"Why Don't I Play This More Often?"

It's a question I've often asked, and normally when playing a game, it doesn't take long to figure out why it'd make me ask that. There's games like Hover, with an excellent core-gameplay loop that's intoxicating, and utterly wasted through tedious structure and repetitive missions.

There's games like BallisticNG which are absolutely supreme from top to bottom in presentation, gameplay, and style... but is echoing something I didn't grow up with, and therefore, is something I more have a passing respect for rather than nostalgia.

And then there's games like DOOM Eternal.

IDTech 7 is a marvel of graphical fidelity, activity, and optimization. The art-team outdid themselves in creature design, environments, props, and variety. Gameplay is superb with such an intense sense of speed, fluidity, and control, fighting all manner of demons that force you out of your comfort zone. Test your ability in a way few games require you to do so quickly, and with such reinforcement of brutality, in its art, in its audio, and most famously, its music.

I've listened to the OST probably a couple hundred times, and I'll continue to do so.

So, with DOOM Eternal, I really ask, why don't I play this game more often?

I mean, I've got about 20 hours on it, that's not a brief amount of time. Okay, yes, it is compared to you psychos who've logged 3000 hours into an online game you hate for some unknown reason, but for me, I'm satisfied when a game's given me just 3-5 hours of enjoyment.

I went through all of DOOM Eternal, massively enjoyed it. Then played the first DLC when that came out, and massively enjoyed that.

But I confirmed something when recording footage for my latest video, where I needed to boot up DOOM Eternal for just a brief moment. This five minute session confirmed what I suspected when playing that first DLC...

I'm rusty as fuck.

I was terrible.

I kept using the Double Barrell when I should've been using the machine-gun or regular shotgun. The chainsaw would go unused through multiple fights. I forgot how vital the R key is. Glory Kills would be used for breathers rather than strategy.

It was like watching your Dad trying to dance. I had no coordination, nothing that clicked. All of my ability from that playthrough a couple months ago did not remain with me.

And I realized, that's why I don't boot up DOOM Eternal to play a couple missions of, steadily adding up to 60 hours like I did with the 2016 Reboot.

I can't.

Now, that's not to say I won't carry on playing Eternal. I very much intend to wrap up that DLC, and to finally do my Nightmare runs, it's been too long. However, I find it's not a game whose gameplay habits stick with you. When I play a Racing Game, there's things to learn, there always is, but most of your skill from one game will translate to the other.

I find its the same thing with most first person shooters. There were even situations like playing Halo for a couple weeks straight made going to Siege feel easy, because now, I only had to be on target for one frame with one bullet, compared to half a magazine just to drain shields.

But DOOM Eternal has so much micromanaging that (I guess not playing RTS or MOBA's) just doesn't stick with me. I've heard people complain about these mechanics, the blood punch, chainsaw, flame belcher, etc, that they clutter up the gameplay too much.

I don't have that complaint, in-fact, I love that DOOM Eternal has the confidence to push you out of gameplay habits, it's in some ways a lost art, especially during the 7th generation when games were obsessed with giving you "choice" in taking things quietly or loudly, with no varying consequences for either playstyle.

So I like DOOM Eternal's micromanaging, when I've greased the wheels. By the end of the first DLC, I was playing even better than I was during the first playthrough, but going back to it for a couple minutes of footage, I've fallen right back to square one.

Going up that latter will be fun when I've set the time and energy for it, but that I have to do that, is why DOOM Eternal is a game I don't play nearly as often as you'd think.