Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal is now over with The Ancient Gods - Part 2, which was released on March 18th. On this occasion, Doom Eternal Director Hugo Martin gave some details about the 2020 title in an interview with PC Gamer. The main topic of the interview is the design of the Marauder, which many players found simply too challenging. We also criticized the Marauder in our test as "excessively fast and annoying". Martin defends the Marauder, however. Although the opponent is one of the most difficult in the entire game, it is supposed to teach the players important mechanics and bring them into the "fun zone".Recommended editorial content Here you will find external content from [PLATFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I consent to external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration. However, Martin also admits that there were still a few issues with the opponent when the game was released. So it wasn't clearly indicated when the Marauder was vulnerable. The Director learned this while watching the livestream from Shroud - a very good FPS player. As a result, the animations of the Marauder were adjusted so that it was easier to identify when to shoot. Despite the controversy surrounding the Marauder, players couldn't be deterred from playing through the title. The completion rate of the title is much higher than that of its predecessor from 2016.
Doom Eternal (buy now € 17.97) is available for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and Stadia. The Ancient Gods - Part 2 was released on March 18th for all these platforms, except for the Nintendo Switch. It is still unclear whether the Switch will also receive the DLC. The user reviews for The Ancient Gods - Part 2 have been mostly positive so far. A test of Part One, in which we extensively praise the DLC, can be found here.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two impressions: Razing Hell
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two picks up directly where The Ancient Gods Part One ended. The Doom Slayer has revived the Dark Lord and will soon take part in what can only be considered the battle of the century. The only problem? You’ve got to go through hell to get there.
Much like The Ancient Gods – Part One, Part Two of the DLC includes a ton of new enemies, new traversal methods, and new levels to explore. The new content isn’t exceptionally long, but it is difficult, offering some of the most hardcore fights Eternal has ever thrown at you. If you’re planning on picking it up, I highly recommend coming prepared, because you’re about to raise a whole different kind of hell.
Hello darkness, my old friend
Much like Doom Eternal proper and the first DLC, the fast-paced and brutal action of the Doom series is on full display in The Ancient Gods – Part Two. This means tons of enemies to kill, plenty of combat encounters to work your way through, and gallons upon gallons of the blood of your enemies to wade through.
Getting to the Dark Lord and taking him down is no easy feat, but the Doom Slayer is no lightweight, either. Armed to the brim with all of the weapons that you’ve enjoyed throughout Eternal—as well as a new Sentinel Hammer—there are some exceptionally good fight sequences in The Ancient Gods – Part Two, all of which will challenge everything you know about the Doom formula to survive.
One of my biggest concerns with the first part of the DLC returns in Part Two, albeit in a bit more of an annoying fashion. Some combat encounters take place inside of such cramped areas—with literally no way to move beyond that area—and there are so many enemies thrown at you, that the fast-paced movement that makes it so enjoyable comes screeching to a halt. At one point I even found myself stuck to the ground, barely able to move as legions of Imps rushed at me.
Like Part One, there are also a ton of new enemies to take down in Part Two, including the Armored Baron—a variation of the Baron of Hell which is even more dangerous than the original counterpart thanks to a suit of armor that you need to destroy to damage it. There are also now Stone Imps, which require you to use the Auto Shotgun mod to more easily kill them. Other additions include a Screecher Zombie that buffs all nearby demons when it is killed, and a few others you can come across.
As a whole these enemies add a nice variation to the combat and, while they force you to make use of different items and tools, it does help keep the combat feeling refreshing as you dive deeper into the DLC.
The DLC also introduces a new way to traverse these levels Now players will have to use the Meathook Grapple to latch onto floating grapple points throughout the level. This all combines together with the game's double jump and dash mechanics to create some unique platforming sections. Excessive platforming sections are one of the things I disliked the most about Doom Eternal, but here the Meathook Grapple feels good, though a bit challenging to use as it requires you to move in the opposite direction you want to travel. That can be a bit confusing at first, but it quickly works itself out.
We must go deeperOne of my favorite things about The Ancient Gods has been id Software digging deeper into the lore and story that fuses all of the Doom universe together. We get even more of that in Part Two, especially during the ending sequences.
I won’t spoil too much here, obviously, because I think its something that Doom players will appreciate experiencing for themselves. I will say that it all feeds back into that god-like image that a lot of humanity has painted of the Doom Slayer, and it felt like it really tied up a lot of the mumbo jumbo that The Father and The Vergil have all been alluding to throughout Doom Eternal’s campaign.
Altogether, The Ancient Gods – Part Two feels like an actual ending, something that both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal didn’t have. It feels like id Software has finally closed the book and finished up the story that it began when the demons were unleashed in 2016, and that is something I’m happy to see. It also leaves me a bit confused on where the franchise will go from here, and a little curious if we’ll see id Software focusing on non-Doom projects more in the future.
These impressions are based on a code provided by the publisher. Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two is now available.
Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.