Watch Out for Fireballs! 411: DOOM Eternal (Premium)
Added 2023-09-21 14:00:05 +0000 UTCWell, well, well. If it isn't Hell, Hell, Hell.
This week we talk about DOOM Eternal, the follow up to the pitch perfect modernization that was 2016's DOOM. Bethesda obviously couldn't just give us the same game again, so how did they complicate it for the sequel? Does it still make our hearts pump just as fast? The only way to find out is to listen in.
Comments
Guys, I’ve been trying to figure out why it sucks to play in comparison to 2016 and you’re totally right. There’s too much. The speed and flow just keeps halting due to the constant need to change weapons, change grenade, get health, get ammo. Also marauders feel like they should be more fun as it changes the combat from forwards to backwards but with everything else needed to manage this is too much. Thanks for your thoughts guys!
Danny Robertson
2024-09-10 14:54:48 +0000 UTCI always tell everyone 2016 is the better game. Eternal is over-complicated and breaks the gameplay rhythm in ways that aren't fun.
Andrew O.
2023-09-28 16:55:54 +0000 UTCI've never really been much of a Doom or FPS fan generally. 2016 was clearly good, but I didn't love it. I really love Eternal though. I'm absolutely not a difficulty guy, and have poor dexterity, but the hyperactivity and audio-visual heft of everything sings wonderfully for me. Regarding the Mick Gordon-Bethesda situation, I too just had the 'perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle' back-and-forth I think you two have landed on, but an extensive post by Mick Gordon was pretty damningly persuasive with its evidence of lack of payment for long stretches, poor communication, unrealistic deadlines, and changed goals. Now I'm not necessarily attributing that to malice, but it does seem to have been handled particularly badly by Id. Should Gordon have kept it private? Maybe! Considering how much work he'd done for Bethesda though, I can't imagine it was a decision he made lightly. I hope this doesn't come across as haranguing, and of course the whole truth is inaccessible, but I think that what's out there points to something not quite what's included in this episode. That's fine though: you kids have a good record of being on the right side.
Lewis Shaw
2023-09-26 07:43:00 +0000 UTCAlmost everything about this game is bad to mid - the lore, the cutscenes, the fortress of solitude, Doomguy's characterisation (I don't want to know he reads comics and collects guitars), the traversal puzzles, even the mechanical enemy design is kinda lacking compared to 2016's straight up hellbeasts. BUT! The gameplay feels so expertly designed to scratch my specific brain itches that it was far and away my game of the year when it came out. I know it isn't for everyone, but if you have the kind of brain that can lock into a flow state with the sort of split-second resource management the game demands, there really wasn't anything else out there like it at the time. The problem was it was designed for that particular kind of person and not really anyone else.
The Narcissist Cookbook
2023-09-24 22:37:43 +0000 UTCThank you!
Logan
2023-09-24 10:12:00 +0000 UTCI guess it didn't come up too much in the show because you can just turn them off, but the default tutorial text that stops you every few seconds to tap you on the shoulder and drop a paragraph of text on how to solve each enemy was maddening to me. I was relieved that it's optional and can be disabled, because a game that is so much about keeping the flow going is hurt a lot by that kind of interruption. I think they could have done a little better in terms of delivering that tutorial, because the text-heavy explanations are not especially fluid or elegant. But even so....still fun!
Emily K (EmK Ultra 64)
2023-09-24 10:11:40 +0000 UTCI think the lore is fun not because it's interesting (though I do like the goofy flowery language) but because it's just a collectible like any other but without the baggage of being mechanically important like one of the 30 currencies. It's not necessary to understand the thrust of the moment to moment gameplay and is there for people who want it. You can always just pick it up for collectibles sake and keep moving
Nicholas Jackson
2023-09-22 14:14:29 +0000 UTCAll the lore is dumb but it was dumb in a good way to me, definitely didn't pick up on it all but it was fun to just get little blurbs of over the top, very metal, lore. One of my favorite things on this game was surprisingly playing on the hardest difficulty since they put the dodge in. Gave it that good dark souls-esque loop of doing a small "boss" run, trying a fight multiple times then finally succeeding. However thus would not have been possible without the addition of the little defensive vocabulary they added. All in all, love the game
anxietyonline
2023-09-22 05:30:20 +0000 UTCsekiro appeal
faith rasmusen
2023-09-22 03:23:18 +0000 UTCThis game's combat feels like if the aggression of Butt-Head smashed into Beavis' manic hyperactivity.
Jonathan Scratch
2023-09-21 23:00:56 +0000 UTCFirst and foremost: Gary, I ain't coming at you, and grace has been extended due to the circumstances you mentioned. Yeah, Mick Gordon seems to have poor facial hair judgment and the whole soundtrack mess was definetly messy and dramatic, but it should be noted that a lot of that is because the director of Doom Eternal (whoes name escapes me right now) is a massive shitbag. He took the reigns fully when Eternal began and drove away the other creative leads from 2016. Real petty tyrant shit born from Doom 2016's success. And all that terrible humor...seems like he's the kind of guy who would think that's actually funny. That is probably why I can't look at Eternal and not see something, honestly, kinda loathsome, which isn't fair. This one asshole didn't make the WHOLE game, but the self-serious lore that (to me) feels like it thinks it's actually cool and good, the way combat is such a lock-and-key mess (they TRIPPLE down on that in the dlc to the point of it being hateful AND make it so some enemies literally cannot die unless they are killed by the mod they're weak against), and I can't help but see this kinda grimmy scuzz all over the final work. So, yeah, that all just kinda sucks and is a huge bummer. I'm glad, however, that you enjoyed it!
Jonathan Scratch
2023-09-21 22:58:10 +0000 UTCAgreed, not sure why doom needed to be a puzzle game. Not to mention them fucking over Mick Gordon.
Mortiis
2023-09-21 20:47:34 +0000 UTCSeconded! The pace and demand of the game also felt really bad on a controller. And the lore was so incredibly stupid it actively pissed me off.
Glukeose
2023-09-21 20:19:30 +0000 UTCI really found myself not liking this game. The dumb lore they added, the absurd enemy density. I dunno, real disappointment of a sequel. I actually enjoyed the platforming though.
Kyle C.
2023-09-21 14:20:50 +0000 UTC
