Doom Eternal - Good Game, Bad Doom?

[DM Science]

I'm an old school gamer. Was around to play original Doom (and Wolfenstein before that). I generally try to be positive and try to separate my personal feelings about games, movies, music, etc from the work in and of itself.

I tried Doom Eternal for the second time recently. Doom 2016 was the most fun I had in a long time on a computer game with high intensity. I like most types of games. I started on Atari and Pong, so can appreciate the bounty of modern gaming. I usually enjoy depth and story, but occasionally, I want a game that I can jump and tear stuff up at 100 mph without thinking too much. It's like music. Sometimes I want Pink Floyd, with its complex arrangements and layered lyrics giving me pause to reflect on the human condition. Other times, I want Ministry- can't understand most of the lyrics, but it makes me feel like moving fast and breaking stuff.

Now imagine you were feeling aggressive. Had a long week and you don't want to think about anything, just let off some steam. You pick up a newly released Ministry album, only to find they have branched off from industrial speed metal to a slower, more clean sound. The vocals are clearer and they are taking distortion out of the guitar.
It may be brilliant and beautiful- a work of musical art. But you're still angry. Why? You bought a Ministry album, you expect Ministry. If they wanted to experiment under a different name, you would be fine. But don't say it's Ministry, if it's mellow.

This is the problem with Doom Eternal, and why I have multiple completions of Doom 2016 and have given up on Doom Eternal twice now when I realized I wasn't having fun.

Doom Eternal is a polished, well-thought-out, creative, and visually gorgeous video game. So why the complaint? It doesn't feel like DOOM. It's complicated. The problem is that I think developers sometimes confuse complexity with creativity. You see, the enemies require more planning and precision to kill. You need to use the right weapons and hit the right weak points. The weapon mods and runes and points and whatever else they throw in, requires planning and customization, secrets abound that you are encouraged to look for, and finally there is the challenging platforming aspect- always fun in a FPS. (They only managed to get climbing ladders in FPS a less monitor-smashing exercise a few years ago). While they emphasize "keep moving" to keep the action looking frenetic, the reality is that my mind is constantly engaged in trying to keep track if I need health, so I need to hit E and glory kill, or do I need ammo, so I hit c to chainsaw, or armor so I got to hit r for my flamer, then kill the enemy, but which weapon do I have, which mod is set on it, what enemies are here, what are their weaknesses, does it match my weapon mod, and where do I need to go on this map, can't stop to look what's over the edge because KEEP MOVING, and so on... My mind is definitely engaged- Which is what is WRONG!

As I described above, when I sit down and decide to play Doom, it is because I am in a certain "mood"- a DOOMMOOD if you will. The DOOMMOOD hits when I'm stressed, been doing lots of problem solving, bummed out, etc... I play Doom because I want to kill stuff fast. So when I sat down to play Doom Eternal, that's what I wanted to do. I was just on stage 2, Exultia when I realized I had not really fought that much. But I had spent hours trying to execute dashes and jumps to hard to reach secrets and dying in that stupid ********* lava. It wasn't scratching my Doom itch. And because I was already in a DOOMMOOD, this changed to anger and made me begin to resent and hate the game.

As I reflect now, I think if I had bought a game called The Sentinels, that was described as a challenging platformer, with a story spanning divine and infernal realms, a mysterious hub where you can refine your tools and techniques, and enemies that you dominate by precision application of force combined with knowledge of their weakness, and then played this, I would give it an A+. I would have been in a Portal type mood, or maybe an Ori type mood. But it was called Doom. So I was disappointed. And while I may try to reframe the game in my brain as "The Sentinels" and play it again in another mood, my conclusion will stand that this is a really good Game, but a really disappointing DOOM.

[Wiesshund]

Messaggio originale di min3r95:

I prefer to it as boomstick.:happykitty:

Umm
Wrong game.

That's the guy with the goofy hair

[Erwin_Von_Braun]

Messaggio originale di AimBob:

Messaggio originale di Jordan Peterson:

Monkey bar game.

Donkey Kong with Guns'n'Gore.

So VERY much this^
Couldn't have put it better myself.

[Erwin_Von_Braun]

Messaggio originale di Balder:

The only thing I don't like are the rotating burning metal chains. Those look dumb to me, otherwise the platforming isn't too bad.

The bars, diving platforms, climbing etc. are necessary to give some variation and breathing room between the fighting. However, those things could probably be integrated better into the maps, making the platforming a more natural part of the topography and architecture. Not a big criticism, though...

You're right - for sure the platforming elements of ET are extremely poorly implemented - almost as if they were a design afterthought.
For me this is what ruins this game.

[Ace]

Messaggio originale di Erwin_Von_Braun:

Messaggio originale di Balder:

The only thing I don't like are the rotating burning metal chains. Those look dumb to me, otherwise the platforming isn't too bad.

The bars, diving platforms, climbing etc. are necessary to give some variation and breathing room between the fighting. However, those things could probably be integrated better into the maps, making the platforming a more natural part of the topography and architecture. Not a big criticism, though...

You're right - for sure the platforming elements of ET are extremely poorly implemented - almost as if they were a design afterthought.
For me this is what ruins this game.

They take seconds to do & are very easy so hardly poorly implemented, perhaps you just lack the skill to do them.

[min3r95]

Messaggio originale di Erwin_Von_Braun:

You're right - for sure the platforming elements of ET are extremely poorly implemented - almost as if they were a design afterthought.
For me this is what ruins this game.

The platformings feel weird and out of place.
But I don't think it completely ruined this game, since it does have good(redeeming?) qualities. IMO.

[Jordan_Peterson]

so we can all agree that while some people don't mind them or make the best out of it, there is no normal gamer out there that goes:"Oh yeah monkey bars, I love them, they feel like home!"
Design-wise it's also a fail, it's been done in other games and kinda feels like they stole the idea from a different genre and game. Same goes with the dash. It's really nothing new, it was just not done in this particular way in a Doom game yet.
It feels like what Blizzard does now with World of Warcraft, they are adding a Battle Royal mode to it.
Nothing new, nothing special, but it sounds like a nice idea.

Stil, one can say its a good game but bad Doom! nothing wrong with that.

[Sar]

So what if I like monkey bars? Does that mean I’m abnormal? In what way?

[min3r95]

Messaggio originale di Jordan Peterson:

so we can all agree that while some people don't mind them or make the best out of it, there is no normal gamer out there that goes:"Oh yeah monkey bars, I love them, they feel like home!"
Design-wise it's also a fail, it's been done in other games and kinda feels like they stole the idea from a different genre and game. Same goes with the dash. It's really nothing new, it was just not done in this particular way in a Doom game yet.
It feels like what Blizzard does now with World of Warcraft, they are adding a Battle Royal mode to it.
Nothing new, nothing special, but it sounds like a nice idea.

Stil, one can say its a good game but bad Doom! nothing wrong with that.

Nothing wrong with liking one thing over the other, or saying this is better than the other for that matter.
Just don't crap on(or insulting) people because of their harmless opinions, it's rude and unnecessary.

[Sir Oinksalot]

Messaggio originale di Jordan Peterson:

so we can all agree that while some people don't mind them or make the best out of it, there is no normal gamer out there that goes:"Oh yeah monkey bars, I love them, they feel like home!"
Design-wise it's also a fail, it's been done in other games and kinda feels like they stole the idea from a different genre and game. Same goes with the dash. It's really nothing new, it was just not done in this particular way in a Doom game yet.
It feels like what Blizzard does now with World of Warcraft, they are adding a Battle Royal mode to it.
Nothing new, nothing special, but it sounds like a nice idea.

Stil, one can say its a good game but bad Doom! nothing wrong with that.

Oh yeah monkey bars, I love them, they feel like home

[Erwin_Von_Braun]

Messaggio originale di min3r95:

Messaggio originale di Erwin_Von_Braun:

You're right - for sure the platforming elements of ET are extremely poorly implemented - almost as if they were a design afterthought.
For me this is what ruins this game.

The platformings feel weird and out of place.
But I don't think it completely ruined this game, since it does have good(redeeming?) qualities. IMO.:rdora:

I agree - ET does have some redeeming features - the environments, for example, are beautiful.
Unfortunately, I think it's largely the reason that the platforming elements feel so very weird & out of place.

[Sar]

It really breaks my immersion that I have to jump from an asteroid to an asteroid after blowing up Mars. I would much prefer to walk down a nice scenic path, or perhaps ride along in a cart.

[Erwin_Von_Braun]

Messaggio originale di Sar:

It really breaks my immersion that I have to jump from an asteroid to an asteroid after blowing up Mars. I would much prefer to walk down a nice scenic path, or perhaps ride along in a cart.

That being the case, I would humbly suggest trying another game.

[Ace]

Messaggio originale di Erwin_Von_Braun:

Messaggio originale di Sar:

It really breaks my immersion that I have to jump from an asteroid to an asteroid after blowing up Mars. I would much prefer to walk down a nice scenic path, or perhaps ride along in a cart.

That being the case, I would humbly suggest trying another game.

Nah, we prefer fun.

[Jordan_Peterson]

Messaggio originale di Ace:

Messaggio originale di Erwin_Von_Braun:

That being the case, I would humbly suggest trying another game.

Nah, we prefer fun.

If tedious repetition spells fun for you, then be blessed! Doom Eternal forces you to ride on fixed rails—enjoy it eternally!

[Coke (music)]

Messaggio originale di Jordan Peterson:

Messaggio originale di Ace:

Nah, we prefer fun.

If tedious repetition spells fun for you, then be blessed! Doom Eternal forces you to ride on fixed rails—enjoy it eternally!

I was looking for a pill icon to award since he was addicted to em, but didn't find one. :(