Originally Posted by Wallcrawler (Post 18065293)

Missed me with this one.

I'll preface by saying I'm only 10 chapters in out of 22, but God daaamn has this been a boring ****ing slog.

If Doom Eternal was a Nascar Race, then The Dark Ages is a Sunday drive with your great grandmother who can't see over the steering wheel driving.

Gone is the 100mph white knuckle move or die gameplay that encompassed double jumps and air dashes, and in its place is this concrete shoed slog that really really wants you to hide behind a shield, and play ping pong with green projectiles.

The first 7 chapters of this game, I had to force myself to keep playing, figuring its going to kick into gear, and it simply hasn't.

The gruesome glory executions have been removed for all but the strongest of enemies as well, instead trading the Savage display of tearing demons limb from limb with a lame ass single attack that kills them instead. Like, wtf man.

Chainsaw, a classic staple of Doom, gone. Instead, you'll use melee attacks that hilariously need to recharge before you can use them, or find ammo for the. because now they replenish ammo.

No joke. If you've punched 3 times, well partner, you just can't punch anyone else until this cool down period is over, or you play a Lil ping pong with the green stuff. Imagine having to pick up ammo just to melee attack. Lmao. Horrible.

The game gets slowed down in sections with an uninteresting story (thankfully skippable), mech sections that are repetitive, impossible to fail on rails punch spamming until you fill a meter and use a finisher. I'm not even sure why this is a thing, unless they realized how monotonous the opening hours of this game really are, and felt they needed a change. Anyway, the only way to fail is to play blindfolded and run the controls with your feet.

Dragon sequences, same deal. Boring, repetitive, and instead of being able to do strafing runs on the enemies, it's a game of green dodgeball that needs to be played before your weapons can do any damage. So literally sit in one place, hold the fire button while locked on, and wait to dodge the green shit. Repeat the same sequence about 4 times to enter 4 nearly identical interiors to escape this monotonous hell, and get back on foot.


I've secured my first wraith stone to max super shotty, and I've nearly maxed the cycler for upgraded electric death, near max shield, near max flail, near max gauntlets, this one just misses for me.

It feels like a cover band trying to perform their favorite band's set. Like, this game is inspired by Doom, but it's missing something.

The soundtrack for this game is a frothy jar of ass, it's just annoying as **** background noise. I played eternals soundtrack in the background through Spotify instead, and it helps, but it's still just feels very much like a slog.

Killing the enemies just is not as satisfying or fun in this game as in 2016 and eternal.

I'll push through and complete the game, just to see it through, but I very happy this was on gamepass, as I'd be sorely disappointed if i dropped the cash for this outright.

Your enjoyment of this game will very much hinge on the shield mechanic, and whether or not mind the glory kills and chainsaw mechanic being removed from the game.

Originally Posted by Fish (Post 18065342)

LMAO..... k

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler (Post 18065480)

How's that funny?

Going from 100mph your offense IS your defense, to waiting on parry windows is a vastly different experience for Doom fans.

Glad you're having fun with it.

This should've been just a medieval shooter on its own, without Doom stamped on it.

The Slayer doesn't hide behind a shield baiting attacks. There's a boss fight in here where you can't even damage the boss until he's decided you're good enough at Ping Pong, then he will let you shoot him for a few seconds before demanding his rematch. Lmao.

Worse, the design is such that you cannot simply ignore the shield and play classically, because weapon upgrades activating are contingent upon your participation in Doom: Ping Pong.

Gating weapon utility behind a mechanic that is entirely antithetical to the Slayer is a design misstep in my opinion as someone who has played Doom since its inception, this just doesn't feel like Doom.

It feels more like a gimmick Borderlands character class whose special ability revolves around using a shield cosplaying as the Slayer.

Originally Posted by Fish (Post 18065606)

Your game reviews are always predictably opposite of mine, that's all. No big deal, people enjoy different things.

If you prefer the Eternal playstyle, that's fine. That game still exists. This game was never meant to be Eternal v2. The devs specifically said long before the game was released that they were going in a different direction. They said something to the effect of "Eternal made the slayer feel like a jet, The Dark Ages will make the slayer feel like a tank." And they did exactly that with the game.

I watched a bit if the q&a with the director after the release, but I hadn't followed too much of its production. For games I like, I find the wait for them easier if I don't know much about it.

I disagreed on a few of his points made, especially glory kills being tedious because this was the largest amount of enemies theyd ever had on screen at once. Like, most of the battlefield literally dies instantly upon use of the shield lmao. Shield bash, everyone explodes, shielded guys explode, exploding all the others, or the shield bounces off and mercs them all. Then you're left with your standard handful of non fodder enemies. I just found it a bit disingenuous. Like if you're tired of doing executions, you still had the option to melee them or shoot them.


Personally, I love it. And the reviews are almost all positive.

Reviews are subjective and hardly reliable. Especially IGN.

Feels much closer to what the original Doom games were all about.

I don't recall playing ping pong with green shit, and then being able to shoot my rocket launcher at my feet and heal myself with the blast. That's the most Borderlands shit I've seen lmao.

I don't recall having to sit and wait for green projectiles to chase down and swat back in order to get my weapons to function full power, or to be able to damage enemies at all. Parrying? Doomguy was always the warrior rocking the 2 handed claymore pointing and laughing at someone carrying a shield. Doomguy was all about slaughter. I don't need a shield, because you can't hit me before I kill you.




Eternal requires the player to play a very certain way. You basically had to use all weapons and gear in a specific and efficient way. TDA gives you a lot more freedom to play however you want. You can beat the entirety of hell with just your shield and supershotgun. Stand and fight. You don't have to run away looking for gas cans, swinging from conveniently placed yellow poles like a goofy acrobat. Who installed all those yellow poles in the pits of hell anyway?

No, that time is now spent running around looking for gloves so that I can punch someone, or playing ping pong successfully so that as a reward i can punch someone. But I digress, it's a very different experience from what Doom players have had. I simply missed the memo that they openly admitted that's what they were doing.

Like I said, it's on gamepass so no harm no foul. I didn't lose any money on it.

For me it like asking to play Espn 2k5, and then being handed a copy of madden.

Oh well. I think it's great, and I'm already looking forward to another playthrough.