Just as the two modern Doom games have effortlessly modernized the fast-paced retro shooter to unprecedented bestselling success, Doom Eternal's first DLC unapologetically brings back the PC expansion pack in all its glory. Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One may have an unwieldy name, but this is no mere detour or side story. Picking up immediately after the end of the main game, id Software has bolted on three full levels that continue both the narrative of Doom Eternal and the gradual rise in gameplay complexity. While the new campaign falters when it comes to adding to the Doom sandbox, it succeeds in bringing the story of these games to the forefront and setting up an epic duel that every fan will be dying to see.
Before loading into The Ancient Gods, it might be recommended to replay a level from Doom Eternal's main campaign. There's no getting back up to speed here, as the game immediately throws top-tier demons at Doomguy and expects players to keep up the pace. Because of this, it's curious that the DLC is offered as a standalone experience. It's hard to imagine anyone playing The Ancient Gods without first working their way through Doom Eternal's campaign and learning the game's tricks. It's certainly convenient if players want to switch platforms midstream, as the DLC unlocks all the player's suit and weapon upgrades (including the unlockable Unmaykr laser) right off the bat. Outside of that specific scenario, these are definitely a trio of master levels suited only for franchise veterans.
For anyone in that camp, The Ancient Gods offers another shot of top-tier first-person shooting amid creative combat scenarios. So many DLC campaigns of great games feel like side stories coasting on past successes. The Ancient Gods is cut from the same cloth as its parent game, and it feels vital to the original story. Each level takes about as long as Eternal's late-stage challenges, letting players puzzle out how to deal with two simultaneous Cyberdemons on a cramped oil platform or battle an onslaught of Hell Knights led by a Marauder. It's the type of combat design that elicits midgame profanity towards the designers and eventual respect for their devious gameplay creations.
There are only two real negatives that take away from an otherwise spot-on expansion. For one, because this is DLC for Doom Eternal, players can expect more complex platforming on top of the combat improvements. No matter what they try, there's just no getting around the fact that Doomguy's jumping controls aren't as tight as his control over a double-barreled shotgun. When a player is blasting through rooms of imps one minute, it feels awful to repeatedly just miss a ledge and fall into an abyss the next. No matter if it's leaping across rapidly disappearing stepping stones or racing to the top of a room to avoid a deepening fog, these segments still feel like ordering a steak dinner and then pouring McDonald's ketchup all over it.
Perhaps more annoying is that everything The Ancient Gods adds to the Doom combat sandbox feels unnecessary at best and detrimental at worse. The new Turret and golden Maykr enemies both require precise headshots to take out with any consistency, which forces Doomguy to slow down, pull out the one scoped weapon in his arsenal, and take aim. It's antithetical to how Doom combat functions and feels completely out of place. A later enemy also requires a specific weapon attachment to dispatch, but it also doubles as a Ghostbusters reference that fits better into the combat flow, so it's almost worth the annoyance. One can hope that all these enemies, which seem to exist mainly as boss tutorials rather than interesting new foes, find a better role in the coming second half of the expansion.
After a handful of minutes remembering all the complexities of Doom Eternal's controls, anyone who's played through the game is going to have a blast dashing through the 5-6 hours it takes to see credits on Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One. No minor gameplay hiccups can really take away from both the continued excellence of Doom Eternal's shooting and the ridiculousness of its storytelling. If players thought Doom Eternal felt lore-heavy after Doom 2016, The Ancient Gods is the glorious payoff, making that campaign better in retrospect and prepping for a hell of a finale that aims to cap off the entire reboot series.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Google Stadia, both as a standalone campaign and DLC for Doom Eternal. ScreenRant was provided an Xbox One code for the Deluxe Edition of Doom Eternal for the purposes of this review.
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