Doom Eternal (2020)

(difficulty: Hurt Me Plenty)

So conflicted over this.

Some REALLY great bits: the music, the pace. As it being my first DOOM game it was really fun to get started with this one. Hard at first but gets easier as you learn the skills.

But let's talk about the bosses.

I'm not talking about the bosses-turn-mini-boss-turn-mobs (marauder and doom hunters), I'm talking about the Khan Maykr and the Icon of Sin. UNDERWHELMING. Pace-killer. boss fights are so slow and just requires you to do certain hit and runs. also the music??? what happened to the kickass mick gordon metal that made pve so fun. Icon of Sin was a joke. There was no adrenaline rush for that boss. It felt like a chore.

The ending cutscene was also underwhelming, probably because fighting IoS was so dull, when I finished it was like "well that's that".

Also I hated the platforming in this game. I died more time to platforms than to actual pve.

FPS games are not ones I play a lot or even enjoy very often, but with all the hype around this I had to check it out.

I've obviously never played anything in the DOOM series before, but a quick YouTube video will help catch you up to speed and it's easy to figure out from clues in the game anyway. So while I was worried about that being a barrier, it definitely wasn't one. The story and lore surrounding this game are interesting and cool, but pretty straightforward all the same.

The combat is the heart and soul of this game, and it's a blast. You have quite a large arsenal of weapons and abilities at your disposal and frequent encounters with enemies, so you'll get plenty of chances to rip and tear to your heart's content. The combat is challenging--I ended up playing on easy--but extremely rewarding. The boss fights in particular were done really well.

There's also a bit of a platforming element to this game, with lots of secrets and collectibles to discover. I particularly enjoyed this part of the game and wasn't expecting it as part of an FPS hack and slash like this. These secrets also make for good replayability, which is nice since the campaign is short.

As I said earlier, the game offers you a lot in terms of weapons and abilities. I actually found it overwhelming, even though they staggered them in. I think this part of the reason I had to play on easy--being good at the game requires being able to switch between many weapons very quickly. I just couldn't figure out what was good for which situation and stuck to 3 or 4 favorites. It's a lot to handle.

Even though the game was meant to difficult, some fights were just really a slog. Especially near the end, encounters are back-to-back and include so many enemies--including extremely difficult ones--that it becomes exhausting. And of course, with a back-to-back fight, if you die then you have to go back to the first one. It seemed like an unnecessary frustration since the game was already a challenge.

It was still more fun than not so I can't complain too much. I think FPS fans or hack and slash fans would really enjoy this, as would anyone looking for a challenge. As I said, this outside my usual but I found myself really enjoying it.