Beat on Ultra Violence free from game pass core. I would have rather played on PC since even with my xim4 the mouse aiming was not perfect, and weapon swap wheel was inferior to binding each gun to a specific key. I had to specifically rebind weapon swap from the scroll wheel to middle mouse button because the weapon wheel was a hold command. I was not a fan of the lore at first though it kinda grew on me by the end. The codex writing was a lot of eye glazing nonsense though. The jist of the lore was that Doom guy was a human soldier found by an alien human civilization that was at war with the demons, so probably from Doom 1 or 3. Seemed like the galaxy was like Stargate where humans were all over the place, not just on Earth. And there were highly advanced alien angels that guided the various humans though the angels strangely looked like demons with everything angelic about them being technology. The angels went in league with Hell to convert tortured human souls into energy that they used for immortality, bypassing their natural reincarnation system. I guess? It was cool to think back on Doom 1 and 1 levels with this concept in mind though I don't think Hell needed another reason. It also seemed like Doomguy was literally imbued with the power of God. I don't like everything about the lore but there were some cool concepts.
I did not really like the Doom Forttess hub as the layout was more confusing than it needed to be with pointless wastes of time moving around and waiting for doors to open, and it felt more appropriate for a different genre of game. Doom is not what I think about when I think hub world to showcase collectibles. Mission select was awesome though and I had fun going back with cheat codes on to blast through battles and collect what I had missed. I was not able to complete the 1st slayer gate and gave up after about a dozen attempts. It was easy coming back after the 2nd slayer gate with more power and weapons, and I beat every other gate as I found them. I also skipped some of the early secret encounters to easily beat them with cheats, though once I found the chaingun I was able to beat every secret fight during the level. I used chaingun with infinite ammo for cheats, and by the time I unlocked the BFG (both the gun itself and the all weapons cheat), I had no need to replay missions since I made sure to get everything. I missed the infinite lives cheat and 1 other in Nekropol part 2, and possibly a few other minor things. The map was great for showing secrets and I was a able to figure out how to get almost everything, often by staring at the map. There were a few tricky ones I had to look up. I can't believe there was not a noclip cheat, which would have been the best cheat by far. Yes it would completely break the game but it could at least allow flight to bypass platforming, no collision with enemies, and possibly some limited passing through barriers. That would have made going back for collectibles much more bearable to not have to deal with the platforming, which I generally disliked. The levels and platforming were expertly crafted in this game, and the minor health loss from failure was a massive improvement over Doom 4, but still way too much platforming in my game about killing stuff and raw violence.
The combat was excellent for the most part, building on Doom 4 with its dance that required mastering every mechanic. I don't think it is better or worse than the combat in old school Doom 1 to 3, just different. It could be a bit exhausting to play at the extreme level required for high difficulties though, and I needed to take breaks now and then. I loved how the combat encounters were not always in predictable arenas. You could be attacked anywhere, even at huge disadvantage, as it should be. I still remember that life I lost when on that narrow catwalk with electricity on 1 side and fall on the other, and bunch of demons suddenly teleported in. There were also times I could lure them to more favorable environment or snipe from afar. In the final mission I even sniped a tyrant using all of my bullets and some more from the ballista. I usually punched whenever enemies got close without paying attention to whether blood punch was charged or not, which sometimes didn't end well as a basic punch was useless. I specifically used blood punches on hunters to destroy their hover sled and on cyber mancubus, because otherwise they took forever to kill. Chainsaw was mostly used to farm ammo from weak enemies. I did not really pay attention to the fuel level to use it to kill bigger demons. The flame belch was mostly used after battle to top up armor but I tried to use it during battle on occasion. The main problem was the chainsaw and flame buttons were right next to each other and I often hit chainsaw instead. This would be easier on a proper keyboard. The combat shotgun was the worst weapon, which I mainly used to stagger the weakest enemies for glory kills. I used the full auto mod to mow down enemies at close range but this became somewhat redundant with the super shotgun. Then I switched to sticky bombs for cacodemons but never actually bothered. The super shotgun was great against everything at close range though I did not use the grappling hook much. The cannon was my favorite weapon using the precision scope to pop off headshots and weakpoints; I never even tried the micro missile mod. The basic shot was great for taking out weak enemies and not too bad against mid tier ones. I more often used bullets with the chaingun due to its amazing dps and accuracy. I used the shield mod to protect myself. Never tried the mobile turret even though I used it a lot in Doom 4. The plasma rifle was amazing against shields and an excellent general purpose weapon. At first I used the microwave beam because it stunned 1 enemy. This was excellent against a single dangerous enemy but not a good choice during a wild fight. I called it ghostbuster mode. Later I switched to the heat blast which was a great shotgun style area blast. I only occasionally used the ballista because I found the plasma rifle just too good. The shots did bonus damage against air so I sometimes used it to snipe cacodemons and pain elementals. I also used it on the makyr boss to deplete her shield. I did grind the destruction wave mod while cheating but never used it or arbelist in any battle. I often forgot about the rocket launcher until I was out of ammo for everything else. The rockets traveled too slowly when compared to Doom 1. I mostly used the lock on mod to focus on stronger targets while only occasionally dumb firing at mid or even close range. Last were the BFG and unmaker, which I tried to conserve. I killed every archvile with the BFG because fuck those bastards, and did 1 near the end with the unmaker. Otherwise I used the occasional BFG shot during ridiculously tough fights. I did not use grenades as much as I could have, preferring the ice to freeze tough targets. I could have optimised my play a lot more with grenade/mod switching and keeping better track of the other mechanics.
For suit upgrades I maxed out ice grenade, then environmental (I liked farming barrels for extra ammo), then movement, then frags, and last exploration when I really did not need it. Don't see ths point of spending upgrade points on stuff that could be looked up online. For runes I used longer stagger time, death save, and movement speed after glory kill, all to help with survival. For crystal upgrades I unlocked loot magnet, then maxed out ammo without worrying about unlocking the bonuses since I ran out of ammo more often than died. Most of my deaths were from getting stuck on enemies or otherwise trying to move in a bad direction. Then I unlocked the flame belch upgrades while ignoring the blood punch ones for last. I disliked the extra life system because it made the optimal way to play going back to farm lives in mission select. I certainly benefitted from that a bit. But even worse was how they were spent without consent and not restored upon loading checkpoint. I lost lives when I would have rather saved them for something else. I think extra lives should be only for the level in which they were found, ask the player whether to use or load, and been restored on load. I played with tutorial on, which told how to kill each enemy and boss. This info was also in the codex and I wonder if the game would have been better if the player had to figure all these weaknesses out. I died first attempt against the hunter boss but the second part against 2 was not hard as I zipped around doing hit and run while farming supplies from fodder. They were fairly engaging and took a lot of punishment, but could be quickly killed as regular enemies with a blood punch followed by some point blank super shotgun. Not sure if the regular type was the same as the boss or if blood punch was not unlocked then. I knew a bit about the maurader controversy before playing and I did not enjoy them. It was ok as a 1 off boss but not as a regular enemy, largely because it was the only enemy that could not be cheesed with power weapons. I tried to BFG and sword the bastard in the timed secret encounter to no avail. Instead I had to counter his first attack then quickly switch to the BFG to finish him. The rest I killed with the super shotgun. It was not that difficult just annoying, and I made sure to kill other demons first so I could focus. Looking up online it would seem micro missiles, explosive splash damage aimed at terrain, and quickly switching between arbelist, super shotgun and plasma heat blast were the best ways to defeat him. He should be easier in PC with specific weapon keys. His autoblock and the entire specific timing in order to damage were not fun design. In some ways it was like baiting a pinky to charge to then evade and shoot their rear, but the difference was you could still kill a pinky from the front. It was not optimal but doable. The maurader's shield should have been destructible with enough damage and he should only get to use the shotgun after the shield was destroyed. Triple wielding axe, gun and shield is ridiculous. The gladiator boss was similar to the maurader except his shield seemed more forgiving. I beat him 1st try but did some some lives. I think I spent 1 life on the Khan. She was not difficult with how the angels were like health and ammo pinatas, though avoiding the damaging floor was difficult. The final boss was tough and I died enough for the game to offer me the sentinel armor cheat. I had 0 extra lives and did not realize the sword ammo respawned so I spent way too much time killing demons. I mostly used the chaingun and plasma rifle on the boss, while using up BFG ammo. It was tough to tell whether the BFG or unmaker did better. It was a good fight reminiscent of the Doom 2 end though with way more attacks to evade. Apparently micro missiles and mobile turret work the best. Sentinel armor was more fun than normal because the guy was not such a glass cannon. I disliked how quickly armor depleted in this game and the previous, where it functioned like another hp bar. The old school Doom 1 and 2 style was better, with armor reducing the total amount of damage taken while then spreading the remainder between hp and armor.
I did not play any master levels or try out horde mode, and the expansions were not included. Will definitely buy the entire package on PC at some point. The game made some improvements over Doom 4 but I overall liked all previous Doom games more than Eternal.
8.3/10
