so I’m finally playing this and I absolutely adore it. I’d totally forgotten about the metroid prime influence being discussed in this thread and it hit me right away (as well as a very well-considered DMC/bayonetta approach to encounter design), except oh my god the combat feels good. I’m in the foundry. and the PS4 demo didn’t do too much for me at all but playing it on PC is lovely.
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the composition on that animation cel is superlative
this rundown on how doom’s rendering works is really cool if you’re a graphics nerd like me
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I’m not a graphics nerd and it was still a fun read, a lot of it down to breaking down a lot of stuff gamers take for granted and showing how it’s all layered
I’m really enjoying 100%ing this oddly enough but I’m also finding it a tad too easy on ultra violence and I am by no means good at shooters, I wish the higher difficulties were unlocked from the start
The difficulty picks up a little bit more as you go on and they keep introducing new monster types but then it kind of plateaus 3/4 of the way through.
my interest is actually waning a little bit already after the tower. I think if the demo had been the second or fourth level rather than the first I would’ve bought it on the spot but possibly been less satisfied with it than if I’d been ambivalent and waited this long.
I got the mastery upgrade for the gauss cannon (in level 8? I think) where you can use the charged shot while moving and my god that thing feels good
on the other hand it’s maybe a problem that I feel like I’ve made such good choices with my weapons mods that I’ve mostly maxed them out halfway through
It’s a minor design issue I’d say that so many of the conditions for getting mastery are by far easiest to obtain on zombie mobs at the start of every encounter, it incentivizes do-overs a little too much.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about your early guns being more or less directly obsoleted because of how they share ammo with the later ones but my only really issue is that the later number keys are harder to reach…
Just play the game, Felix. Worry about that nonsense later
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They’re really not obsoleted very much, that was clearly a design goal. Single shotty explosive shot is always a great way to deal with imps, plasma gun freeze shot is incredibly strong against pinkies and barons. I don’t really like either of the bullet weapons that much, but mastered aim rifle is very ammo efficient and mastered micro missiles is almost as strong as chaingun while letting you be more mobile and kind of sloppily smear crowds with missiles.
I wonder how many times during development they almost added a boost-dodge
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Chiming in to say my playthrough has been honestly like everyone has been saying about the game. It’s great. I’ve been catching myself scanning the map frequently so I don’t miss things but that’s more on me being anxious and not enjoying the ride where it takes me.
I didn’t worry about secrets or challenges the first time through, but I did read all of the codex stuff which is a bit out of character for me.
just finished lazarus labs, the past few missions were phenomenal
Sad to say you just reached the end of the really good level design now though (with the exception of one more setpiece I like).
It’s been a while since I’ve seen an FPS with deliberate verticality in its level design. It’s rather refreshing.
I’m not really minding the straightforwardness of the later levels at all. it’s nice to go up against an implausible number of pinkys and cyber-mancubi now that I’m fully maxed out. think I only have two to go if there are 13 total…
I can’t decide if this game is going to herald a huge renaissance in FPS design or if it’s just the first good sequel to quake 2 in 20 years. I don’t think it really matters.
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I minded the quality of the later levels a lot more on my second playthrough. It became more apparent how vapid they are, and it felt weird how although I was on a higher difficulty, I wasn’t feeling that at all. Both because of the simplicity of the layouts (the AI cleverness depends on smaller and more intricate levels to do anything with) and the explosion of upgrade options, I found it boringly easy to trivalize them with my additional game knowledge. They are Serious Sam-like in that they initially pass for good Doom gameplay.
But anyway, I probably emphasize this too much. It’s a pretty minor blot on a great game. The next time I play it through, I’m probably going to treat the game as ending at Cyberdemon is all, the rest is to me just filler – not frustratingly bad or anything but not really worth my time either – just like most games that I don’t bother playing. I.e. it’s just the part of Doom which is as good as your average FPS.
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