Game 66 - Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Week 107 - Jan 22

oom Eternal: Round 2

Battlegrounds

It's forgettable, and not Deathmatch. I played a few matches but really just felt it was lacking. I had a lot more fun with the beta in the original Doom 2016 (before it was ruined by the minigun autoaim in a twitch shooter). They should have kept death match in some form or snap map so the community could make it themselves. The multiplayer was dissapointing. 

Classic Doom

The best way to play Doom Eternal.

• Activate Powerup Mode: Overdrive (that classic Doom/Quake speed)
• Activate Famine (demons dont drop health/armour)
• Activate Party Mode and Quakecon if you feel like a good time 
• Switch difficulty to Nightmare
• Switch your weapon pose to classic
• Change doomguy skin to the OG

Warning! It'll be difficult to go back after getting use to this level of speed. 

Other optional

• Overdrive can be fun, but gets boring after a while - good option to ease yourself in 
• Infinite ammo if you don't want to worry about ammo management

Basically you'll want the enemies to hit as hard as possible and Slayer with everything maxed. This creates a dynamic where you start with it all, and you want to hold on for it as long as possible as you know it will slowly dwindle... weapon switching is required as you need the least amount of downtime between weapon cocks, recoil and reloads to maximize your kill time and reduce damage taken. Those platforming sections that use to be a minor reprieve, pacing out an intense shooter? Now a mission ending hazard. Every fall you make, every bullet you take makes the mission harder and harder.  And when you're down to that last 30 health and you're only half way through, my god does it capture a desperate feeling of intensity. It forces you to change the way you play the game. I switched my weapon away from the default. I bound the Super Shotgun, Ballista, Rocket Launcher to 2, 3 ,4 and practiced that combo. Minigun to Q for good measure. Set my Doom guy to his classic suit and pose, then off I went. The more I play the more I realize this isn't Doom 2016, it's an unashamed arcadey romp of gore, guts and guns. While I do think the story and campaign experience overall was superior in Doom 2016, I don't think the two need to be compared and can be accepted as two different experiences.

Doom Guy's Pop Vinyl Collection

<3

The Ancient Gods

God damn. It’s just non-stop fucking DOOM. If Doom Eternal said: "Here's all those toys, go play with them"; then the Ancient Gods says: "You think you've mastered those weapons? Ha! Here let me test you!". What made Eternal so great is dialled up to 12 or 13 here and it feels perfect.

Every encounter is just as difficult as it should be. Enemies that were boss fights or rare encounters in the first game, Baron of Hell, Cyberdemon, Doom Hunter, Arch-vile, even the infamous Marauder…. They do not shy aware from throwing multiple of each of these at you in every second fight. So rebind your keys, don that shotgun, ballista, rocket launcher and buckle up, as Hell Knights become Zombie-equivalent and Cyberdemons become Baron of Hell-equivalent. Looking back at the first part of this post, I can see just how much I was on the money with my "how to play" Classic Doom. While I changed back to the Prateor suit for story consistency (and changed it back immediately upon finishing), the quick swapping reminiscent of the Doom Deathmatch or Quake 3 days of old was the only correct move. This was: 

1. Shotgun
2. Super Shotgun
3. Balista
4. Rocket Launcher
5. Assault Rifle
6. Plasma Gun
Q. Minigun
X. BFG

The core mechanic of skipping reload animations upon swapping weapons is a game changer. Borne from this 2, 3 and 4 are centre stage as the bread and butter combo. Hell Baron in your face? Super Shotgun blast, Ballista, Super Shotgun, Repeat. Mancubus blasting you from a difference? Ballista removes a arm cannon, rocket launcher, ballista removes the other arm, repeat. In other words, short range, long range with the Ballista tying the two together. Then you have your minigun as a good default weapon especially when ammo is low (usually with the shield equipped). Shotgun, Plasma Gun and Assault Rifle are mostly reserved for certain enemies or situations (more on that later). While the Big Fucking Gun is the get out of jail free card. The enemies are so dangerous, you need to dash, jump and meat hook your way around constantly. Quick swapping all these weapons on the fly (quite literally flying around the arena), while comboing with flame belch, chainsaw, glory kills, grenades, freeze bombs and blood punch makes you feel like a gunslinging god. I'm glad the sword is gone, it felt a little like cheating and now every situation requires good old fashion twitch shooting skill. Even the BFG takes skill requiring you to change your perception of what to shoot at to where to shoot with the travel time doing more damage as more tendrils lash out. Easily fucked up with such high mobility. 

Bye bye little man.

I LOVE the new enemy types, both in Part 1 and 2. The only sin here (and it's a big one) is the Cursed Prowler. It poisons you, removes your lockon ability and slows you down. How do you remove the curse? Blood punch it. So you better hope it comes near you because you certainly won't be catching it. I'm not sure who thought of this but it might be even worse then the Marauder. "Hey, you know what's a good idea? Let's remove all that mobility that makes the game so much fun and give them no way to negate it outside of luck." Fuck off. Stupid. It's annoying that Id Software arrogantly double down and say that they're right, it shouldn't be altered drastically or removed. Both the Cursed Prowler and Marauder have been updated to make them easier to kill, but they're no more fun. The Prowler use to give you no extra blood punch, so if you were on empty you were literally fucked. What? Here's an idea, let us shoot him. In annoying enemy turns into a cheeky demon with a shit eating grin. I'm glad then that everything else is just so damn good. 

Spirit - probably my favourite. Possesses enemies, buffs them and you need to kill them and use the microwave beam to Ghostbust them. It lead to some just downright awesome moments. This felt more like a nemesis and more fun then the Marauder ever did. One encounter in particular had me facing off with spirit that I was just unable to Ghostbeam either due to nearby enemies putting me at mortal peril or not having enough ammo. I bounced around this map for easily 5+ minutes, killed the host of this Spirit 3 or 4 times before it settled in a.... god damn Marauder. This was so intense and I came close to death so many times. When I finally thrusted my Doom blade into its throat I exhaled and said "that was fucking awesome". 

A true nemesis. 

Blood Makyr - Like the Drone but stays at range and has strong attacks, during which it's vunerable. A well place Ballista shot took this down easy enough. But in moments where you were preoccupied it played a support role to the demonic hordes, making for a fun addition. 

Screecher Zombie - Kill it and it buffs enemies. So I didn't kill it. Didn't really experience this one. There was one stage in the final fight in Immora where it was spread out over the map so much that you couldn't avoid buffing other demons. I wonder if they should have made this harder to avoid. Throw groups of 5+ zombies with one of these in the middle and throw them at you. 

Stone Imp - This was dope. A stone imp that can only be killed with the Autogun attachement on the Shotgun made the weapon usable again. I negated the grenade launcher for the more powerful ballista or rocket launcher, so this brought it back into the fold for these pesky buggers. Although I realised in a little too late that the shotgun is the best weapon to line up demon fodder for a glory kill (one shot = glory kill). 

Armoured Baron - The baron with armour. He hits hard with an attack, similar to the makyr you need to hit this spot to drop his armour temporarily. Now he can be damage. The Hell Barons and Knights are always fun to fight and this guy is a welcome addition. He gives you another reason to use the precision attachment on the Assault Rifle. Along with the Spirit, Blood Makyr and Stone Imp they make weapons that were all but redundant usable again. This is where the gameplay in Ancient Gods feels like it comes full circle. I have a reason to switch to every single weapon now (instead of just 234,QX). A tool for every situation. If the intention was to have pieces that mirror your opponents move set, this has been completed here.  The fact that you first face him in a medieval town makes it all the more cool. 

Riot Soldier - Earth's finest. They have shields that make them invulnerable. So lob grenades or rockets behind them to take them out. You have 2 grenades and never face more than 6 of these guys. They're a nice mix up from the regular fodder totting a minigun, but I never struggled with them. 

Demonic Trooper - The final remnants of what Jekkad (hell) once was. These troopers form the fodder of Immora, the troopers and infantry of the Dark Lord. They look cool and are more thematic then anything. 

Turret - Persistent and ever watching. Aim at it for too long and it disappears. A well place rocket and charged up Arbalest shot will take it out. In packs they're deadly, and with allies they're either best avoided behind cover or taken out first. 

Giant Tentacle - this is just dope. Taking the tentacle and make it the size of a skyscraper. Carving this up with rocks and Ballista shots is always satisfying as you see the blood and guts fly everywhere.

The maps are absolutely gorgeous. Eternal was no slouch, especially on the Gore Nests and Hellscaped Earth, but they just went all out here with a slew of unique worlds. It proves that art design will trump graphical fidelity every single time. 

The UAC facility an enormous facility of towering structures held up against the ocean waves.

Seeing it crash and burn brings a whole new light; this world is still falling apart.

The underwater facility is beautiful and houses a few interesting monstrosities.

The Blood Swamp looks exactly as you'd imagine. Metal AF. 

The Swamp houses the seat of all creation Ingmore's Sanctum - which holds the life sphere of The Father and the Dark Lord.

Returning to Urdak is no chore - the once beautiful paradise is now corruption. 

The technological advanced Makyr's were created by The Father Dark Lord to find immortality for all his creations. 

The World Spear looks medieval and oh boy do I hope they do Quake next. The eyrie castle full of acid, traps and platforming made it clear that it could easily be set in Argent D'Nur. 

After we last saw it during the Invasion of Hell, seeing Earth Reclaimed showed us just how much damage Earth Suffered. Seeing the resistance fighting back and the Doom Slayer worshipped as a saviour was always a cool lore dynamic and fed the legend you inhabited. It's still the same here, with plenty of graffiti to be seen on signs of humans pushing the demons back - you gave them hope. 

Immora… oh boy did they go big. This was fucking awesome. Seeing the skulls of decaying demonic titans, or rusting giant mechs added a great scale and context to the invasion of Earth. And here you get to finally see them in action as you carve a path to the Dark Lord. The final battle was just - pure fan service - the perfect send off to the entire series. 

The encounters lead to some of the most intense moments in the game. And I enjoyed every one of them. Those top tier demons are thrown at you in packs and forces you to hone your skills and makes you feel like a demon slaying god. Part 2 had a lot more warnings at the start than Part 1 but a lot easier. Maybe because I have my flow down?That first Escalation Encounter is all like, second wave is optional, EXPERIENCED SLAYERS ONLY PROCEED IF YOU’RE GUD ONLY. It wasn’t hard. Talking to friends and reading online after the fact, it's quite apparent that Part 2 was a send off for fans and the story - while Part 1 was a balls to the walls not stop death march through hell. 

Looking back at my original review I pondered whether I would be able to go back to the orginal gameplay of 2016. It was great, always pushing forward with the new glory kill mechanic but Eternal took it to a whole other level, the freedom in options and enemy design how it forces you to navigate every combat scenario mastering the tools provided and using them at the right moments.. That being said I enjoyed 2016 in some regards; it was a tighter experience, the story took a backseat and beyond codex entries could be summed up as 'Doomguy angry, kill demons'. And oh boy that soundtrack, as my first dose of Mick Gordon this was the best and most memorable. Even listening to it now it still holds up as better, more pure undiluted Metal. If Doom Eternal feels like a next level evolution, 2016 was a streamlined faithful reimagining of the originals. After playing the Ancient Gods I now realise that I could go back. I'd enjoy the gameplay for what it was and in the context of Doomguy "warming up".  He’s been in stasis for god knows how long, surely he had to shake off the rust and get the blood boiling again. And at the end of Eternal it is the Slayer at his peak. Fully endowed and equipped. 

I love where the story went, even if it had a few hiccups. The silent protagonist is great. Doomguy says more than many could with his own eyes. He has the death stare of a thousand Medusas'. Those moments were he flips hell off are just so metal. The riffs and metal ramping up before a shotgun cock, as Doomguy enters the portal is always superb. Seeing the weak and frail scientists and interns look at you with there jaw gaping, incapable of saying or doing anything in your presence reflects the reality of what the Doom Slayer is. A weapon to be fired at demons, no matter how large. 

The story has a lot of background, previously reserved for the codex, the story is expanded upon in cutscenes more and more. The best Doom moments to me are acts of defiance. Like the Slayer bitch slapping Hayden's face away in the first game, proving to him that you can fire a super BFG cannon at the moon, or even now in his godlike angelic form, forgoing the resurrection of The Father and bringing back the Dark Lord to slay him and his followers once and for all. 

As for the rest of the story. It's pretty hit and miss. I liked the idea that Doomguy is a little extra, but he shouldn't be a demigod. He's meant to be just a guy. That's really good at killing demons. A weapon with a few modifications, notched directly at the heart of hell. The everyman. The underdog that defies all the odds. Instead the Dark Lord is you. What? The Dark Lord created all and was betrayed by The Father, not the other way around. What? The Dark Lord just sought immortality for everyone, at the price of destroying everything and creating hell. Okay that last part isn't so bad, the Dark Lord being the antithesis of the Slayer makes for an interesting adversary vs hero story. But him being the creator is unnecessary. Couldn't they just be the most badass of their respective realms rising to the top? Maybe he deposed the original Dark Lord that betrayed The Father? The twists feel a little contrived and very convoluted. Even now I question how much time I wasted reading Codex that were Makyr propaganda, lies and slander - rendered irrelevant by a last minute unnecessary twist. This is very apparent when speaking to friends they all have difference concepts of how it all falls together. 

A lot of people disliked the final fight. I thought it was great. He's the peak Marauder, as you're the peak Sentinel. And the final fight is a throwdown at the O.K. Coral. My biggest issue was that it was a little boring and lacked the intensity that I was hoping for in a fight. This is due to it requiring the same window of a Marauder to stun. Get in position, stun, damage, repeat. It's just easy. The drop in difficult is a big let down compared to the rest of Ancient Gods. This is the Dark Lord, why is it so easy? 

Oh and the soundtrack is still so damn good. It would not be the same without a heavy dose of metal. 

Battlemode 2.0

Horde