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.

Holy shit. That level was easy in most places, but Hugo Martin put in some of the most difficult fights in the game. When they're hard. THEY'RE HARD. Right off the bat, the master level starts off with stalactites falling from the caves. Then, an Arachotron with some Lost Souls and 3 zombies. Ok. Not bad. Then right after, 2 Mancubi and 2 Carcasses. Ok, easy. Move forward and HOLY SHIT! 2 pinkies, one Mancubus, and 2 Pain Elementals. Now to punch the switches, and wait. I can't. I'm trapped? OH MY GOD! THERE ARE 2 BARONS! And now we see a lot more environmental hazards that were never in the level. Encounters appear during the downtime that didn't have encounters in the original level. which really surprised me and I loved the times where they happened like the sewer section. It's narrow and corridor-like like the original games and then right around the corner, a Dread Knight pops out. Oh look, in the slayer gate, there is full armor. I could pick that up. OH NO! I fell for a trap. Now I have to fight 2 Doom Hunters. Awesome. They're my favorite enemies in the game. Ok done. Onto the next arena. Oh. I got locked out. WHAT? I HAVE TO FIND A BUFF TOTEM AND ENEMIES ARE AFTER ME? WOW! Fortunately, I found it very quickly, but that was fun. This part in particular felt so fresh compared to the original level. I loved the sewer section. The penultimate part is the hardest fight in the entire game. In a tight arena, 2 Archvilles appear, there is wall so you can't shoot them until you kill 2 Tyrants. All the while, they're spawning Mancubi and Arachnotrons. Oh my god. This is absolutely bonkers. I loved this level and I want Hugo Martin and id Software to keep surprising me with more Master Levels.

Also I noticed some things patched out like feet staggering Marauders with Ballistas and Precision Bolt penetration for those button skips are no more. They don't seem to appear in the patch notes. I'm bummed out at the latter in particular and it is kind of a gut punch towards speedrunners or people like me who replay this game over and over and know it inside and out. For new players that are going to play on Hurt Me Plenty and I'm Too Young to Die, this update makes the main game easier like the chainsaw refilling 100% of ammo and projectile speeds being slower.

Wish I could tag 2 games, but let's not worry about that.

I made my first video in 2 years. Check it out if you'd like. I also have enough clips for another video so that will be coming soon. 👀 Using The Only Thing They Fear is You for it because of course .

(Don't watch my older vids though. God I fucking hate my past self)

Dropped just before reaching the first boss fight (playing on Nightmare). I loved Doom 2016 but it seemed to me that this sequel did everything wrong: the pointless plot, the ugly interface/fonts, the "platforming", the Hub area, the fact that you absolutely have to kill certain enemies in a very specific way (at least on high difficulty)... I don't know.

I mean, it's still a fun game, just too complex and bloated for me.

Ok, ok, apologies all around. I’m coming around on this one, lol.

Criticisms that I still have, or have newly developed:

• Fonts are far too small. Way, way too small. I can barely read what is on my TV only a few feet away. From an accessibility standpoint this is way below an acceptable standard.
• There’s still too much bloat. Too many items, too many collectables, too many things to do on the hub of your ship, too many screens that get in the way. The last item improves with time but is still a factor in my disappointment in the overall design of the game. While the action of the game has picked up pace and is enjoyable, the game still suffers from AAA excess, too many things stuffed in the game to justify its existence. This is despite the fact that the core gameplay does far more than enough to do exactly that, justifying the game repeatedly through the course of the game’s run time.
• Platforming rips all the joy out of this game. It slows the action to a halt and contributes very little of worth to the game. I love platformers, so I say this with the full conviction of someone who enjoys himself some platforming, this is bad. Some minor platforming during fights is most welcome, anything that contributes to quickly moving around the combat areas is great. But anything more than that does nothing but sap the fun that comes from quick paced action.
• Doom Eternal shines when you are given big open spaces. Not so much in cramped, enclosed spaces. You really need the freedom to move around to capture the pure joy of the game. Anytime the game puts you in a box that is lost. Especially when you accidentally get turned around into a corner and suddenly get stuck and are no longer able to move around. I don’t know if it’s a glitch, a flaw in the map design or the fact that you can get trapped by demons when in that corner, but regardless it feels like a fundamental problem with the design of this game.

Had a lot of fun with this game but I think my time is done and it will be good to take a break. When I feel like I am just treading water is exactly where I got my most enjoyment out of it. Doom Eternal is at its best when it gives you an open arena to take on the enemies in whatever chaotic, gore filled ways you want. There are tons of good moments where I was on brink of death and just managed to land a glory kill, thereby sustaining me for a few moments longer in the fight.

In contrast, the the bosses are generally much less fun because it meant a more restricted, sequential fight. The last boss in the game gives you a sandbox of toys to just go all out and hold nothing back and that was fantastic. However I was left disappointed as the boss' defeat felt like a huge missed opportunity for a spectacular finish. All through the game you seen the remnants of giant ARC mechs that have fallen to enormous demonic titans from a long, lost war. The game even has you briefly revive the mechs to blast a hole forward or pierce through a demon carcass to get where you want to go. The final boss was a demon titan and I was thoroughly disappointed that the Doom Slayer didn't control a mech to fight it or at least use one of their massive spears to strike the final blow.

If you have to stop the action every 5-10 minutes to provide a tutorial or multiple screens to explain a basic feature, you failed your audience.

If you force players to get closer to their TVs to read the tiny-ass font you chose for your game, you failed.

If your arcade shooter is more preoccupied with intrusive systems than it is with actual arcade shooting, you failed.

If you bombard players with junk like items to open every time they log into your non-F2P game, you failed.

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.