DOOM Eternal was very much designed around engaging with all the systems. The problem being… you don’t actually need to do glory kills, crucible kills, grenade kills, etc for the first few levels on the lower difficulty settings. So when you DO get to the later missions… you are now learning how to play the game against encounters designed to push you to your limits.
Which, weirdly enough, meant that DOOM Eternal was actually best played on Ultraviolence. Because on UV? The first level will take you the better part of an hour (… or two). But after that? You know what you are doing and the rest of the game flies by… until the fucking DLC which is some of the best video gaming I have ever experienced. I remember being physically exhausted after some of the DLC levels and having that “This is REALLY not good but also holy crap” feeling.
And before people poo poo TOO much on a game that is five years old: DOOM Eternal WAS DOOM 2016 except with a bigger focus on rushing forward to eliminate key enemies rather than waiting behind doors as choke points and treaing it like an early 00s “cover shooter”. And… that is exactly what DOOM 2 did back in the day. Archviles could resurrect anyone and Pain Elementals were endless sources of Lost Souls. So you also had to be ready to push your way into a room to take outthe baddies.
Not sure how I feel about Quake 202-err, DOOM The Dark Ages. Gonna be there day one because I have been playing DOOM for basically my entire life (I am the guy who still replays the original once a year). But what we have seen so far feels like it was a really big over correction to DOOM Eternal. Which… is also kind of what happened with Quake versus DOOM 2 (and Final DOOM and The Plutonia Experiments and…).
GooberEar@lemmy.wtf 5 hours ago
My opinion is subject to change, since I do plan to eventually give Eternal another attempt, but I know why I like 2016 better. It’s because I can go at my own pace and have the freedom to play the battle scenarios out how I want to (for the most part).
Eternal basically tells you early on, you have to go, go, go, go, go. Keep moving or you die. I find that kind of annoying.
But then the fact that you’re almost constantly being forced to use every single button, skill, weapon, etc on-demand, in very specific ways with a fair amount of precision basically kills the joy for me. I don’t get to play games much, sometimes it’s weeks or months between sessions. I can’t keep up with all that bullshit and it sucks nearly every last drop of fun out of the game if I have to waste my limited fun time having to relearn all the mechanics.
I just want to casually rip and tear for fun. Eternal felt like a micromanaging boss constantly telling me that I’m doing things wrong and behind on my unrealistic deadlines.