DooM: The Dark Ages

[Animalmother]

Played it for an hour last night, it's alright. The guns really feel like an afterthought, the shield and melee are the main focus for combat. A single hit from an enemy can uttery wreak your health so you constantly have to rely on shield bashing and stun kills to replenish. Real shame the glory kills seem to be gone.

With the bulky armour with blue glowing trim on your allied soldiers, some of the new demon models, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a Gears of War fps.

[Raid]

Pity. All they really needed to do was just do another version of the 2016 reboot with new enemy types and varied levels. The enormous swathe of mods and custom levels that were made semi official releases over the years just shows that all you really need is fresh content because the formula is rock solid.

I read John Romero's autobiography a while ago and it was pretty clear that the design ethos behind Doom was simply "what is cool as fuck" and they didn't take it seriously at all as they built on that. It does feel a little bit like the guys in the current team don't really get it.

I'm not sure I agree with the top statement. They maybe didn't need to go as far as Dark Ages has in changing the formula up, but I'm not sure I could have gone another game with the same sort of combat rhythm - I just think Eternal's was more fun than Dark Ages'.

I still need to give DA more of a chance, I've no idea how many tools I'm missing, but it's the overall pace of the game I didn't enjoy last night. The inability to dodge, the lack of proper glory kills, and the really lethargic way the Slayer brings his gun back out after doing a shield move just make this feel quite dull to play compared to the previous two games. I got no sense last night of ever getting into the same hyper-aware flow-state that Eternal used to put me in, as it didn't feel like DA would flow in the same way. It doesn't get the blood pumping.

I think it's more a testament to just how well designed 2016 and Eternal were than a comment on Dark Ages really that this feels lacking, at least in the early stages. I'll give it another try tonight, it's entirely possible I just haven't come across an enemy or ability that makes it feel right.

[Snowy]

I have tried it out as it's on Gamepass. Honestly if you strip the name Doom off it, it's a helping of shooter. Here, have some shooter. It's fine, I like the shield, the bash/charge thing. I'm with Raid in that the guns I have so far are an irrelevance, something to do when not hurling the shield, or prepping an effect to hurl the shield at.

I haven't really enjoyed a pure single-player FPS in a long time now, so I doubt this one will get much mileage with me. I might play it more than the preceding two though, because it feels like it requires less surgical precision and flow - my reflexes and flow-state aren't what they once were with FPS games so the previous titles just made me miss the skillz I used to own.

EDIT: Played more this morning, past the silly mech/titan piloting section and the next level and... I am bored. The chunky metal soundtrack and the swarms of demons is trying to convince me that I am on a power fantasy having a great time but my brain is totally disengaged and I am just killing time more than baddies. Not enough payback to warrant my attention.

[Animalmother]

Played more this morning, past the silly mech/titan piloting section and the next level and... I am bored. The chunky metal soundtrack and the swarms of demons is trying to convince me that I am on a power fantasy having a great time but my brain is totally disengaged and I am just killing time more than baddies. Not enough payback to warrant my attention.

This was exactly me yesterday. Got past the mech section (which really began to drag out) to the next bit and I lost interest. The only highlight was picking up the skull shard gun and ripping through a room of weak enemies.

ID tried something different and it just didn't really work out. Hopefully they'll do a Quake revival next or something completely original.