Where Does DOOM Go Next After DOOM Eternal?

How do you top Heaven vs. Hell?

The Ancient Gods
The Ancient Gods

Comprehensive spoilers for the storyline and lore of DOOM Eternal follow.

Cultured Vultures spoilers

DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two provided what many believe to be the final stand of the DOOM Slayer, a farewell to a character who will now seemingly be put on ice until the next time he is needed.

But this is certainly not the end, especially due to the massive success of DOOM Eternal, which has sold millions of copies and earned itself rave reviews. No doubt Microsoft, the new owners of Bethesda, publishers of DOOM, will want to crack open that sarcophagus sooner rather than later, but where can DOOM go next?

Not only does it seem difficult to top the storyline of DOOM Eternal, which saw Satan vs. God basically flipped on its head with a bit more ripping plus tearing, but the mind boggles over where else id Software can innovate in terms of gameplay. There’s a lot going on in Eternal that borders on FPS perfection once you’ve wrapped your head around it all, so how do they add to the Jenga tower without it all crashing down?

Here’s some predictions on where the DOOM storyline could go next, as well what the future of the franchise may look like.

 

The Seraphim and The Father

Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal Samur

At the end of The Ancient Gods – Part One, The Father/Vega whisks Samur/Seraphim/Samuel away to stop the Slayer from ending his life after the climactic boss fight.

Both of those are sure to be big parts of DOOM going forward, The Father most of all, who’s currently in a weird sort of limbo without his Life Sphere after the Slayer destroys it during Act One. It’s also revealed in Part Two that The Father was actually created by Davoth, not the other way around as first suggested.

A follow-up game could feature The Father with a remade Life Sphere letting the power go to his head and the Slayer being awoken to deal with him and Samur. We never really get much of idea of just how powerful The Father is in Eternal, so a sequel could show exactly that with possibly the biggest boss fight the series has ever seen.

Whether they’re major players or not is uncertain, but there’s no way id Software will just allow The Father and Samur to slink into the background of the lore. I’d settle for a show like WandaVision; The Father would obviously be Vision.

Could you imagine?

 

Wraiths, Primevals and the Mysterious Voice

Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal Wraiths

There’s a bit of confusion around the Mysterious Voice in DOOM Eternal, who can be heard shouting “noooo!” after you defeat the Khan Maykr. Following an Ancient Gods – Part One patch, this was revealed to be Davoth, which was then reverted back to Mysterious Voice in the Part Two patch as it was inaccurate, according to Hugo Martin, the game’s director.

Martin also revealed in a stream that Davoth and Doomguy are both Primevals, beings assigned to look after specific realms. But who created them? The safe money is on Mysterious Voice, who will likely be the overarching villain of the next Slayer-centric DOOM game.

The reveal of live Wraiths within the World Spear, itself revealed to be a gigantic ship, on Argent D’Nur also poses more questions and hints at life beyond the reaches of the normal DOOM universe. Wraiths gifted the Night Sentinels Argent Energy, but their origins are unknown. Perhaps another creation of the Mysterious Voice, who may be the overarching character of all creation, not Davoth?

The DOOM universe is really only just expanding, so expect to see the lore deepening more and more as the franchise itself continues to grow. We need to know more about Doomguy’s pet dragon, for one.

 

An All New Spin-Off

DOOM Eternal DOOMicorn
DOOM Eternal DOOMicorn

Speaking of the DOOM universe, what if we don’t play as Doomguy at all? He is a sleepy boy as things stand, of course.

While Doomguy is on ice, it gives id Software the perfect opportunity to open up the DOOM universe and explore side-stories. There are still a lot of question marks over the Night Sentinels, so maybe we will get a chance to play as Doomguy shortly after he lands on Sentinel Prime, or perhaps as Commander Valen? It’d be an interesting switch-up, a Halo Reach-esque story with a sad finale as we come to understand his tough decision to betray his kind and tilt the war in favour of Hell. Valen’s found redemption by the end of The Ancient Gods, but his character is too fascinating to not be given more of a focus.

Though there are few people clamouring to play as DOOM 3’s DOOM Marine again, he is another option to take the reins while Doomguy naps, even if it’d just serve to muddy the canon even more. What might be more interesting is a female Slayer, who Hugo Martin has previously “put a lot of thought” into creating. This could even be Crash, who was Doomguy’s old military instructor.

As the Gears franchise has shown, spin-off games don’t even have to share the same genre to be a success. While a DOOM strategy game in the vein of Gears Tactics might be a bit of a stretch, there are other options that id (or maybe another studio) could pursue while they keep the IP busy before the next mainline game. Standalone free multiplayer games are all the rage these days thanks to Warzone, and that feels like the most sensible fit for DOOM. Considering that our next full fat DOOM adventure won’t arrive until 2024 at the very earliest based on the development time between DOOM 2016 and Eternal, fans might want to be kept busy until then.

Wherever the series goes from here is anyone’s guess, but one thing cannot be argued: DOOM is eternal. This won’t be the last we see of Doomguy, and we almost certainly won’t be waiting another decade to see him in action again.

DOOM Eternal is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.

READ NEXT: The Best Moment In DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods

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