Recent reviews by Ham

So I just beat the campaign for the first time (Will definitely do it again like I did with 2016) and as a person who owns all of the doom games and has played them for over a decade I would like to give my thoughts on it and also address a lot of the points I see in many of the negative reviews. So let's start with a simple pros and cons list, any major spoilers will be blacked out. Before people call me a pleb and say I play on ITYTD I didn't, I played on Ultra-Violence

Pros
* Fantastic combat, everything is really smooth and is much faster paced than Doom 2016
* Movement, just everything about it
* Upgraded visuals
* The chainsaw isn't useless anymore (Played through Doom 2016 3 times, never used the chainsaw once.)
* It seems a lot more skill based especially with the addition of the dash mechanic. I get hit in this game a lot less than in 2016 because it's less likely you'll be unable to move out of the way of a fireball in time.
* Upped enemy count from Doom 2016 (At least on ultra-violence)
* Better puzzles, solving some of them made me feel big brain.
* Cutscenes can be skipped instead of having to wait for Hayden to shut the hell up.
* Imps no longer eat ~2-3 shells unless you literally shove the shotgun barrel up their tight [REDACTED]
* That final boss fight, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that was intense, way better than the spider mastermind. (Won't spoil it, just know it's fun)
* Slayer gates, these are fun, wish they were harder though as I didn't die during them at all.
* UI, bear with me here, I know the neon is awful but in the in-depth section on UI I will explain why this ended up in pros.

Cons
* That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ purple goo ♥♥♥♥, why was this added, at least these sections are short and rare.
* SOME platforming sections
* Underwater sections, this is just a personal preference and nothing to do with the game's execution. I just hate underwater sections in any game, luckily these are also short and few and far between.
* Low ammo counts which is complained about a lot and while i'd like it a bit higher I only ran completely out of ammo once and had ammo for all guns about ~99% of the time.

In depth section: Don't click black boxes if you don't wanna be spoiled.

I'm going to start off with the combat. Overall the combat is greatly improved from 2016 and I had a lot more fun killing demons in this game. I will leave a disclaimer though, THIS GAME IS HARD, like really really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard, however it isn't unfair and I got through it with only 2 deaths, both of which were absolutely my fault.

I will now address the ammo count issue I see in many negative reviews. This can be mostly mitigated with good aim and on point use of the chainsaw (Which now regenerates fuel automatically to one pip and does so quite quickly), kill one enemy with it and you've pretty much got all your ammo back for all guns. The ammo upgrades while seemingly useless for the shotgun are actually quite good for other guns and give you a fairly large surplus of ammo towards the mid-early game. As a matter of fact I found myself in arenas with tons of unused ammo pickups because I was already full on everything. I also didn't have an issue with the reduced count during combat because enemies are generally less spongy in this game with imps and soldiers now taking 1 blast from the shotgun instead of 2 for the imp and like 3-5 for the soldier. With this reduction in bullet-spongyness also comes a welcome increase in enemy counts, basically dialing the amount from Doom 2016 up to 10.

Another point from the negative reviews i'd like to address is being shoehorned into a certain playstyle. I saw people complaining the precision bolt is imperative, however after getting it I never used it, and only really used the heavy cannon when I got the micro-missiles. They say it is necessary for the revenant's cannons or arachnotrons gun, however I found the sticky-bombs of the shotgun to be far more effective for this, and I was a lot more accurate with them, this isn't even considering the fact that it sometimes only take 3 stickies to kill a revenant outright. When it comes to the mancubus I also used the stickies for their cannons but found that rockets, the heavy machine-guns base and precision fire mode, and the ballista also do a fantastic job of this, or if your don't care about weaknesses just blast them a few times with the Super Shotgun and you're good. Every combat encounter has many approaches that can be taken and there is no "correct" way to go about things. I for one never used flame belch or the grenades. However there are likely people who use these all the time and the cacos also get 1-shot from the frag grenades out of the shoulder cannon.

Melee does zero damage. Kind of annoying but was replaced by dash. Dash into weak enemies once or twice to instantly stagger them, no ammo required.

Now on to movement, the movement in this game is incredibly fluid, seemingly more so than the last game. The dash mechanic is undoubtedly the best part of the movement improvements and allows for so many new ways to move around the map and dodge enemies. It also regenerates incredibly quick, to the point where if it would regenerate while you were in the air you could literally fly. The "monkey bars" while seemingly gimmicky are actually very handy and fun to use to your advantage and I found myself keeping a height advantage over the demons a lot more in this game. It also allows for creative ways to explore the map and discover secrets.

Cutscenes, unlike 2016 where you had to sit through Samuel Hayden monologuing about Argent Energy or some ♥♥♥♥, I don't even remember I wasn't paying attention, in this game these sections are skipable. I don't care what you say, sitting in Hayden's office for 5 minutes listening to him talk about crap, without being able to leave, breaks up the flow and IS A CUTSCENE, just because you still are in first person and have control of the character doesn't make it not a cutscene, that part and the others like it all feel and play like cutscenes in 2016. At least in this game they are skipable if you don't want to hear Samuel Hayden jack off about how he watches Rick and Morty or some ♥♥♥♥ like that.

Tutorials, luckily can be disabled.

UI, Ok like I said bear with me, the default neon green UI is kinda doo-doo i'll be honest. However it is highly customizable in the options menu and this pretty much negates it being a con and lets it get into the pros territory. Giving more choice to the player is generally a good thing in my eyes.

Platforming, oh boy here we go. Platforming in this game is a mixed bag. While I prefer it to the "walk in a straight line for 30 seconds, arena, repeat" formula of Doom 2016 it can sometimes be quite frustrating. I got particularly frustrated with it in Urdak when I was trying to get to the first tower where you align the teleporter and they had the wall climbing drone ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ so far away that you could barely reach them and I ended up falling a couple of times, luckily though falling only takes away 20 health or armor. These sections could get tedious sometimes, however there were some sections it was used well, generally involving pathways to secrets.

TLDR; Obviously the game isn't perfect. However, I personally feel it is worth the money and a step in the right direction from 2016. Combat is fun and engaging, and almost everything that broke the flow of the game in 2016 can be skipped or disabled in this game. On the other hand I feel base ammo count could be higher, base movement speed could be a bit higher, and they could reduce the amount of platforming between fights a little bit or make it less tedious.

Hopefully this cleared up any questions, just know it takes more than loading in, shooting one imp, then refunding the game to actually know how it plays and make a good review.

Overall Rating: 8.5 - 9/10
Improved on 2016 but still can do more to improve.

Yea... I guess it's ok. I've barely played it though.

10/10 would get nuked by Gandhi again.

Shrek 5 when?

I guess it's alright, I've barely played it though

Where's Left 4 Dead 3?