Doom Eternal is a 2020 first-person shooter game made by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the sequel to Doom (2016) and the seventh game in the Doom series. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One on March 20, 2020. A version for Nintendo Switch was released on December 8, 2020. Later, versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released on June 29, 2021.
The story takes place after the events of the 2016 game. It follows the Doom Slayer as he works to stop Hell from taking over Earth and to stop the alien Maykrs from killing humans. In addition to the single-player story, the game includes a multiplayer mode called Battlemode. In this mode, players can choose to be the Doom Slayer or a demon. They fight until either the Doom Slayer defeats the demons or the demons win. A horde mode was added in October 2021. A two-part standalone campaign DLC called The Ancient Gods was released between October 2020 and March 2021.
Doom Eternal received good reviews from critics. They praised the game’s story, graphics, level design, music, and combat. However, some critics did not like the greater focus on storytelling or the parts of the game that required jumping and climbing. The game was nominated for five awards at The Game Awards 2020, including Game of the Year and Best Action Game. It was also nominated for Action Game of the Year at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. A prequel called Doom: The Dark Ages was released in 2025.
Gameplay
In the game, players control the Doom Slayer, who fights demons from Hell in a first-person view. The game continues the style of its earlier version, focusing on "push-forward" combat, which means players are encouraged to attack enemies directly to collect health, ammunition, and armor. Players can use many weapons, including firearms like the Combat Shotgun, Super Shotgun, Heavy Cannon, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Rifle, Chaingun, BFG 9000, Ballista, and the Unmaykr. Melee weapons such as a chainsaw, an energy sword called the "Crucible Blade," a hammer named the Sentinel Argent Hammer (Hellbreaker), and a retractable arm-blade called the "Doomblade" are also available. The arm-blade allows players to perform quick, violent "glory kill" moves that give extra health. The Super Shotgun now includes a "Meat Hook," a ranged tool that pulls enemies toward the player, acting like a grappling hook for combat and movement. The Doom Slayer’s armor includes a shoulder-mounted Equipment Launcher that can throw grenades and ice bombs. A flamethrower called the Flame Belch can set enemies on fire to drop armor pickups. Killing enemies with the chainsaw also gives ammunition. New movement features, such as climbing walls, dashing, and swinging from horizontal bars, have been added.
Like the earlier game, Doom Eternal challenges players to create combat strategies that match different enemies and situations. As the game becomes harder, players must use the tools in the environment and upgrade their weapons more carefully. Players must decide which enemies to attack first and improve their movement skills to survive tough challenges.
The game includes enemies from the previous version, such as the Marauder and Doom Hunter, as well as returning enemies like the Pain Elemental, Arachnotron, and Arch-vile. A new feature called "Destructible Demons" allows enemies’ bodies to break apart as they take damage. This system lets players destroy specific parts of a demon’s body to stop them from using powerful attacks. A new life system also exists: players can collect 1-up items (green helmets) scattered in the environment. If the Doom Slayer dies, he will respawn at the same spot instead of restarting at the nearest checkpoint.
The game includes a multiplayer mode called Battle Mode, which is a 2v1 competition where two demon-controlled players fight one Slayer. At launch, five demons were available, with more added later. The current playable demons are the Marauder, Mancubus, Pain Elemental, Revenant, Arch-vile, and Dread Knight. Each demon has a "summoning wheel" that lets them choose from four special abilities. Another mode, Horde Mode, was added on October 26, 2021, as part of an update.
A new area called the "Fortress of Doom" allows players to visit between missions. This hub contains rooms with upgrades and gear behind locked doors. Players can unlock the bonus weapon, the Unmaykr, after completing six difficult Slayer Gates.
Plot
In the year 2163, fourteen years after events on Mars, Earth has been taken over by demons, which have killed 60% of the planet's people. The Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) has been completely controlled by a demonic group. Most of humanity has either left Earth or joined the Armored Response Coalition (ARC) resistance. The Doom Slayer, who was once betrayed by Dr. Samuel Hayden, returns with a satellite fortress controlled by the AI VEGA to stop the demons by killing the Hell Priests: Deags Nilox, Ranak, and Grav. These priests serve an angelic being called the Khan Maykr, who wants to sacrifice humans to save her own race. The Slayer arrives on Earth and kills Deag Nilox, but the Khan Maykr moves the other two priests to unknown places.
The Slayer gets a special tool called a celestial locator from the Sentinel world of Exultia and travels to Hell to obtain a power source from a Sentinel named the Betrayer. The Betrayer also gives the Slayer a dagger to stab the heart of his son, whose body was turned into a powerful demon called the Icon of Sin. The Slayer finds and kills Deag Ranak at a citadel in the Arctic. In response, the Khan Maykr moves Deag Grav again and speeds up the invasion of Earth. With no clues about the last priest, VEGA suggests finding Dr. Hayden, who knows where he is. At an ARC base, the Slayer retrieves Hayden's broken robot body and a demonic device called the Crucible.
After uploading Hayden's mind into the fortress, he reveals that Deag Grav is hiding on a Sentinel world called Sentinel Prime. The only way to reach there is through a portal in the lost city of Hebeth, located in the core of Mars. The Slayer goes to the Martian moon Phobos, where he uses the BFG 10000 to create a hole in Mars' surface and reach Hebeth. After arriving on Sentinel Prime, memories show that the Slayer was once a warrior named Doomguy. After a battle in Doom 64, Doomguy was badly injured and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena by the Deags. Impressed by his strength, the Deags made him a Sentinel.
In the present, the Slayer finds and kills Deag Grav in the arena. The Khan Maykr tells the Slayer her plan to bring back the Icon of Sin to destroy humanity. The Slayer travels to the Sentinel world of Argent D'Nur to get his own Crucible. Memories also show that during a battle on Argent D'Nur, a rogue Maykr named the Seraphim gave Doomguy superhuman powers using a device called the Divinity Machine, turning him into the Doom Slayer. It is revealed that the Khan Maykr made a deal with Hell to produce energy called Argent, which is made by sacrificing human souls. In return, the Maykrs receive energy from Hell to keep their world, Urdak, alive.
The Slayer enters Urdak through Hell's citadel, Nekravol, and stops the Icon of Sin's awakening ceremony by using the Betrayer's dagger to destroy its heart. Freed from Maykr control, the Icon of Sin awakens and teleports to Earth. With the barrier between dimensions destroyed, demons break their alliance with the Maykrs and attack Urdak. The Slayer kills the Khan Maykr before returning to Earth to fight the Icon of Sin, though VEGA stays behind to keep the portal open and learns he is the mind of the Father, the creator of the Maykr race. The Slayer defeats the Icon of Sin, ending Hell's invasion of Earth.
Although the Slayer stopped the Icon of Sin and ended Hell's attack on Earth, the battle had consequences. The death of the Khan Maykr and Hell's takeover of Urdak gave demons a chance to conquer all dimensions and restart their invasion of Earth. To stop this, the Slayer, Samuel Hayden, and ARC scientists work to free the Seraphim. The Slayer goes to the UAC Atlantica Facility, where the Seraphim is kept in a containment pod. Hayden's mind is uploaded into the pod, and it is revealed that he and the Seraphim are the same being.
The Seraphim, who is dying from an illness, asks the Slayer to retrieve the Father's Life Sphere from the Blood Swamps of Hell, inside the Ingmore's Sanctum, to combine it with VEGA and bring the Father back to life. The Slayer finds the sphere but decides to destroy it instead of giving it to the Seraphim. He takes the Dark Lord's Life Sphere instead, planning to bring the Dark Lord back to life and then kill him, which would destroy all demons outside of Hell.
The Slayer returns to Urdak, which has been taken over by demons, and reaches the Luminarium, a place where anyone with a Life Sphere can activate it. However, the Slayer faces the Seraphim, who is dying from his illness, and defeats him before the Father teleports him away. Despite warnings that bringing the Dark Lord back is irreversible, the Slayer proceeds to summon him, only to face a being who looks exactly like him.
After summoning the Dark Lord, the Slayer tries to kill him but fails because blood cannot be shed in the Luminarium. The Dark Lord tells the Slayer he will wait for him in Hell's capital city, Immora. To reach Immora, the Father tells the Slayer he must activate the Gate of Divum, the only portal to the city. The Slayer goes to Argent D'nur to get a Wraith Crystal from the World Spear, a large alien ship that landed on the planet long ago. On the way, the Slayer meets the Betrayer, who has returned to his original name, Valen, after the Icon of Sin's defeat. The Slayer lights the Torch of Kings to gather remaining Sentinel forces and retrieves the Wraith Crystal.
The Slayer activates the Gate of Divum on Earth and travels to Immora. He is met by the city's defenses, including a massive wall and an army of demons. He is helped by Sentinels led by Valen and human forces, who teleport in and attack the city. While Hell's main forces are distracted, the Slayer follows the Dark Lord.
Teleported to an arena, the Slayer and the Dark Lord fight. The Dark Lord reveals he is the true creator of the multiverse and that Jekkad (later called Hell) was the first dimension. The Maykrs, including the Father, betrayed him and changed history to make the Father seem like the first being. This made the Dark Lord angry, leading him to influence Samur Maykr to turn Doomguy into the Doom Slayer, whose purpose was to help destroy the Maykrs and the Father, fulfilling the Dark Lord's revenge. The Slayer kills the Dark Lord, and all demons outside of Hell are destroyed with his death, ending the invasion and saving humanity and all life across the multiverse. As one of the Dark Lord's creations, the Slayer falls unconscious and is sealed inside a stone sarcophagus at the Ingmore's Sanctum by the Seraphs until he is needed again.
Development
Publisher Bethesda Softworks announced the game at E3 2018, with the first gameplay footage shown at QuakeCon 2018. The game was planned to be available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, and Xbox One. In 2019, it was announced that Doom Eternal would come to Google's Stadia streaming platform. The game was developed by id Software, with the Nintendo Switch version created by Panic Button. Doom directors Hugo Martin and Marty Stratton both returned, with Martin as game director and Stratton as executive producer.
The game is the first to be developed using the id Tech 7 engine. According to Stratton, the team aimed to create a "Doom universe," with larger and more varied settings, such as "Hell on Earth," for players to explore. Unlike its predecessor, id Software designed the game's multiplayer component itself, instead of hiring an outside company like Certain Affinity, which had worked on the previous game's multiplayer. The goal was to make the multiplayer experience more "social" and "connected" to the single-player story. The team removed the SnapMap mode and used its resources to create post-launch downloadable content for the campaign. Originally scheduled for release on November 22, 2019, Doom Eternal was delayed to March 20, 2020. A Nintendo Switch version was released later, on December 8, 2020.
In terms of appearance, the game was designed to look closer to the original Doom games. Enemy designs were changed to match those from the classic games instead of the 2016 version. The developers added an option for a centered weapon view, a feature from the first two Doom games, which was later added to the 2016 version as an update. Games that influenced Doom Eternal include arcade-style action games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, as well as chess. Martin mentioned that the team improved on aspects of the game based on feedback from a video by Polygon that showed gameplay from the 2016 version. In that video, the person playing seemed unfamiliar with basic Doom or first-person shooter mechanics, which led to criticism from some players. Martin said the team studied the video and wanted to ensure Doom Eternal was accessible to all players, not just those with advanced skills. On August 6, 2020, Bethesda Softworks announced that versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X were also being developed. Owners of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions could upgrade to the next-gen versions at no extra cost.
The game is dedicated to id programmer Stephen Ash, who passed away during development in 2019.
Music
Mick Gordon returned as the composer for the project. In January 2019, he asked for "metal screamers" to join a recording session to help create the soundtrack. The "heavy metal choir" included James Rivera from Helstar, Tony Campos from Static-X, Sven de Caluwé from Aborted, James Dorton from Black Crown Initiate, and Nature Ganganbaigal from Tengger Cavalry. Ganganbaigal passed away between the recording and the game's release. Oktavist Eric Hollaway also contributed vocals.
The soundtrack was made available for download on April 19, 2020, for people who purchased the collector's edition. Soon after the release, fans noticed differences between the soundtrack album and the music in the game, such as the heavy compression on the track "BFG Division 2020" compared to the 2016 version. Gordon confirmed on Twitter that he only mixed a few tracks, including "Meathook" and "Command and Control." Information suggests that most of the soundtrack was mixed by Chad Mossholder, id's audio director. Gordon mentioned that his experience working on the game made him unsure if he would collaborate with id again.
In May 2020, Stratton shared a statement on Reddit, explaining that Gordon was given time to mix the tracks but repeatedly delayed progress, missed deadlines, and did not respond to emails or calls. Stratton said that when Gordon failed to complete the mixing before the release deadline and refused to provide id with the required source files, he suggested working with Mossholder. Gordon agreed and sent Mossholder about 12 finished tracks. Mossholder mixed and edited the remaining songs using in-game audio, which was more compressed to match other in-game sounds. Stratton later stated that although id had planned to continue working with Gordon, they would use a different composer in the future.
In September 2020, Andrew Hulshult announced that he and David Levy would compose music for The Ancient Gods campaign expansion. Hulshult had previously created music for id's Quake Champions (2017).
On November 9, 2022, Gordon posted a detailed statement on Medium in response to Stratton's Reddit post. The post included his account of the in-game score, the original soundtrack (OST), and his efforts to resolve issues with id before and after the OST's release. It also addressed nine claims from Stratton's post with evidence, such as emails, audio file data, Skype conversations with Stratton, and contracts between Gordon and id Software. Gordon claimed there was no contract for the soundtrack album until two days before the game's release and that Mossholder had worked on a soundtrack assembly for six months before Gordon joined the project.
On November 16, 2022, Bethesda released a statement supporting Stratton, Mossholder, and the id Software team. They said they had evidence to challenge Gordon's claims and suggested his statement may have encouraged harassment and violence.
Release
On March 20, 2020, Doom Eternal was released on the same day as Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Because many people were expected to buy both games, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, GameStop started selling Doom Eternal one day earlier, on March 19, to reduce crowding. The very different styles of the two games, along with their shared release date, led fans to celebrate by creating fun artwork that showed Doomguy and Animal Crossing's Isabelle as "best friends."
Before the game was released, it was announced that two extra story parts would be added in the first year after the game came out. Buying the Deluxe Edition of the game gives players access to these expansions.
On May 8, 2020, two images were posted on the game's Twitter account, showing scenes from the first story DLC. On August 7, 2020, a short video trailer for the first part of the campaign DLC was released. The trailer gave the DLC's name, "The Ancient Gods," and announced that a full trailer for Part One would be shown on August 27, 2020, during the first night of Gamescom. The trailer also revealed that the first expansion would be released on October 20, 2020. "The Ancient Gods: Part One" continues the story right after the main game's events. This expansion can be played without the base game.
On March 7, 2021, it was announced that a short video trailer for "Ancient Gods: Part Two" DLC would be released on March 15. Like Part One, this expansion can be played without the base game. The teaser also announced that a full trailer would be released two days later, on March 17, and that the DLC would be available for purchase on March 18.
Reception
Doom Eternal received "generally favorable" reviews from Metacritic, a website that collects and summarizes game reviews. Critics praised the game's story, graphics, level design, combat, soundtrack, and improvements compared to the previous game. However, some reviewers disliked the increased focus on storytelling and the game's platforming sections, which involve jumping and climbing.
Phil Hornshaw of GameSpot gave the game an 8 out of 10. He praised the combat and platforming but criticized the story, calling it "overly serious and confusing." Andrew Reiner of Game Informer gave the game a score of 9.25 out of 10. He praised the combat and the game's expanded weapons and soundtrack but criticized the multiplayer mode and puzzles, saying they did not fit well with the rest of the game.
When the game first launched, the version available through the Bethesda Launcher had issues with digital rights management (DRM) software called Denuvo. This software was not properly set up, leaving the game without DRM protection. The problem was fixed quickly. Later, on May 14, 2020, the game was updated to include Denuvo anti-cheat technology, which requires a special type of computer software called a kernel-mode driver. Some users worried this might cause security risks or slow down their computers. This led to negative reviews on Steam. On May 20, 2020, the game's developer, id Software, announced that Denuvo anti-cheat would be removed in the next update. The software was removed as planned.
On August 7, 2025, id Software released an update that officially supported modifications to the game.
At launch, Doom Eternal had 100,000 players on Steam at the same time, more than double the number for the 2016 version of Doom. The game also earned twice as much money during its launch weekend compared to the 2016 version.
In Europe, the game ranked number 2 in the UK and Switzerland charts, behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, physical sales (copies sold in stores) were 33% lower than the previous game, likely because of social distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In North America, Doom Eternal was the sixth-best-selling game in March 2020, though this number did not include digital sales. SuperData estimated that the game sold 3 million digital copies worldwide by March 2020, more than three times the 957,000 units sold in the launch month of the 2016 version. This made Doom Eternal the fourth-highest-grossing console game in March 2020.
In Germany, the game sold 100,000 units by May 2020.
According to Dave Saunders, a former employee of id Software, Doom Eternal earned over $450 million in revenue within a year of its launch.