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.

[Sar]

So what’s the difference between “bright, vibrant colors” and “cringe colors”?

[Jordan_Peterson]

Originalmente postado por Sar:

So what’s the difference between “bright, vibrant colors” and “cringe colors”?

The year!

[Sar]

Why? What happened around Y2K that made bright colors cringe and unacceptable in video games?

[Jordan_Peterson]

Originalmente postado por Sar:

Why? What happened around Y2K that made bright colors cringe and unacceptable in video games?

That was more of a rethorical joke, cause if you know you know and otherwise it is best you ask this your parents cause this is neither on topic nor relevant to Doom Eternal and the discussion.

[Sar]

So you don’t know either? And how is it not relevant when Eternal itself is guilty of cringe colors? Come on man, I want to get to the bottom of it.

[AlphaZeroX96]

Originalmente postado por Sar:

Why? What happened around Y2K that made bright colors cringe and unacceptable in video games?

Yeah I too wonder why people hate vibrant colors in video games. Years ago the original Modern Warfare trilogy got flak for being grey and brown, but now with Doom Eternal people hate it for being colorful? What happened? Do people want games to be grey and brown again?

[Kyller92 AKA Cinos]

Originalmente postado por Jordan Peterson:

That's so funny!

Tell me you didn’t experience the 90s gaming scene without telling me—you think Doom stood out just for being 'flashy' like it was something special back then? Seriously?

That's actually ironic since DE has the same failed misconception by implementing cringe colors to it as if that captures OG Doom in any shape or form.

It's like attempting to recreate a wolf by drawing a unicorn. The essence and rugged charm of the original Doom are lost in the flashy reinterpretation, much like mistaking the fierce wildness of a wolf for the fantastical whimsy of a unicorn.
Explains why DE is such a backstep.

Glad to see you still don't know anything about what you're talking about. Please don't change

[Ace]

Considering the OG DOOM's used 5 times as much colour than eternal, i'd say that's a non issue.

[Jordan_Peterson]

Originalmente postado por Kyller92 AKA Cinos:

Originalmente postado por Jordan Peterson:

That's so funny!

Tell me you didn’t experience the 90s gaming scene without telling me—you think Doom stood out just for being 'flashy' like it was something special back then? Seriously?

That's actually ironic since DE has the same failed misconception by implementing cringe colors to it as if that captures OG Doom in any shape or form.

It's like attempting to recreate a wolf by drawing a unicorn. The essence and rugged charm of the original Doom are lost in the flashy reinterpretation, much like mistaking the fierce wildness of a wolf for the fantastical whimsy of a unicorn.
Explains why DE is such a backstep.

Glad to see you still don't know anything about what you're talking about. Please don't change :squirtyay:

And once again, your response is rich in personal critique and poor in substance—thanks for handing me another win! It’s always a clear victory when the conversation turns personal because the arguments have run out.

[Sar]

Originalmente postado por Jordan Peterson:

Originalmente postado por Kyller92 AKA Cinos:

Glad to see you still don't know anything about what you're talking about. Please don't change :squirtyay:

And once again, your response is rich in personal critique and poor in substance—thanks for handing me another win! It’s always a clear victory when the conversation turns personal because the arguments have run out.

Still waiting for you to teach me, an ignorant zoomer, when the colors are cringe and when they are not.

[Grampire]

Appears our resident rage-baiter is eating well today.

[BubonicDuck]

Originalmente postado por Grampire:

Appears our resident rage-baiter is eating well today.

The PC term is lolcow.

[Sir Oinksalot]

Originalmente postado por Grampire:

Appears our resident rage-baiter is eating well today.

That's exciting.

[Sar]

Oh ♥♥♥♥, I got a joker. Sweet, I’ll use those points to award posts I actually like.

[Sir Oinksalot]

Originalmente postado por Sar:

Oh ♥♥♥♥, I got a joker. Sweet, I’ll use those points to award posts I actually like.

Congrats :)