Doom: The Dark Ages is introducing big changes to combat because id Software came to one core realization: "Every projectile mattered in the original Doom"
Creative director Hugo Martin on how Doom: The Dark Ages is a spiritual successor to the original game, and how the Saw Shield will completely upend your expectations
What I didn’t like about Eternal was being forced to use specific weapons to kill certain enemies. For me this kind of shooters are all about use “the right tool for the job”. If I fancy using the two barrels shotgun from start to finish, just let me do so.
That isn't the point. The point is you shouldn't feel shoehorned into playing a specific intended strategy. Doom is about turning off your brain and slaying.
Sounds more like an "easy mode" thing. Have certain enemies immune to certain guns on the harder difficulties. Want to just use the shotgun? Play easy mode. Want to be more strategic? Play a harder difficulty.
I dunno, I'm someone who was fine with the changes to combat introduced in Doom Eternal, but was honestly really turned off by how much id was kinda huffing their own farts with the story. The first game had Doomguy punch any attempts at exposition. The second turned Hayden into an Angel, the AI friend into God, the demons are extraplanar aliens that are being used for energy by the angels, and now the Doom Slayer is some destined force of cosmic balance. The little bits were of larger lore were kinda funny in the first game, it became flanderized in the second, and now for a prequel I'm worried id's managed to fit their entire head up their own ass trying to convince everyone how cool their space marine is.
Yeah, the exposition was part of what made DE weaker to me. Too much plot lead to losing the plot. The gameplay was fun enough overall, and I enjoyed a lot of the changes. But it was also too fuckin much keyboard ballet and pattern recognition for my tastes. If I want to kill something in a way that's not the prescribed way, I want to be able to do that. But it became a formula and that's not a playstyle I like because it bores me. It becomes math homework. Couple that formulaic approach with the fuckin massive swarms of unrelenting enemies and you end up having to fight like a robot. I preferred the 2016 mantra of fight like hell.
God, yes, I tried to get into the game twice and both times I bounced off right around the part where you go from Hell on Earth to a fucking high fantasy castle on some random planet. I'll just replay Doom 2016 if I want to shoot some demons.
Yeah that feeling of spacial awareness as you're kiting around groups of enemies. Helps to have simple, easily identifiable level geometry for that matter.
I gotta keep it real with you: Nothing about the trailer looks interesting to me. My viewpoints on Doom are pretty colored due to Mick Gordon's claims and the poor combat and traversal loops in Eternal.
Looking at the trailer and reading the article, it's clear they're going back to the doom 1 roots with the way the projectiles feel like it's a 2D top down shooter.
That's the way it's supposed to feel imo, and I dig the direction they're heading and the combat definitely felt like oldschool 2D top down shooters were supposed to feel: Dodge everything, never stop firing.