Over these past few years, Bethesda has managed to make "rip and tear" synonymous with Doom, but even that slogan's misleading at this point. The original (uh, original reboot, not original original) Doom embraced this mantra more faithfully- while it did suffer from some seriously misplaced modernization, most of it was pretty ignorable and the action, propped up by the smart new glory kill mechanic, more than made up for it. It also had our hero in a Gordon Freeman-esque scenario, in the midst of a world-altering catastrophe with his only goal survival and escape by any means necessary. Now we're galaxy trotting, forgoing the natural sense of progression that comes with just moving from place to place in favor of teleporting in from a hub world with the help of an omniscient AI as we retrieve MacGuffin after MacGuffin. There's an expanded codex filled with fresh word salad if you want to learn the significance of any of what you're doing, there's also a flamethrower now, there's an ice bomb, there's monkey bars, there's a huge glowing sword, there's about two dozen new upgrade systems. The big question is, do any of these additions make it a better action game than its predecessor? My answer is no.
I've come to realize that what I liked most about Doom 2016's encounters is that they felt like endurance tests. They were long and drawn out but truly felt like they forced you to use all of your resources to come out successfully. Eternal's feel shorter by comparison, and a lot of the time I found myself finishing one only having used a few of my weapons. 2016 had me constantly creating new strategies- I remember always saving my rockets for Cacodemons and plasma for Revenants- but I didn't really find myself choosing my weapon based on which demon I was fighting in Eternal. It also feels too easy to make a clean getaway. You'll never catch me calling additional movement options a flaw, but the demons don't really have any way to deal with the fact that you have two dashes and consistent ways to get tons of airtime. What's probably my biggest gripe is that the newly added abilities never ended up flowing. Throughout my playthrough the only time I'd ever use the Flame Belch or the Blood Punch was when I mentally reminded myself to. It never felt natural or instinctual, and on top of this I could never remember which of my abilities were on a cooldown or which recharged with glory kills. At first I just chalked this up to me being pretty lousy at shooters but the copious amount of tips the game throws at you began to make me think otherwise. It feels like you're reminded to check the automap, to use a specific weapon on a specific enemy, or to spend your upgrade tokens at such a constant rate that at some point you have to wonder if this increased complexity is really worth it. I'd still rather replay Doom 1993 than any of its sequels or reboots, and its simplicity is largely to thank for that. But then again, are you truly ripping and tearing if you're not logged into your Bethesda.net account?
I've come to realize that what I liked most about Doom 2016's encounters is that they felt like endurance tests. They were long and drawn out but truly felt like they forced you to use all of your resources to come out successfully. Eternal's feel shorter by comparison, and a lot of the time I found myself finishing one only having used a few of my weapons. 2016 had me constantly creating new strategies- I remember always saving my rockets for Cacodemons and plasma for Revenants- but I didn't really find myself choosing my weapon based on which demon I was fighting in Eternal. It also feels too easy to make a clean getaway. You'll never catch me calling additional movement options a flaw, but the demons don't really have any way to deal with the fact that you have two dashes and consistent ways to get tons of airtime. What's probably my biggest gripe is that the newly added abilities never ended up flowing. Throughout my playthrough the only time I'd ever use the Flame Belch or the Blood Punch was when I mentally reminded myself to. It never felt natural or instinctual, and on top of this I could never remember which of my abilities were on a cooldown or which recharged with glory kills. At first I just chalked this up to me being pretty lousy at shooters but the copious amount of tips the game throws at you began to make me think otherwise. It feels like you're reminded to check the automap, to use a specific weapon on a specific enemy, or to spend your upgrade tokens at such a constant rate that at some point you have to wonder if this increased complexity is really worth it. I'd still rather replay Doom 1993 than any of its sequels or reboots, and its simplicity is largely to thank for that. But then again, are you truly ripping and tearing if you're not logged into your Bethesda.net account?