Doom: Eternal
What an exhilarating, exhausting, exquisite, occasionally exasperating game this is.
Mechanically speaking, I think this is probably the most accomplished FPS I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Instead of just playing it safe like most sequels and rehashing the same gameplay as its predecessor with a couple of extra animations thrown in there for good measure, this game straight up doubles down on everything that makes the original great while also smartly recontextualizing some crucial elements. The result: harder, better, faster, stronger. The Super Shotgun is as powerful as ever, but some enemies will now counter it with powerful AoE attacks. Ammo counter is reduced, which incentivizes you to keep track of your chainsaw resource management and the location of fodder enemies mid-fight. Glory kills are less of a one-button formality and more of a health-regenerating mechanic to be utilized when necessary and not haphazardly. Flame Belch makes the enemies shed vital pieces of armor, so using it in combination with the Ice Grenade followed by some high-damage weapon is often the smart play. The new Dash maneuver is pitch perfect, I have absolutely no idea how the first one somehow made do without it in retrospect. And oh yeah, the Hook! The verticality! Layers upon layers of juicy goodness. Couple all of that with the kind of splendid enemy AI and variety that puts 99% of all other shooters to shame and the end result is something truly special.
Unfortunately I can't directly embed any twitter gifs, but for the love of cool cucumber on a warm August afternoon do yourselves a favor and get a load of this hemoglobin flavored Mona Lisa:
https://twitter.com/SunhiLegend/status/ ... 3925933062
Doom (2016) is a thrilling power fantasy which allows you to pick your favorite weapon and slaughter an entire room full of demons as you see fit. Doom: Eternal on the other hand is almost like a first-person character action game in which you are more or less forced to juggle and prioritize the various mechanics at your disposal to make it out of the aforementioned room in one piece. Very similar at first glance, and yet oh so different in practice. It's definitely harder, but in a
good way. It doesn't just give the enemies more HP, it makes you learn and appreciate all of its intricacies.
Personally, I adore the direction they went in when redesigning this game's combat system. It activates the part of my brain usually reserved for RE4 and Ninja Gaiden, and that's no small praise coming from me (I've heard some comparisons to Ninja Gaiden 2 in particular and I would definitely have to agree with those). Another comparison that comes to mind would be Bloodborne. It kicks away your established crutch from under you (op Super Shotgun / turtling) and expects you to deal with it, because it is confident enough in its own quality to know you will end up enjoying the learning process.
Bosses are very good for the most part. Some of the later ones have some environmental hazards which I found a bit frustrating to deal with, but most of them are fun and well-designed. In a genre otherwise infamous for bad / non-existent bosses, I'm very happy with what this game offers.
I'm also impressed by the level design, broadly speaking. The environments are very aesthetically varied, which prevents the usual visual stagnation so prevalent in the genre. Reminded me a bit of the God of War reboot at times (albeit in a very different style, of course!). More importantly, they're a joy to traverse and explore thanks to the sheer number of cool little collectibles hidden behind every corner. One of the mid-game chapters in particular is ridiculously inventive and epic in every sense of the word. Some people take issue with some of the platforming elements; I think they remain on the right side of enjoyable throughout, but YMMV. As far as I'm concerned, the devs have made the downtime between enemy encounters as enjoyable as possible. Simply put: it has that extra bit of Metroid Prime DNA mixed in there, and that's more than good enough for me.
Story is a mixed bag. They doubled down on the Deep Lore instead of following up on the minimalist corporate comedy of the first one. I'm not 100% sure this was the best choice. The story takes itself a tad seriously at times and there's definitely something that got lost in the process, although I'll admit I enjoyed reading the little lore blurbs a lot more than I was expecting to. And at the very least, the new direction serves as a very convenient framing device for all the sweet space-trotting action.
It's not without its flaws, unfortunately. First and foremost, there are simply too many little glitches and technical annoyances. Grenades disappearing through the floor, poor collision with the environments, texture problems, invisible walls, auto-selecting the wrong weapon, etc... None of them are game-breaking but they're noticeable and happen just often enough to be annoying, which does seem to hint at the sort of usual AAA development priorities these days. I really wish games weren't being pawned off to consumers as soon as they reach 80% of their development cycle like it's the most natural thing in the world. I would have gladly waited a couple extra weeks / months for a more polished and complete package.
Speaking of which, the complete absence of any additional modes apart from the very thin and lackluster multiplayer is an absolute shame. A game like this absolutely
needs a proper arcade mode with substantial replay value to make the best out of its fantastic combat system. And I'm not talking about the half-assed scoring system slapped on top of the basic campaign from the first one. Open-ended Slayer Gates, enemies getting stronger and more aggressive with every wave, leaderboards, Bloody Palace, that sort of thing. I really hope the devs are planning on bringing something like this as DLC because it would be a completely wasted opportunity if not.
So not only do you
have to make a Bethesda account before you can access the main menu for the first time, but the servers like to casually go down whenever they feel like it
and the game is set to try to automatically log you in at the end of every loading screen?? Get the fuck out of here. This is primarily a singleplayer game, that shit is completely unacceptable.
Lastly, the final level appears to have been cobbled together rather quickly in comparison to the rest of the game. My guess is that they were forced to scrap their original end-game concept late in development and had to settle for what's in the final game. It's still playable, it's still fun, but... what could have been, I wonder?
Anyway, none of this takes away from the incredible quality of the moment-to-moment gameplay. I know this community by and large isn't as much into 3D action games as I am, but if any of you are currently in the mood for a tougher, deeper, more strategic, more ambitious and even more energetic game which improves on the foundation laid by Doom (2016) in almost every respect, then look no further than this one. Other FPSs simply don't compare.
Rip and Tear, until it is done.
PS: These games even manage to make me appreciate "metal", or whatever that caveman noise is called.