Not Recommended 1.8 hrs on record
Maybe I'm crazy, but as a sequel to DOOM, a game I find excellent, this isn't it. Something about the game is just totally off. The cool glory kills are there, and guns are there, but the feel isn't. It just lacks impact, that special *oomph* that 2016 had, and I don't know how to explain it better than that. I just got finished with DOOM 2016 again two days ago, and Eternal feels wrong in comparison.
Posted: 20 March
Then there's the tonal shifts I personally dislike. The atmospheric Mars corridors, taking data pads and weapons from the clutches of bodies, all gone. Instead, get ready for floating weapons like powerups like it's 1993. Don't get me wrong, I love the original DOOM too, but it's a complete departure from the vibe of 2016. Especially the extra life system. Let's just remove all difficulty and tension from a fight since you can respawn instantly where you died with no penalty, and stack up the ability to respawn with simple exploration.
I was so excited for this game, I really was, but this just isn't it.
Not Recommended 1.5 hrs on record
Posted: 20 March
I'm very conflicted over this game. On the one side, the presentation is phenomenal. They really hit it out of the park with the gun models, the environments and the music.
On the other side, they've taken everything that made Doom 2016 good and made it not that way. The UI is bright and crowded. The art style is cartoony and playful. But most importantly, the gameplay is way too complicated and bloated.
From all of the press you'd think that the combat is what makes the game enjoyable. However it feels completely unnatural to play.
So let's start with ammo. There are no ammo drops (or very little of them). The entire concept of scanning the level for ammo drops is gone. Instead, you're constantly without ammo until you use the chainsaw on an enemy. This would be fine if you could do it on many different enemies and if you didn't run out of fuel. But you're constantly running out of fuel, and certain enemies simply cannot get chainsawed (like arachnotron).
Then you've got the monster weaknesses. On paper this sounds great: certain monsters have weaknesses that you can exploit. In practice it's horrific. The cacodemon simply won't die without lobbing a grenade at its face. You can unload your entire machine gun or plasma rifle at it and it won't go down. And before you get to the argument of "well technically, you need to change your playstyle" imagine that you have to get a glorykill on the cacodemon every single time. And the glorykill animation is the same (pull the eyeballs or stabbing it through the eyeball).
To make matters worse you have to pick certain upgrades to enjoy the game properly. For instance, you're basically required to pick the machine gun precision aim upgrade in order to properly kill the revenant. Wait, you chose missiles? Well too bad! The revenant will now be a nightmare. You want to use the autoshotty? Too bad! You need to lob the guns off of the arachnotron.
There's also a lot of stuff that simply doesn't feel like a good addition to Doom. Why is there so much platforming? What are all of these collectables and upgrades? So much ♥♥♥♥ is thrown at the player at once that it's overwhelming. A good reference for a complex game that continues to introduce mechanics is God of War. You never feel like the game is throwing too much your way. Instead, it feels like the game is expanding. In Eternal it just feels like too much too quickly.
And lastly, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ story. I really will keep this brief, but really. What is even going on? How did the Doom Slayer get a fortress? Who is the Kahn Makyr? Who is this Ghost King and what is that orb you pick up? None of this makes any sense! It's been two hours and so much has been thrown my way that I'm ridiculously confused.
I'm really, really disappointed by this game. It plays nothing like Doom 2016. And while I'm all for innovation and improvement, this just feels like a massive departure from what makes Doom 2016 good. Doom 2016 is a simple, straightforward and concise shooter. Shooting the guns feels like a dream. Upgrades are slowly drip-fed and certain upgrades are never required to kill demons. The game looks gritty and realistic, not colorful and playful. And ultimately, the focus is on KILLING DEMONS.
I can't recommend this game. This is a hard pass for me.
Edit: some more problems with the game.
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tutorials. Why does the game completely stop or take me to another room to explain to me how a mechanic works? In a Doom game! This is a bigger design smell (something that indicates there's a larger problem) and the design smell is that the game is simply too complicated.
The balance. It's possible to get almost completely stuck on the first level by running out of ammo and fuel for your chainsaw. On top of that, three fuel cells on your chainsaw aren't enough to take down an arachnotron. So, you'll get stuck on the first level fighting an arachnotron. "Well I'll just go back!" you think to yourself. Well actually no, because the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ levels LOCK YOU IN. I have gotten completely locked in three different times while playing the game.
Edit 2: the fanboys are out in full force defending the game when clearly there are many people who dislike this game. It doesn't take me fifteen hours to figure out if I like a game or not (I've already refunded this game).
Also, I never said it was a BAD GAME. If you like this kind of gameplay, feel free to enjoy it rather than come circlejerk in the Steam reviews. However, this game is a large departure from what made Doom 2016 good and frankly it's just not fun for me! It has nothing to do with skill, or liking other games, this game is simply not fun for me.
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