PixlBit

Good evening everyone,

I believe full disclosure is needed before I proceed. I have to admit that I’m not an old skool Doom PC gamer when it comes to all things Doom. The first time I ever played a Doom game was back on the SNES and later on with the Sega 32X, limited as they were. Doom on the Sega Saturn and later the PSone was a step up from what I’ve played prior but it wasn’t until on the original Xbox with the Limited Collector’s Edition of Doom 3 and Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil did I finally get a taste of what Doom and Doom II were all about. Since then I’ve made it my mission to enjoy old skool Doom on any generation of gaming console that I could. I even went as far as to buy both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Doom 3 BFG Edition (for a different reason altogether mind you) despite owning the digital versions of Doom and Doom II on XBLA, when they were published by Activision no less, and the Ultimate Doom Collection on PS3. I even bought the old skool Dooms on Nintendo Switch when they came out. And I know eventually I’ll end up buying them all again on Xbox One and PS4 in time.

Why do I mention all of this? Surely not to gloat of course though I’m sure many will be wondering why I’d buy the same versions of the same game over and over again. No the reason why I mention this is to show that I LURVE DOOM. I’ve enjoyed them as much as I’ve enjoyed any genre of the FPS variety. The mix of guns, gore and gameplay of this series is what has made me a VR sociopath to this day. Honesty I wouldn’t be shocked if back in the day being such a fan of the series like this would’ve pegged me as a possible mass shooter candidate given the ludicrous allegations trying to peg these kinds of games to the mentally deranged but I digress.

Every addition to the series that’s ever been released on consoles I’ve come to enjoy. Even Doom 3 I enjoyed despite it being considered by some as the black sheep to the series. I even bought Wolfenstein The New Order new on PS3 just so I could get the Doom Beta PSN code so I could try out what would become known as “Call of Doom” Beta, a game we never got the chance to play thanks in part to what became of it: 2016’s Doom. When 2016’s Doom came out I have to admit I held off in getting it for fear of the rumors at the time that it wasn’t going to be a good game, given the lackluster response to the it’s multiplayer beta, lack of attachment to many of the original creators of classic Doom and the review embargos placed on the game, but I eventually picked it up and played the hell out of it once it was confirmed to be a worthy successor to the Doom legacy.

So with that it brings me to the subject of this very blog posting. I have to admit this has been something of a hard topic to put to page. I want to love Doom Eternal, I really do, given all the praise the game has gotten from the gaming press and other gamers. But at the end of the day I have to be true to myself as a VR Sociopath and speak my mind about the latest entry in the Doom Saga.

Doom Eternal: I don’t like it. Here’s why.

 

Where’s the ammo?

In virtually all the Doom games I’ve played I’ve never had an issue in carrying large amounts of ammo. Even when I die in a later levels and get reverted back to my basic pistol and fists I’m still able to find enough ammo to keep me going in slaughtering the demonic hordes. In Doom Eternal I find myself lacking in how much ammo I can carry with any given weapon. 22 rounds ammo for the shotgun? What kind of nonsense is this? And it’s not just with the shotgun. It seems that I run out of ammo far too quickly with any of the weapons I use in Doom Eternal. I can understand the cooldowns needed for the secondary weapons offered in the game, like the flamethrower and the grenades, but never have I ever had a hard time trying to get enough ammo to clear out just an area of the game let alone the whole level. I end up running out of ammo despite my best efforts to conserve it as if I was playing a survival horror game. Even when I have a surplus of any type of ammo it feels like it’s not enough to take down the most basic of demons. The base weapons feel week themselves when in the past if you had enough ammo you could cut your way through what faced you, be it a pinkie demo to a baron of hell. I have a feeling this was done due to some of the criticism given to 2016’s Doom where despite the game giving you a variety of ways to upgrade your weapons they hardly left necessary given the amount of damage they offered, along with the healthy amounts of ammo you could find in game. I’m sure this was also done in Doom Eternal to make you focus on using specific weapon mods to take out certain enemy weaknesses. The only downside to that aspect is if your use to using a favorite weapon to dispatch demons you more often than not, in my case, end up running out of the specific ammo needed to use the specific weapon’s mod to take out a certain demon’s weakness. Thereby either forcing you to reserve all types of ammo when you might need it most just to survive an area or making you have to run around a level just to find a respawning ammo drop in the area or a weaker enemy to chainsaw to get precious ammo drops. Which brings me to my next reason.

Level areas are more enemy swarms than level progression.

In past Doom titles you’d run into certain areas where you’d happen to trigger spawns of enemies that you’d have to fight your way out of to progress in the level. Those levels are expected in the Doom series though depending on who you ask it may have been used too much in Doom 3’s “monster closet” segments. Even in 2016’s Doom it kept this tradition alive which made for a fun nostalgia trip, as well as a justification to use the game’s “Glory Kill” mechanic. But in 2016’s Doom it spaced out these segments in a way where it didn’t feel like it was constant. It had that perfect balance of spawn rooms areas, enemy encounters just with level progression and the occasion gore nest to keep things from getting dull. But with Doom Eternal it feels like EVERY AREA IS A SWARM AREA. I found myself running into fewer and fewer demons as I progressed in the game and more of them in tightly pocketed areas that I had to clear out before proceeding. This mechanic did help in wanting to explore levels without demons constantly nipping at my heels but ended up becoming more of a problem when area after area felt more like a level in Gears of War’s horde mode than the dreaded “monster closets” from Doom 3. Instead of these encounters being a reason to “rip and tear” they just had me constantly on the run, trying to swap out the right weapon and the right weapon mod to take out the right demon’s weak spot only to find out I didn’t have enough ammo to get the job done due to me using that ammo in a prior encounter or using a completely different weapon mod for that weapon beforehand, causing me precious seconds to either swap out the right mod or to a different weapon I had ammo for or try to use a chainsaw to get a weapon ammo drop where 50% of the time it doesn’t work cause I don’t have enough gas to take out a bigger demon given I’d already dispatched all the lesser demons beforehand. Again I feel like Doom Eternal makes you do this so you can constantly be on the run while playing, trying to mix in the use of your secondary weapons along with using your nifty double jump/dash moves. I’ve read/heard that this is who you’re supposed to play Doom Eternal by being constantly on the run, making snap judgements in what to use for weapons and where to use them instead of being like how you played in the past where given enough firepower any demon will fall to pieces under the onslaught of your firepower. This game will break you I’m told. But in a good way so when the gameplay clicks with you you’ll feel like a total bad ass as you overcome every demon you face. Well I’m sad to say this game style doesn’t click with me and I feel more like a chump than a bad ass after I’ve finally cleared an area for the umpteenth time of dying due to the issues mentioned above. This feels less like Doom Eternal and morel like Eternally Doomed.

 

Swarm areas feel less like level areas and more like multiplayer maps.

On the subject of these over glorified gore swarm areas I found the area designs of these areas feeling less like Doom levels and more like levels to a multiplayer map. Every time I’d run into one of these demons swarms I’d find myself running around this area doing my best to kill while at the same time trying to find precious ammo/armor/health packs to keep me alive. It wasn’t until I saw launch pads, teleporter portals and respawning ammo/armor/health packs and lesser zombies did I realize that these levels were not levels at all but choke points to force me to play a multiplayer map! I don’t recall these kinds of areas at all in 2016’s Doom or in any other Doom game prior to this. I haven’t played Doom Eternal’s multiplayer mode, or even 2016’s Doom multiplayer, but I’m getting a sickening feeling that these areas I’ve found in the single player game are also found in the Doom Eternal’s multiplayer modes. These areas feel less like actual Doom level design and more like either throw away multiplayer maps that were officially never used or maps that are in actual use and were put in the main game to save time in developing Doom Eternal. If I’m wrong on this it’s possible these areas were made like this just to help justify Doom Eternal’s new gameplay design of constant run and gun action, forcing you to make use of the flamethrower, grenades and double jump/dash moves as well as your weapons, melee and glory kill attacks. In any case this was a complete buzzkill for me. I don’t play Doom games for the multiplayer aspect of it, despite multiplayer being part of the series DNA, I play it so I can indulge my VR sociopathic tendencies. Instead of the level design making me ask “What do we have here?” Followed by me picking up my guns, drinking down one more cold one and killing and killing and killing, I instead find myself saying “What the hell happened here?” as and I pick up my guns, assume the running around the area like a chicken with my head cut off, as I try to find precious ammo to battle the latest demon swarm all the while wondering why is there a multiplayer map in my single player Doom game! I’m simple man. I really don’t need secondary weapons or special moves in my FPS’s. All I need is enough guns, enough ammo and a clear sense of direction to be pointed to in order to slaughter hordes of the undead. These multiplayer like map levels ain’t it chief.

Glory kills way overused.

This one might come as a shock to many, especially to myself. Some say that the glory kill mechanic in 2016’s Doom was way overused and completely unnecessary given the weapons in the game available along with performing glory kills slowed down the flow of the gameplay. I disagree because the glory kill mechanic was one of my favorite aspects of the game. I enjoyed weakening enemies enough where I’d rush in and end their miserable lives with a gory kill takedown. I spent hours upon hours taking down different enemies from different angles just to see how each gory kill takedown differed from each other. Being able to see the demon’s face mere seconds before I ended their lives in the most brutal of fashions was one of the game’s guilty pleasures I came to enjoy as I played. It not only gave me an excuse from the tried and truth method of killing the legions of Hell with raw firepower, but it also helped release some pent up frustrations on said enemies if the level was kicking you down just a bit too much. It also helped to personify the “Doom Slayer” in showing how much disgust and contempt he felt toward demon kind. Breaking them asunder and throwing away the pieces as if they were nothing to him. It helped to show why exactly demon kind saw him as the true threat to their existence, their very own boogieman, their monster in their closet. But in Doom Eternal instead of glory kills being a nice change of pace in dispatching the demonic hordes it has now become somewhat of a necessity. In the past if you needed an ammo/armor/health boost you’d just use your trusty chainsaw and cut down an enemy or two so they could drop said precious resources. But now performing a glory kill is almost mandatory because it’s another way to get said ammo/armor/heath drops. Something I found myself doing a lot due to the issues mentioned above, especially when I don’t have enough gas to use the chainsaw properly. As a result I’ve found this to cheapen the mechanic of the glory kill. In the past it was a nice distraction in killing demons the usual way. Now I have to use it constantly just so I can get what I can to survive the area. It’s gotten so bad that you can gain a power up that quickens the animations of a glory kill. Why would you want to do that? I assume it was done so that those that don’t care for the glory kill mechanic can just use it to get what they need out of the enemy instead of enjoying seeing another method in taking out demons. It was nice to be able to take a time out and enjoy the kill with the glory kill animation. But now it’s just a reminder of the issues mentioned above, thus lessening the impact of savoring those final moments when you can look a demon in the eyes and know the last thing they see is one, in all your glory, as their little play world comes to a tragic and bloody end.

 

The story: What happened between Doom and Doom Eternal?

I actually came to enjoy the story and lore that was shared in this new take on Doom. I actually took the time to read every scrap of info, every log in the codex about the world of Hell, the backstories involved and the main characters that helped the travesty unfold on Mars base. When Doom 2016 ended The Doom Slayer was betrayed by Samuel Hayden and thrown back into the portal he came out from after defeating the Oliva Pierce/Spider Mastermind. After the end of that cliffhanger I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for the sequel. Would it show The Doom Slayer fighting his way back out of Hell and onto Earth or Mars only to see the Hell invasion? Or would it be something different? What I wasn’t expecting to see from Doom Eternal was the Hell Invasion of Earth well underway and the Doom Slayer now having his own Fortress of Doom? How did we get from the ending in Doom to this in Doom Eternal? Am I missing something in other source lore materials like what is being done with the Halo series or will there be some DLC later down the line that explains what happened between the events of Doom and Doom Eternal? I’m sure for many this will not be very important given that most don’t play Doom or any FPS for its story. But for me it was a big letdown. Not even the nice Easter eggs found on the Fortress of Doom were enough to make me ask what happened and how did we get here? It was nice to jump into the action but I still wanted to know what happened. At least with the original Doom we got Episode 4: Thy Flesh Consumed to help bridge the gap between Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth.

It’s a shame I found these issues with Doom Eternal. I’d be much happier if Doom Enteral was just like what we got when the sequel of Bioshock came out: just more of the same. But instead with these changes to the Doom formula I’ve found myself less likely to play this game all the way to the end. I first thought me dying on the first level of Doom Eternal on normal difficulty was just me being rusty in playing an FPS for a while. But as I progressed further into the game, and found myself frustrated with the issues mentioned above to the point where I’m grateful I didn’t pay full price when this game was released. I’ve been extremely disappointed so far in playing Doom Eternal, something I haven’t found myself feeling with a game series I grew up with as a gamer. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve gotten older and can’t play these types of games or I’m too set/simple in my ways in what I expect out of an FPS. One could easily write this off as yet another “games journalist” article, with readers saying I just don’t know how to game or just to “git gud”, though the former would be expecting too much from me yet the latter could be a possibility.  At the end of the day though I can say this for certain: I don’t like Doom Eternal. And for me that’s saying something as a VR Sociopath.

Ta-ta

“N”