Doom Eternal

With the amount of enemies, the fact you don't get much ammo and the sheer speed of how things went it made for the most engaging shooter I've played in a long time, if not ever. Whether I was shooting demons or looking endlessly for secrets, I was not once bored or out of the experience and I ended up getting all the little toy collectables, the albums, all the upgrades, did all the mission challenges and just overall did everything there was to do, I never do that shit in video games, collecting collectables is the thing that always keeps me far away from even attempting to 100% a game but here I actively looked for all of them.

This game feels like it was made to simply be a lot of fun and every decision made was to keep you engaged with it's combat which is very refined and feels a lot better than in Doom 2016, it's also more brutal, longer, more action packed and lacks the little moments of boredom that 2016 had in it.

I don't mind the addition of cutscenes and making the game...well not more story focused, but just have more story in general, personally thought the story was fine and that's more than I could ask for in a Doom game given that...I couldn't care any less about whatever was going on story wise in Doom 2016 (not necessarily a negative, the Doom Slayer himself didn't seem to care about it either) but here...well I also didn't care much but I was following the plot and not zoning out whenever someone was talking with me. Cutscenes being included also means that there aren't any parts where the game's pace slows the fuck down so that robot guy (forgot his name) can talk to you for 3 minutes in his office.

The multiplayer is cool, it's like reverse Evolve where there's 3 demons vs one Doom Slayer. It's a cool little time killer that I honestly didn't care much for but I enjoyed the little time I played with it and it’s a LOT better than the MP in doom 2016.

I remember when this game dropped, I downloaded it legally*n’t* to try it out for an hour or 2 before I bought the game, what happened is that I beat the game and didn't play anything else until I made sure that I had beaten it because it was just that mind blowingly good and addicting.

Now I got the game on steam and replayed it, just as good as the first time, maybe even better. I also got the DLC which I’m looking forward to playing.

My only issue is that the gameplay loop has been so perfected that there really is nowhere to go but down from here if they choose to make another Doom game anytime soon, if it becomes any more complex it'll be too much but if the next one goes for something a little more back to basics it might seem like a downgrade, and if they add nothing then it’ll feel pointless.

But at the same time it says a lot about how much I loved a game if the only negative I have about it is that it’s so good no sequel can even dare to match it.

Do you have problems? Do you often feel frustrated at the end of the day with the state of the world around you? Do you oftentimes feel as if you are slowly drowning amidst an ever-connected world that is slowly eating itself alive? Do you find yourself frustrated by the lack of control you have over your life? Are you one of many unfortunate souls who is perpetually glued to the familiar glow of a blue screen, hoping that it might offer some sort of truth in your life? Have you woken up recently and discovered that the world you once knew seems to be disintegrating at a rapid rate due to some microscopic killing machine that can't be bought, bargained, or reasoned with? Does the uncertainty of life get you down? Does existential dread leave you with a frown? Have you lost faith in yourself, the people you love, or other things important people told you were worth caring about? Do you have demons? Are they the things that you are always waging a silent war against despite your best wishes? Do you feel overcome by that battle and feel it futile in the long run?

Well you're not the only one who has problems. Doomguy has problems. Doomguy fights demons. In fact, he fights a hell of a lot of them and from what I can gather, he seems to be pretty damn good at fighting them. Doomguy doesn't get bogged down in the crippling and troubling reality of human existence because Doomguy ain't got time for that shit. Doomguy's far too busy ripping and tearing his demons to pieces, eviscerating the slightest hint of their puny, pathetic existence. And you would think that he might eventually be crippled or hindered by the burden of being Doomguy, but no, Doomguy simply does. In the face of a chaotic and unpredictable world that is falling around him, he does not falter. Doomguy isn't troubled or terrified by the void because he is the void—the void for all those horrible, evil things of which he is absolutely sure will stand in his way. Doomguy isn't disturbed by this. He knows exactly who he is and that he is necessary. No demon, no matter how gruesome or massive will faze that guy, because that guy knows a solitary truth: whatever unimaginable evil that might stand in his way isn't resilient or stubborn enough to survive like he is. For those unimaginable evil things aren't so terrifying after all. Though they may look menacing and treacherous, Doomguy knows the thing that they fear. It is the thing they are plagued by late at night when they are trying to rest beneath their unholy headboards. It is the thing they check for beneath their beds every night in terror. It is Doomguy and it is no one else.

Be like Doomguy. When the world's got you down and existential dread is making you frown, remember that you're not the only one who fights demons. Let them know you ain't in to negotiating. You're the one that those demons get to negotiate with.

Oh, and if the state of the world has you feeling anxious or sad right now, please play Doom Eternal. There's nothing more pure and cathartic than shaving a demon's face with a chainsaw. Nothing will get your mind off of the world faster than Doom Eternal. Like a righteous needle of adrenaline being injected directly into your eyeball, it'll get the job done.

Fuck the story I didn’t pay attention to anything.

But this game has the best flowing combat of any game. Guns are satisfying to shoot, and you being forced to constantly be on the move makes the game flow like no other.
Incredible combat, mid story

- marauders are Public Enemy Number One

- archviles to an extent too; those two enemies brought the game a little too one-dimensional for me. maybe it’s a skill issue, but they feel like enemies that you need to take care of first and, in the marauder’s case, one specific way (super shotgun + ballista). I love the versatility of being able to approach a scenario however I want to, and these two enemies brought that element to its knees.

- I like the feeling of being challenged and overcoming challenge, but dislike failure due to challenge. a few times is okay, but all of my fun dematerializes if it happens more than “I feel it should” (wherever that boundary situates itself).

- I need to take time to understand the information a game gives me and learn the systems it has. jumping in all willy-nilly might initially feel better, but taking a breather to conceptualize mechanics will feel more satisfying and allow me to play better as a result. (notably: weapon wheel and flame belch/chainsaw)

- once you get into the flow of this game, it kicks so much ass. as much as this game does, it still manages to be incredibly fun once I was able to digest everything that felt new to me.

- STOP UNCONCERNEDLY SCROLLING THROUGH THE WEAPONS AND FIRING WHATEVER I LAND ON! that is exactly how we Completely Waste a total of 14 BFG shots. I still prefer 2016’s “use an entirely different button” approach, as it gives the BFG a much greater feeling of weight and power to it. sorta like a big red button under a glass case with the label “EMERGENCY ONLY” written above it. might be a little much doing this for the BFG given that the crucible already does this, but it still feels like too powerful a weapon to be lumped near everything else. (see: point above about utilizing weapon wheel, however)

- this game and DOOM (2016) feel like two different flavors of DOOM. put the good elements from each together and you have an easy 10/10 game. this game’s movement did make going back to DOOM (2016) a sluggish battle, but I’d much rather be in DOOM (2016)’s world.

- sometimes I just want to shoot demons!!

- I got lost. too much, which for the most part I blame on myself. either way, getting detracted from the experience because I didn’t see the grabbable wall or couldn’t find that switch/punchable block that was hiding in plain sight is something I wish didn’t happen in this game. not sure this game needed platforming sections in general.

- that section where you become a revenant and can use its abilities was way too short and underutilized. I’m glad they built off of it for multiplayer, but you’re just gonna put something that cool in and only use it for one incredibly short section?

DOOM 2016 was one of my favorite games of that year, and DOOM Eternal successfully improves on almost every aspect of that game. The sometimes clunky ground movement has been remedied with the inclusion of an airdash, something all of the large, layered arenas have been designed around. The flamethrower is a nice addition, allowing players to not only recharge their health and ammo, but their armor as well. Shooting feels even better, with demons now falling apart and taking visible damage as you blast them. The air-dash when combined with the meat hook from the super-shotgun (maybe the push from the ballista too) raises the skill ceiling for movement, allowing one to swing to a demon, blast him, double jump and dash to swing off a pole, etc. The combat has a very distinct rhythm to it, and the game expects you to use the many resources it gives to you, even on the normal difficulty, and is downright required for anything above it.

The visuals see an upgrade as well with more varied environments; the back and forth between hell and the mars base did grow a bit old in the last game. Despite being one of the best looking games I've ever seen, it ran very well on my older system

The music is bricked out, and intense to the point of being silly at points, which fits perfectly with the gameplay. Yet the composer Mick Gordon seems to have used a bit of restraint: there are still blaring djent and alt metal riffs, but it doesn't go as over the top as some tracks from the Quake-inspired DOOM OST (Skull-hacker, Vega core, Flesh and Metal). Instead that sensory overload was replaced with new elements to the music: ambient, throaty singing from the demons pops up on quite a few tracks, most notably in Kar En Tuk and Gladiator. Those along with BFG 10,000 and Super Gore Nest were some of the stand outs for me.

More than anything this game is one for fans of the doom series; the guns and enemies all resemble their older doom and doom 2 counter parts, with some exceptions. The Doom Slayer is sporting a more familiar look with exposed biceps and 'abs' covered by armor, and he even has a little room filled with references to all sorts of in-jokes and series references. The fan-service given to the super shotgun was a little much, but I can excuse it as a wink to long time fans of the series

Overall, it's DOOM. The most intense gameplay, accompanied by the most intense music, all happening in the most over-the-top, power fantasy story ever created for a video game, maybe even media in general. It's going to be a bitch to top this one.

still need to play the dlc but its everything about 2016 but better