The 4 "P"s of DOOM's Amazing Combat

There’s something very special about the combat in the most recent DOOM games. As you bounce between enemies like an angry pinball, it’s not uncommon to come out these gauntlets with an elevated heart rate and a white knuckle grip on the controller, or mouse. Every single combat encounter is a rollercoaster ride of glory kills, weapon switching, quick decision making, and lighting-fast movement. So let’s break one down.

Not a whole level from DOOM Eternal, but just one, single, five minute fight. What can we learn about DOOM combat from a single combat encounter? Let’s find out. So let’s jump to the game’s 11th stage, Nekravol Part II. This level takes place in a towering citadel in the heart of hell where souls are extracted for... uh, I dunno. I wasn’t really paying attention to the story. Anyway, the level’s first proper fight takes place in this chamber, which is built around a massive soul-sucking… fountain thing.

The first thing to note is that the area looks more like a multiplayer map than your standard singleplayer corridor. This is a pretty large, and totally symmetrical arena with different levels of elevation - including a raised platform at the bottom, and two areas on the sides which are accessible via ramps, or acrobatic bars. Lower down, you’ll find pools of toxic soul juice which hurt pretty bad if you tumble in. There are also lots of items scattered around, like ammo, armour, and chainsaw fuel - plus a handy overdrive power-up which momentarily gives you infinite ammo for all your guns.

But more important than all of that, is the monsters. This single encounter features almost half of the entire DOOM Eternal cast - but they don’t all come in at once. Instead, they spawn in at specific points during the fight, giving the encounter a unique flow - which I’ve split up into a bunch of different phases. So in phase one we’re faced with two Imps - bouncy critters who can throw fireballs, a Mancubus - a bloated lump with flamethrowers, and a Revenant - a scrawny skeleton with a jetpack and missile launchers.

There’s also a few Zombies, but more on them later. After you kill a handful of enemies, we enter phase two. Here, two more Imps spawn in at the bottom of the map, and four new enemies appear at the top. These are Gargoyles - basically Imps with wings, which makes them even more of a nuisance. Kill a couple more enemies and we get the first big baddy: the Baron of Hell. This guy is a super upgraded version of the Hell Knight, and relentlessly charges after you with deadly ground-pound attacks.

The next phase only kicks off when you drop the Baron of Hell’s health pool to about a third. At that moment, a Pain Elemental appears. This dude floats around like DOOM’s famous Cacodemon - but can also spawn Lost Souls who zoom towards you like kamikaze missiles. And if you drop the Pain Elemental’s health to roughly one third, we’ll be greeted with two Whiplashes: slithering monsters who zig-zag right up into your face.

Kill either the Pain Elemental or one of the Whiplashes and we enter the fourth and final phase. It starts with the Doom Hunter: a shield-covered baddy on a hoverboard who was introduced as a boss in level four, but is now liable to show up in standard encounters. And if you drop the Hunter’s health to about half, we’ll see the last spawn of the encounter: two Prowlers, who are teleporting nasties with a painful claw attack.

This trigger system ensures that you won’t be completely inundated with different demons. But it does mean that if you don’t take out the biggest demons fast, you can have a whole bunch of monsters to juggle simultaneously. And while there is a predictable rhythm across all of your restarts, it’s never going to be exactly the same each time you play. Okay, so that’s the set-up out of the way. But how does this encounter actually feel to play?

Well, from the moment you start playing, this combat encounter will see you asking yourself a number of key questions. Starting with this: “which enemy should I focus on?” Staying alive in DOOM Eternal means figuring out where you should focus your fire, by deciding who is the biggest threat. So, in phase one, the Mancubus is slow and its projectiles are relatively easy to dodge. Especially if you neuter its launchers with a well-aimed attack.

That means you can leave it alone with only minimal worry while you concentrate on other enemies - like the Revenant, whose endless missile barrage makes it a good target for destruction. (I should note that in this specific combat encounter, the Mancubus and Revenant seem to be practically glued to the spot. I'm not sure if that’s a bug or intentional, but it does make both of them way less threatening in the grand scheme of things).

In the second phase, the decision of who to fight first is largely made for you. The Baron of Hell is ultra aggressive and makes a constant beeline towards your position - so you really need to focus your fire on him. And in phase three, we see a good example of an enemy who demands to be taken down quickly: the Pain Elemental. Because it can endlessly spawn new monsters, it should probably be taken out pretty quick.

Though, as it’s quite slow and the Souls go down in a single shotgun blast, you might be alright to leave it for a while as you focus on the more aggressive Whiplashes. When you’ve picked an enemy, the next question you should ask yourself is this: “which weapon should I be using?” Success in DOOM Eternal often means making smart choices about which weapon to use on which monster. The Mancubus, for example, is a giant, slow-moving target, so he’s easy to bonk with a rocket launcher - especially when compared to the small and nimble Revenant.

The shotgun is great for monsters who like to get right in your grill like the Whiplash, while the heavy cannon is great for picking off enemies who hang back, like Gargoyles. The Pain Elemental is a flying enemy, and so it’s particularly weak to your ballista weapon. While the Doom Hunter is covered in a blue shield so you’ll probably want to use the plasma rifle to break his defences. And the Baron of Hell can be chopped to bits with the chain-gun.

Throughout this encounter, you’ll be changing your weapon constantly. You’ll also want to think about the other stuff in your arsenal. Your freeze bombs are great for stopping the teleporting Prowlers. And the blood punch can deal huge damage to the Doom Hunter’s shield. Plus, you’ll want to choose the perfect moment to use your get-out-of-jail-free cards like the BFG and the crucible. And don’t forget about that tasty overdrive power-up.

Great for chewing up the Baron. Soon enough, you’re going to run out of ammo, or lose a bunch of health. So DOOM Eternal throws up another question: “how am I going to recover my resources?” Maybe you’ll dart towards one of the health kits or ammo pick-ups on the map, but there’s only a few and once they’re gone… they’re gone. Luckily, DOOM turns every enemy into a loot crate on legs. A resource piñata just waiting to be burst.

So you can use the glory kill on staggered enemies to get health. The chainsaw to get ammo. And the flame belch to make enemies drop armour shards. To facilitate this, the Zombies actually infinitely respawn during the fight. These staggering idiots can barely do damage and get killed in a split second, but they’re a handy source of ammo, armour, and health. And in the middle of all of this chaos, you’re going to have to ask yourself the even more fundamental question of “where am I going to move to next?”

Many enemies in DOOM Eternal will punish you for standing still, and others will force you into specific movement patterns. So the Baron of Hell makes you backpedal, while the Revenant’s lock-on missiles force you to jump and dash. And because there’s no such thing as cover in this game - you’ll spend pretty much this entire combat encounter in a state of constant movement. So the arena’s floor plan contains a number of distinct pathways - both on ground, and in the air.

In fact, these monkey bars allow you to move between the three most elevated areas without ever touching the ground. This allows you to move around unimpeded by obstacles, while picking between different routes, depending on where you need to go, and what you want to do. So getting through this fight - or, in truth, any combat encounter across both DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal - means finding answers to four key questions.

You might want to think of these as priority, preference, preservation, and position - or, the 4 Ps. All four Ps must be considered simultaneously, and constantly reevaluated as the new information arises - like running out of ammo, or seeing new enemies spawn in. The weapons and monsters are distinct with unique properties and different weaknesses - encouraging you to find preferences and priorities - but without creating a single, “right answer” to the combat puzzle.

Plus, the four Ps regularly feed into each other: especially by having resource management be part of the combat system. This means that running out of stuff can hijack the other questions: so your priority might quickly shift from taking down a boss monster to shotgunning a zombie. And the open level design gives you the space to dodge and weave through the environment as you weigh up your options. And with all that in mind, you can see why DOOM feels so different to other shooters.

Indistinct enemies provide no real reason to prioritise targets, so you might as well pick at random. Two-weapon arsenals limit your ability to make interesting choices. Regenerating health makes you run and hide, instead of changing your engagement style. And a cover system means you often don’t need to think about your position, simplifying the mental load to only three questions at a time. It’s no wonder why DOOM feels so intense in comparison.

But that’s not to say that the series is perfect. Especially so in Eternal, which makes a number of bizarre changes to its design that, in mind, meddle with the beautiful balance of its predecessor. So, some enemies now carry weapon-specific weaknesses - like tossing a sticky bomb in a Cacodemon’s mouth to instantly stagger it. And these are drilled into your head with pop-up tutorials on every loading screen. Even though other weapons will work, this can make it feel like there actually is a single right move you must perform to win, effectively reducing the game’s raft of tactical possibilities down to a single, correct answer.

Likewise, the Buff Totem and Archvile - which continuously spawn new, super-powered demons - are so dangerous that they simply must become priority one. Compare those to the Pain Elemental, which spawns Lost Souls, and DOOM 2016’s Summoner, which spawns Imps - both are good candidates for early destruction, but can also be ignored for a while without you becoming totally overwhelmed. And finally, there’s the more aggressive resource management.

The max ammo on all your guns has been massively reduced, and you’ve now got to regularly use the new flame belch to get armour. Both of these facts can push the preservation question to be unevenly pronounced in your mind - so you can find yourself spending more time patching up your resources than slaying demons. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the Marauder. Just... screw that guy. But when they’re at their best, the combat encounters in the new DOOM games are a flurry of fast movement and tactical decision making.

And all of this happens in the blink of an eye. A single playthrough of this encounter might last all of five minutes - much less time than you’ve spent watching this video - but it’s an incredibly tense five minutes - with your brain having to be on full alert at all times as you constantly find new answers to those four key questions. I won’t blame you if you need a moment to catch your breath when the last demon drops.

Hey, thanks for watching! I’m curious to hear your thoughts on which game did it best: DOOM 2016 or DOOM Eternal. Please leave your thoughts in the comments down below. As always, Game Maker’s Toolkit is funded almost exclusively by viewers like you who donate every month to my Patreon page. I couldn’t just do this without you lot.