DOOM Eternal

Players said DOOM, released in 2016, got repetitive by its third act, and the developers noticed that players often leaned on the shotgun alone. In Eternal every gun carries less ammo, there are twice as many enemy types, and they react differently to different weapons. Game director Hugo Martin called it a "combat puzzle".

Even the hook on the Super Shotgun first pulled enemies toward the player. It was later reversed, so that it flings the hero himself at the enemy.

Critics praised the combat. Some critics faulted the platforming between arenas for breaking the pace, and the story, told through codex entries, didn't win everyone over. If you get stuck, after several deaths in a row you can take armor that sharply cuts incoming damage. Players give it 91% positive across 187,990 reviews, critics 88 on Metacritic. In our Recommended Score it ranks 87 of 4,736 games.

Enjoyed it? Try DOOM, the series reboot whose shortcomings Eternal set out to fix, and ULTRAKILL, with graphics styled after the first PlayStation, movement like Eternal's and combos in the spirit of Devil May Cry.