Pretty good but genuinely what even is this story. Extremely confusing and bizarre. The spirits and turret enemies are both pretty annoying but the level design is pretty solid.
Spirits get annoying but otherwise good expansion. Feel like I ought to be glad I didn't play it at launch though lol, the horror stories are a lot scarier from then, I seem to recall.
The DLC is awesome. But it’s so fucking hard.
This really wasn't that hard, guys. I played through this right after my first playthrough of the base game, both on Ultra-Violence and it's really not that much harder than the base game. Got through the first two levels without a single death, and only died to the final boss on the last level because I got too careless. So many of the negative Steam reviews are so obviously just people having a skill issue that it's hilarious, they're a good read.
A definite recommend for any fan of Doom Eternal who wants a bit of extra challenge.
A definite recommend for any fan of Doom Eternal who wants a bit of extra challenge.
I got my ass kicked over and over, but I still make it through. Even afer beating the main campaign, it lets you know immediately that this a step up for the difficulty, it doesn't make it less entertaining though.
Long, difficult levels, and I'm not saying I don't like it, but the final boss sucks ass.
Part 1 is fucking dreadful and Part 2 is the best part of the entire Doom Eternal game. What a bipolar experience.
Part 1 Review (1.5 Stars) -
The Ancient Gods part one story is great. Confusing and a bit meandering, it's still as engaging as anything in Doom Eternal. But my god the gameplay is actually awful. While Doom (2016) encouraged the player to rip and tear through enemies in whatever way they found most fun, Doom Eternal applies many more constraints. It asks the player to use certain weapons at certain times for any effect, not just for the best outcomes. But still, Doom Eternal allows the player enough agency to make their way through the levels and through the content in ways the players finds enjoyable.
The Ancient Gods Part 1 however just fucking hates the player. It's what I call anti-player design. The kinda thing you see in games like Dark Souls or I Wanna Be the Boshy. Gameplay design that's meant to frustrate and aggravate the player, not just challenge. The Ancient Gods Part 1 introduces a fleet of new enemies that can only be killed with explicit bullet types, Spirits, Turrets and Blood Makyrs. While this is fine, the base game does this with Doom Hunters and CyberMancubuses etc, it's the way the DLC uses them in battle that's beyond frustrating.
The way these get distributed in battle forces you to hold onto several ammo types for long periods of time, not allowing you to actually use your full complement of weapons. I understand why you would think to do this initially as a way to manufacture some new difficulty, but what it becomes is just plain unfun. You can't use all of your weapons in a fight because you're always hyper aware of the fact that you can't afford to run out of a certain ammo type lest you render an enemy (like a Spirit) completely unkillable. When the game throws at you several Shield Soldiers or Doom Hunters you become afraid of actually using your plasma rifle for fear that a Spirit will show up (which can only be killed by the plasma rifle's microwave beam). And lo-and-behold these fears are well founded because the game does this explicitly. Making you wail away at a Doom Hunter with a shotgun and rocket launcher because they're the only ammo types you can afford to expend. Even though they're inefficient.
This is all even more frustrating since Doom Eternal gimps weapons like the BFG/Unmakyr, Chainsaw and melee attacks. Meaning you have even less tools to dispatch enemies with. A game like Doom is all about the fast paced weapon switching but instead TAG Part 1 made me feel like I had less tools than ever to deal with enemies. And at worst it made me feel like encounters were supposed to be patently unfair. I actually hit a wall several times where I damn near just quit playing. But I purchased the Year One Pass and was determined not to let my money go to waste so I persevered.
The Blood Makyrs and Turrets are especially unfun enemies in Doom. While most enemies still rely and encourage a fast paced rate of play bopping around arenas through portals and rocket jumps, the Blood Makyrs and Turrets are sickeningly slow. They're only targetable by single headshots from the balista or heavy cannon. And they're generally shielded. Meaning you have to just wait for them to become targetable to kill them. Unlike the Makyr Drones which can be killed any time. The Blood Makyrs are the worst because they force you to stare at them underscope for 30-45 seconds dodging their slow attacks until their shield goes down and they become hittable. If the player was given any agency to rid this shield first maybe the combat would be more engaging. Instead I'm forced to just watch them and strafe for what feels like an eternity in an otherwise rapid fire game like Doom.
The platforming in TAG 1 is actually busted. Just flat doesn't work sometimes. Puzzle designs can be poor and they restrict player movement more than ever. Demanding the player take explicitly designed routes even when more efficient ones can be taken. Ledge grab detection seems awful? I don't know why it would be any different than the base game, yet here we are. What was already a weakpoint in the base game is sinful in TAG 1. They feel arduous and they take inordinate amounts of time when all I really wanna be doing is blowing shit up. I lost wild amounts of health to falling into the abyss during some shittily marked jumping puzzle.
Also why the fuck is there a dive suit? In Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal there are several instances where Doom Guy goes swimming to get around places but he somehow has seemingly forgot how to swim in TAG 1. Even worse there's at least one swimming occasion in TAG 1 that doesn't require the Dive suit anyway for some reason?
The story is still pretty good, taking you to new locations. It's still fun. But FUCK the final boss fight of TAG 1. I suppose you could respond to this entire review with 'git gud.' Maybe that's fair. But the difficulty spike I experienced in TAG 1 and the TAG 1 final fight versus Seraphim/Samur was outrageous. I beat Doom (2016) on Nightmare with some adversity but none that every actually frustrated me (except Cyberdemon). I beat Doom Eternal on Hurt Me, Plenty with only occasional trouble. I got all the way through TAG 1 with a lot of frustration on Hurt Me, Plenty but I had to turn down the difficulty to the lowest difficulty level on the final boss fight. Even then I died many, many times. I found out what Sentinel Armor was (something I never had to deal with before because I never died this much/played on this difficulty).
The final boss fight using so many Spirit enemies forcing me to use plasma ammo while making me fight those floating electro eyes and the tough enemies like Pain Elementals just meant I was frequently out of ammo. And standing still long enough to actually kill a Spirit was wildly difficult given the waves of enemies attacking you during that process. The final boss teleporting about the room also made plasma rifles the most useful weapon to fight him with but you couldn't actually use it because you needed it for other enemy types to do any damage. Some of these pains would be eliminated by Doom (2016)'s mechanics where I could've used the chainsaw and melee attacks and BFG more effectively. Or if TAG 1 hadn't gotten rid of the Crucible Sword.
TAG 1 was awful. Felt almost like a different game. Story was great, gameplay was shite and the level design/enemy design was awful. Also was disappointed that twice in three missions you were sent to the carrier ship with that intern but there wasn't a single thing to interact with on it. I didn't really understand the point. Why not just send directly to the next mission? All it did was add loading screens.
Part 1 Review (1.5 Stars) -
The Ancient Gods part one story is great. Confusing and a bit meandering, it's still as engaging as anything in Doom Eternal. But my god the gameplay is actually awful. While Doom (2016) encouraged the player to rip and tear through enemies in whatever way they found most fun, Doom Eternal applies many more constraints. It asks the player to use certain weapons at certain times for any effect, not just for the best outcomes. But still, Doom Eternal allows the player enough agency to make their way through the levels and through the content in ways the players finds enjoyable.
The Ancient Gods Part 1 however just fucking hates the player. It's what I call anti-player design. The kinda thing you see in games like Dark Souls or I Wanna Be the Boshy. Gameplay design that's meant to frustrate and aggravate the player, not just challenge. The Ancient Gods Part 1 introduces a fleet of new enemies that can only be killed with explicit bullet types, Spirits, Turrets and Blood Makyrs. While this is fine, the base game does this with Doom Hunters and CyberMancubuses etc, it's the way the DLC uses them in battle that's beyond frustrating.
The way these get distributed in battle forces you to hold onto several ammo types for long periods of time, not allowing you to actually use your full complement of weapons. I understand why you would think to do this initially as a way to manufacture some new difficulty, but what it becomes is just plain unfun. You can't use all of your weapons in a fight because you're always hyper aware of the fact that you can't afford to run out of a certain ammo type lest you render an enemy (like a Spirit) completely unkillable. When the game throws at you several Shield Soldiers or Doom Hunters you become afraid of actually using your plasma rifle for fear that a Spirit will show up (which can only be killed by the plasma rifle's microwave beam). And lo-and-behold these fears are well founded because the game does this explicitly. Making you wail away at a Doom Hunter with a shotgun and rocket launcher because they're the only ammo types you can afford to expend. Even though they're inefficient.
This is all even more frustrating since Doom Eternal gimps weapons like the BFG/Unmakyr, Chainsaw and melee attacks. Meaning you have even less tools to dispatch enemies with. A game like Doom is all about the fast paced weapon switching but instead TAG Part 1 made me feel like I had less tools than ever to deal with enemies. And at worst it made me feel like encounters were supposed to be patently unfair. I actually hit a wall several times where I damn near just quit playing. But I purchased the Year One Pass and was determined not to let my money go to waste so I persevered.
The Blood Makyrs and Turrets are especially unfun enemies in Doom. While most enemies still rely and encourage a fast paced rate of play bopping around arenas through portals and rocket jumps, the Blood Makyrs and Turrets are sickeningly slow. They're only targetable by single headshots from the balista or heavy cannon. And they're generally shielded. Meaning you have to just wait for them to become targetable to kill them. Unlike the Makyr Drones which can be killed any time. The Blood Makyrs are the worst because they force you to stare at them underscope for 30-45 seconds dodging their slow attacks until their shield goes down and they become hittable. If the player was given any agency to rid this shield first maybe the combat would be more engaging. Instead I'm forced to just watch them and strafe for what feels like an eternity in an otherwise rapid fire game like Doom.
The platforming in TAG 1 is actually busted. Just flat doesn't work sometimes. Puzzle designs can be poor and they restrict player movement more than ever. Demanding the player take explicitly designed routes even when more efficient ones can be taken. Ledge grab detection seems awful? I don't know why it would be any different than the base game, yet here we are. What was already a weakpoint in the base game is sinful in TAG 1. They feel arduous and they take inordinate amounts of time when all I really wanna be doing is blowing shit up. I lost wild amounts of health to falling into the abyss during some shittily marked jumping puzzle.
Also why the fuck is there a dive suit? In Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal there are several instances where Doom Guy goes swimming to get around places but he somehow has seemingly forgot how to swim in TAG 1. Even worse there's at least one swimming occasion in TAG 1 that doesn't require the Dive suit anyway for some reason?
The story is still pretty good, taking you to new locations. It's still fun. But FUCK the final boss fight of TAG 1. I suppose you could respond to this entire review with 'git gud.' Maybe that's fair. But the difficulty spike I experienced in TAG 1 and the TAG 1 final fight versus Seraphim/Samur was outrageous. I beat Doom (2016) on Nightmare with some adversity but none that every actually frustrated me (except Cyberdemon). I beat Doom Eternal on Hurt Me, Plenty with only occasional trouble. I got all the way through TAG 1 with a lot of frustration on Hurt Me, Plenty but I had to turn down the difficulty to the lowest difficulty level on the final boss fight. Even then I died many, many times. I found out what Sentinel Armor was (something I never had to deal with before because I never died this much/played on this difficulty).
The final boss fight using so many Spirit enemies forcing me to use plasma ammo while making me fight those floating electro eyes and the tough enemies like Pain Elementals just meant I was frequently out of ammo. And standing still long enough to actually kill a Spirit was wildly difficult given the waves of enemies attacking you during that process. The final boss teleporting about the room also made plasma rifles the most useful weapon to fight him with but you couldn't actually use it because you needed it for other enemy types to do any damage. Some of these pains would be eliminated by Doom (2016)'s mechanics where I could've used the chainsaw and melee attacks and BFG more effectively. Or if TAG 1 hadn't gotten rid of the Crucible Sword.
TAG 1 was awful. Felt almost like a different game. Story was great, gameplay was shite and the level design/enemy design was awful. Also was disappointed that twice in three missions you were sent to the carrier ship with that intern but there wasn't a single thing to interact with on it. I didn't really understand the point. Why not just send directly to the next mission? All it did was add loading screens.