Damn, this is just immense and endlessly creative and honestly it's the type of thing that really expands on Doom while turning it into its own thing entirely, and I just loved all the environments and level design in this. When I mean immense I mean IMMENSE, and god there's something about the way this map plays with DOOM's terrain where so many of the individual levels are just so distinctive in their own right. I mean it's also a heavily collaborative effort but it really does seem to work so well even if fundamentally this game is just "kill monsters, collect three keys." and so forth. There's levels in this that took me literally DAYS to finish with just how huge they were and it's also weird how like they're just in the middle of the game and then the next level afterwards would be completed within a few minutes. Also just the way that this plays with hidden areas and Doom's puzzle solving mechanics were certainly interesting, just with how intuitive it is. There's a whole bunch of times where I flipped a switch, an entirely new areas opened up where I killed hundreds of imps with my chaingun and BFG and what proved to be the deadliest weapon of all in this game... monster infighting, which is just yeah, you know.

This was really good though. Doom's gameplay has that nice combination of simple yet intuitive crossed with graphic violence that gives it such a rhythmic quality to it and yeah, I played this a lot and found it weirdly relaxing. That, and I liked how each of the episodes in this felt so distinctive from each other in terms of their settings and oddly it gave it kind of an abstract storytelling vibe to it. One thing I will say is like before this game is IMMENSE, like it's huge. It's weird when like one of the main things I may or may not have against it is that it's overwhelming but my god, you know. Definitely a must play for Doom fans.

I don't buy into the hype for this as much as some other people, namely those who hail it as the greatest megawad of the modern era. Regardless, I think it has an undeniable quality, particularly in the visual department. This game is undeniably gorgeous, with each chapter's style feeling distinct and lived in. In this sense, I think the texture pack is the highlight of this megawad. Unfortunately, I don't vibe with Dragonfly's level design as much as some others, as I find his combat setpieces a little bland. It's certainly not bad, I just don't think it justifies all the hype. Still, Eviternity is a uniquely grand adventure that no Doom fan should miss.
...Oh yeah, and Dehydration can get bent. Dropping an hour long map as the penultimate level in a random chapter is seriously not cool.

Eviternity may not be the best doom megawad (32 map replacement for doom 1 or 2) but it's undoubtedly in the top 5. And probably the closest a megawad has come to feeling like a proper doom 3. Now what I mean by that is that there have been hundreds of great megawad's since doom 1 released in December 1993. However, most of those map packs end up falling into one of two camps. Ether they go down the route that the two megawad's included in final doom went (TNT and Plutonia) Where their a tighter more challenging variant of what came before. Or the they go for something unique and challenging that while great is deliberately trying not to be traditional doom. It's worth noting that both of these paths have led to fantastic experiences, but they don't escape feeling like map packs. Map packs that might be better than the commercial classic doom levels but still map packs. (Didn't realize it at the time but this is kinda wrong other examples of wads in eviternity's style are valiant and scythe 2)

Eviternity on the other hand goes for something distinct that still feels like it could appear in a doom game. In fact considering that the megawad first released on December 13th 2018 (25th anniversary of doom) and got the final release in February 2019 it's shocking how much this map pack shares with doom eternal. Both share a dark angelic force as the main villain. There's a lot of overlap in level theme's as Doom Eternal and Eviternity share levels/episodes based on lush medieval castles, frosty snow areas, and an angelic home world mixed in with the standard tech base and hell levels doom is known for.

And that level variety is a huge part of what makes eternity so fantastic with each of the 6 episodes being divided up into 5 levels (with two secret levels on top of that) it means that Eviternity avoids falling into the repetition that often hits doom games around 2/3's of the way in. If I had to pick a favorite episode it would probably be Chapter III: Crystalline. Due to not only making great use of variety. Considering that it's not just cold themed, you have icey caverns. Snow fields. Levels based around hunting lodges and snowed in abandon castles. While it doesn't have my favorite maps in the wad (my top 3 are map 9, map 19 and map 27). It's got the tightest and most consistent map set of any of the episodes with map 12 and 15 being particularly excellent.

Another thing that sets this map set apart is it's fantastic soundtrack. Done mostly by Jimmy Paddock (a legend in the doom music community), but also several other composers. The wad's music does an excellent job giving each map it's tone. From exciting and tense, to calming and peaceful. This soundtrack is something you should check out even if you don't like doom.

If I had to have a gripe with anything in Eviternity it's that the final boss is a bit of a let-down. It's far better and more challenging than any boss in doom 1 and 2 but that's not saying much. While the idea of fighting a giant angel that can use all of the demon's most deadly attacks sounds cool the fight kinda just comes down to BFG spam and knowing when to use the invulnerability spheres. It's a let-down especially when you consider how well used Eviternity's 4 other regular enemies are used. The nightmare demon, the annihilator, the former captain, and the astral cacodemon are all introduced and used to great effect throughout the wad.

So,I think it's worth letting my cards on the table. I only beat Eviternity on "hey not so rough" which is the second lowest difficulty in doom (though for context I always play doom 1 and 2 on ultra violence which is what hurt me plenty is about the same as playing on doom 1 or 2's ultra violence for most wads) And I also played it single segment with plenty of saves. So, I didn't play Eviternity in the same way that most people who are good at doom play it. However, I think it's testament to the quality of a mod like this that I can play it on a lower difficulty a difficulty that wasn't the intended way to play and still have a great time.

Eviternity is a doom masterpiece. It's creative, varied, challenging, atmospheric. But most of all it's just plain fun and easily on of the best doom wads of all time. Easily one of the best experiences you can have in doom and not even the occasional weaker level or medicore final boss can take that away from it. Plus, since it's a mod it's free if you own doom 1 or 2. So go ahead and try it.

I find it funny that I can review doom wads in a website like this, but don't be fooled: This WAD is a full length doom mod. A game of its own, if you will.

Eviternity is a product of love for all things DOOM. Its ambitions and technical prowess are nothing like we've seen in a DOOM engine game, but is it better than DOOM?

No, but that's not the point of Eviternity.

I played this wad on Ultra-Violence. I'm not as well versed in DOOM as its devoted fans, but I do know a thing or two about how to play DOOM. Of course, as a result, I've been humbled. Eviternity presents itself as more or less a "fight by fight" mod, or in other words, you're going to feel like you're fighting in arenas more than you're going to feel like exploring an entire map while encountering enemies along the way. It's a question of pacing and also a question of preference. I'm not in the camp of doing arena fights, but I still enjoyed what was given. These fights are hard, and I've tried my damnedest best to not save on every encounter. Some of these fights (thankfully not too many), I'm sorry, are kind of bullshit.

See, Eviternity adds a few new enemies (as well as modify some base game ones as well). One of these enemies is the "Annihilator", which is a Hell Demon, but Cyber. It shoots missiles and also chainguns people to death harder than Chaingunners do, and that's saying something. I hate to say it, but these enemies are terribly designed. They're frustrating to deal with, they have a high amount of damage output AND they have a lot of health. They're also put in many scenarios where the player can easily get owned by them. They are simply not fun. The astral beings from Out There, In The Universe, told me that they are changed in the sequel for the better.

Speaking of Chaingunners, some map makers really, really like the idea of adding to the difficulty of a map by adding as many as possible. Some of the fights obviously had the process of "Hmm, this is a bit easy, actually. How should I make this harder?" to which the answer is, of course, chaingunners. Call it a nitpick, I call it a disappointment. These are not the kinds of enemies to place around to make fights harder in a good way.

Alright, I've got my complaints about this game out of the way.

This mod is fucking beautiful. Holy shit. The music accompanies it very well, the Capital A Architecture on some of these levels is impressive. These people went above and beyond for what's expected in a DOOM wad when it comes to visuals. It's a full fledged journey. I'd stop and wander around after fights, just gushing about looking at the set pieces. You could play this in no-monsters mode and have an outstanding walking simulator to enjoy. There is a story in Eviternity, but it would rather just show you the environments than tell the story because it's just more important and efficient that way, anyway.

Difficulties are well adjusted as well. I did a quick look on the easier modes and they should be a good start for people who aren't as good at DOOM, but still want to experience a new, full length DOOM game.

This is the ideal megawad. Not only emulating the style of the original games, but pushing it forward with new enemies, whole new areas powered by a brand new texture pack, and new design concepts. Level after level of this game took me back with its creativity. There's one early on that starts in a small hallway and, with every switch press, opens up into an ever larger level filled with hordes of enemies. That's a design I hadn't really seen before—this level that evolves and grows as you go through it. Not just opening individual doors, but bringing down entire connecting walls and opening up into a larger space. It's also not even the most interesting level in the game.

Barring some horseshit here and there (the second secret level is far too long for a Doom level! it took like 30% of my total playtime to beat it!), this is just an incredible piece of work. The team has my respect forever.