Doom: The Dark Ages' Designers Think You're Dumb | Design Delve

I'm enjoying Dark Ages a lot more than Eternal, but I've enjoyed food poisoning more than I enjoyed Eternal so that's not saying a lot. Completely agree that it would be a better game if all the fluff missions and mechanics had just been cut, and absolutely no idea who they expect to give a single damn about the story. Doom should be about combat puzzles - a diverse but manageable set of weapons to acquire and learn and a series of encounters where you have to work out which weapons to use to take out an overwhelming set of enemies in a particular environment. 2016 understood this. Dark Ages shines when it remembers it too, and falls flat on its face when it does literally anything else.

I haven’t really touched Doom since 3 but … what’s with all the laser lights? Every video I see of this it’s all neon particle effects over everything. Especially with how grimy and gory the rest of it is, the effect just seems really visually jarring to me.

So is the game making things too obvious or not obvious enough. It seems like you can’t make up your mind.

This was so much fun to watch! Looks like it was a step back for the Doom reboot. Too bad for what was a fun series (though I feel better since my computer doesn’t have the specs.)

I know some people compare the story to Halo, but I would also compare the shooter design to Halo. Halo was a very convenient shooter when it came out, being made for controllers and including brightly colored enemies that were very easy to hit. It was made so that you didn’t have to think too much about the shooting, which feels the same here. Except no OP pistol.

So I bounced off Eternal, but it wasn't the difficulty. It was the style of combat. Doom 2016 let me take apart enemies with methodic precision using the weapons and tools I enjoyed using. Eternal wanted me to juggle using everything even to the point that the combat felt samey. Shoot a little, then chainsaw for ammo, flamenwerfer for armor, finisher for health as needed (and you will need it). Dark ages is a pass for me, the footage I've watched feels similar to what I didn't like about Eternal particularly the focus on bullet hell parrying.

Yeah, I got the feeling that Dark Ages was overcorrecting for Doom Eternal's more difficult combat. It looked a lot slower in the trailers and all of the footage that came out after the fact alluded to many more tools at the player's disposal to regain armor and health

The legendary double-length video!