Are there ever times where you feel like the entire world is playing a trick on you? That’s how I feel about Doom Eternal. I don’t understand how people like Doom Eternal to such a degree that I feel like Ashton Kutcher will break into my house to scream that I’ve been Punk’d by the entire world, revealing the series reboot at the same time. Even reviewers I like, and usually agree with, like Civvie 11 praised the game like the second coming of Christ, but now I wonder how. This isn’t me being a contrarian either. I think people are just attached to the idea of Doom that they are overlooking a lot of glaring flaws with the game.
I should start by saying I really loved Doom 2016. It helps that I also love Quake. I do own the entire Quake series. I was insanely happy that Doom 2016 was just a new Quake. I was super hyped watching the original Quake con reveal for Eternal. The game looked amazing. Big beautiful stages, new weapons, a badass sword, and an even more ass kicking soundtrack. Everything looked like iD was taking Doom 2016 and just ramping it up. Then the reviews started to come out and my hype was killed by these two words: ammo management.
A lot of people told me that the ammo management isn’t bad because they give you tons of guns to cycle through, and the game is designed around it. They also explained when you’re low on ammo you can just chainsaw someone to get more ammo. They were grossly overstating how well the chainsaw makes up for the lack of ammo. The ammo management is a total pace killer. I always had the warning for low ammo, until I upgraded my ammo. It was super annoying to constantly see that flashing red light on my screen. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well learn to aim,” or, “Don’t spray ‘n pray!” Most of my shots hit and I would even count my hits. “3 hits, 4 hits, 5 hits, stop, change targets, 1 hit, 2 hits, ….” That was every encounter in Doom Eternal. I felt like I was Archer counting my rounds. They just give you such little ammo that you’re always running out of ammo. You really need to get used to seeing that warning flash on your screen.
Not only was I having to count each hit. I also took the time to aim, to make sure my rounds made contact. A lot of people complain about needing to use iron sights in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, but you needed them in Doom Eternal. In both CoD and BF the games are designed around iron sights, so the game gives you them. Doom Eternal feels like the game was designed around them, but they were removed near the end of development. I feel this way because you need to make sure your bullets are being used effectively. You need to aim, but unless you have certain gun mods you can’t aim. However, I know the game wasn’t designed for iron sights. It just feels like that with how important contact is now.
This doesn’t make me feel like the badass Doom Slayer. This makes me feel like a slow wimp with an OCD who needs to count every hit. I feel more like the Doom Slayer when I am playing Back 4 Blood, Half-Life 2, FEAR, and Splatoon than when I am playing Doom Eternal. The ammo management system is that bad of a pace killer. I would need to stop and scavange for ammo as much as possible to get ready for my next arena. Only so I could count my shots and either do a burst fire or single taps of my mouse button. Yes, I could play it like Quake and I did do that after I was able to get 3 of the ammo upgrades. It’s just a long boring time until you’re actually able to play Doom Eternal.
You’re constantly waiting in this game. Waiting for your chainsaw, flame thrower, grenades, ice grenades, and blood punch to recharge. By the time your chainsaw recharges, which is how you’re supposed to get more ammo, you need to wait for an enemy to spawn that can die to one chainsaw charge. Your blood punch recharges every time you get a glory kill. This means to get your blood punch back you need ammo. If you’re out of ammo then you will wait for your chainsaw to charge so you can charge your blood punch. Grenades, ice grenades, and flamethrowers are unlimited. They just take a while to charge. Grenades make a wimpy explosion that most of the time doesn’t kill an enemy. Your best bet is to save them for Kaka demons.
I’m sure you’re wondering why I had to wait for my chainsaw, and the fodder to use it on. This is because the enemies are very tanky on higher difficulties. This doesn’t make the game harder. It makes it annoying. Especially when you’re constantly running low on ammo due to it. I wasn’t even playing on Nightmare. I was just playing on Ultra Violence. When trying out Nightmare I found the same issues, but a magnitude worse. It wasn’t hard. It was just annoying.
One thing I really hate in games is when a game takes control away from you. Especially in a form that just makes no fucking sense. This is rampant with modern game design, and was one of the things I praised Doom 2016 over. Doom 2016 let you play how you wanted. If you wanted to play pistol and shotgun only, you could. If you wanted to just play with the AR and the plasma rifle, you could. However, Doom Eternal constantly takes control away from you due to this ammo management system. When I mention this to people they say I am reaching, or over exaggerating, but the devs themselves said they wanted people to switch between guns so they implemented the ammo management system. Don’t like the feel of shotguns? Too fucking bad, you’re using them. Can’t stand the plasma rifle’s sounds because it gives you a migraine? Stock up on some aspirin, bitch. Side note: Yes, someone told me the plasma rifle’s sounds gave them a headache for both Doom 2016 and Eternal. They stopped playing Eternal over it. In Doom 2016 they just used different weapons.
While we’re at it, let’s go over the lie that they give you so many guns to cycle through. They don’t and there’s only 4 ammo types, one is for the BFG. So, not only are you severely limited on ammo but you need to share each ammo type with two guns. One that is stronger, but uses a fuck ton more ammo, or one that is weaker with rapid fire. The stronger guns also use way more ammo to kill then the weaker guns do. When firing the ballista I found I was using more ammo compared to the plasma rifle to kill most enemies.
You’re noticing I am bitching a lot about the ammo management, because it is that big of an issue. Almost all of the game’s issues stem from it; it does nothing but cause you to wait and wait. It takes so much control away from the player. I can prove this. I unlocked the unlimited ammo cheat. I went through 1 stage without it and then again with it. Both times were repeated playthroughs. When I used unlimited ammo I counted my shots and once I hit double the amount each gun could hold I banned it for 5 minutes until I got to use a chainsaw, or ran over 10 ammo crates for it. Each ammo crate subtracted 30 seconds. The game was so much more fun this way, despite me needing to track all of this shit and playing the same stage for a third time.
My initial playthrough of Doom Eternal looked like this: I am doing well and then all of a sudden “low ammo” flashes on my screen. Now I am hunting down an enemy that takes 1 chainsaw gas can to kill. In the earlier stages this isn’t an issue because it spawns a lot of them. If for some reason I couldn’t get ammo the “low health” would start to flash. In fact, the only time I ever had low health was because I ran out of ammo and was waiting to chainsaw something to get ammo back.
During this time I was still running around and exploring the arenas. Eventually I got the suit upgrade that stopped explosive barrels from hurting me, spawning ammo, and then having them respawn. With this I realised all I needed to do was back myself into a corner, save my grenades for a Kaka demon, and just blast the barrels when I was being ganked. This worked in each arena where it was doable. I was now blazing through them and I didn’t see “low ammo” on my screen again. I also never saw “low health” again despite playing the game “wrong”. Every arena became my back against a wall and I was squished between 2 barrels. It’s almost as if I was playing a game of Killing Floor. This was a thoroughly more enjoyable experience and I just pretended I was an overweight Doom Slayer.
Almost everything else about the game was fun. I like first person platforming. The shooting was fantastic. I liked most of the stage designs. That is until you come across the purple ooze. Which does nothing but slow you down, and hides these annoying tentacle monsters. Completely killing and stalling all pace the levels had until this point. Plus the tentacles will surprise you and are guaranteed to hit you because you can’t dash in the ooze and you’re not fast enough to dodge them. My protip for the ooze is to spam your grenades there. It’ll kill the tentacles before they can surprise you. Some of the other stages, like the final 4 stages, are just time wasters. You are just jumping into an airborne launch pad after launch pad just launching you around this giant empty stage for no reason other than, “WE MUST HAVE BIGGER STAGES!”
The marauder wasn’t bad at all. It was just an annoying bossfight that required you to wait. You waited for his eyes to flash and then shotgunned him. If you used almost any other weapon you wasted your shots. It was shotgun, rockets, or the ballista only. There was really no skill or challenge to these fights. Just waiting to shotgun him. If you shot early he would hit you. If you got too far away he’d teleport to you, or summon an annoying dog. Each of the fights had random fodders spawning. The game needs them there due to your low ammo. It makes these “intense” 1 on 1’s feel less serious with tons of fodder just shambling around. Waiting for you to chainsaw them to get more ammo, in case you need it. If your shots pierce through them, or the dog, you can trigger the attacks for shooting the marauder when his eyes aren’t flashing.
With the exception of the Icon of Sin, every boss I can recall in Doom Eternal introduced more waiting. The Kahn Maykr was waiting for her to spew acid all over the stage and for the other Maykr’s the spawn so you could get ammo back by headshotting them. Then after she was done spewing acid on the stage you waited for her weak spots to expose themselves. The gladiator is just waiting for him to do certain attacks that left him exposed. Eventually he loses his shield and then you’re waiting for attacks to leave him exposed, again. When playing Doom Eternal you notice lots of enemies make you wait. Tyrants, Baron of Hells, Archviles, Doom Hunters, and more. All they do is make you wait more. Usually by spamming shields, having multiple phases, or by spawning invulnerable enemies.
However, the Icon of Sin is a different beast. When you get to him the game just says “Fuck it! Unlimited ammo!” by respawning ammo, health, armor, and sword power ups constantly. This is when the game just clicks, and where I got the idea for my “unlimited ammo” playthrough. You’re just blasting, murdering, enjoying the pure carnage. Yes, the Icon of Sin is spawning non-stop hordes of enemies but now you have the weapons to deal with them without waiting. The game becomes what it should’ve been from the start. You being the Doom Slayer just murdering endless hordes while bouncing around an arena and trying to dodge all sorts of shit so you don’t die. The final boss fight is where Doom Eternal decides to stop being an ammo management sim and decide to be a new Doom game/a Quake game. It just sucks you need to go through so much time wasting shit before you get to the one good part of the game.