Introduction

DOOM Eternal: Hell on Earth is a cure by id Software for the boredom of gamers confined to quarters by COVID-19. The second chapter in the 2016 DOOM reboot by Bethesda, DOOM Eternal is a re-telling of the events of DOOM II: Hell on Earth: You play as the Marine from DOOM who was mythologized in the 2016 game as a radical element in the power-tussle between the forces of hell, mankind, and heaven and retconned as the "Doom Slayer:" a force of nature on two legs with enough firepower and grit to terrorize hell.



Set two years following the events of the 2016 game, the Slayer awakens to find that the forces of hell have overrun the realm of mankind, Earth. From a space station called the Fortress of DOOM, he can teleport to the various infestations of the demons of Hell on Earth, to save mankind from annihilation. DOOM is designed to be a run-and-gun power trip where you dominate and annihilate demons in a fast-paced first-person shooter. Besides a change of locale and newer demons, Eternal introduces an emphasis on being creative and crafty with your "Slaying" to mine ammo, armor, and health from your fallen enemies. The Fortress serves as a hub world where you can take a break between levels to fine-tune your weapons, unlock new gear, or explore the place.

DOOM Eternal is based on the latest generation id Tech 7 engine, capable of next-gen features, such as ray tracing. id Software plans to add ray tracing content through a patch at a later date. The game engine leverages the Vulkan API exclusively and has no GL fallback. In this mini-review, we test a fairly big selection of graphics cards across the three popular resolutions, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K UHD.