Doom Eternal - returned

[BudAshes]

Uh, that's kind of the essence of video games - remembering controls/keys and knowing how and when to execute them to progress. I haven't played Eternal and I likely won't until I build my new system but there's been plenty of games in the past that came up with arbitrary button combos that took a little while to learn, but after that initial period of learning, it just became another muscle-memory. I can understand if you're like my buddy and tend to play multiple games at the same time (he cycles through at least 5 games rather than focusing on just one or two), but if you just give it time, it shouldn't be that difficult.

There is quite a bit of stuff to remember in the middle of intense action in this game. Every gun has 2 configurations that have to be switched between, you have a punch button that charges up and also works as a finishing button and you have to do glory kills to regain health but it only works if the enemy is staggered, there is a chainsaw button that can only be used if you have enough fuel to destroy an enemy and is the only way to refill your ammo sometimes, you have right click abilities and sometimes you have to hold right click and left click at the same time depending on the weapon, you have 2 different kinds of grenades that have to be switched between and recharge slowly and you have a flamethrower ability that is the only way to restore shields sometimes. You can't stand still at all in the game without being killed rapidly, so you constantly have to do sprint bursts and double jumps and you are always out of ammo and life so you are constantly running from enemies trying to find a weak enemy to chainsaw/glory kill to regain life and ammo. On top of that there are dozens upon dozens of upgrades that change how effective each weapon/skill is.

Definitely requires a lot of skill and coordination compared to your average game. Whether it is all worth it is quite debatable. I played it on the second easiest difficulty, but it is a game that might be better off just playing on easy as I had to replay most of the battles several times.

 

[Fenixgoon]

bumping this - Doom Eternal is on sale for $20 ($30 for deluxe edition). a) worth it? b) vanilla or deluxe edition?

 

[CP5670]

I liked Doom 2016 a lot, but haven't played Eternal after hearing mixed opinions. I'll try it out eventually. 2016 had excellent combat, but I agree that it was like a sequence of arenas and lacked the sense of exploration of the old Dooms. Actually that level design became a trend in FPSs from the mid 2000s onward, most are either completely linear or open world but games that are something in between became rare.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I have to admit is a little shocking to see so many people crapping on Doom 2016 in this thread. "Pussification?" "Lame?" "Watered down?"

Jesus Hubert Humphrey Christ can I please have some of the truely genre busting balls to the wall unstoppable adrenaline rush FPS games you guys seem to be playing?!

All I'm seeing out there are the slow, boring ass, seen it a thousand times before MP Battle Royal shooters, the drab jingoistic crawl forward prone through an hour long level get turned into swiss cheese every time you poke your head out military shooters, and just a bunch of trash tier Diablo as an FPS looter shooters.

Honestly, walked into this thread and felt like I took a portal to an alternate universe.

 

[Martimus]

I have to admit is a little shocking to see so many people crapping on Doom 2016 in this thread. "Pussification?" "Lame?" "Watered down?"

Jesus Hubert Humphrey Christ can I please have some of the truely genre busting balls to the wall unstoppable adrenaline rush FPS games you guys seem to be playing?!

All I'm seeing out there are the slow, boring ass, seen it a thousand times before MP Battle Royal shooters, the drab jingoistic crawl forward prone through an hour long level get turned into swiss cheese every time you poke your head out military shooters, and just a bunch of trash tier Diablo as an FPS looter shooters.

Honestly, walked into this thread and felt like I took a portal to an alternate universe.

Doom 2016 was fun. Doom Eternal was not.

 

[bigi]

^+1
Summary:
Eternal - crap
2016 - Awesome

 

[Artorias]

Having not played Eternal what's the difference? Looking at all the footage it doesn't look toned down.

 

[Martimus]

Having not played Eternal what's the difference? Looking at all the footage it doesn't look toned down.

The difference is that they added a bunch of stuff so that the game is just less fun. Since there are a bunch of extra things to think about, you end up going much slower and it just isn't fun for me. You may find it different, and it just may be that my 40YO brain has slowed down enough that I don't want to keep up with the extra random controls that I have to learn.

 

[bigi]

I was lucky that I could play the original games in DOS. Doom, Doom2, Hexen, Heretic, etc.
Looks have little to do with this. Nowadays, kids have been told that a game must look good to be a good game. Every 'utuber' gets a copy, and has to mentions FPS that they get on current hardware. Almost none of them mentioned how bad Doom Eternal is.
To be fair most were born after Carmack and Romero. Much later.
This is a topic for another thread really, but all I know is that Doom was good until its 2016 version. The newer version had really nothing to add, except new levels so they added mentioned jumping competition which made it to be just shitty sequel.

For those who don't know who John Carmack is, I really suggest watching Rogan interviewing him. One can quickly see what he is made of. Quite a different dude from today's 'influencers' whatever that means.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Having not played Eternal what's the difference? Looking at all the footage it doesn't look toned down.

Doom 2016 was a mix of traditional level exploration and small arenas. Eternal went hard towards the arena aspect to the point where you feel it's mainly arena, small connector, arena, repeat. Then they tossed in platform puzzles, climbing, etc to the mix. Like I mentioned before, the game felt more Painkiller ish than Doom.

 

[DigDog]

i am still, slowly inching through Doom 2016. I really, really like it. It's almost stupid how much i like this, i did not think i could like, today, a single-player game as much as this. A shooter SP game !!
The "keep killing to restock" system is very well balanced, and at my skill level (playing Hurt Me Plenty) i feel challenged and have even occasionally died (!!), despite playing online Quake for 10 years now. Compare to Far Cry 3 where i did a whole playthrough on Hard and died like, 3 times, mostly to boredom.

What i didn't like at all was:
1. the first level is really confusing. You got almost no resources to kill the imps and your ammo max is really low.
2. the platforming level early on, where you climb on top of a giant tower-like structure. I don't like the "miss 1 jump and you need to restart everything" thing.

i'm also not crazy about the Argent upgrades being hidden in secrets, because it makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker. I started playing following a (100%) speedrun, but stopped after about 6 levels, as i have enough powerups and "have found my footing", so it doesnt matter if i miss out on a chest or two.

so, i fire up the game once a week, play a single level, and then leave it be until the next week. I've had to remap all my weapons because the initial mapping is dumb AF, but once that's done it works fine.

the supershotgun is OP once it gets upgraded. like, so OP.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

i am still, slowly inching through Doom 2016. I really, really like it. It's almost stupid how much i like this, i did not think i could like, today, a single-player game as much as this. A shooter SP game !!
The "keep killing to restock" system is very well balanced, and at my skill level (playing Hurt Me Plenty) i feel challenged and have even occasionally died (!!), despite playing online Quake for 10 years now. Compare to Far Cry 3 where i did a whole playthrough on Hard and died like, 3 times, mostly to boredom.

What i didn't like at all was:
1. the first level is really confusing. You got almost no resources to kill the imps and your ammo max is really low.
2. the platforming level early on, where you climb on top of a giant tower-like structure. I don't like the "miss 1 jump and you need to restart everything" thing.

i'm also not crazy about the Argent upgrades being hidden in secrets, because it makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker. I started playing following a (100%) speedrun, but stopped after about 6 levels, as i have enough powerups and "have found my footing", so it doesnt matter if i miss out on a chest or two.

so, i fire up the game once a week, play a single level, and then leave it be until the next week. I've had to remap all my weapons because the initial mapping is dumb AF, but once that's done it works fine.

the supershotgun is OP once it gets upgraded. like, so OP.

- Yes, thank you!

I figured out early on that I had the 5 D's of dodgeball down pat, so dumping all my argent points into ammo upgrades was the way to go, which opened up the gameplay quite a bit much earlier in Thane game for me than it might have for others who loaded up on health and armor instead.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I also returned it. Jumping platforms has no place in Doom. Wtf were they thinking.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i finally caved and bought Eternal. What a wild ride. I do agree the platforming generally detracted from the experience, though it wasn't a complete turnoff for me. My biggest complaint about that would be that it wasn't always intuitive where to go next. I feel like Doom 2016 had a certain natural flow to it in terms of level progression.

The arena combat - cranked up to 11 over Doom 2016 - is easily the highlight of Eternal. Initially a source of frustration, it becomes a relenentless and enjoyable challenge as you constantly use your abilities to come back from the brink of death (which happens. frequently). I would have liked more spacing between arenas, as sometimes you finish one only to walk into another. The saving grace is that because of the game mechanics, there is almost always a way to refill health/armor/ammo. It wasn't uncommon for me to start with low health, no armor, and barely any ammo, and then finish a fight almost completely full.

I tried out the multiplayer briefly - and was quickly destroyed by my opponents. Playing through the campaign to get the mechanics down is well worth it.

Now on to the DLC, but first my left hand needs a break from stretching across Q/E/R/ctrl/shift/C/V/WASD. Yeah, there are a lot of buttons you'll be using mid-combat.


edit: Mick Gordon absolutely blew away the soundtrack. Incredible.

 

[Stg-Flame]

but first my left hand needs a break from stretching across Q/E/R/ctrl/shift/C/V/WASD. Yeah, there are a lot of buttons you'll be using mid-combat.

This is why I use TFGH for movement. I have the entire keyboard within reach of my left hand (excluding the number pad of course).

 

[cytg111]

I suppose I can welcome a bigger crew on my boat. I thought I was alone out there drifting without control while everyone on land were praising their new God.

You aint getting in this boat dude. Learn to swim.

 

[Tweak155]

Been playing this since it became free with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (or the PC game pass if you have that).

I too did not like it at first, but with some of the powerups now acquired and a little more base ammo, it's become much better.

I too think the platforming has no place in Doom, but I've grown to like it. I still think the next game should not have it though.

I also liked controlling the demon the first time I ran into it in the campaign, pretty sweet!