Is DOOM perhaps the most controversial shooter franchise to try and have a discussion about? Maybe so. DOOM 2016 was an awesome reboot of that shooter franchise in my opinion. It added greater fluidity to the movement model (in comparison to DOOM 3), enhanced mobility overall in both verticality and that feeling of speed. I loved it so much that I played it on PlayStation 4, PC, and even Nintendo Switch. An untypical trifecta for me.
DOOM Eternal, on the other hand, is a bitter tale of love and hate. I love the game because I completed it. I hate the game for very minute that I lived within it. I’ve even been hating it during my second play through, which I said I would never do.
DOOM: the Dark Ages feels like it started with DOOM 2016, and then borrowed a scant few elements from DOOM Eternal to try and find the perfect balance between the two. And, so far, it feels like it is sticking that landing.
But I listened to a podcast today where the person who had reviewed DOOM: the Dark Ages (DtDA) for their site, a supposed expert on the DOOM franchise, and many of their descriptors sounded totally ludicrous to me. DOOM: the Dark Ages is SLOWER than DOOM Eternal?? Absolutely not. There was no SPRINT button in DOOM Eternal, FFS. There was a DASH, but that was really meant for the platforming. You could use it in combat, but it was only two short bursts, and then had a cooldown time. In DtDA there is a SPRINT and no concept of Stamina that depletes over time while Sprinting, so you can just Sprint to your heart’s content. For tactical reasons, I sometimes find I need to stop sprinting and slow the OODA Loop down. DOOM: the Dark Ages is absolutely in no way SLOWER than DOOM Eternal.
He also said “you have fewer tools in DOOM: the Dark Ages”. WHAT??? You have the Shield, which allows you to Parry, Shield Barge, throw (which also has the effect of slowing down time), shoot-to-heat-enemy-shield + throw your shield for AOE splash damage. Then you have all of your weapons in a world where you do not run out of a weapon’s ammo after 5 shots. To-date, I have never run out of ammo on a given weapon (I’m only a couple of hours in), and have to switch guns just because I’ve gotten bored with a weapon and its effects, not because it has run out of ammo. You have the melee system. And then the fact that jumping does AOE splash damage as well. Maybe becausr you don’t have to juggle tools every 10 seconds to win a fight or due to running out of the ridiculously sparse ammo that is in DOOM Eternal that DtDA feels like it doesn’t have as many tools, but that’d be a you problem, not the game.
But one thing is certain: DOOM people see the games each as individuals and can have egregiously disparate perspectives on them, even amongst those who have played every single one.
My initial impression of DOOM: the Dark Ages is that it would & should easily be seen as an improvement over DOOM Eternal. It will be interesting to see if I am wrong and I find myself having become part of a community that is very religious in its perspectives of each of the entries in the franchise. And if I find that there is a weird sect of divisive religious perspectives on what DOOM is and isn’t. Like the JRPG and the Bethesda people. Weird indeed.
Rounding Off Infinity 