Should I get Doom Eternal (and hot takes on Doom 2016)?

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm torn on whether I should get Doom Eternal. I wasn't hugely impressed by Doom 2016, but I had fun with it. Some of the things that were added to Eternal make me very interested in the game, but there's some stuff that are huge red flags for me because they seem to have doubled down on certain things that I did not enjoy from the previous game.

Here are some gripes that I have with Doom 2016 (in no particular order):

1 - I felt that it took way too long to get double jump, and too long to get your full arsenal of weapons. I enjoyed the game significantly more after the first hell section, and getting the railgun, super shotgun, and gatling gun. It took way too long to get all your weapons, and I felt like some of the early game weapons were totally useless, like the pistol and the energy rifle (forget what it was called, the one that shares ammo with the railgun). I also felt like of the weapon upgrades there was always one that was significantly better than the other. I spent almost the entire game using the following weapons:

Shotgun with explosive upgrade
Machine Gun with micro missile upgrade
Rocket Launcher with remote detonation
Railgun with siege mode

Everything else seemed only situationally useful.

2 - There isn't enough variety in the environments. By the time you finish the first hell section it feels like you've seen everything worth seeing. I got excited during the section where you go to Vega's core because it was a snow environment only to be disappointed when I got dropped into more metal rooms that look identical to the rest of the facility.

3 - It takes too long to start getting boss fights. There's only 3 boss fights in the entire game, and they're all in the last 3 hours. I wish they had more boss fights and spread them out more consistently. It would have improved pacing and given you more variety in the early and middle of the game. 90% of the game is go into room, get locked in room, kill all the demons, rinse and repeat. The game is weirdly back-loaded.

4 - The platforming sections were terrible. The level where you have to climb the argent tower is the worst level in the game.

5 - I wish the game had some actual story in the story. The Doom 2016 lore is pretty fun, and I enjoyed the stuff I read in the codex, but I really hate it when games rely on that to get the plot across (looking at you Bioware). I like more organic "show don't tell" story-telling, which was severely lacking in Doom 2016.

The thing that makes me interested in Doom Eternal is the additional mobility options. The dash, air-dash and grappling hook. I am a huge sucker for good mobility options. It's one of the reasons I really like Shadow Warrior, because of the dashes.

Unfortunately this seems to come with some pretty big trade-offs (for me) in that there's a lot of platforming, huge amounts of ammo scarcity, and enemies that require specific weapon combos, forcing you to use weapons you may not like.

Considering the things I thought were major problems with Doom 2016, would I enjoy Eternal?

And if your name is B-Cell, I have no interest in your opinion.

 

[Hawki]

Addressing your points:

1: I'd say it's pretty much the same. There's more weapons overall, though you lose the pistol if you care.

2: There's a lot more variety - ruined cityscapes, overgrown forest ruins, Hell, the Fortress of Doom, Heaven, etc. The game's a big improvement on this front.

3: I can't recall how many boss fights there are exactly, but they're mostly a lot of fun.

4: There's a lot of platforming in the game - much, MUCH more than the original. I was personally fine with it, but a lot of people disliked the amount of platforming.

5: The story and lore is much better. There's more of both, and it's much better delivered.

6: ...but what if I AM B-Cell, and hacked the platypus's account?

You'll never know...

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

6: ...but what if I AM B-Cell, and hacked the platypus's account?

You'll never know...

You didn't start your post with "my friend" and didn't write in broken English, so I have a decent amount of confidence B-Cell didn't hack your account.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

So, I'm not very fond of Eternal to be honest, and didn't play much before I got burnt out on it, so take this for what it is.

1. The weapon list felt almost identical to the weapons on offer in 2016, with a few new additions. The game play also felt rather messy to me this time around with all the new changes they made, but I can accept that might be to my short playtime (I stopped towards the end of the UAC arctic base I believe).

2. Gonna echo Hawki's comments here.

3. Again, didn't get too far so won't comment.

4. Yeah there's more platforming, but all the new movement featues kinda make it easier.

5. And this is probably what turned me off the most. I like the story of 2016 and how it was delivered, but I can agree that the story could of had more of a presence. However, Eternal has gone the complete opposite approach of way too much new stuff with no explanation. There is basically no connecting plot threads between this game and the last, flipping from "ominous capture at the hands of Hayden" straight to "Doomslayer killing 1 of the 3 priests keeping the demonic invasion of Earth going. Oh yeah, Earth got invaded, and you got free, somehow. Oh, and that AI you rescued is now your assistant. Also, you have a Gothic space fortress now, built by space/other dimensional knights.". I don't even know if how you got the space castle is never even explained. And that's just the starting point of the story!

Ugh, I don't know, I should probably take another look at it but I don't know.

 

[Worgen]

I quite liked Doom Eternal. Just be warned that is it a pretty different game from Doom 2016.

1. the weapons feel pretty similar in general but each also feels different, aside from the minigun. You are much more mobile than in 2016, the grappling hook on the super shotgun is really fun. Generally each weapon upgrade has its place in this one, like for the shotgun the explosive shot is great at knocking the weapons off certain demons and taking out cacademons but the auto shotty is pretty high dps for such a low level weapon.

2. there are a pretty good amount of environments in eternal, much more then in 2016

3. there is a big boss fight at the end but there are a few other boss fights sprinkled through the campaign too, like some bosses you fight end up becoming more regular enemies later on and they are tough enough to always be an event, especially when you have to deal with other mobs.

4. there is still a lot of platforming but it feels more liner than in 2016 and nothing as annoying as that tower.

5. there is a lot more story in eternal then any other doom game. Personally I find it a bit of a mess and not that well thought out.

You are very mobile in eternal like more so than shadow warrior. Ammo is a thing, but its not really scarce so much as you need to manage your weapons and make copious use of your chainsaw, it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to get used to using it a lot and not saving it like I did in 2016. But, your chainsaw ammo recharges on its own so really you just have to get used to using it a lot to top off, you can also combo it with your flame belch for ammo and armor. I don't remember any enemies that really needed specific weapons in either game and I beat both on nightmare, I mean higher tier weapons are naturally better at tougher enemies but you might want to elaborate on what you mean by that. I would say go for it next time its on sale, but I think I well got my monies worth from a full priced buy.