Awesome / Doom Eternal

Moment pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all entries have been folderized as a security measure. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned!

The Doom Slayer is not trapped in Hell (On Earth) surrounded by demons. The demons are trapped in hell with him.

"We must pray now, brothers... Pray that he is watching, for it is HE that they fear! Not man, or his armies. They fear the mark of the Beast."

— A street prophet during the opening cutscene

DOOM: Eternal embraces the Rule of Cool to an even more extreme degree than its predecessor, with some ridiculously enjoyable results.

---

Doom Eternal

• A religious sermon in the opening evoking the intro sermon from Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast, combined with the scenes on screen of the Doom Slayer getting ready for his latest mission, makes it come off as describing your player character in the most metal way possible, to the point it's basically calling the Doom Slayer the Beast of the Apocalypse.
  • Take a look at the Doom Slayer's eyes during the intro sequence. They're shaking. This, combined with the sheer level of contempt on his face... To quote an anon on 4chan:
  "Doomguy broke the scale. He's transcended all levels of rage. He's no longer too angry to die. He's too angry to stop."
• This gem from King Novik himself at the very beginning of the sequence, which cements the Slayer's sheer, undiluted badassery just as far as the opening narration did back in 2016.
  King Novik: Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce, we will send unto them... only you. Rip and tear, until it is done.
• As always, the creators really know how to portray the Doom Marine as the Terror Hero badass feared by humans almost as much as the demons. Just the cutscene with him strolling through the Phobos base—the Marine visibly intimidating everyone who sees him up close, and straight up taking a guard's Plasma Rifle without almost no one daring to object—says it all.
  • As this tumblr user puts it:
    Kinda supports my idea that DoomGuy isn’t neccessarily a bloodthirsty raging psycho. He’s a guy who has seen so much, done SO MUCH… that he’s calm. He’s so far beyond wrath at the demons that he’s entered a weird Calm and just LIVES there. Nothing shakes him of it. He doesn’t grunt, he doesn’t yell, he doesn’t scream, he just breathes and moves on. New demon? Well, it’ll bleed like the last. He doesn’t revel in combat, he just moves through it like walking through air; it’s a function of existence for him.
• On your way to retrieve Samuel Hayden, you'll come across four data logs from Dr. Elena Richardson, who is trying to make sense of the Doom Slayer's motives and power. She discovers that while he's most definitely a human, physical enhancements due to "foreign bodies present of unknown origin" in his blood say otherwise. As a scientist, she is unwilling to call the Slayer a "god", but the coincidental timing of his arrival against of a global demon invasion causes her to process things differently. By the time you've listened to all of the logs, the fact that one man is seen as a "rage incarnate", humanity's final hope, and a tipping point against the war for Earth makes her slowly consider him as not just a man, but DOOM itself. The way she goes from scientist to believer sells just how badass the Slayer truly is.
  Dr. Elena Richardson: All hail the coming of the Destroyer; the Slayer's time... is now.
  • What really adds to this are the timestamps of each log. Her first log, where she doesn't believe that the Slayer is a god, is on January 24th. Her last log, where she's reciting what seems like a biblical passage about the Slayer, is on March 3rd. That's roughly thirty-eight days, meaning the Slayer is so awesome he inspired this sort of reaction in just over one month. Imagine how bad it'd get if people were exposed to him longer!
    • Just the fact that the Slayer changes the tides of the war, all by himself, in just a month.
• The fact that the automated PA system has prerecorded messages specifically warning everyone that the Doom Slayer is on-site.
  Facility Voice: Warning: The Slayer has entered the facility.
  • Later into the level, you see the BFG-10000 in the distance firing world-shattering lasers as Samuel tells you the power source is going to be very interesting, and he doesn't lie; The power source for this massive monster of a cannon... is the BFG-9000. After The Slayer manages to shoot a hole in Mars, he immediately rips the gun from the peripheral housing. As it turns out, the PA system has a warning for this situation too, seeing it as so dire the subtitles are in all-caps despite the serenity of the person reading it.
    Facility Voice: THE SLAYER HAS CONTROL OF THE BFG. REPEAT, THE SLAYER HAS THE BFG.
  • The PA system also advises all personnel to evacuate the facility and escape to the surface of Mars... the planet that the Doom Slayer just shot a continent-sized hole in. The base A.I. determined that between being in the same facility as a BFG-wielding Doom Slayer, and being on a Shattered World crawling with demons, the latter is the safer option.
• The sheer power of the BFG-9000 alone. The BFG-10000 isn't so much of a new design of the weapon as it is a lens to amplify the BFG-9000's destructive power. The Slayer blasts a massive hole into the surface of Mars with it, before tearing out the BFG for himself as his prize, a weapon that can fire a plasma orb that can wipe an entire room full of demons clean with its tendrils and splash. All because he did not have the time or the inclination to find another way into Hebeth with the invasion still going on.
• Also doubles as a comedic moment, The Doom Slayer launches himself out of a giant cannon. Behold.
  • He doesn't just launch himself out of the cannon. He kicks away the cannon's intended warhead before climbing in himself. You have to admit, he is the more devastating payload.
• Heavy metal choir chants "RIP AND TEAR!" That's just... so heavy metal, so DOOM!
  • The release of the Doom Slayer's backstory only cements this further - "Rip and Tear" was his signature cry whenever he thrust himself into battle, and he was such a badass in combat that the coliseum guards that oversaw his combat trials would chant it with him. Then he got promoted, and his Night Sentinels adopted it as their war cry. Hell, the Sentinels even chant it to signify his arrival to Sentinel Prime!
• The fact that the Ripatorium in the Fortress of Doom isn't just an out-of-story mechanic for players. It's a demon prison, presumably for Demons that have been captured. And when you have to go rip and tear the prisoners, as part of a story mission, the tooltip for the mission says it all: punish the demons.
• The Marauders, corrupted Night Sentinels, really showcase by proxy just how badass these warriors were. They're fast, so you can't outrun them. They've got a shield to block all of your weapons, and they are quick on the draw, making them Nigh-Invulnerable. They have a Super Shotgun of their own that they fire when you're too close, and an Argent Energy Axe to throw projectiles at you with should you be too far away, meaning that you must keep them at mid-range and only attack them the instant their eyes flash green. They're also able to summon a hound of their own to harass you and slow you down. What else bears mentioning? They're incredibly durable, so they're capable of taking several powerful blows before getting staggered, and their shield also makes the BFG, Unmaykr and Crucible seemingly impractical: it takes effort for these to land a hit against a Marauder. All of that info in mind - it makes a single Marauder a greater threat than anything else on the battlefield, and killing one is a truly satisfying feat.
  • On the Doom Slayer’s end, one of his Glory Kills regarding the Marauder is to break his leg, and just to show his utter contempt of the traitor, snatch the axe from his hands and use it to hack his head off. Another Glory Kill has the Marauder catch his punch before he can smash their head, only for the Doom Slayer to extend the Doomblade and stab them in the eye.
  • During the Marauder's intro, VEGA opens a portal since the Doom Slayer has Samuel's body; there's no reason to fight or even be there. The Slayer just tosses Samuel into the portal and stays to kill the Marauder, without ever breaking eye contact with him as they stand off.
    • Even better, if you have a helmetless skin equipped during this scene, the Slayer gives a little cocky smirk as he tosses Samuel through the portal. The Slayer has finally found a worthy opponent and he can't wait to throw down!
  • With fast weapon-switching and some DPS combos, you can utterly humiliate the elite demon by blowing him to bits in seconds.
    • The easiest and most efficient way to take a Marauder out, however, is to catch him off guard with a single shot from the Ballista or Super Shotgun, then vaporize him with the BFG. Granted, it needs good timing, but it still works nevertheless.
  • The Marauder's shield can block even the BFG, Unmaykr and Crucible, but he's not immune to them. There's nothing quite as cathartic as staggering him and blowing him to bits with a direct hit with the BFG, or rewarding the split-second opening with a Crucible to the face.
• Speaking of the Night Sentinels, we get a detailed account of the Doom Slayer's rise amongst their ranks, going from a total outsider to their strongest fighter and brother-in-arms through sheer force of will in combat. The final entry into the account comes after they were betrayed and scattered, each set upon by an ambushing horde of demons, and it details how each of them went out swinging, outright calling Urdak, the Warrior Heaven of the Night Sentinel faith, too low a place for such giants.
  Lord Sash, stalwart banner sergeant, was found with his war standard pierced through the throat of a great beast, his body surrounded by the corpses of enemies. Roan the Mighty, the light faded from his eyes, had eviscerated such a multitude that their entrails clung to the black rocks like vines. Gor, relentless until the end, had broken his blade on the backs of his foes, and by the time he fell he had slain another two-score with his hands alone.
  The Priests believed the Sentinels all slain, but we are Argenta, born to overcome.
• The Doom Slayer now comes standard with the arm-mounted Doomblade and the shoulder-mounted Equipment Launcher, and the former especially gets plenty of use.
• Introducing the Doom Hunter, a demon whose species was created to hunt ONLY the Slayer.
  • Even better? Deag Ranak says that they were long extinct, which means a demonic species specifically designed to only hunt the Slayer was wiped out by the Slayer. Ranak even says that the ones he sics on you are an improved version, and they still can't get the job done.
    • With that said, just because they can't stop the Slayer doesn't mean they are weak. The Crucible can kill any demon, even Super Heavies, in one hit, but these guys take two and are deadly in close combat, meaning they really were useful against the ancient weapons of their time.
• Certain enemies have weaknesses that the player can exploit:
  • Revenants, Mancubi and Arachnotrons can have their weaponry destroyed with well-placed shots.
  • Shooting a grenade into a Cacodemon's mouth will stagger the thing, allowing for a quick follow-up Glory Kill.
  • The shielded Soldiers do return, but should you use the Plasma Rifle on the shield, it'll detonate and deal damage to other nearby enemies.
• You finally get to use the Crucible, the almighty Argent energy sword introduced in 2016. The awesome part? The sword cuts through absolutely anything in a single stroke. Super-Heavies like the Baron of Hell? The Crucible still takes them out in one slash.
  • In the classic games and 2016, the Cyberdemon was a Damage-Spongy Lightning Bruiser that required the player to master circle-strafing to avoid getting splattered by its rockets. Come this game's version, the Tyrant, you can insta-kill them with the Crucible like a hot knife through butter!
  • Although it requires some precise timing on the player's part, the Crucible actually works on Marauders. And yes, if you can catch him off guard, it'll One-Hit Kill him like the rest.
  • The Crucible even works on the Icon of Sin himself. While it doesn't One-Hit Kill him, it can instantly take out one of his armor/body segments in one slash.
• During one sequence, the Doom Slayer is able to use a machine that looks a lot like an Iron Maiden to command a Revenant that's been modified to accept external influences. As a result, he effectively pays evil unto evil and possesses a demon and makes it fetch his Super Shotgun by wading through cultists and demons. After it presents it to him like a squire fetching a knight's weapon, the Doom Slayer can shoot it in the face.
• A multitude of secrets and nods to the franchise can be found in the hub, including but not limited to; the Soul Cube, what may or may not be the same Unmaker from Doom 64, and a goddamn Jaeger. No, we are NOT kidding.
• The Wham Shot reveals that modern Doom (2016) is a Stealth Sequel to the original Doom games. This means that the Doom Slayer is the same guy from 1, 2, and 64 (and maybe 3). No wonder he's The Dreaded among the demons.
• After decades of being The Voiceless, the Doom Slayer is Suddenly Speaking in a couple of flashbacks. And when he finally speaks, he says exactly what you'd expect him to say.
  Doomguy: ...guts, huge guts... Kill them, must... kill them all...
  Doomguy: Rip... and... tear!
  Doomguy: The demons! They... are everywhere... Must... kill them all!
  • Read the subtitles. It's not just the Doom Slayer. It's Doomguy.
  • Not only does this officially reference the comic, which the last entry had already broken, but this tosses on direct allusion to the freaking Repercussions of Evil fanfic. Yes, the trope namer of And Then John Was a Zombie. They took these ridiculous meme founts, played them straight, and made it work.
  • Not only that, Word of God confirmed that Doomguy is a descendant of B.J. Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein. So that means this whole time, the Blazkowicz family has continued the fight against evil.
  • This revelation gives one to, of all things, the BFG-9000. The weapon in its original form was so ungodly powerful that it has never been iterated or improved upon, with the closest thing to an exception being a shell designed to allow it to go all out. Even after God only knows how many years after the UAC designed the original BFG, it is still their magnum opus, and they know it.
• After slaying the final Hell Priest the Khan Maykr has finally had enough with the Slayer interfering and shuts down the power in the Fortress of Doom in an attempt to make it his prison, which also has the side effect of releasing all the demons locked up in the Ripatorium. The Slayer's response after they succeed? The game gives you control back and allows you to kick the ass of every last demon in the vicinity with BFG Division blasting, and restore power to the ship with the Crucible you and Samuel extracted from Hell in the last game.
  • You can also show your utter contempt for your escaped prisoners by simply turning around as the power goes out and firing the BFG once. It'll clear everyone out that didn't move out of place during the cutscene, proving that they were all much safer in their cells.
• Credit needs to be given to the serious cojones on Samur, the Maykr who had the courage to act in direct defiance of the Khan Maykr, the very same "Seraph" of the last entry that legend spoke of, who turned the Doomguy into the Doom Slayer, knowing that he was the only one who could permanently turn the tide against both Hell and the Maykrs' own horrid machinations.
  Samur: And now... they will fear you.
  • Oh, it gets better... Most - if not all - of the Maykrs are biologically incapable of refusing the Khan Maykr's commands, yet Samur had it in him to muster the Heroic Willpower to defy her and do what was right. No wonder she'd apparently banished him afterwards; he was a legitimate threat to her rule despite the fact that it should have been physically impossible for him to defy her!
  • The backstory explains that the reason the Maykrs put the entire plot into motion is because Samur stole their A.I. creator, the Father, from Urdak and sent their entire realm into an energy crisis. To put this in the perspective of the Makyrs and their alien angel motif, Samur basically stole God from Heaven. After Heaven sold out to Hell.
• So Doomguy needs to get to the core of Mars in order to access a portal to where the final Hell Priest is hiding. Samuel Hayden says that getting to the core will take time - time the Slayer doesn't have with demons overrunning his planet. So what idea does he hit upon to get there? Go to Phobos, board the UAC base's ginormous cannon, the BFG-10000, something Samuel Hayden himself helped build for purposes of defending against the demons, and then use it to blow a hole into Mars itself! Insane? Absolutely. Awesome? You bet.
  • And even better? This is how you get the BFG-9000 in this game. The BFG was the energy source for that ginormous cannon.
• The codex document detailing the Father of the Maykrs mentions that the Father is all-knowing and can see every potentiality. It also says that the Doom Slayer is not quite the one rogue element that makes this particular timeline so weird. Instead, the Doom Slayer is a universal inevitability.
• The battle with the Khan Maykr. She primarily hassles you by sending her laser-firing minions against you, firing Sword Beams your way and turning the floor to lava. So how do you take her down? Blast her until her shields are down, and then meathook up to her and smash her right in the fucking face with your Blood Punch.
• The Final Battle against the Icon of Sin manages to top that of the Spider Mastermind from the previous game. Instead of being a giant demon head stuck on a wall with his brain exposed, he's now a towering demonic colossus the size of a fucking Kaiju. The battle itself is just as long and epic as it was all the way back in Doom II, coming complete with Mick Gordon's most intense track to date, and not only is the boss also covered in armor, he isn't limited to just spitting demons at you this time, making it even more difficult. After you tear down his armor and severely wound him, by tearing out the skin of all of his upper body parts one by one, you finish him off by shoving the Crucible right into his brain.
  • Samuel Hayden's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner upon reaching the Icon of Sin is also what sells it:
    Samuel: Now is the time. Two Titans meet, as it was written...
  • It's also finally some semblance of what it was intended to be; Word of God said back in the original Doom II that they wanted the Icon of Sin to be an absolute behemoth, but it being 1994 they simply didn't have the skills, tech or capability to do so and turned him into a wall texture that spits out demon spawns. After twenty-six years, that old concept came back with a vengeance.
  • Even better? Just like the Cyberdemon back in 2016, the Icon shows absolutely no fear of the Slayer - he just runs on incredible fury, rivaled only by that of the Slayer himself. He remembers how we'd humiliated him back in the day, and now he's outright pissed - it's payback time.
    • If your timing is good enough and you're a fearless sort, you can answer that bravado with your own display and attack the Icon of Sin with the Crucible, instantly taking ALL of the health off of the region you attacked.
  • Not to mention the way the game ends: The Doom Slayer calmly walks away, continuing to fight his battle against the never-ending legions of Hell.
    King Novik: And you will be their savior; your strength will be their shield, and your will - their sword. You remain unbroken, for your fight... is eternal.
  • And to top it all off, the 'game completed' screen, akin to Doom (2016), has the defeated carcass of the Final Boss - in this case, it is the Icon of Sin, mutilated and lifeless. The demons outright allied themselves with the Maykrs to reawaken this creature and send it to Earth. The most powerful demon in all of Hell, empowered even further by angelic technology. And you. Just. KILLED that. Do you not feel like a badass?!!
• When you upgrade the Super Shotgun, you notice there aren't any mod options, just general improvements. Goes to show how perfect a weapon it is that the only improvements are to make it even more perfect.
• Similarly, the Super Shotgun has a storied history in Doom of being OP as hell and a huge player favourite. Its become such an Iconic Item of the Slayer's arsenal that the demons hate the thing as much as they hate the Slayer himself. They even gave the thing its own pages in their own bible, spewing the same vitriol and fear at it as they do the Slayer.
  The sting of the Slayer's abominable arsenal casts fear into the lowest of our kin. Its blazing barrels of brimstone spew his vitriol and loathing upon us, and cast our brethren to the dirt. Mark the venom of his chosen apparatus of agony, the Diabolical Musket, Lucifer's Bane; its claw of pig iron gouging the flesh of the martyr and hurrying him upon us. Curse the name of his beloved treasure. Curse the Hell Walker's device of torment. We shall cast it into the smelter and gild his entrails with the slurry.
• With the revelation that demons are human souls corrupted so absolutely by torture and pain that they turn into twisted monsters, The Wretch mentioned in Doom 2016 may have gotten one by regaining enough of a mind to conspire to help the Slayer. Likewise, this implies that the Doom Slayer's resolve and power are so indomitable that it can bring a spark of hope to even the single most hopeless creatures in existence.
  • If the Wretch was indeed a demon who regained its humanity thanks to the Slayer, then this marks the third time id Software managed to take an extraneous work of fiction that is otherwise of low regard and make it work, in a similar fashion to Repercussions of Evil and the comic book: the ending to the non-canonical Doom novels showed Flynn Taggart—or rather a fragment of his soul—dominating and converting demons to fight by his side through indomitable faith and sheer force of will.^note Granted, the whole idea was due to a slight misunderstanding on his part, but he still made it work.
• The Saving Throw rune not only allows the player to survive an otherwise fatal blow, but slows time down briefly to give the player a chance to gather health and retaliate. It is a moment of awesome to have the Doom Slayer get a second wind and kill what just tried to kill him. Triple the awesome if this rune is used to finally kill a Marauder.
• By the end of the first mission the Doom Slayer has decreased the rate of demonic expansion on Earth by one third rate, simply by killing Deag Nilox and making the other priests go into hiding. Deag Grav even left the solar system to get out of reach. In less than a hour the Doom Slayer put the forces of Hell on the defensive. In fact, Nilox is killed and the demons suffer a major setback right after the first significant wave of the game.
  • And by the END of the game? The Hellpriests and Khan Maykr are DEAD, leaving Hell with no way to corrupt Earth.
• This artwork of the Doom Slayer standing in front of the Night Sentinels as they cheer. It really helps drive home that, regardless of where he came from or how he came to Argent D'Nur, they ultimately accepted and respected him as their king and leader - and makes their ultimate downfall all the more tragic. No wonder the Slayer is so angry.
• The ARC Complex level is arguably the turning point in the war between the demons and mankind. Picture this: the ARC Complex, the most heavily-defended secure location on Earth, is under siege by a massive army of demons. Hayden, the de-facto leader of Earth's defenses, has fallen in battle, and the invaders are winning; it's clear that the complex is about to fall, and Earth with it. Then, the Slayer appears out of nowhere and proceeds to singlehandedly slaughter everything in the facility and rescue Hayden. This is badass enough from an outside perspective, but storming the complex and interrupting the massacre with The Only Thing They Fear Is You playing is one of the best moments in a game full of strong contenders.
• The Berserk power up is normally less common than the first game, but all the more memorable as the kill animations for it are more brutal than the previous game's with Imps being casually pulled apart for starters. With a certain cheat you can enjoy it for entire levels. And it's so overpowered it can kill a Marauder instantly.

The Ancient Gods - Part One

• In the first level, near the slayer gate, is a small corridor towards the key needed to open it. As you progress through it, the entrance and exit seals shut, trapping the Doom Slayer inside it with a Tyrant, a demon whose only 'weakness' is that it is slow on the turn, all but forcing the Slayer to fight it on its terms. Say it with us: "The Slayer is not trapped inside a tiny hallway with a Tyrant. The Tyrant is trapped in there with him!"
• After passing the trials of the Titan named Maligog, the Doom Slayer reawakens the behemoth himself, whom actually doesn't respond via attacking him - he actually helps the Slayer get to his destination, where the two life spheres reside. Slightly justified in that demonkind does not accept treachery of any sort; it would be a sin for him to go back on his word. Plus the Slayer's looking for the Dark Lord's sphere to kill all demons outside from Hell, so it isn't like Maligog had a choice - but still, the fact that not only was a demon acting benign toward its kind's mortal enemy, but was doing so consciously unlike the brainwashed Revenant is unbelievably badass. Of course, there is also the prospect of the Slayer arriving being carried by the behemoth's very hand, which itself is cool as hell.
• Finally tired of Samuel Hayden's - or more accurately, Samur Maykr's - manipulations and arrogance, once the Doom Slayer realizes that following Samur's plan would impede his ultimate goal, he proceeds to offer the sphere to him... before crushing it before his eyes and taking the Dark Lord's sphere instead. As a result, the endgame has a fight that's been a long time coming: the Doom Slayer vs. Samur, in Transfiguration form. After dealing with his manipulations and scheming across two games, you finally get to personally kick Samuel Hayden's sorry ass for all of it.
  • Right before the Doom Slayer crushes the Father's life sphere, Samur actually recoils in genuine terror. For the first time in his entire nigh-immortal lifetime, something in his long-term game plan has finally gone very, very wrong.
  • It's also worth mentioning that by destroying the Father's life sphere, he may as well have killed him, given that he'll never be able to incarnate as anything more than a presence, forever. The reason? The Slayer knew that the Father would get in the way of his goal of killing the Dark Lord for good due to his lingering sentiment for his creation. In short, the Slayer decided to kill God to stop him from getting in his way.
  • It is soon revealed that the Slayer did ''not' kill the Father, but instead made it so God could not take a physical form ever again. This does not diminish the awesomeness of the Slayer's actions, especially given the Father actually approves of the Slayer's decision. The Slayer was able to impress the most powerful being in existence. This also counts as a moment of awesome for the Father; He takes being unable to take physical form again perfectly in stride, understanding what must be done to save the earth and sticking by the Slayer's side.
• The fact that the Doom Slayer's plan is to resurrect the Dark Lord of Hell to give him a physical form, and then kill him while his form is vulnerable to stop the demonic invasion permanently. This is the equivalent of summoning Satan just so you can fight him one-on-one!
  • Hell, this is basically the Slayer taking the logical conclusion of a Neutral path in a Shin Megami Tensei game but with a lot more bullets, chainsaws, stomping, punching, ripping and tearing involved.
  • The Slayer knew perfectly well that summoning the Dark Lord would put reality in jeopardy, yet he still lets him incarnate in a physical body so he can punch a hole in him. He clearly deemed the risk worth the reward, meaning that the Slayer is legitimately confident in his ability to take down a Primeval god.
  • Better yet, the fact that the Dark Lord - the Satanic Archetype of Doom - takes on the Doom Slayer's appearance makes the Slayer even more of a Messianic Archetype.
• Props to the ARC Intern who not only seems to be a bit of a fanboy for the Slayer and actually calls him Doomguy outright, but seems to understand the Slayer enough to know exactly what he plans to do with the Dark Lord's Life Sphere. Enough so that while everyone else is evacuating with the presumption of the End of the World as We Know It, this sole intern already has the new coordinates set up for the teleporter and declares that he's in without a hint of fear. Balls of steel, bud.
  • Even when he first discovers that the Slayer has planned to destroy the Father's life sphere from the start, the intern doesn't panic or demand that he change his course of action - he sounds worried, definitely, but still plays along even as the Slayer snatches the Dark Lord's sphere, and is fully on board within minutes of him returning to the ARC base. Almost no one would trust such a guy like the Doom Slayer, but this dude was with him every step of the way. That takes serious guts!
• The Reveal of the Dark Lord: He is an Evil Counterpart and Alternate Self to the Doom Slayer himself! It's safe to say a few jaws dropped.
• Beating the DLC in five minutes.

The Ancient Gods - Part Two

• The very second the Dark Lord is summoned in his physical body, the Doom Slayer has the audacity to raise his Super Shotgun and immediately try to blow his head off. Were it not for the enchantment cast on the Luminarium, the Slayer would have been more than willing to fight it out right then and there.
• As the Slayer arrives on the outskirts of Immora, Davoth emerges from his fortress to command his armies. As it looks like the Slayer will have to face them all on his own, portals start opening up behind him, summoning forth an entire army of Night Sentinels, backed up by hover tanks, aircraft, dragons, and even a couple of Atlans! The final battle is about to begin.
  • Even better? They're led by Valen, who has ended his exile and become their new commander, even giving the Slayer his new hammer. Looks like his exile has come to an end.
    Commander Valen: Come, brothers! Let Hell tremble before our might!
  • Said hammer is capable of tearing through the demonic legions with ease, and is very satisfying to use. It also allows you to stand a chance against Davoth.
  • You can see the fighting going on in the background as you move through the level. The Sentinels? They're winning. The lore wasn't kidding about their prowess.
  • The Atlans are Humongous Mecha. Doesn't stop them from performing flying knees on the demonic titans.
• If you are somehow not yet convinced by the Slayer's badassitude, a segment towards the end of Immora should change that. Hot on the Dark Lord's heels, the Slayer is picked up by a Sentinel aircraft. Rather than going into the vehicle, the Slayer simply jumps atop and uses his Meathook like a grappling hook, holding it unflinchingly as the craft speeds towards the Dark Lord's Evil Tower of Ominousness. Once close enough, the Slayer simply jumps off the craft, grapples himself off a Pain Elemental, shoots a Gargoyle midair and lands directly on a Dread Knight and instantly performs a glory kill on it. Through it all, the Slayer and the Sentinels in the ship never communicate despite their obvious combat synergy. It really gives a sense of what terrors these guys were in their heydays.
• The final encounter before the Dark Lord bossfight deserves some credit: There's an absolute fuckton of shotgun ammunition lying around - much more than you could ever carry - and an overdrive sphere to boot. Once you pick up the overdrive sphere, you are assailed by waves upon waves of nothing but Stone Imps. You switch to the full-auto mod, and simply hold down the trigger until your gun runs dry. Here's the kicker; as you kill the imps, you will move around the arena, and coupled with the imps' ammo drops, the shotgun never runs dry. More than a minute of this later, and Davoth's front door is littered with your work.
• Just when you thought the Icon of Sin and Samur Maykr were epic enough as the game's final boss battles, the true Final Battle with the Dark Lord himself really ups the ante and gives us quite possibly one of, if not, the most epic final boss battle in all of first-person shooters.
  • For starters, he fights you in a suit of Powered Armor that utterly dwarfs you, looking like a cross between the Praetor Suit and Terminator Armor. And he gives you one Hell of an opening speech.
    Dark Lord: You bring violence and war to thwart the Dark Realm, but conflict was born in Hell. It is inevitable; a fire that fuels creation, and gives purpose where there is none.
    [Davoth jumps down from his platform to confront the Slayer]
    Dark Lord: Stand and Fight, Slayer. Honor your true God. Fight, and show me your purpose.
  • How does the Dark Lord of Hell fight you? He constantly moves around the arena, throws grenades in your direction to catch your sides, and he even heals himself if his attacks connect. He has an impenetrable shield up, only letting it down to attack, can summon astral projections of other demons to harass you, and is constantly firing projectiles from a shoulder cannon. The fight is like a souped-up Marauder mixed with a match against yourself, and you'll bring every trick you've learned in the game in order to bring him down. The Sentinel Hammer tears through his forces with ease, but here it only makes things more fair.
  • This is also the only boss to have a cutscene between phases. After you chop his health down low enough, Davoth, staggered but unyielding, stands up and spills some cold beans regarding his true origin; he's not just the franchise's Satanic Archetype, he is the REAL Father. This ramps up the stakes way more, with the revelation that you're now fighting the Top God and Devil of the universe!
    Dark Lord: For too long have I been imprisoned by my own creations. You will not stop my vengeance, nor the one who betrayed me... Tell him.
    The Father: He is the first being, and my creator. When he fell, I ascended.
    [stricken with the deepest rage he's ever felt, the Slayer loads his Super Shotgun]
    Dark Lord: They lied to you, Slayer. Immora and its people would've been perfect, if not for the treachery of my servants. They sealed me away, stole my power, and name, and now, the time has come for a reckoning.
    [the Dark Lord gets ready to continue the fight, Crucible drawn]
    Dark Lord: As all things were made by my hand, so shall they be unmade... starting with YOU.
  • And how does the fight end, you ask? The Dark Lord is at his knees, felled by his own creation. He makes one last grab for his Crucible, but then tosses it aside, facing his end with dignity. The Doomguy, for the first time in the rebooted series (barring mods and certain helmetless skins, of course) takes off his helmet and confronts the cause of all his trouble. For the first time in the entire franchise, he cracks a one-liner.
    Dark Lord: Tell me... have you nothing to say to... your creator... before you strike him down?
    [Doomguy unsheathes his Doomblade and shoves it into the Dark Lord's chest]
    Doomguy: No.
    [The Doomguy yanks his Doomblade out of the Dark Lord, who lets out a scream as the demons outside of Hell evaporate into ashes. Eventually, he devolves into his sphere and explodes, rendering the Dark Lord dead for good]
  • Keep in mind, that's a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, a Shut Up, Hannibal!, a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and a "No More Holding Back" Speech all at the same time. And the Slayer did all of that with one word.
• And with that, at long last, the Slayer has finally defeated Hell once and for all. With Davoth dead, all demons outside of Hell are destroyed, with the remainder forever unable to leave their home, and with both Hell and Argent energies gone, they're most definitely on a one-way trip to extinction. After untold eons in-universe and twenty-eight years in real life, Doomguy's war with Hell is finally finished. He ripped and tore, and now it is done.
  • As the Maykrs are also demons, albeit a different breed, it can be said that Urdak is doomed to be a ghost town. This makes the Doom Slayer perhaps the one and only character to destroy both Heaven and Hell alike!
  • This of course would include Samur. After years of dealing with his bull, even if it was indirect, you just finally put the boot in Samuel Hayden's steel arse for good.
• At the end of the game, the Slayer falls unconscious (as Davoth's essence had powered the Divinity Machine and with his death, the Slayer's powers are now defunct) and is sealed away in his sarcophagus in the Temple of Souls by a trio of Seraphim-like beings. Although this was a Bittersweet Ending to some, it's all but stated that the Doom Slayer isn't dead, just temporarily out of commission or Brought Down to Badass at worst.^note Considering that since the Slayer is canonically Doomguy, all of the games pre-2016 were him without his Divinity Machine induced powers, meaning that he's still more than capable of kicking serious ass. The last line shown on-screen is not only a Call-Back to the intro from 2016, but almost implying that the Slayer is just being kept in cold storage until the Godzilla Threshold is crossed yet again.
  ...May the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
• The sheer fact that the Final Boss of the entire game, Davoth, the Dark Lord, and the Father of everything, is God, and the Doom Slayer ends him. Davoth might have been in a "fallen" form, but still! It's even better when you realize that although Davoth indirectly created the Slayer to get revenge on the Maykrs, he knew that the Slayer would eventually come after him in turn. Instead of running, Davoth decided to stand firm and wait for his creation to reach him, as he knew that no matter where he went, the Slayer would find him.

Trailers

• Many enemies return, including Pain Elementals, but the one getting the most fanfare is definitely the Arch-Vile. It walks out of a great vault in Phobos, staring down the Doom Slayer like few others could, and setting his surroundings ablaze, complete with its notorious original pose, as if daring him to come get it.
  • How does the Marine answer? Draw an uncorrupted Crucible, a BFS with his emblem on it, and charge the hellspawn without a second thought. Cut to black.
  • The Arch-Vile seriously needs props for his intro. Other demons react to the Doom Slayer with fear and panic. The Cyberdemon reacted with rage. The Arch-Vile? Mild annoyance or indifference. Makes you wonder how strong Arch-Viles are that this one looks down upon the Doom Slayer. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you remember how terrifying encountering Arch-Viles could be back in Doom 2; of course they'd be high-level.
    • The game itself allows the Slayer to show just how close the line between "confidence" and "foolishness" is, as the Archvile's introduction is not only the first to react to the Slayer with mere annoyance rather than anger or desperation, but it's also the first to have honest to god terror in its eyes as the Slayer can either catch its attack to fight back against a Glory Kill and watch the bravado deflate in an instant, or cut the Archvile in half and watch it try to crawl away before smashing its head in.
• The launch trailer gives us a big one in the long-awaited return of the Icon of Sin. It's rematch time, Slayers.
• The teaser trailer for The Ancient Gods - Part II depicts the Slayer standing at the base of a high tech fortress belonging to the forces of Hell with the Dark Lord in a massive suit of Powered Armor that would make even the Chaos Space Marines of Warhammer 40,000 jealous. As the forces of Hell begin to leave the base, portals appear behind the Slayer akin to Avengers: Endgame... and from them comes a massive combined force of foot soldiers, dragons, tanks, and battleships, including the Humongous Mecha "Atlans" seen only from the wreckages in the main game. The message is clear: now that they are finally free from the Khan Makyr and the Hell Priests, the Night Sentinels are back!
• Hell, the Doom Slayer gets to ride a dragon. That's right, the Doom Slayer is a certified Dragon Rider, and it's as awesome as it sounds. What else is awesome? The dragons fight alongside with the Doom Slayer against the forces of Hell!

---

You remain unbroken, for your fight... is eternal.

---