I'm crushed. Doom Eternal is probably the most disappointed I've ever been in a game

[QisTopTier]

It's my favorite game this gen, only game I liked more than it was Ys 8. I played and finished Doom 2016 for the first time the week before it came out so that was fresh in my mind too. Though I played on PC and that's an understandably different experience.

 

[Nocturnowl]

While I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped to, I went back to 2016 immediately after finishing Eternal and despite a few preferences in early level layouts being more open and the boss fights, I finished that replay preferring Eternal on the whole.
I'm not too keen on how Eternal kinda boxes in how you have to tackle certain enemies mind you, it's an interesting approach that gets mileage out of the entire kit but does make combat turn a bit paint by numbers. In the long run Eternal's stages strike me as a lot more interesting to play through, 2016 really starts running out of momentum in the backhalf.

Also you platforming poo-poo-ers are making me sad, I swear I'm seeing more pushback towards Eternal pacing itself with some snappy and simple enough platforming moments to break up the fights over how numerous other games would choose to break up combat by using slow walks/climbing/crawling etc.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

enough people have commented that the game gets a lot better after the first few hours... so I'm going to play a few games in my backlog, then give the game another chance in a month or two.

Really appreciate all the great discussion in this thread!

Click to shrink...

Hey man, did you ever continue with your Eternal playthrough, and if so what did you end up thinking of it? I've played about 3-4 hours of Eternal so far and my thoughts are pretty similar to yours:

• I don't like how frugal the game is with ammo. I can only carry 16 fucking shotgun shells (I've upgraded this to 18) and considering even some smaller enemies will take a couple of shots it feels like I burn through ammo really quickly. I don't really want to scour the edges of the environment for ammo in the middle of a gunfight. Likewise I've only got 64 rounds for the machine gun, which is enough to take out a small group of enemies but I'll still burn through it in a handful of seconds. The shooting in this game is really fun. The weapons are great and hit feedback feels superb. Why are they limiting my enjoyment by making ammo so fucking scarce?!
• The focus on plot feels like it goes in the opposite direction to Doom 16, where cutscenes were minimal and the game seemed to recognise that nobody needs plot in Doom besides maybe the skeleton to justify the premise. Here I've already had a bunch of cutscenes and it's introducing me to things I don't know or care about like demon priests, angel soldiers, special crystal things, and so on. I really doubt many people played Doom 16 and wished there was more plot.
• Speaking of which, I don't know how we got to here from the ending of Doom 16. Suddenly Doom Slayer has a giant space ship cathedral thing and the entire world has already fallen to demonic invasion? This is a fairly nitpicky thing and doesn't really matter, but it feels like I've missed out on a comic or animated film giving more context or something. If this feels contradictory to my point above, I'm not averse to having plot beats mapped out (i.e. explain that Doom Slayer found the giant space cathedral on the surface of Mars, and while he piloted it back to Earth the demons attacked) but I don't want or need the game to spend a lot of time on unnecessary cutscenes. Heck, they could do this in a CGI intro if you wait on the title screen too long and that would be enough context to justify the setup.
• I don't like the RPG mechanics. It feels like they're not necessary and there's a lot of different screens with upgrade stuff and I keep getting taken into tutorials. If your fast-paced action shooter has so much shit that you keep needing to teach me new mechanics, maybe you should be taking some of that stuff out and keeping things a bit more straightforward. I appreciate that some people will like the added depth, but for me it didn't really stick the landing.
• I don't like how you have to dispatch enemies in different ways to get health, ammo or armour. I appreciate they're trying to encourage players to use their full arsenal, but honestly I'd rather play how I want to (which doesn't involve much use of the flamethrower or chainsaw). Again, the lack of ammo is probably for the same reason but I don't want them to force me to play in a certain way. As a result Doom Slayer feels a lot less powerful and capable than he did in Doom 16.

There's probably some other stuff which I have forgotten, but I will keep playing for at least a couple more hours and see if it clicks into place.

 

[Asbsand]

This seems to be the trend with these latest batches of Bethesda sequels, for whatever reason. Wolfenstein The New Order told a genuinely good story and reexamined the nazis and WW2, albeit in a campy, hyper-stylized way, but it felt intellectual to me, and it evoked a lot of thoughts to me. The sequel took all the memeable elements of that framework and made the story about all that. The layering was gone. Instead we just got another stupid video game and expensive piece of marketing bloat.

 

[Transistor]

I agree with OP completely on the story and atmosphere, but the gameplay I can't agree on. It's far improved from 2016.

 

[Issen]

Eternal's gameplay changes are what really worries me. I haven't played it but I just want a goddamn straightforward shooter like ye olde arena shooters. Guns have their own unique properties but that should be it. None of this weak points shit unless they're super obvious and unintrusive, certainly nothing that's unintuitive enough to need per-monster tutorializing. And let me just blast things around without worrying about ammo all the time.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

I can see why some might not like some things about it but for me I thought it was awesome, especially the gameplay loop of how refilling health, ammo and armour works.

 

[Tedmilk]

I enjoyed both games but Doom 2016 much more.

I feel like 2016 straddled a VERY narrow line between serious/realistic and campy... and Eternal went too far the other way. Not by loads, but enough for the story to lose much of its gravitas. I feel like the variety of the locations in Eternal kinda detract from the believability of its tone and make it feel more like a He-Man film. Which I think is what they were going for, but it's not for me.

2016 was a darker game, both in tone and graphically. And it didn't have swimming sections and purple goo.

 

[Astral Lovelace]

• I don't like how frugal the game is with ammo. I can only carry 16 fucking shotgun shells (I've upgraded this to 18) and considering even some smaller enemies will take a couple of shots it feels like I burn through ammo really quickly. I don't really want to scour the edges of the environment for ammo in the middle of a gunfight. Likewise I've only got 64 rounds for the machine gun, which is enough to take out a small group of enemies but I'll still burn through it in a handful of seconds. The shooting in this game is really fun. The weapons are great and hit feedback feels superb. Why are they limiting my enjoyment by making ammo so fucking scarce?!

Click to shrink...

Your chainsaw will turn any fodder demons (Imps, zombies, etc) into ammo pinatas, and refills every 20 seconds. You don't ever need to 'find' ammo, it's set up that as soon as you run out of some ammo, you just look left to your nearest zombie and melt them into ammo.
Fodder enemies are not enemies -- they are walking resources.

And why?

They found that in Doom 2016 everyone just used the super shotgun and nothing else. Doom 2016 was intended to be played with heavy weapon switching, but no one did, so for Eternal they introduced a lot of mechanics to encourage weapon switching -- this is why a lot of enemies have specific weaknesses, to get you more comfortable with weapon switching. It's why ammo is just 'not enough' for a full fight without swapping weapons and chainsaw'ing. They wanted people to engage with the game on a level that elevates it.

However
This can't ever work on a shit ass, not-Steam Controller gamepad. Weapon wheel is painfully slow, control sticks without gyro do not have anywhere near the required precision to blast parts off, there's barely enough buttons to even map actions to, etc.

If you aren't having fun on console, it's because the game essentially does not work with the limitations of an Xbox controller. Sure I guess it *can* be beat, but it'd be an exercise in frustration.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

I've posted this before:
Doom Eternal is a disappointing sequel to Doom 2016. But it also might be my favourite shooter of all time.

I have trouble resolving those 2 opposite but true feelings.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Your chainsaw will turn any fodder demons (Imps, zombies, etc) into ammo pinatas, and refills every 20 seconds. You don't ever need to 'find' ammo, it's set up that as soon as you run out of some ammo, you just look left to your nearest zombie and melt them into ammo.
Fodder enemies are not enemies -- they are walking resources.

And why?

They found that in Doom 2016 everyone just used the super shotgun and nothing else. Doom 2016 was intended to be played with heavy weapon switching, but no one did, so for Eternal they introduced a lot of mechanics to encourage weapon switching -- this is why a lot of enemies have specific weaknesses, to get you more comfortable with weapon switching. It's why ammo is just 'not enough' for a full fight without swapping weapons and chainsaw'ing. They wanted people to engage with the game on a level that elevates it.

However
This can't ever work on a shit ass, not-Steam Controller gamepad. Weapon wheel is painfully slow, control sticks without gyro do not have anywhere near the required precision to blast parts off, there's barely enough buttons to even map actions to, etc.

If you aren't having fun on console, it's because the game essentially does not work with the limitations of an Xbox controller. Sure I guess it *can* be beat, but it'd be an exercise in frustration.

Click to shrink...

Okay, fair enough. I don't really like using the chainsaw but I will make the effort to use it more.

And yes, I am playing on PS4.

 

[Astral Lovelace]

Okay, fair enough. I don't really like using the chainsaw but I will make the effort to use it more.

And yes, I am playing on PS4.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it gets a lot less annoying when you stop thinking of the random zombies as things to shoot and start thinking of them as boxes of whatever you need.

Playing on PS4 is gonna have a little bit of 'butt' feel to it due to the weapon switching, I won't lie.
Setting up your weapon switches ahead of time (IE, if you see Marauder, switch to Ballista, then Super Shotty so that R1 will quick swap between those two) but you're gonna spend a lot of time in the weapon wheel to get maximum value. A HUGE amount of your possible DPS in Eternal comes from swapping to another weapon during cooldown. The Super Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, and Ballista all have huge burst damage from a single shot, but huge cooldown between shots. Firing one, then immediately switching to another and firing off that shot, rinse repeat is a massive amount of DPS that can melt ANYTHING. The weapon wheel will at least remember last weapon so you can quickly use the wheel to swap to SSG and Ballista or Rocket launcher, then just R1 tab that fucker to melt stuff.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

I'm with you OP. Hated the CONSTANT resource management that you're forced to engage with. I thought Doom 2016 had the right balance on that front, at least on normal difficulty. Giving the player more options isn't always a good thing IMO.

Click to shrink...

This was my main issue, having to worry about that stuff such as remembering to use the flame thrower, switch grenades, glory kill and chain saw while a legion of demons came at you got tiring

 

[Deleted member 7148]

I'm not the biggest fan of Doom Eternal either. It just felt more of the same to me. Given, it's still a good game but it didn't hold my interest for long since I played the hell out of 2016 Doom on both PS4 and PC. Maybe in a few years when all of that gets out of my system then I'll have the urge to play more of Eternal.

 

[lazygecko]

Using chainsaw kills to generate ammo still factors heavily into the whole "drop whatever you're doing and focus on this other very specific task before you can get back to it" aspect with the hard enemy counters and such. I don't find it enjoyable. The best kind of analogy I can think of to sum up Eternal would be those kinds of boss fight gimmicks where the boss repeatedly enters a phase where it's hidden/invulnerable and you have to fight off a bunch of adds before you can get started on the boss again. It's like the game telling you to go do distracting chores before you can get back to the fun. That's what the entire core gameplay loop of Doom Eternal feels like to me.

 

[Zor]

I was disappointed too OP and yet, honestly, it's one of my favourite games this year. A large part of that was reconciling that it was effectively MORE Doom 2016, but trying to do a number of things differently. Once I got used to that I really, truly did love it.

I will say though, one of the biggest disappointments for me was the story stuff. I didn't want more story, and for it to be so in your face either. To me, it showed that all the celebration around 2016's meta-commentary and humour wasn't so much by design, as originally thought, as seemingly just by accident. They took the wrong lessons from the responses people had to things like the Doomguy smashing the monitor because he hates exposition, or Doomguy ignoring Hayden because he hates plot, and instead just went, "Ah, folks loved the story and lore, lets go nuts!"

But like I said, I do love it. It's a fantastically designed game that also at times feels like there's too much of everything.

 

[Zampano]

Only problems with this game are the end boss is trash and those floating angels are difficult to shoot in the head with a controller. But that's my fault. Great game.

 

[XaosWolf]

Your chainsaw will turn any fodder demons (Imps, zombies, etc) into ammo pinatas, and refills every 20 seconds. You don't ever need to 'find' ammo, it's set up that as soon as you run out of some ammo, you just look left to your nearest zombie and melt them into ammo.
Fodder enemies are not enemies -- they are walking resources.

And why?

They found that in Doom 2016 everyone just used the super shotgun and nothing else. Doom 2016 was intended to be played with heavy weapon switching, but no one did, so for Eternal they introduced a lot of mechanics to encourage weapon switching -- this is why a lot of enemies have specific weaknesses, to get you more comfortable with weapon switching. It's why ammo is just 'not enough' for a full fight without swapping weapons and chainsaw'ing. They wanted people to engage with the game on a level that elevates it.

Click to shrink...

The chainsaw served that same purpose in DOOM 2016 and restored way more ammo. Making it rechargeable was specifically because they nuked the ammo counts.

As for why the changed the ammo counts - so that people played the game correctly in the developer's exclusive version of what they called the "fun zone" - it doesn't hold up as despite their compaints they gave the Super Shotgun the same damage and added a grappling hook that takes you into max damage/chainsaw range, sets them on fire and gives you armour to keep that train rolling.

 

[Astral Lovelace]

The chainsaw served that same purpose in DOOM 2016 and restored way more ammo. Making it rechargeable was specifically because they messed with the ammo counts.

Click to shrink...

So what you're saying, is that they took existing mechanics, and exaggerated them, to get users to use them.

In 2016 you had so much ammo that the chainsaw giving ammo was superfluous, it was used much more as a 'get out of jail' card like the Crucible is now. Extra ammo was like, a bonus at best.

As for why the changed the ammo counts - so that people played the game correctly in the developer's exclusive version of what they called the "fun zone" - it doesn't hold up as despite their compaints they gave the Super Shotgun the same damage and added a grappling hook that takes you into max damage/chainsaw range, sets them on fire and gives you armour to keep that train rolling.

Click to shrink...

So, let's recall that you only get to fire the super shotty 8 times before running out, thus you can't use it as your 'kill everything' weapon. Also, it doesn't get the 'Fire 2 rounds' bonus it got in 2016, which exaggerates its cool down... It's a burst finisher. But wait! The grappling hook exaggerates this further, as it allows you to finish off super demons in a way that gives you armor and helps resource management.
The grappling hook allows you to engage with the Super Shotty at any distance, provided it's safe once you get there, allows for quick movement, and provides you with resources.
The cooldown between shots and the grappling hook cooldown are slow enough to prevent it from really being usable for extended periods of time. It's a finisher.
So it went from 'Use this to kill everything and never switch off of it' to 'Use this when you're sure it'll kill the big demon and get big cash money'.
Sounds like a great success to me.

 

[Rimkrak]

I'll never get how people consider chainsaw and flamethrower as difficult/unfun ressource managing. Their cooldown is so damn low, you're supposed to use them as soon as they're up, and then ammo and armour becomes a non issue completely.

The gameplay loop is so fluid, fast and fun, of course it's a game where you HAVE to play as the devs intended, but playing it that way is some of the best fun I had this gen.

Gonna be so good to play the DLC for the 1st time on the upgraded next gen version :)

 

[ket]

Only problems with this game are the end boss is trash and those floating angels are difficult to shoot in the head with a controller. But that's my fault. Great game.

Click to shrink...

you aint gotta shoot em just use the shotgun grenade launcher

i used that for all the weak points

 

[Freddie13]

Loved Doom 2016...re-learned mechanics for Doom Eternal and came to love it, too. Honestly, they felt like 2 completely different games so I understand why people expected more Doom 2016 would resent Doom Eternal. I still prefer Doom 2016 though...

 

[SwampBastard]

Eternal is my first Doom game and I don't love it. It's really beautiful and controls like a dream, but I've been playing on the easiest setting and still getting worked. I'm not usually great at shooters anyway, but this one feels almost unfairly hard to me. 2016 is out on Stadia, so I will probably pick that up after I finish Eternal.

 

[Cerulean_skylark]

I enjoyed eternal much more than 2016. 2016 was good but you see all its tricks really soon and it's just a slog eventually, in eternal you always think "it can't get more crazy than this can it?". And the answer is always "yes". I think it's this point that really hurts those who liked 2016 most. Many of them make posts like this while still super early in eternal

once you get fast recharging double dash it's like first person devil may cry shooter. You're sniping from mid air while dashing and freezing and flaming and grenading and swapping weapons and chainsawing all in super duper short intervals.
one of the only games I had to wear my nighttime bite guard for because I was teeth clenched the whole time.

 

[Mama Robotnik]

Completely respect the OPs opinion though I completely disagree.

DOOM Eternal is the best FPS I've played and one of my favourite games of all time. The gameplay loop calculated to encourage varied methods of enemy dispatch, in order to manage health, armour and ammo, is stunningly realised - you are taught to make strategic resource decisions at quicker and quicker pace, and this brings such a vibrant energy to the escalating frenzy.

The inclusion of an exploration hub, with secrets, upgrades and unlockable areas, really leans the whole experience towards my wider genre preferences.

The use of "cheats" to allow you to experience the game in various crazy ways, is inspired and is such a wonderful nod to a simpler time where you could really explore the experience outside of the narrative confines.

I really liked the new story, and was enraptured. The grand saga and ceremony of the Hell Priests, juxtaposed with the unceremoniously way some of them are comically dispatched, is wholly enjoyable. Flashbacks were intriguing, as were the various nods to ancient canon.

Just all in all, an absolutely stunning game, one that I won't easily forget.

 

[Tahnit]

I cant go back to 2016 after playing eternal. Just cant. The combat feels old and dated after eternal.

 

[Tahnit]

The game plays perfectly fine on a controller. in fact it is the best controlling console FPS.

not to offend anyone but reading a few complaints it is clear that people didn´t want to "git gud" at the game or didn´t really understand how to play it at all.

Click to shrink...

yeah after watching that video i dont see how anyone can say 2016's combat is better lol

 

[Tahnit]

The thing about Doom Eternal for me was, its various systems were...... kinda nonsense.
Why does chainsawing a demon produce ammo?
Why does my chainsaw regenerate one pip of fuel?
Why does flame-belching enemies not hurt them, but instead produce armour?
Why does the Super Shotgun clearly do far more than twice the damage of the combat shotgun?

Click to shrink...

who cares.

seriously. who cares? its doom.

 

[mrmickfran]

I cant go back to 2016 after playing eternal. Just cant. The combat feels old and dated after eternal.

Click to shrink...

Same

I'm never touching 2016 again

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I haven't played it but it sounds like they completely forgot about the 1st game and how they wanted it to "just be Doom". Which is what made it

Now it's all tricky enemies, and RPG stuff, and tons of story.

That about right?

 

[toy_brain]

who cares.

seriously. who cares? its doom.

Click to shrink...

Me, obviously.
Duh!

(Also, wow, a 2-month-old neco-reply. I think that's my first!)

 

[Rimkrak]

Why does chainsawing a demon produce ammo?
Why does my chainsaw regenerate one pip of fuel?
Why does flame-belching enemies not hurt them, but instead produce armour?
Why does the Super Shotgun clearly do far more than twice the damage of the combat shotgun?

Click to shrink...

Because the Doom Slayer told them to, duh :)

 

[Kill3r7]

The game gets better the longer you play. While it might look similar to 2016 and has a different rhythm/gameplay formula. It expects you to use a variety of weapons and all your abilities. I suck at dealing with the marauders but outside of that I thought it was an excellent update on the 2016 formula.

 

[Tahnit]

Reading this thread has me wanting to train up for ultra nightmare.

 

[hans_castorp]

Gameplay wise, cant think of a better shotter. Playing it on pc at >120fps is a dream come true.

 

[QisTopTier]

Reading this thread has me wanting to train up for ultra nightmare.

Click to shrink...

Good luck it was one of the most satisfying things Ive ever done

 

[XaosWolf]

So what you're saying, is that they took existing mechanics, and exaggerated them, to get users to use them.

In 2016 you had so much ammo that the chainsaw giving ammo was superfluous, it was used much more as a 'get out of jail' card like the Crucible is now. Extra ammo was like, a bonus at best.

Click to shrink...

This wasn't a problem. Having more ammo is way better than having too little. The only game where having less ammo is more fun is in Survival Horror titles.
The Crucible serving the same function as the Chainsaw used to (without the ammo) then it sinks of being a bandaid fix for a problem they created.

So, let's recall that you only get to fire the super shotty 8 times before running out, thus you can't use it as your 'kill everything' weapon. Also, it doesn't get the 'Fire 2 rounds' bonus it got in 2016, which exaggerates its cool down... It's a burst finisher. But wait! The grappling hook exaggerates this further, as it allows you to finish off super demons in a way that gives you armor and helps resource management.
The grappling hook allows you to engage with the Super Shotty at any distance, provided it's safe once you get there, allows for quick movement, and provides you with resources.
The cooldown between shots and the grappling hook cooldown are slow enough to prevent it from really being usable for extended periods of time. It's a finisher.
So it went from 'Use this to kill everything and never switch off of it' to 'Use this when you're sure it'll kill the big demon and get big cash money'.
Sounds like a great success to me.

Click to shrink...

How many Super Shotgun shots can you fire in 20 seconds? Because as soon as 20 seconds is up you can get your ammo back whilst killing another demon. Despite the dev's efforts I still used the same three guns I did in 2016 to great effect. Long range cannon (even though it sucked comared to the Gauss Cannon), turret chaingun, super shotgun. Mix in the BFG whenever you have ammo and ignore the Unmaykr because its pure garbage.

I don't mind some of the changes by themselves but they seemed to have multiple ideas, whittled them down to two options and then picked both. I don't have much respect for developers who claim their players are playing the game wrong and then take dramatic steps to "fix" that because thats changing your series' formula for the wrong reasons.

 

[Roshin]

I love the way Eternal looks, sounds, and feels. I just wish it was Doom.

 

[Deleted member 2317]

Gameplay wise, cant think of a better shotter.

Click to shrink...

Agreed, I really can't. Doom Eternal is the best dedicated shooter I've ever played, I don't think the Portal games count. 🤣

Perhaps I'm biased in the fact that, while Wolfenstein 3D, Hexen, and Duke 3D were my first FPS interactions, Doom 2 and Quake were the first I owned and played religiously. Doom Eternal's combat and levels are just incredibly fun at almost all times, even if the "story" is vapid nonsense.

 

[HammerFace]

• The focus on plot feels like it goes in the opposite direction to Doom 16, where cutscenes were minimal and the game seemed to recognise that nobody needs plot in Doom besides maybe the skeleton to justify the premise. Here I've already had a bunch of cutscenes and it's introducing me to things I don't know or care about like demon priests, angel soldiers, special crystal things, and so on. I really doubt many people played Doom 16 and wished there was more plot.
• Speaking of which, I don't know how we got to here from the ending of Doom 16. Suddenly Doom Slayer has a giant space ship cathedral thing and the entire world has already fallen to demonic invasion? This is a fairly nitpicky thing and doesn't really matter, but it feels like I've missed out on a comic or animated film giving more context or something. If this feels contradictory to my point above, I'm not averse to having plot beats mapped out (i.e. explain that Doom Slayer found the giant space cathedral on the surface of Mars, and while he piloted it back to Earth the demons attacked) but I don't want or need the game to spend a lot of time on unnecessary cutscenes. Heck, they could do this in a CGI intro if you wait on the title screen too long and that would be enough context to justify the setup.

Click to shrink...

Just came in to say these were my two biggest issues and they never got resolved as far as I can tell. For the former issue, it actually gets much worse. There's a whole level where they just lose dump on you. And I really enjoyed the story of Doom 2016 and for it to kind of just skip past how we got from the end of 2016 to Eternal was frustrating.

 

[Vimto]

Doom Eternal is one if the best shooters this entire generations.

 

[Marco_Tovarich]

(Played Doom Eternal for around four hours on PlayStation 4)

Granted, I'm seething right now after losing over two hours of progress in the Cultist Base level (finished a Slayer Gate, the game crashed, I lost all of my progress in the level....yay!). But it's ok, I guess. Because I hate this game. And I say this as someone who considers Doom 2016 to be one of the best games of the generation and quite possibly the greatest, most satisfying FPS I've ever played.

I don't even know where to begin. I'll just bullet-point it:

- Atmosphere. Doom 2016 was campy as hell, but it simultaneously took itself seriously, if that makes any sense. I absolutely adored the tone of the game. Eternal fully embraces the camp and it goes to far imo. I guess this was the logical next step, but it just doesn't work for me.
- Story. 2016's story was very basic, but it worked. If you wanted more out of the universe, there was a ton of lore for the player to discover. Kind of like Dark Souls in a way. I loved it. Eternal puts the story front and center and quite frankly, it's not interesting in the slightest. Eternal goes full sci-fi / fantasy and I just don't like it. This is a direction I never thought the series would go towards.
- Gameplay . Here's the big one. I hate almost every single change made in Doom Eternal! 2016 was a challenging game, but it also made you feel incredibly powerful. It was a wonderful power fantasy that also offered up a solid challenge if you wanted it. In Eternal, Doomguy feels weak. Doomguy barely has any ammo (the regenerating chainsaw ammo doesn't do enough to offset this imo). Doomguy is swarmed by enemies that do incredible amounts of damage, killing you within seconds. Yes, I should "get good", I get it. I adore challenging games! But this is just frustrating.
- Bethesda.net. Eff this stupid service. Let me log out, damnit. This isn't really about Eternal as a game, but man, I hate this garbage.

I'm just heartbroken over this game. Again, I just lost two hours of progress, so I'll fully admit I'm probably a bit angrier over this game than I'd be otherwise, but I was honestly just delaying the inevitable regarding my thoughts and feelings over the game. Doom Eternal, for me, is one of the most (if not THE most) disappointing games I've played in my life and I won't be playing it any longer.

I'd be really interested in reading everyone's thoughts on the game, particularly from those who loved Doom 2016 like I did. And I fully accept and respect all viewpoints here. If you love that game, that's great! Your opinion is just as valid as mine and I"d love to read what you and everyone else has to say about it!

Click to shrink...

My thoughts exactly. I adored Doom 2016 but playing through Eternal was extremely frustrating. At the end I just wanted the whole thing to end. At some point the game started feeling like a racer, where I would just do laps around the environment killing enemies in waves. Not fun.

Also, when does the game teach you that the power ups in the map respawn? It was a key component of the final encounter that I don't recall being introduced earlier in the game.

 

[QisTopTier]

Doom Eternal is one if the best shooters this entire generations.

Click to shrink...

I'd say of all time to be honest. It's insanely fine tuned yet somehow has an insane level of freedom

 

[doyneamite]

Finished it last week. It's absolutely phenomenal.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

Hey man, did you ever continue with your Eternal playthrough, and if so what did you end up thinking of it? I've played about 3-4 hours of Eternal so far and my thoughts are pretty similar to yours:

• I don't like how frugal the game is with ammo. I can only carry 16 fucking shotgun shells (I've upgraded this to 18) and considering even some smaller enemies will take a couple of shots it feels like I burn through ammo really quickly. I don't really want to scour the edges of the environment for ammo in the middle of a gunfight. Likewise I've only got 64 rounds for the machine gun, which is enough to take out a small group of enemies but I'll still burn through it in a handful of seconds. The shooting in this game is really fun. The weapons are great and hit feedback feels superb. Why are they limiting my enjoyment by making ammo so fucking scarce?!
• The focus on plot feels like it goes in the opposite direction to Doom 16, where cutscenes were minimal and the game seemed to recognise that nobody needs plot in Doom besides maybe the skeleton to justify the premise. Here I've already had a bunch of cutscenes and it's introducing me to things I don't know or care about like demon priests, angel soldiers, special crystal things, and so on. I really doubt many people played Doom 16 and wished there was more plot.
• Speaking of which, I don't know how we got to here from the ending of Doom 16. Suddenly Doom Slayer has a giant space ship cathedral thing and the entire world has already fallen to demonic invasion? This is a fairly nitpicky thing and doesn't really matter, but it feels like I've missed out on a comic or animated film giving more context or something. If this feels contradictory to my point above, I'm not averse to having plot beats mapped out (i.e. explain that Doom Slayer found the giant space cathedral on the surface of Mars, and while he piloted it back to Earth the demons attacked) but I don't want or need the game to spend a lot of time on unnecessary cutscenes. Heck, they could do this in a CGI intro if you wait on the title screen too long and that would be enough context to justify the setup.
• I don't like the RPG mechanics. It feels like they're not necessary and there's a lot of different screens with upgrade stuff and I keep getting taken into tutorials. If your fast-paced action shooter has so much shit that you keep needing to teach me new mechanics, maybe you should be taking some of that stuff out and keeping things a bit more straightforward. I appreciate that some people will like the added depth, but for me it didn't really stick the landing.
• I don't like how you have to dispatch enemies in different ways to get health, ammo or armour. I appreciate they're trying to encourage players to use their full arsenal, but honestly I'd rather play how I want to (which doesn't involve much use of the flamethrower or chainsaw). Again, the lack of ammo is probably for the same reason but I don't want them to force me to play in a certain way. As a result Doom Slayer feels a lot less powerful and capable than he did in Doom 16.

There's probably some other stuff which I have forgotten, but I will keep playing for at least a couple more hours and see if it clicks into place.

Click to shrink...

I haven't gone back, yet. I've kind of lost all interest in the game, to be honest. I'm fairly certain I'll give it another chance eventually, even if that day is a ways off.

 

[rajinus]

(Played Doom Eternal for around four hours on PlayStation 4)

Granted, I'm seething right now after losing over two hours of progress in the Cultist Base level (finished a Slayer Gate, the game crashed, I lost all of my progress in the level....yay!). But it's ok, I guess. Because I hate this game. And I say this as someone who considers Doom 2016 to be one of the best games of the generation and quite possibly the greatest, most satisfying FPS I've ever played.

I don't even know where to begin. I'll just bullet-point it:

- Atmosphere. Doom 2016 was campy as hell, but it simultaneously took itself seriously, if that makes any sense. I absolutely adored the tone of the game. Eternal fully embraces the camp and it goes to far imo. I guess this was the logical next step, but it just doesn't work for me.
- Story. 2016's story was very basic, but it worked. If you wanted more out of the universe, there was a ton of lore for the player to discover. Kind of like Dark Souls in a way. I loved it. Eternal puts the story front and center and quite frankly, it's not interesting in the slightest. Eternal goes full sci-fi / fantasy and I just don't like it. This is a direction I never thought the series would go towards.
- Gameplay . Here's the big one. I hate almost every single change made in Doom Eternal! 2016 was a challenging game, but it also made you feel incredibly powerful. It was a wonderful power fantasy that also offered up a solid challenge if you wanted it. In Eternal, Doomguy feels weak. Doomguy barely has any ammo (the regenerating chainsaw ammo doesn't do enough to offset this imo). Doomguy is swarmed by enemies that do incredible amounts of damage, killing you within seconds. Yes, I should "get good", I get it. I adore challenging games! But this is just frustrating.
- Bethesda.net. Eff this stupid service. Let me log out, damnit. This isn't really about Eternal as a game, but man, I hate this garbage.

I'm just heartbroken over this game. Again, I just lost two hours of progress, so I'll fully admit I'm probably a bit angrier over this game than I'd be otherwise, but I was honestly just delaying the inevitable regarding my thoughts and feelings over the game. Doom Eternal, for me, is one of the most (if not THE most) disappointing games I've played in my life and I won't be playing it any longer.

I'd be really interested in reading everyone's thoughts on the game, particularly from those who loved Doom 2016 like I did. And I fully accept and respect all viewpoints here. If you love that game, that's great! Your opinion is just as valid as mine and I"d love to read what you and everyone else has to say about it!

Click to shrink...

After playing for a few hrs, I agree with all of this. I played Doom 2016 just a few months ago for the 1st time, and absolutely loved it. I was so hyped about Eternal and assumed I would like it even more.

Nope. I don't like the new mechanics, the lore, the story, atmosphere, level design, enemies, the increased intensity, and the precision required.

It may very well be a "better" game mechanically, on a meta level, but for me it somehow lost most of what I loved about the original. Even the tone is so weird. Takes it self more seriously, but somehow at the same time its more ridiculous and more campy. I don't care at all about the world or the story, and nothing makes sense. It's actually incredible how it managed to strip away everything that made the 1st engaging to me. Maybe I'm not a hardcore enough FPS fan to appreciate the differences.

 

[nightstalker962]

Ok I'm currently playing through this on PS4 and I must say this game is fucking dope. I'd encourage everyone to play it for themselves and form their own opinion. For me, Doom 2016 did nothing for me however Eternal is a really good sequel. I like the art direction, color palette, platforming, and weapons a lot. It's scratching that Metroid Prime/God of War itch in terms of exploration and level design. The ammo is a bit scarce but overall this is one of my favorite FPS games up there with Killzone 2/3 and Wolfenstein the New Order. Another really nice thing is after I roll the credits, I can uninstall the game off my HDD as the Ancient Gods DLC will be standalone.

 

[Phantom]

I stopped playing it after what, 2 hours? I think I got lost in the shuffle of new releases and I'll get back to it later.

 

[Neiteio]

It's not clicking with me for some reason either. I made it through the end of the first snow world before tuckering out. It's well-made but exhausting. I appreciate how they aimed for variety to reduce repetition, but each example of variety is overdone. I'll have to try again another time while in a different mood, perhaps.

 

[G.O.O.]

I've posted this before:
Doom Eternal is a disappointing sequel to Doom 2016. But it also might be my favourite shooter of all time.

I have trouble resolving those 2 opposite but true feelings.

Click to shrink...

Yes.

I feel like 2016 had a really simple, but also really good idea, and the team worked around that and gave a product that was this one idea, maybe overstretched but fun and functional.

Eternal said "holy shit, people are into this" and added tons and tons of things around this idea. Many of them work, but the beautiful simplicity of 2016 is lost.