

For the rest, this first part lasted about five hours, a duration that it could have been slightly higher, but that still leaves you satisfied overall. All thanks to an overall acceptable exploration, galvanized by three artistically convincing settings, ranging from a UAC marine base to a threatening swamp to a rather disturbing forest, and to a series of new rather fun enemies to defeat. Among these we point out some fixed turrets, which act as support in the fighting; the return of the Summoner seen in the 2016 reboot and the demonic specters that can only be killed once revealed in their non-ethereal form.

From a technical standpoint, this DOOM Eternal maintains the incredible optimization seen with the title vanilla, recording identical performances and ensuring excellent performance even with older graphics cards. With a GTX 1660 we played in Full HD without any problems, ending the expansion with zero uncertainties or problems.

A final applause goes to the soundtrack, we were rather worried about the absence of Mick Gordon as regards the music tracks, on the other hand, the general level convinced us, even if it is not constantly present and assiduous as in the main story of DOOM Eternal.