Doom Eternal is way better than Doom 2016

[Void]

TL;DR: Doom Eternal is way better than Doom 2016, because of it's difficulty, better level design, diverse arenas, forces you to think, and is repayable, whereas the only strengths for Doom 2016 is it's color pallet and atmosphere, but falls short with it's ridiculously easy difficulty that becomes trivial late game, and the very repetitive and boring level design.

A lot of people keep on saying that Doom 2016 is better than Eternal, however, I don't find it to be the case. The only thing that Doom 2016 does better than Eternal is atmosphere and the color pallet it uses to a great extent to look better than Doom Eternal. However, that's the only thing going for Doom 2016, as compared to Doom 2016, Eternal offers way more. The difficulty in Eternal is very challenging, and forces you to think, compared to how stupid easy Doom 2016 is on Nightmare where you just turn your brain off and shoot. I get it that some people prefer just to have mindless fun and just play, but the game can get dull quick, and that's why Doom Eternal's approach to combat with weakpoints and glory killing for health, flame belching for armor and chainsawing for ammo along with the improved enemy AI make Doom Eternal more fun in the long run. Also, Doom Eternal's levels are fun, and full of nice secrets and flow very nice. Doom 2016 had a problem where the middle half towards the end of the game just slugged and was boring (That was in part due to the level design and the difficulty (Around Argent Tower), whereas with Doom Eternal, although I did get a fatigue on my first play through, it was a lot later (Taras Nabad). Another thing I like is the platforming. They help give you a cooldown after a long fight with the demons. I know a lot of people despise it, but I like the platforming a lot, and add with the increased vertically with combat and the meathook, makes arenas feel more fun and varied. Also, the difficulty in Doom Eternal (Although I do admit cheap at times (Especially in the Ancient Gods Expansion) is more difficult, but fair, where every death is on you and you have to re-evaluate how you play the game to get better, compared to Doom 2016 where you can main the super shotgun the entire game, and with runes like rich get richer introduced before the first cyberdemon fight, it makes the rest of the game very trivial to complete since you have infinite ammo above 75 armor (when you upgrade it, which you can do within two minutes of getting the rune). That's why I feel like Doom Eternal is way better than Doom 2016, it takes the shortcomings of the first game, addresses it, beefs it up to 11, and makes something new.

[Jordan_Peterson]

DOOM Eternal feels more complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s better.

1. “Forces you to think” ≠ better gameplay
Eternal’s combat loop isn’t deeper—it’s busier. You're locked into a strict rotation of flame belch, chainsaw, glory kill, repeat—just to stay alive. It’s resource management cosplay that breaks the flow and freedom DOOM 2016 nailed. 2016 trusted the player to improvise. Eternal scripts your every move.

2. “Challenging” ≠ fun for everyone
DOOM 2016’s Nightmare difficulty was easy for veterans—but it let you play your way. Eternal punishes you if you don’t use the "correct" weapon on the "correct" enemy. That’s not challenge, that’s a puzzle game in demon skin.

3. Level design? 2016 had coherence. Eternal is a theme park.
2016’s levels felt like real places—UAC facilities, hellscapes with purpose. Eternal throws neon obstacle courses and floating platforms at you like a Doom-themed carnival. The immersion’s gone.

4. “Platforming is a cooldown” – Or a pace-breaker
Let’s be honest—nobody booted up DOOM to jump through laser hoops and time their dashes between monkey bars. The platforming kills momentum, and many found it jarring and unnecessary.

5. Atmosphere and tone
DOOM 2016 felt raw, aggressive, grounded in chaos. Eternal went full comic book—goofy cutscenes, overexplained lore, Saturday morning villain speeches. That shift turned a brutal experience into a cartoon.

In the end, DOOM 2016 let you play fast, free, and aggressive. Eternal boxed you into patterns, added clutter, and drowned you in systems. It’s impressive, sure. But 2016 is what nailed the DOOM reboot’s soul—and no upgrade in verticality or ammo loops changes that.

You want an FPS that respects your instincts? That’s DOOM 2016.
You want a choreographed demon puzzle? That’s Eternal. Your call.

[Void]

Well I understand that Doom Eternal is all over the place (I prefer Doom 2016 atmosphere over Eternal), and I don't get how Doom 2016 is a better game. Compared to Eternal Doom 2016 was very boring, as you could just main the same weapon the entire game and not get punished. Is it fun to be able to break the game and just use the super shotgun and siege mode on the gauss cannon with the rich get richer rune equipped? I do think that the story Eternal does is very ♥♥♥♥♥♥ compared to Doom 2016, as I generally don't care about the story in a game, but it's there for those who want it, and you get to skip the cut scenes to. I just don't see how Doom 2016 is the better game. The enemy roster is very limited and cut down (Not necessarily a bad thing as long as the enemies are engaging) , the game only throws imps, mancubi, hell knights and possessed soldiers at you most of the time, and the AI is easily exploited (Just keep running and you won't get hit). I understand Doom 2016 is better for some, and it's your opinion, I just wanted to express my thoughts since a lot of people complain about the same things about Doom Eternal that I prefer.

[Grampire]

To distill what you posted OP, Doom Eternal leverages it's mechanics to empower the player to make them powerful enough to engage with the difficulty using skill and mastery, where 2016 allows the player to ignore what makes these games great and completely sidestep those requirements.

It's a fine line - I truly belive both games are very similar and phenomenal. But Eternal is more successful at distinguishing itself from the sea of FPS games already out there.

If you value that then yes, it is the better game. If all you're looking for is more of the same then you can throw everything that makes 2016 unique in the trashcan each and every time you play and make it into a generic experience.

Some people want that generic experience, and I hope id continues to make the series less welcoming to them.
Because I really believe that future is a dead end for the franchise.

[fuggles2k]

Why must people keep starting the same thread over and over - Just let it die.

Some prefer Doom 2016, some prefer Eternal. Lord help us all, some will prefer TDA and this will all begin again. Maybe some prefer the Doom RPG? Who can say.

Doom 2016 is a linear scripted shooter and eternal is an arena shooter with loose narrative, basically unreal tournament (or quake 3) the Long version. 2016 is more rewarding as a single play through experience, Eternal is more for those who enjoy playing for the sake of playing.

I have just Today finished Eternal (I don't really remember 2016 beyond I recall enjoying it) and thought it was largely non-enjoyable with, to me:

Boring core loop - I see a roughly square room with monkey bars and my heart sinks at the busy work to come and of being ganked by enemies until I memorise where they appear and in what order. I will get through it, but not through improvement, just trial/error and perseverance. The player just runs in circles until they have won, but this was not very fun for me, I would rather press onwards. I'm not thrilled by the arbitrary nature of set fire to release armour, would make more sense to chainsaw armour off, but hey, video games.

Lazy design - Teleporting/respawning monsters is just lazy design, in whatever game you have it, so likely 2016 catches this, but being an arena shooter it's just more painful that you run laps until the enemy counter stops. The monsters are out of the closet, but it's not an ideal solution - why is a buff icon suddenly there? Make it a monster with a banner or something. Ditto the random demonic energy that stops you backtracking, I get what it's for, but it's lame that I now can't leave my arena because... reasons.

Padding - I can't imagine doing any of the optional things like slayer gates or trials, I just wanted to be done. A library worth of reading... who on earth will read that? New outfits? Sure...pass. Maybe it's a multiplayer flex thing.

Dubious Platforming - More than once I pressed E and punched a wall rather than grabbed. On one of the later levels I kept being flung wildly out of bounds by a semi-scripted teleport tunnel. Double jump should be a jetpack or something, conceptually and often it had a bowser's castle look to it, or Rise of the Triad if I was feeling more charitable. The dude climbs so fast it's comedic, like a really heavy rodent and I will echo the above that the places didn't feel real. Eternal is very much a video game doing video game things, rather than any attempt to be grounded.

Dubious controls - Who here hasn't blood punched an enemy as it just recovered from a glory kill you were aiming for? I know I've done it multiple times.

Dubious level design - more than once I got lost with unclear pathing on where to go next and the on-screen map marker goes awol. Yes, I can dig up the map (or can I?) but it's not exactly good flow.

Tab toggle - if you alt+tab out then the tab button is disabled until you press alt again - why on earth is this an option? I had to quit the game and restart.

Melee damage - or in this case, the lack of, as there is none. Weird.

Reskinned (cyber - really?) or duplicate enemies (an imp is a soldier is a gargoyle).

Boring core loop. Even at the end in which I had found my rhythm I was just zooming around in circles trying to find smaller boys to bully for ammo - so heroic. I never felt powerful, so much as relieved to be through each encounter. The flow state never happened, probably as I was just having such a bad time.

Pointless RPG Lite - Whilst I get the need to encourage exploring, the whole boosting stats thing gets in the way. Too little ammo at the start to the point of being a meme and it just gets in the way.

Chainsaw - The 3 pips, but 2 does nothing is beyond ridiculous. Either have a 2 pip system or just have it as a weapon that does damage, or merely only usable on little dudes. What counts as a little dude is rigid to the point of arbitrariness.

Muddy graphics - At times it's frankly a mess. When it's dark, the room is crowded, the enemies are too near or often when there is too much screen shake it's largely unreadable. I do wonder if modern graphics make this inevitable as ye olde sprites all pop and are distinctive but were also basic whereas now the monsters are very detailed but meh - looking at you covenant/skarj swords guy. Maybe the marauder, but I don't recall any standout new enemies? Xcom snake maybe, but then again, it's the xcom snake.

Enemies Dodging - just stop it monsters. Arachnatron has no business moving that fast but would have been better if it did more wall crawling. This only exists to make the homing rocket launcher a thing.

Constant removal of PoV - I don't want to see any more glory kills, they are tedious and remove my view of the combat arena.

Marauder - Too much health - I get what you want from me, but I only want to do it 2 times maximum, you're not hard but man you are boring.

Unclear UI - this may have been in 2016, but I want to know what guns I have available, or unavailable without having to cycle though them. Bored of the Low health/ammo whatever banner always being on screen.

Pointless animations - good for you chap, you can insert a battery. No, I don't need to see it a million times.

Lack of friendly fire - I wonder if this was cut or the game redesigned as now the imps, who are functionally soldiers, fight each other causing no damage which is weird and undoomy.

Music - kind of boring and in the way with generic guitar riffs on loop. More than anything I need to hear the enemies and not thrash guitar.

Dubious bosses - great, I am literally skipping a jump rope like a child and now I'm fighting the final boss from Serious Sam 1, only it can dodge things.... great. Shout out to the IoS for having really unclear damage textures too - woo.

I'm a one and done player, I have no interest in replaying any game and this one was just a chore to play through. Originally I had planned on playing TAG, but I'll pass. I can see how those who replay games and want to be the best at it would get more mileage, but that's not me.

Clearly a lot of people like the game, and I see the idea, which is forcing the player to use gun X in situation Y, but that does make artificial situations to force this. I don't think it's an objectively bad game - equally I don't enjoy football management sims - and it doesn't mean they are terrible games. I can definitely see why people are also unhappy with it though, but I've played it, it made me annoyed and I'm now moving on.

[space]

Publicado originalmente por fuggles2k:

Why must people keep starting the same thread over and over - Just let it die.

cause living rent free in people's heads since 2016

[fuggles2k]

It never gets anywhere, just two sides opposing each other with no compromise.

[Void]

To be fair I do see what makes Doom 2016 a better game, but Doom 2016 isn't the type of Doom game for me, I'll leave it at that. I understand that people rather Doom 2016 instead of the many confusing and odd changes Eternal does. One quick note is that Doom Eternal doesn't force you to play one specific way, as with Doom 2016 I always found myself using the super shotgun and gauss cannon because they were broken and made the game trivial, wheras Doom Eternal I cycle through about 5 different weapons (super shotgun, heavy cannon, ballista, rocket launcher and the combat shotgun) which helps keep the gameplay fresh. I'll just put it at that. In my opinion Doom Eternal is the better Doom game, you don't have to agree with me on that one.

[ggeymer]

2016 one is much harder wym. no pick up lifes, no dashes and no flamethrower. with pick up lifes i never actually seen death screen in 5 walkthroughs on nightmare in eternal. And i tried many times to beat 2016 on ultra nightmare and best i did was 4th level

[Ace]

Publicado originalmente por ggeymer:

2016 one is much harder wym. no pick up lifes, no dashes and no flamethrower. with pick up lifes i never actually seen death screen in 5 walkthroughs on nightmare in eternal. And i tried many times to beat 2016 on ultra nightmare and best i did was 4th level

But it does have 2 runes that give you unlimited ammo & makes the siphion grenade give you full health & armour with multiple uses, aswell as a 3 weapon meta & less aggressive AI

[Void]

Publicado originalmente por Ace:

Publicado originalmente por ggeymer:

2016 one is much harder wym. no pick up lifes, no dashes and no flamethrower. with pick up lifes i never actually seen death screen in 5 walkthroughs on nightmare in eternal. And i tried many times to beat 2016 on ultra nightmare and best i did was 4th level

But it does have 2 runes that give you unlimited ammo & makes the siphion grenade give you full health & armour with multiple uses, aswell as a 3 weapon meta & less aggressive AI

Don't forget siege mode on the gauss cannon, and the fact that you can upgrade the unlimited ammo rune within two minutes of acquiring it

[fuggles2k]

Publicado originalmente por Void:

To be fair I do see what makes Doom 2016 a better game, but Doom 2016 isn't the type of Doom game for me, I'll leave it at that. I understand that people rather Doom 2016 instead of the many confusing and odd changes Eternal does. One quick note is that Doom Eternal doesn't force you to play one specific way, as with Doom 2016 I always found myself using the super shotgun and gauss cannon because they were broken and made the game trivial, wheras Doom Eternal I cycle through about 5 different weapons (super shotgun, heavy cannon, ballista, rocket launcher and the combat shotgun) which helps keep the gameplay fresh. I'll just put it at that. In my opinion Doom Eternal is the better Doom game, you don't have to agree with me on that one.

That's basically it. We're all yelling that apples are better than oranges.

[Mortimer Reed]

Publicado originalmente por fuggles2k:

Enemies Dodging - just stop it monsters. Arachnatron has no business moving that fast but would have been better if it did more wall crawling. This only exists to make the homing rocket launcher a thing.

Seriously, you don't want enemies dodging your attacks?

[NecromancerPig]

"No, I want the enemies in Doom games to stand still and allow me to kill them" - 2016 weirdos

[fuggles2k]

Not the way it's implemented, no. As with a lot of DE, it's half-cooked. No way spiders and all floating things a) Move that fast b) should dodge that well. Just makes rockets a waste of time, monsters don't dodge things like micro missiles or plasma - it would make sense if it was based on range rather than just lol, last second super sideways time.

[Sar]

Plasma is fast and micro-missiles home in on targets