Building a game that genuinely lives up to Doom’s monstrous reputation is no meant feat, and you’d think that id Software would be satisfied with what it pulled off in 2016’s reboot. But the studio believed it could do better. “As fun as the last Doom was, there was a monotony to it,” said Marty Stratton to PC Gamer in 2019. “In the later levels especially it felt like corridor, arena, corridor, arena.”
For the sequel, Doom Eternal, id Software wanted to blow the doors off. “From the very start to the final boss, players will be seeing things they’d never expect from a Doom game.” At the heart of this was, again, the glory kill system. But id Software would take the idea of exploiting enemies to your advantage and massively expand it. Now, you’d be able to burn enemies with a shouldermounted flamethrower, causing them to drop armour when shot. Each demon would also have specific vulnerabilities to certain weapons, enabling you to take them out quicker and letting id pile on greater pressure. In short, no longer would you be killing mindlessly, your attacks would be precise and devastating.