[HulkNukem]

Doom Eternal's environments are beautiful so far. Also really unique locations, it isn't space base corridor after corridor.

That said, the detailed environments sometimes make it hard to tell where you are allowed to explore or not. I've run into a number of invisible walls and ceilings stopping me from what looked like an explorable area.

Luckily, if you fall into a pit, you teleport back up at the cost of some health (not sure if the higher difficulties outright kill you) The lives are also a great addition IMO. Had a few too many cheap deaths in Doom '16 so its nice if it happens here I don't have to sit through a loading screen and restart an encounter.

The combat encounters have also been varied as well, even with the limited bestiary (referring to early game). Hopefully they keep up the variety.

Oh, and changing your slayer skin changes the model in singleplayer as well, in case you want to play with any unlocked skins.

[OpenMaw]

Trooper Dan, on 19 March 2020 - 01:58 AM, said:

They wanted to make a shooter/platformer and they did. I respect that they made the game they wanted to instead of doing the safe thing which would have been making a new level pack for Doom 2016 with a few new enemies. I agree that they shouldn't have made Doomguy thicker, especially if he's doing prince of Persia moves now, but that's a pretty minor criticism. For every person who is skeptical of the platforming, I've heard from half a dozen who say it's great. I'm in no hurry to buy it though, I've got other things to do.

Honestly for the third game i'd love to see a version of the Slayer that's more patch-worked. Like halfway between the 2016 Slayer and the Playstation artwork, where huge chunks of the Praetor suit are held together in an almost medieval or low-tech way. Almost how they altered Samus' suit in Metroid Fusion.

MusicallyInspired, on 19 March 2020 - 04:29 AM, said:

This I disagree with, but I respect your opinion.

I can certainly understand that we aren't agreeing, but I mean how can you possibly look at Doom 2016 and then compare it to the larger tapestry of Doom and not see the horror is all but gone, now? Just comparing Doom 64 to Doom Eternal is night and day in terms of tone. There is nothing to fear in the new Doom's outside of the gameplay loop of getting your ass creamed after a big fight. That's not the same kind of fear i'm talking about though, that's always been there. I'm talking about the kinda shit that makes your hair stand up, a tingle. Wandering a dark maze, or coming up on a boss encounter, or reading an unsettling PDA log. That shit is literally gone from the tone that is present now.


Character wise you go from playing someone akin to Corporal Hicks, to a Ash from Army of Darkness, to Hercules. You're like The Guy from Disturbed's "The Vengeful One" now.

NightFright, on 19 March 2020 - 06:19 AM, said:

Maybe Doom 3 had more horror,

I don't get how anyone can see this as a maybe. Doom 3 is entirely about scaring the piss out of the player constantly. Constantly. Everything is literally spook house horror, jumping out and going AOOOARURGHH!!!

In Doom 3 there was a literal battle for your soul going on. (Everytime your screen turns read or you suffer a vision that's a demon trying to take your soul and possess you.) That shit is so far gone now.

Fauch, on 19 March 2020 - 05:15 PM, said:

Something funny is it looks like you need to double jump + dash to cross almost every single gap. Like isn't it the point where simply having a longer jump would make more sense?

On the surface that seems like a good point, but the truth is I can see why they would gimp it this way. Having a really high or long jump naturally would cause issues with the feel of the levels. You'd be able to reach heights where it would feel like you should be able to get to places that you can't. That causes player frustration. They've built this system very carefully.

HulkNukem, on 19 March 2020 - 08:26 PM, said:

After playing just the first level of this new version of Doom 64, I can already tell differences between Doom 64 EX and the new one isn't as good.

I played and beat EX for the umpteenth time just a couple months ago and the small issues I've found I never came across and I would've noticed. I also wish the new episode was unlocked from the start :/

I played the first couple of levels of Doom 64 (Going to beat it before I get into Eternal.)

I'm curious though, what issues did you spot? It's been a year or so since I last gave Doom 64 Ex a proper playthrough.

[NightFright]

Regarding Doom 64:
I am pretty sure that after an an official iwad is available now, they will add support for it in GZDoom so you can skip the annoying cutscene parts. However, I doubt it will happen in the near future. Guess if you just played TCs like D64 Retribution, there is little reason to try this.

Oh, and if you want to play Eternal without Denuvo, it's quite easy right now... It's incredible that Denuvo adds 300 MB to the game executable.

[Malgon]

Just played a session of DE on Nightmare difficulty and it definitely is pretty intense, with a few fights causing several deaths. The game overall just seems faster, with more stuff going on, and on the higher difficulty you really have to use all the tools at your disposal to survive and not get wrecked in record time. It definitely requires more concentration, that's for sure.

[NightFright]

I always do my first playthrough on the lowest difficulty, so I hope I'll not get wiped away too fast. Once I know the levels, I feel OK with ramping up the difficulty - if the game is actually good enough to make me want to play it a second time, that is.

[HulkNukem]

Commando Nukem, on 20 March 2020 - 02:02 AM, said:

I played the first couple of levels of Doom 64 (Going to beat it before I get into Eternal.)

I'm curious though, what issues did you spot? It's been a year or so since I last gave Doom 64 Ex a proper playthrough.

They are very minor issues but are definitely noticeable. Axl touched on some already.
Unsurprisingly all the health items no longer have red crosses
On doors, there is a seam right in the middle where the texture mirrors
With a controller, 64EX had a row of numbers that would appear when you switched weapons, allowing you to select what you want super fast. That seems to have been taken out.
This one might be exclusive to me, but also with a controller, holding the button to run and also press a button is harder. Theres some sort of input issue going on because switches work fine when the run button isn't held. This issue doesn't exist in 64EX

Like I said, minor issues, but issues 64EX never had.

I did the first Slayer Gate or whatever they're called in Eternal and it throws a ton of demons at you at once. It was well over 10+ at the same time and it was more than any fight in Doom '16 that I can remember. Has me scared for whats in store in the later challenges.
A pretty annoying bug right now is if you play in HDR, the map is extremely dark.

[NightFright]

Don't scare me, man. I like to play shooters, but I am not a crack who can dodge every bullet and only do headshots. It still needs to feel casual/fun and not like a chore.

[Tea Monster]

I haven't played it since I had an N64. I was struck by the atmospheric music and sprite design. Its much more creepy generally than regular Doom. It's almost more like the spiritual prequel to Doom 3 in that it follows a more horror-based design brief. The soundtrack adds so much to the visuals.

I was also surprised by the BUILD-like lighting sector effects.

[HulkNukem]

NightFright, on 20 March 2020 - 10:02 AM, said:

Don't scare me, man. I like to play shooters, but I am not a crack who can dodge every bullet and only do headshots. It still needs to feel casual/fun and not like a chore.

Haha, I can say with certainty Eternal is harder than Doom '16 was, however the lives pay a big part in helping alleviate it. Just explore and you'll find plenty of extra lives around.

There's also so many new control and concepts it throws at you so quick it can be overwhelming. Grenades, flamethrower, dash, super punch, enemy weak points, the new way the chainsaw works, all the new upgrades and mods, the very limited ammo count (even more limited than '16 was at the beginning) its a lot to take in all at once but once the game clicks, it clicks and becomes second nature.

[NightFright]

Well, the rule from Doom 2016 still applies: Keep moving or you are dead. The more mobs there are, the faster you gotta be. I jumped around and tried to gain some high ground. Obi Wan taught me well in Revenge of the Sith.

[Malgon]

Just found a way to abuse the life system and collect a stack of them:

Spoiler

Using the mission select, load up Exultia, and immediately below the start there is a life pickup, collect it, quit out back to campaign mode, then rinse and repeat.

On another note, anyone think the Arachnotrons are way overpowered? I swear, they are like this game's version of the shield guys, and are more frustrating to fight than fun. The visual design of them is great though.

[Tea Monster]

Arachnotrons keep kicking my ass. I never have enough fuel to chainsaw the little buggers either. Everything is generally harder to kill than in 2016.

I keep stopping after a fight and F12ing the scenery. They have taken so many design cues from older Id games. Parts of the first adventure look like Thy Flesh Consumed. I keep thinking of what a proper sequel to Quake 1 would look like in modern Idtech. Now I know!

[PikaCommando]

I don't have an issue with the Arachnotrons since you can sticky bomb/snipe off their plasma cannon, but yeah I don't like how the game has more Heavy enemies than Fodder enemies with little in between the gap. I've beaten the game and I can safely say that this game is really a whole different beast compared to Doom 2016. It's not really a straight upgrade, just its own thing. I can't classify it as an old-school FPS because not everything that's a fast-paced and action-packed FPS is an old-school FPS, which is something a lot of people nowadays seem to believe.

What I really wonder is if the game can still hold up after the initial release hype cooled down, like what happened with Phantom Menace.

[Tea Monster]

Neither of the new Dooms are 'retro' apart from the name. They honour their roots, but they redefine the whole ethos of gameplay for a FPS.
Retro shooters are about conserving health, ammo and armour to survive. New Doom is all about choosing which creature to kill and how to give you what you need to survive. New Doom makes rip and tear vital to surviving, while in the old school shooters, it would quickly get you killed.

[NightFright]

They updated the exes via Steam already. Guess that took care of the DRM-free exe they accidentally provided by themselves.

[OpenMaw]

Tea Monster, on 21 March 2020 - 03:26 AM, said:

Arachnotrons keep kicking my ass. I never have enough fuel to chainsaw the little buggers either. Everything is generally harder to kill than in 2016.

I keep stopping after a fight and F12ing the scenery. They have taken so many design cues from older Id games. Parts of the first adventure look like Thy Flesh Consumed. I keep thinking of what a proper sequel to Quake 1 would look like in modern Idtech. Now I know!

I refuse to use the heavy bolt out of principle, so my go-to with the Arachnotrons is to just spam their asses with sticky bombs. The shotgun has become like a grenade launcher for me.

They drop the Arachnotrons wayyyy too early in my opinion. I was simply not ready when the first one literally popped around the corner of the scenery and jacked up my face with a stream of close-range plasma.

Though, I think the Hellknight has done me in more than the Arachnotron or the Revenant. There's a battle in Exultia where you have one Arachnotron and one Revenant waiting in the combat area for you along with some mooks. I took to cheesing the Arachnotron from above before they agro, and then would take on the Revenant. The Hellknight that would then proceed to spawn in would either through me off balance and get me ganked by the mooks, or i'd get jacked up by the Knight himself. That ground slam move is a bitch.


Yes, the scenery is just jaw-dropping. The Hell on Earth stuff was just... Muah. Beautiful. The sheer artistry on display is incredible. I loved the corpses in the box-cages and walls. Recalling the FACE texture from OG Doom. I also noticed the tech-lite poles got a nice 3D Recreation in one section of Hell on Earth, taking on the roll of parking garage lighting. That's the way to reinterpret things right there.

I'm gonna be real... I think they overdid the platforming. Vertical design in the maps is fine. Some jumping is fine, but... Too much, I think. Especially for what it is aiming to be in a lot of these sections (To break up the combat.) I'd have preferred a few of the jumping sections be halved. The one right after meeting up with The Betrayer had me getting a little frustrated.

[HulkNukem]

One thing I don't like is when those tooltips popup and they flat out spoil an enemy you are about to face. They should've made it so a new enemy would appear, you fought it, and then after killing it the popup would appear to tell you what their weak spot is.

Also do not, under any circumstance, let a Cacodemon get too close to you. Their melee is fucked

[gemeaux333]

The worst is definitly the Marauder, followed by the Doom Hunter !

Seriously, ennemies are way too fast, and you get too easily edged !

[Tea Monster]

HulkNukem, on 21 March 2020 - 09:04 AM, said:

One thing I don't like is when those tooltips popup and they flat out spoil an enemy you are about to face. They should've made it so a new enemy would appear, you fought it, and then after killing it the popup would appear to tell you what their weak spot is.

Also do not, under any circumstance, let a Cacodemon get too close to you. Their melee is fucked

I actually got chomped in mid-air trying to get some distance from a baron. I wound up being gobbled alive in mid-bounce.

scarred for fucking life.

[NightFright]

But there is a way to beat the game on easy... right?

[gemeaux333]

Yes, its beatable in easy, but look like its 1 to 2 levels above the DOOM 2016 difficulty settings, easy mode included... some combats are endlessly frustrating !

Now you gatherr extra-lifes, so you don't have to load everytime you dies, you are just getting back full life in a matter of seconds

[Tea Monster]

The combat is a lot of fun, it can be frustrating, but there is always a strategy, if you think about what your weapons can do and what their weaknesses are. I got the sniper on the heavy cannon and could easily pick off Revenants rocket launchers and Arachnotron's turrets from a distance, then close in with the shotgun's stickybombs.

The one thing that is annoying me beyond comprehension is the &%$& platforming segments. I tried one combo of jumps, dashes and dash power-ups to bridge a canyon. After about half an hour of going over the same area dozens of times, I shut the game down for the night. It just wasn't fun any more.

[Danukem]

Tea Monster, on 21 March 2020 - 04:15 PM, said:

The one thing that is annoying me beyond comprehension is the &%$& platforming segments. I tried one combo of jumps, dashes and dash power-ups to bridge a canyon. After about half an hour of going over the same area dozens of times, I shut the game down for the night. It just wasn't fun any more.

Haven't played it yet, but from your description it sounds like the game doesn't give you useful feedback on what you are doing wrong. That's always a danger with tricky platforming mechanics, because unlike enemies who have visible projectiles coming at you, weak spots etc, the open air just lets you fall to your death.

[Tea Monster]

Doom 2016 was all about bloody progression. Timing your jumps and when you use powerups brings the whole thing to a crashing halt.

[William Gee]

I just started playing this, for maybe an hour, so far it is alot of fun, some battles are challenging, and Im still learning the mechanics, but Im happy so far.

[gemeaux333]

There is one single thing in the game that is utterly useless/pointless/absurd/unnecessary and gamebreaking : the "Mastery tokens", if you have acquired all the improvements for a weapon module and don't want to do the mastery stuffs, you just use one of these tokens and you master the weapon module right away...

Spoiler

I don't see how anyone could think its welcome... I think it could hold in a few words : "How lazy can you get..."

[NightFright]

So, if I read Steam comments correctly, Eternal requires you to do a lot more calculation during combat, i.e. when to use which weapon against which enemies. Also, disarming enemies doesn't seem to be an optional gimmick, it's elemental for survival. In general, gameplay doesn't have very much in common with Doom 2016.

[MusicallyInspired]

I know everyone's talking about DE right now, but recently I was watching TNG with the family and came upon the episode Thine Own Self where Data is in an accident and forgets who he is on a planet with a primitive pre-industrial society. He was carrying a case of radioactive material that makes everyone in the town he stays at sick. Here's what the prop they used for the case looks like.

[HulkNukem]

[Radar]

Honestly I love platforming.