Your first impressions?

[sugarwater]

Was a little offput at first because I never really fell in love with doom 2016 the way other people did and was anticipating a similar experience again this time. But now that I'm further in I can safely say that this game really gets something right. Playing on ultra violence, the challenge is really invigorating to me. The game feels great. I never used to like the glory kill, chainsaw kill, cycle of the new doom games before. But with this game I'm starting to appreciate it a lot more. I think it does a great job of getting the player in a zone of total concentration on combat, since combat is the way to re-stock for more combat. Things really clicked for me when I set out do the first master level you can play in Ultra Violence. I was dead set on finishing this thing and it took me hours. It took so many tries, to get past some sections. But each time I died it just got me more hyped to go again. The game does a great job of feeling fair even when you loose. It feels like there's always room to do better next time.  Unfortunately right when I made it close to the end, my game crashed and I lost it all. Bummer. I would think the game could have picked me up from an autosave but no luck I guess. Back to the ship before I began. Still at least I know I pretty much made it. It's just a shame to loose out if there was some kind of in game reward for doing what I did. That's the double-edged sword of having a system to reward the player for stuff like this game is very fond of doing. Still it was a great ride.

[qdash]

- Really big work has done.

- Has no atmosphere, but who cares if game all time trying to entertain you?

- It's not what I waited for, damn, where's bullets

- Ultra-Violence is difficult, but Hurt Me Plenty is really boring

- It's slasher with guns, not FPS

- I don't like it

[silvercue]

The gunplay impresses me more and more as the game progresses.   The weapons do really feel good, though I would like to have kept the infinite ammo pistol.  

 

Most impressive is the overall smoothness of play.  The Ultra Nightmare specs worried me a bit but running between 120 and 144 FPS on 1440 constantly and it is incredible snappy and smooth.

 

Still not loving all the platforming, but getting used to it.

 

Oh and the soundtrack is immense.  Doom music needs to have its own genre.  Err maybe called Doom Music or something like that.

[Amph]

what i don't like is, that there too much health and few ammo, it should always be the opposite

 

another thing is backtracking, there is nothing like doom here...

 

and the arena combat style sound boring after a while, dunno why but the arena in original doom was not as a boring as this one not to mention there was other kind of combat not arena-only, like multiple traps, where are their here?

[Touchdown]

On 3/20/2020 at 7:56 AM, Mr. Freeze said:

Your first impressions?

 

It's glorious.

[Robo_Cola]

I beat it last night on ultra violence so I feel I can finally give a decent review.  The game's action and pacing is basically perfect, it plays *very* differently from any other Doom title or FPS for that matter, but not necessarily in a bad way.  Unlike everyone else here posting, I found the beginning of this game much easier than 2016's due to the added mobility, but then by the end it was much harder unlike 2016's.  Someone here compared the resource-management to Starcraft's and that analogy is perfect.  Now I'm biased because Starcraft is tied with Doom as my favorite video game franchise, so I really enjoyed those elements tied into the combat...but without a doubt this change will piss some people off.  It's a bit much to handle at first but by 3/4 of the game in it came as second nature to me (flame belch, chainsaw, glory kill, etc)

 

When it comes to the story it starts off pretty good in the beginning then gets a bit hokey by the middle and the end, just my opinion.  The bosses I won't spoil here, but I'll say they're definitely a solid challenge unlike well... every other Doom boss up to this point, and is where I found myself dying the most in the game.  The master levels I got are absolute genius and make replaying levels so much more fun due to all the added skills and weapons you receive by the end.

 

The platforming wasn't too awful, there was about 2 occasions where I couldn't figure out where I was going in the Earth levels.  Like the last game, always look for green lights to figure out where to go.

 

Overall I'd give it a 9.5/10 which may change over time.  

 

 

[the_dude]

NGL, I returned the game.  The rainbows of items falling out of chainsawed enemies made me close the game and never reopen.

[MrGlide]

you can turn the color down btw.

[thewormofautumn]

I love everything except, as expected, the traversal/platforming. Within an arena I don’t mind it but when you’re moving about a level it’s BORING. It’s a seperate game.

Super Mario Doom

 

I hate that you can scrape through a brutal combat arena with an inch of health left only to lose an extra life because you missed a ledge or fell to your death in the stupid platforming sections. It goes against the rest of the game and seems so anticlimactic 

 

The rest is superb

the engine detail is through the roof. And in HDR this is the best looking game I’ve ever seen

[Deleted_Account]

My only disappointment? In the Slayers man cave there are nunchucks just sitting there. Why the hell can I not use them in the campaign?! It better be in the DLC.

[AFallingObject]

Short version: That was painful but fun.  I played on UV and it gave Doom 2016 nightmare a run for its money.

 

Long version.  I didn't think it'd be THIS long, but here it is.  I should adapt this into a steam review, spread the good word.

 

Gameplay:

It plays a lot faster than any shooter I've played and is hands down the most complex shooter I've ever played.  The change from enemies auto dropping what you need in Doom 2016 to you having to get what you need makes the game much more difficult.  Enemies may or may not move faster than 2016.  It felt like I got outmaneuvered more, despite the new dash mechanic.  Ammo management is painful in the early game.  The enemies your chainsaw can target on one tank of gas are almost always around.  The problem I have is their locations aren't always apparent.  I think in subsequent playthroughs, I'll have to make a beeline for maxing out my ammo to minimize issues with this.

 

Thoughts on enemies are in here and include bosses.  The whole game will be spoiled here!

Spoiler

Arachnotrons are a great way to introduce the weak point system without making them feel like yet another fireball thrower.  If you think of a chess board, the pinkie in modern Doom plays the Doom 2 arachnotron's role.  He's a rook: attacking straight ahead along ranks and files.  The new arachnotron does exactly what I anticipated id would do with him: acts mainly as a turret and occasionally hangs on ceilings.  Considering how aggressive all the other enemies are, having the arachnotron hang back is a good thing.

 

Pain elementals!  I'm unsurprised they spawn lost souls.  It's like making the lost souls kamikaze enemies in Doom 2016 was setting up for this.  Maybe id ran out of time to implement them in 2016.  The fact that you have two ways to quickly eliminate cacodemons also makes the pain elementals stand out.  They're much tougher.

 

Archviles!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY.  As expected, they replace summoners and summon instead of raising dead monsters.  I love being able to disrupt the summoning with a rocket to the face.  That's so satisfying.  On account of this, I have to admit they're less threatening than their doom 2 cousins, even though they warp around like 2016's summoners.

 

Marauders!  I hate them.  First I tried the BFG.  Then I tried the crucible.  Finally, I tried the unmaker.  I actually had to fight them.  The game says resistant to "super" weapons, so I assumed that meant the SSG.  What the hell, id?

 

Doom Hunters!  The plasma rifle always was a little boring.  Enemies like these guys and the new carcasses, with their ability to spawn random shields that the plasma can turn into bombs.  Too bad they take two lights- I mean crucible swings to kill: one for each phase.

 

Gladiator!  I had trouble avoiding that sine wave attack in the second phase.  Maybe blades like 2016's cyberdemon would be a better choice, so there's no grey area on whether I need to jump or stand to avoid getting hit.

 

Khan Maykr: Fun.  I wasn't crazy about the meat hook, thinking of it as a downgrade compared to being able to fire twice without a reload in 2016.  This battle changed my mind.  The chaingun is great for wearing her down.

 

Icon of Sin: I think the menu theme spoiled this for me.  The only question I had was whether I'd fight him or the Khan Maykr as the final boss.  He didn't disappoint.  I expected if he returned that id would take inspiration from Brutal Doom, which they did.  Locational damage is an added bonus to the basic "shoot it until it dies" fight Sgt. Mark designed.  I finished the game satisfied.  This is also the only boss I killed in one try.

 

Story

Spoiler

Yes!  Id knows what the fans want.  Doom slayer is doomguy.  He literally spews lines from the Doom comic in a flashback, his classic helmet thrown on the ground in front of the angels that saved him from hell, delirious from fighting demons .  I ate it up.  Uncovering what happened between what I presume was Doom 64's ending and 2016's start was great.  Unlike in 2016 where I just wanted the lore to shut up so I could get back to killing things, I enjoyed Eternal's lore.  Good job, id.

 

Music

Spoiler

Mick Gordon has been an acquired taste for me.  I hated what passed for music in the new Wolfenstein games.  It took a few playthroughs of Doom 2016 for me to catch all the references to the class music he snuck in, let alone how the music adapted to my play.  Eternal builds on this success, culminating in what was the highlight of the game for me: Sentinel Prime.  This is where we learn Doom Slayer = Doom Guy.  The guards that greet you shout "RIP AND TEAR."   Then you enter the arena to fight the gladiator.  The music is punctuated with the very shouts you're greeted with.  Boy am I glad I avoided preview material like the plague.  Mick Gordon previewed how he got a bunch of metal singers to do the shouting, but it came completely out of nowhere for me.   I'll never forget it.

 

[holaareola]

Second impression: it's one of the most fun pure FPS games of all time.

[Rifle Infantry]

I had an absolute blast with the game. I'll just say what I didn't like, because it's a helluva lot shorter of a list than what I do:

• The introduction is poorly paced and the least fun part of the game.
• Platforming was fun for secret-hunting, but crossing large gaps with it was incredibly annoying. I'm looking at one specific level here, but I won't spoil.
• Don't like quite how hard the game forces you to switch weapons to deal with monsters. It's fun and interesting to have each one be vulnerable to a specific weapon, etc. but if you use the wrong one they're tremendous sponges. Curiously the Heavy Cannon doesn't seem quite as subject to this as others, it proved reasonably effective against basically everything and ended up being my most-used weapon.
• Ammo is plentiful with the chainsaw and fodder abounding, but caps are frustratingly low even when upgraded. Multiplying them by 1.5x would reach an ideal place I feel (with the exception of the Plasma Rifle's stock, which feels right).
• UI: Pulsing red "LOW AMMO/HEALTH" alerts gets annoying when you're running around for a long period of time out-of-combat with it. Might be a bug, but was informed I'd gotten some codex entries (e.g. for the Zombie Cultist) that were nowhere to be found. Don't like how visible the Doomguy face is when you grab something. I liked 2016's weapons being placed in-world more than the spinning green pickups in Eternal. Those could have at least benefited from a soldier corpse, etc. to explain why they were lying around.

What surprised me is that the game runs at all on my ancient GTX 750, and not even that badly at that.

[Taurus Daggerknight]

Got a little further... most of my frustrations with the platforming got solved with just getting more used to the controls. And...holy shit, the levels are awesome. This is Doom 2 as it was meant to be for sure. 

 

And again, they've done a good job of hiding the arena structures. It feels way more organic now.  

[Enforcer]

Once you understand the flow (or dance even) of the game. .It's pretty fucking amazing. I'm on my second playthrough and I must say I didn't use all my tools properly the first time around. Demons that were kicking my ass are getting their asses kicked pretty hard now. Also I didn't use Blood Punch that much on my first playthrough. Huge mistake. Blood Punch mixed with the Super Shotgun is a pretty devastating combo.

[Foebane72]

I went ahead and bought the game today, guessing that I could run it on my GTX 960 2Gb, and I have gotten as far as the first Arachnotron in the shopping centre, where I ran out of ammo.

 

The combat is more intuitive than I thought, I always thought the chainsaw and knife-through-the-demon-head were weapons you had to change to use, but the chainsaw is just a key and the knife is actually just a glory kill animation. Also, the swinging on the yellow bars is simple, just fly towards it and it will propel you further.

 

The Arachnotrons were hard though, and the rough terrain doesn't make things easy. I only died the one time I mentioned, but I came close. I'm playing on ITYTD, cos I'm a wuss. However, I didn't like the shopping centre with the cannons firing through the hallways at regular intervals. Just seems like an added annoyance to what is already a busy battle scene.

 

I'm going to keep going back to it as the days go on. May as well, bugger all else to do under Boris' lockdown.

 

[phoo]

Just installed last night. From what I've played so far, It's been a blast! The combat and movement feel really good. Playing on nightmare, most of the encounters are really intense (especially some of the optional challenges). 

[NoXion]

2 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

I went ahead and bought the game today, guessing that I could run it on my GTX 960 2Gb, and I have gotten as far as the first Arachnotron in the shopping centre, where I ran out of ammo.

 

The combat is more intuitive than I thought, I always thought the chainsaw and knife-through-the-demon-head were weapons you had to change to use, but the chainsaw is just a key and the knife is actually just a glory kill animation. Also, the swinging on the yellow bars is simple, just fly towards it and it will propel you further.

 

The Arachnotrons were hard though, and the rough terrain doesn't make things easy. I only died the one time I mentioned, but I came close. I'm playing on ITYTD, cos I'm a wuss. However, I didn't like the shopping centre with the cannons firing through the hallways at regular intervals. Just seems like an added annoyance to what is already a busy battle scene.

 

I'm going to keep going back to it as the days go on. May as well, bugger all else to do under Boris' lockdown.

 

Interesting to hear that you were able to get it running on your setup! What settings are you using and how is it performing?

[Foebane72]

1 hour ago, NoXion said:

Interesting to hear that you were able to get it running on your setup! What settings are you using and how is it performing?

 

The Video settings are shown here, and whilst it doesn't look as good (low settings everywhere) it plays like a dream.

 

[NoXion]

21 minutes ago, Foebane72 said:

 

The Video settings are shown here, and whilst it doesn't look as good (low settings everywhere) it plays like a dream.

 

Man, I'm impressed with how good that still looks. Good to see that id software are still at the top of their game when it comes to graphics engines.

[Foebane72]

Oh dear, it looks like I've underestimated the amount of VRAM in my graphics card!

 

I just noticed, the Settings above show around 4Gb of VRAM, and all this time I thought I had just TWO.

 

I just checked on Nvidia's settings, System Information and Device Manager, and it turns out I actually have 4Gb of VRAM after all!

 

[ZALGO]

4 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

I went ahead and bought the game today, guessing that I could run it on my GTX 960 2Gb, and I have gotten as far as the first Arachnotron in the shopping centre, where I ran out of ammo.

 

The combat is more intuitive than I thought, I always thought the chainsaw and knife-through-the-demon-head were weapons you had to change to use, but the chainsaw is just a key and the knife is actually just a glory kill animation. Also, the swinging on the yellow bars is simple, just fly towards it and it will propel you further.

 

The Arachnotrons were hard though, and the rough terrain doesn't make things easy. I only died the one time I mentioned, but I came close. I'm playing on ITYTD, cos I'm a wuss. However, I didn't like the shopping centre with the cannons firing through the hallways at regular intervals. Just seems like an added annoyance to what is already a busy battle scene.

 

I'm going to keep going back to it as the days go on. May as well, bugger all else to do under Boris' lockdown.

 

 

Arachnotrons are absolute brutes in the early levels. However they get really weak in the mid-late game as you get tankier and have weapons that more consistently wipe them out. 

 

They are a major priority in UV or Nightmare though, as their turrets just demolish your health.

[Dubbag]

This game is one of the hardest I've ever played. Finally finished it, took me 4 days. Doom 2016 is a cake walk compared to this. Every fight leaves you completely mentally exhausted. It really feels like you're  fighting Hell.

 I did encounter one soft lock though. When the first Hellknight in the game appears, the door to the next section just never opened so I had to reload the game then it worked.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Dubbagdarrel

[Taurus Daggerknight]

2 hours ago, Foebane72 said:

 

The Video settings are shown here, and whilst it doesn't look as good (low settings everywhere) it plays like a dream.

 

 

Damn... that actually doesn't look so bad on those settings.  Glad to hear you're able to get it running on your end though.

 

Arachnotron's are a pain, yeah, though they become more manageable as you progress. Take out their plasma gun to make things easier, though bear in mind that they are NOT defenselessness even when you do.  

[Matthias]

I absolutely didn't like it first, but after I have learnt the platforming and all the rules for compat, it's actually really fun to play

[SYS]

Some of the levels / pacing  feel like they revolved around the Metroid Prime exploration and then tacked arenas onto them. Some of the design language feels like a classic '94 map, and not in a good way. 

 

Those moments of metallic rectangles, squares, 90 degree angles, symmetrical rooms, little height variation - it hurts :D

Stuff you would shit on people today for having in their Wads.

 

And they're such a jarring contrast to the detailed exploration areas. I know you can't always have areas that are  logical enough to the environment, brilliantly detailed, and have perfect flow. 

 

The room after grabbing super shotgun and hitting button after button to reveal monster closets is a great example of it. It does feel at home for something that would be in Doom 2, but not the design elements we look at fondly. 

 

I did have one of those primal adrenal moments of celebration after beating a Slayer arena. Realizing you just left a fluid hyper focus zen combat loop victorious is exhilarating. 

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

First level is a much better exposition to the game. I'm glad they give you the shotgun, cannon, and chainsaw right at the first minutes of the game. The first 5 levels were 2016's worst point.
Unfortunately levels 2 and 3 are garbage. Seems like Nu-id will never get a game's exposition fully done right, but at least they tried.
The game really starts on Super Gore Nest. But it's an improvement over 2016's shitty first level, and only starting to be fun at the first Hell level.

[Antroid]

10 hours ago, Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

The first 5 levels were 2016's worst point.

I dunno, levels 3 and 4 are the ones I look back to with the most fondness, simply because they weren't as linear as the rest of the game. They're better than any of the Eternal levels I've played so far (I've beaten the ARC complex last session). Even the super gore nest doesn't really give you any choice on how to progress that I've noticed, it just loops back on itself all the time.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

1 hour ago, Antroid said:

I dunno, levels 3 and 4 are the ones I look back to with the most fondness, simply because they weren't as linear as the rest of the game. They're better than any of the Eternal levels I've played so far (I've beaten the ARC complex last session). Even the super gore nest doesn't really give you any choice on how to progress that I've noticed, it just loops back on itself all the time.

The problem with early 2016 levels are the lack of ammo, lack of double jumping. Lack of beastiary.
They are slightly better on a NewGame+ with all weapons, but meh. Terrible exposition for a game.

[Foebane72]

I am liking the game a bit, although I think my reactions are too slow for some things, like the double-jump and dash combos, although I find it satisfying when I solve the puzzles.

 

One INFURIATING thing, however: I reconfigure my control keys to Ctrl, Alt, A and Z and I discovered that this annoying menu kept popping up right in the middle of intense combat. I thought it was the Steam overlay at first, but then I realised it was the Nvidia GeForce Experience menu which is activated by Alt-Z. I turned it off and I can finally fight without having it pop up and break my concentration!