You wield a lot of guns and gadgets in Doom Eternal. DOOM Slayer assumes the role of a one-man army and so much more transforming into an even more powerful badass. New features, environments, and great gameplay mechanics refresh and greatly improve the feeling of being unstoppable in DOOM Slayer's second journey, and only a few control and storyline issues slow it down.

If you haven't played Doom 2016 and care about the story, Doom Eternal is not the one to start with. The sequel picks up with a little introduction, with DOOM Slayer being thrown right into the fray. Earth is still being overrun by demons. The story mainly plays out from your orbiting space in a gigantic ship and will occasionally present you with a few story cutscenes. The rest of the story can be viewed through menu-based text logs which were fun to read through for the first half of the game but after a while, I ended up skipping them to get back into the action.

Each place DOOM Slayer visits is full of epic set pieces and scenery. As soon as I was dropped into a new level I spent at least a good 20 minutes exploring and collecting upgrade items and even these cute little Funko pop like figures of DOOM monsters. There's a lot to collect and hunting them is addictive. I went off the beaten path during a mission whenever I saw a new upgrade piece or a collectible within reach. Occasionally areas will be presented with a series of platforming puzzles to get across a wide-open area or climb up to a secret path. These are few and far between but I found them to be a bit cumbersome and found more often it did take you out of the action. I really only had issues with a few areas, but otherwise had a smooth experience.

The new weapons and gadgets DOOM Slayer obtain as you go greatly change how the game plays out in certain situations. The fan-favorite double-barrel shotgun from DOOM 2 is back and now sports a fancy hook-shot attachment. Now you can close in on an enemy and blast them point-blank without them coming to you giving you more mobility. The new flame attachment will make enemies sweat out shield shards and severing them in two with the chainsaw now yields ammo when your weapons run dry keeping you in the action.

And because of those mechanics, you now have even more control over keeping the action flowing than in the DOOM 2016 reboot, so once certain situations come into play the game just seems much more fluent. The improvements also make fighting more interesting by offering creativity options with DOOM Slayers arsenal.

There's more fun to be had in the new online battle mode. This multiplayer-focused mode pits DOOM Slayer against two demon players in combat. This provided a unique look at what it's like to play as a demon in the world of DOOM. With DOOM Slayer being much more powerful the demon players will have access to spawning AI companions and even place environmental hazards. With different load-outs and fun paced action, I found it hard to stay away and kept coming back for more.

After a few story hiccups, Doom Eternal righted itself and pulled me back in with the personality of its world and a wide variety of gameplay mechanics. The gadgets and abilities make combat exciting and kept me thoroughly entertained. After 20 hours I can't put the controller down, and I can't wait to jump back in and look for all the hidden collectibles.

SCORE: 9.0

Review copy courtesy of Bethesda