All the pros of Doom Eternal with its cons amplified.

Here's the good: Movement still rules, guns still run, ~most~ of the base game enemies are still fun to fight. If you're here for an adreneline rush you're gonna have fun.

Here's the bad: Like the previous DLC, and some of the base game, it's excessively gimmicky and designed around weapon hard counters enemy design drags down the experience. You have so many cool weapons, movement abilities and resourced skills but instead of going nuts it instead grabs you hand and tells you to use X on X or its gonna take forever (or never work).
You can't just SHOOT the new stone imp oh no i want you to use this particular shotgun mod attack or the hammer (or chainsaw lol). When you get cursed by the new stalker enemy oh no you cant just kill it to end the curse, you gotta DOOMPUNCH it bro nothing else will work. It becomes an issue with a lot of enemies when your sick arsenal becomes not what you like, or even whats best for the scenario, but what the you HAVE to use against the enemy. Every DLC enemy has a bit of this in it, and even the base game (s/o to cyber mancubus and especially maradaurer) enemys are like this. The most fun I have in this game is when I'm fighting base game enemies.
Obv all the issues I have with the base game are still there (ammo/chainsaw mechanics, the way enemies have this fucking habit of appears right behind you) are still there but it's whatever. The DLC seems particularly linear and without secrets, and the final boss they hyped up was just a big maradaur with 5 health bars.

There's still no adrenaline rush around like DE right now and it's still it, but I definitely felt burnt out by the end of it and god can I just shoot a fucking enemy and not play a fucking minigame for some of the enemy types in this game.

The Ancient Gods Part 1 had the pressure of following up Doom Eternal’s brilliant campaign. And it did so elegantly by upping the difficulty, adding in worthy new foes, and ending on a ludicrous cliffhanger. The Ancient Gods Part 2 now has the pressure of following up not only the original game, but that fantastic first episode as well. The Ancient Gods Part 2 buckles under some of that pressure and is a comparatively weak trilogy-ender, but it's also a decent Doom expansion thanks to its signature gunplay and killer soundtrack.

Read the full review here:
https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/676786-doom-eternal-the-ancient-gods-part-2-dlc-review-ps4-pc-xbox-one

The Ancient Gods Part 2 is a disappointing follow-up to the excellent Part 1, failing to deliver both the epic scale and satisfying ending that was promised.

Ancient Gods Part 2 offers exciting new enemies, and some new tech to deal with the old enemies. Tweaks to player information on stunned enemies, alternative ways to deal with formerly more-irritating-than-fun enemies, and new slots for the existing sandbox to fall into are all smart and welcome decisions.

The visuals are as excellent as ever, which is no surprise, and though the environments are all new to Doom Eternal, they're notably less dramatic than either the base game or the Ancient Gods part 1.

This is also felt in the combat - Somehow, Ancient Gods Part Two is incredibly easier than the first. This is fine, as difficulty options allow you to ramp up or down the difficulty in either case, but it lets down the finality of the drama the story attempts to tell.

Firefights are not nearly as intense, but they are still quite fun. The Ancient Gods Part 2 is unfortunately let down by an obnoxious final boss fight regardless of difficulty option (Let me fight 2 marauders simultaneously again any day instead), and the story itself whimpers to an unimpressive end.

While the first half of The Ancient Gods felt promising and exciting, the second half has me wishing iD software skipped any story DLC and instead kept the extra story to another Doom Sequel.

It's more Doom Eternal and that's great! Really dig most of the additions here - the enemies, hammer, and the grappling hook platforming are all great. There's now so much variety in the encounter design that you never know what to expect. Also the final boss is extremely fucking funny.

I do have a few minor gripes though. The new prowler is the worst thing in the entire game, but they use him pretty sparingly so it's not a huge deal. The levels feel a lot less exploratory than the stuff from the base game which is a shame. Also the story kinda blows, I enjoyed the over-the-top comic-booky bullshit from the base game but something about the tone feels off here. Maybe it's a symptom of the antagonist being a guy instead of an AI or a giant demon, but it feels goofy in the wrong way.

Overall though I'd say that if you loved Doom Eternal then this and the first DLC are definitely worth grabbing, just expect a little more inconsistency than the base game.

Ancient Gods II continues the unfortunate legacy of Ancient Gods I's Spirits: enemies that literally take away from the game, rather than add to it. Cursed Prowlers, Buff Zombies, and even more Spirits all take away player tools rather than actually requiring new skills, making players interact sub-optimally to deal with them. It's like id saw that everyone was having too much fun and decided the toys needed to be taken away. I haven't actually finished the final boss, but phase 1 is just a less interactive marauder fight, which is par for the course of this expansion.

But it's Doom Eternal so, ya know, it's still good.

UPDATE: I did finish the final boss. It sucked. Ending cutscene was sweet though.

I love Doom Eternal so playing the two DLC was an easy decision for me, I will review both here. I know for some Eternal relies too heavily on gameplay mechanics rather than free creative combat. The Ancient Gods DLC doubles down on the mechanic focus offering even more enemy types that have to be fought with certain attacks and even newly introduced weapons to further the sort of meta game of managing your health, armor, ammo in the midst of unrelenting attack. So if you loved Doom Eternal you are probably going to love Ancient Gods, I did. If you didn’t like Eternal for the above reasons well don’t even bother.

The best thing about the DLC is how it caters the combat to experienced players as they know you will have every weapon and skill unlocked. Levels have more environmental hazards, for instance some places add totems that give enemies infinite life until you find them. A bunch of new enemies that require new very specific strategies to beat are introduced. I loved how disruptive some of these are, in the middle of a battle having to switch to a chain gun to blow up some shields while everyone else is firing on you is thrilling. There were a few too many enemies that required the zoom in rifle scope though, in a game as hectic as this, stopping to aim seems counter intuitive, so way too many new enemies required you to do that. That’s really my only gripe with the new enemies though, to me it just added to controlled chaos of the action.

This DLC is long too, together they form what could be a new game, like a 7-9 hour game. It’s almost all new locations, so many new mechanics, new bosses, this is seriously one of the best DLC expansions I have ever played. It further expands on what I loved about Doom Eternal and it remains easily the best modern FPS game I’ve played.

Overall score: 9.3

Outside of a very underwhelming boss fight. This was a solid conclusion to the Slayer. Definitely harder then the first part and died a couple of times.

The new enemies are essentially reskins but don't really add anything new to the table aside from new abilities that can easily be countered. The screechers are the worst offenders but if you don't provoke them they won't be a bothersome.

The level design is good as usual the same old small albeit wide environments to trench through and the good ol platforming sections. Followed by some goodies to find. The music in this game is the tits.

If you loved part one and looking for a harder challenge then by all means this is for you. If you're the opposite then you might wanna give it a pass. I mean, I fucking died during the first level after provoking the screecher.

Thanks ID Software. NOW GIVE US QUAKE.

Part 2 of ancient gods is amazing.
Part 2 introduces new abilities, new enemies, new traversal mechanics and some really badass spectacle.
While part 1 felt very similar to the main game, part 2 separates itself nicely with some excellent additions like the new hammer weapon which at first I was quite underwhelmed by but as i began to use it in encounters, it became a very useful tool and something that should honestly become a permanent part of the slayers kit. Its very satisfying to use and adds a whole new layer to doom eternals combo system.
There are also 6 new enemy types that force you too play in different ways and utilise more of the slayers tool set. The best example is a the new cursed prowler, if one of these guys hits you, you’re cursed, you can no longer dash and you’re vision is blurred and you can get rid of it if you hit the dude back with a blood punch. It really makes you reconsider and changes how you approach combat situations. Very cool
Also you can now use the super shotguns meat hook as a grapple gun to traverse, excellent addition.
The three levels are all fantastic, loved all 3, technically 4. Excellent visuals and sum hella badass moments.
The final boss fight is long and hard, it’s not the best doom eternal has to offer in terms of bosses but it serves its purpose well.
This dlc is an amazing send off for the slayer and it seems like this might just be the last doom thing from ID? Atleast for a while.

I know expectations would be extraordinarily difficult to reach with how fantastic Part 1 was, but I still found this to be a really rewarding DOOM experience to cap off the "Slayer-era" of the franchise.

I can speak for many in saying I was QUAKE-ing in my boots about the thought of Part 2's potential difficulty. As it turns out, though, Part 2 is considerably easier than the last expansion. Now, Part 2 is still no slouch; it has plenty of tough combat encounters and optional ripping and tearing to keep hardcore fans like me interested. Nevertheless, you will not strugle nearly as hard this time around.

With a decrease in difficulty, Ancient Gods Part 2 had to make up for that in terms of other features, which they sorta did. The new traversal mechanics are nice but nothing revolutionary; the new demons range from cool to kinda bad; the levels go from super long to extraordinarily short; and the combat encounters go from really fun, to pretty stale by the time you hit the final boss. Almost everything amazing about Ancient Gods Part 2 has one tiny thing that holds it back in some way, but I get why.

As expected with an expansion made under COVID conditions, Ancient Gods Part 2 is a tad rough on performance, and besides a cool little cliff-hanger at the very end, the final bits of the expansion is pretty dull. For the time constraints they faced, id did a fantastic job with this expansion, and I'm eagerly looking forward to more DOOM in the future.

No llega al nivel del juego base, pero sin duda es mucho mejor DLC que el primero. Más épico, mejor diseñado y con la dificultad mucho más ajustada y un jefe final bastante satisfactorio para lo que suele ser esta saga.

Me ha gustado mucho y, aunque se nota que han tenido que recortar un poco en algún sitio por sacarlo rápido, les ha quedado un DLC muy resultón que cierra bastante bien el que podría ser mi FPS favorito de todos los tiempos.

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While it's not as good as the base game, it is undoubtedly better than the first DLC. More epic, better designed and with much more adjusted difficulty and a quite satisfactory boss, compared to the rest of the series.

I enjoyed it quite a lot and, even though it feels a bit rushed in some areas, it's a pretty great DLC that gives a great ending to what could be my favorite FPS of all time.

Why the hell are people complaining about the final boss. It's clearly the lesser of 2 evils. The real tragedy is the fact that they thought that changing the menu music was a good idea.


Pros
- The moment to moment gameplay is just as addictive as Doom has ever been.
- There are a bunch of new enemies to keep you on your toes. I'm not the biggest fan of most of the new enemies however I think that they are better than the ones added in part 1.
- The floating thing that you can hook to is something that should have been here since the beginning. It really helps the platforming and movement.
- I personally really like the hammer. It's way better than the crucible.
- The environments might be some of the best the series has seen so far. The last level especially is so cool and detailed.
- New items and backgrounds for customising the menu
- IDs attempt at replicating Endgame was blatantly obvious, yet still pretty decent.

Cons
- The final boss is 5 phases too long.
- MENU MUSIC
- Both DLCs are way too expensive. It should have been £16 for both.


Overall, I'm not sure if I prefer this or the first DLC. I loved both and while I understand some of the hate, the pros most certainly outweigh the cons.