PSA: Doom Eternal's Tutorials Are A Menace, Turn Them Off

I love almost everything about Doom Eternal, including those tough Marauders that some people have a disdain for. But there’s an optional aspect of the game that is thrust upon you from the start and can negatively impact the experience–those pesky tutorial messages.

Whenever you first encounter a new enemy type in Eternal, you’re immediately presented with a pop-up notification explaining virtually everything you need to know about them, including weaknesses and how to most effectively deal with them. This doesn’t happen after being killed by such an enemy (although the loading screens do default to enemy-specific tips depending on how you died), but before you’ve even had the opportunity to fire a shot, let alone begin to examine their behavior or prod for weak spots.

Part of the joy with Doom Eternal is the speed with which everything happens, and–as discussed in our review–the mindfulness with which you make decisions. You need to carefully consider what your most urgent resource needs are and how to best deal with whatever foe is in front of you, and it would be fun to mix in the occasional puzzle of figuring out the best way to tackle a new enemy type. Given most of these first-time encounters happen in a one-on-one fight where little else is happening, it wouldn’t necessarily be too overwhelming.

Fortunately, you can disable tutorials, which is something I personally wish I had done earlier–certainly before reaching the Marauder, as figuring that out for myself would have made killing my first one that much more satisfying. To turn them off, head into the Accessibility area of the Settings menu, and you’ll see an option for tutorials. On a related note, it’s worth checking out the UI section–Id Software has provided a lot of control over what you do and do not want to see, including some major elements (objective markers and boss health bars) and more minor ones (notifications for when your Doom profile level increases or you pick up health and armor).

I’m glad that these tutorials exist, as any means for ensuring more people can find a game approachable is a good thing. But if you’re willing to be challenged–and Doom Eternal is at its best when it’s really pushing you–give the game a shot with a bit less hand-holding.