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.

.
1. Hammer is so fun to use and it complements the kit so well, it should just take the place of chainsaw as your main way to extract ammo from enemies in 3ternal if it ever gets made.

2. Armored barons clap; screechers really want you to take the enemy prioritization seriously; riot soldiers are cool; you love to hate cursed prowlers; stone imps take arbitrary weapon restrictions too far even if they are fun to fight; not even sure what was the point of demonic troopers. Overall new enemies take more Ws than Ls but Blood Angels are still the best TAG addition.

3. Traversal and platforming is at its most fun with addition of meathook grapple points.

4. Encounters are definitely less tight than in TAG1 but I wouldn't say it's that much less intense. Even a few normal fights managed to kick my ass and escalation encounters provided exactly the thrill I was looking for.

5. Marauders work because you can learn to be proactive with them. You can't be proactive Dark Lord and that's his greatest failing.

6. id environmental artists completely outdid themselves yet again like holy shit.

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.

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

[GERMAN]

Das zuvor aufgebaute, meisterhafte Konstrukt des Originals und des darauf aufbauenden ersten DLCs, fällt nach der intensiven ersten Stunde leider ein wenig in sich zusammen. Die neuen Gegner(-Varianten) wollen nicht so recht ins Spiel passen, es wirkt alles ein wenig entschärft (als ob id sich nicht getraut hat, NOCH einen draufzusetzen) und das Ende ist dann letztlich eine krude Mischung aus Coolness und Enttäuschung; wusste zuvor auch nicht, das sowas möglich ist. Hmpf.

Trotzdem ist und bleibt es quasi dasselbe Fundament auf dem mein letztjähriges Spiel des Jahres fußt.

Played through on "I'm Too Young to Die". The epic conclusion to the Slayer's saga definitely feels like an epic conclusion. Although shorter and relatively easier than The Ancient Gods Part 1, it still delivers even more incredible maps, fantastic cutscenes, new demons (some of which are more annoying than cool but whatever), and a new weapon. Its presentation is amazing, the final level is more epic than anything I've played in recent memory aside from Dark Souls 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn. The final boss is no pushover, but feels great once you get the pattern down. The ending you'll have to see for yourself, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm excited for what Id has in store next.

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.

TAG2 itself is an anti-climax that represents a concerning change in direction for the Doom reboot series, which hits harder given how on-track id Software already was with Eternal and TAG1. I am also fully aware of its troubled six-month development cycle where both TAG1 and 2 had to be out within a year of Eternal’s release to fulfill legal obligations, whose production schedule did not originally account for blizzards and power outages striking Texas (where id Software’s offices are located), and a whole freaking pandemic. I am not particularly upset that TAG2 feels rushed or that most of its new enemies are reskins (if anything, I think more games should be willing to reskin and reuse enemies), but what concerns me the most is its new gameplay direction, one which would have persisted even without the world breaking down. To properly understand why this is concerning, and considering parts of the base game and TAG1 have been changed with the release of TAG2, it is necessary to go back to the previous entries and establish some context.

With TAG1, the core players were pretty satisfied with its intensity and challenge, but the consensus amongst casual players (according to Doom Eternal director Hugo Martin) was that TAG1 was too intense pacing-wise, and thus exhausting to play even on lower difficulty settings. Here I disagree; TAG1 definitely does not run at 200% at all times. When breaking the structure of TAG1 down, there are still many downtime segments in the form of platforming segments, minor puzzles, minor combat encounters, story segments, or (quite frankly overlong) underwater swimming sections inbetween all the major arenas. The difficulty has definitely escalated, but the escalation is necessary to avoid running the risk of only repeating the ‘white belt’ encounters of the base game that the player has already proven their mastery over.

I believe the real culprit here is that most casual players were also returning players who had grown rusty in the six months between the base game’s and TAG1’s launch. Considering TAG1 starts off with several Cyber-Mancubi and Barons and no warm-up and it only escalates from there, it can make the entire DLC campaign feel overwhelming when you have yet to remember how everything worked; something that might not have been a problem if you had only just finished the base game. This is where in retrospect I believe that TAG1 would have been better off if it was balanced around a shotgun start and finding all your old weapons again, instead of balancing around your full loadout. This would allow returning casual players to get a quick crash course on all your old abilities and weapons over the course of a level or two instead of having to remember everything at once, and it would also allow for some interesting encounter design for returning core players as well where you’d have to face off against enemies without the weapons you would normally use against against them (like dealing with Shieldguys without a Plasma Rifle, or Whiplashes without Lock-on Rockets, or a Tyrant without any of your power weapons). The Super Gore Nest Master Level already features a Shotgun Start mode, so this shouldn’t have been technically impossible. And, while I personally don’t see any value in this type of argument but know that many others do, you can also cite historical precedent as a justification for taking your weapons away by pointing out that Doom 1 would also take away all your weapons at the start of each episode. Nevertheless, id Software declared the pacing guilty, and so decided to correct this in TAG2.

Rather than balancing the learning curve around one playthrough like with the base game and TAG1, for TAG2 id Software decided to take the Platinum approach to difficulty. In short, the first playthrough is an extended tutorial meant to keep casual players invested by introducing something new every 30 minutes while forgetting about the last thing, whereas the second playthrough in the form of the (yet to be released at the time of writing) Master Levels is the ‘real’ game where aforementioned new elements are combined with each other and pre-existing elements to actually test your mastery over them. In the context of a game like Doom Eternal that’s not designed around being replayed repeatedly to get a decent grasp of the gameplay (like with a roguelite or an arcade game), this approach is terrible because of the following reasons:

Firstly, it defeats the point of having difficulty settings that you can switch between on the fly. When you select Hurt Me Plenty difficulty, you expect a comfortable breeze, and not something as demanding as TAG1 was. When you select Nightmare difficulty, you expect to be pushed into using all of the game’s systems. TAG2 on Nightmare absolutely does not do that, because most TAG2 arenas are intensity-wise on par with Arc Complex in the base game, except in Arc Complex you did not have all weapons/upgrades yet, whereas in TAG2 you are fully upgraded and then some (see: Hammer). Even if the Master Levels were already out, you would still have to trudge through 3 hours of white belt encounters on Nightmare before you can actually get to the Good Stuff, because in DE you cannot access Master Levels unless you complete the regular levels first. Using cheats to skip the regular levels for the Master Levels wouldn’t be ideal either, because regardless of skill level you still need the time and space to learn TAG2’s new gameplay elements, and Master Levels are the worst place to learn them considering MLs are designed around you already having a full grasp of them.

Secondly, you basically have to run through the same content twice to get the ‘full’ experience, and even then it’s not a given that people will even bother playing the Master Levels. Amongst the majority of gamers, “beating” a singleplayer game usually involves playing once up to the credits roll, unless each playthrough promises new content (like in roguelikes and whatnot). Having to replay the same content but remixed once or twice until you get to the Fun Zone will feel to most like uninspired padding, who will just drop the game out of boredom before they get to the Fun Zone. The base game deftly avoided this and successfully appealed to both casual and core gamers by showing you the majority of its content and making you experience the depths of the gameplay--i.e. the Fun Zone, over the course of one playthrough no matter what difficulty setting you picked. Master Levels were for those who were already satisfied with the base game but wanted even more. Only after getting hooked to the gameplay will make people feel like playing remixed content; the actual hook was not in the Master Levels themselves. Meanwhile if you want to experience what it’s like doing Meathook platforming or fighting the new enemy types in a situation that actually makes you think about what you’re doing, then you’re going to have to slog through this 3-hour long pseudo-tutorial before you can even get to that point.

Thirdly, changing direction like this in what’s probably the final piece of official DE story content is the worst place to do it in. Most of the people who will play TAG2 are most likely those who already managed to get through the base game and TAG1 and liked it for what it was and wanted more, so suddenly hitting the metaphorical brakes with TAG2 feels incredibly out of place, what with its tendency for simple fodder-only enemy waves. Narratively this also creates a massive whiplash, where you finally arrive at the True Big Bad’s Lair, but it’s mostly populated by these Demonic Troopers that explode if you so much as hit them with the Meathook, so your archnemesis ends up feeling underwhelming and like a bit of a joke.

Fourthly, I hear TAG2 is supposed to be a ‘victory lap’ or a ‘power fantasy’, but that is, quite frankly, cope. A power fantasy only works when you have something worthy to exercise your awesome power against. Whenever you’d pick up a power-up like the Quad Damage in a game like Quake 1 (or just Doom Eternal itself), it would throw a greater amount of enemies at you that would normally be bullshit to deal with without the power-up. It feels good because now you’ve got the power to pull one over the foes that have been making your entire life miserable up until now. Being given a power-up and the game throwing even less enemies at you than before is not a power fantasy, but an anticlimax. Being given a full loadout and an overpowered hammer that can stun groups of enemies, and then have the only opposition you face be on par with what you faced in the middle part of the base game, is an anticlimax. And as far as I can tell, TAG2 isn’t trying to be anticlimactic for narrative reasons that could possibly justify this direction in gameplay.

There is also another issue that plagues TAG2’s pacing, one which would persist even without the aforementioned changed in direction--namely: You’re introducing five new enemy types (Riot Soldiers, Cursed Prowlers, Screechers, Armored Barons, Stone Imps, I’m not counting the Demonic Troopers LOL), a new equipment item in the form of the Hammer, and Meathook platforming in a DLC consisting of three levels (or looking at Immora, it’s more accurate to say two-and-a-half). Where are you going to find the time and space to let the player get acquainted with all these new gameplay elements, while also delivering a climax gameplay-wise that’s befitting of the last piece of official main story content?

Well, you don’t.

Save for the Hammer, every new element in TAG2 is tragically underutilized. New enemies like the Armored Barons and Stone Imps tend to largely appear by themselves and are rarely accompanied by other Heavy demons, whereas the new support demons like Screechers and Cursed Prowlers are only used in relatively low-intensity encounters, and almost never in something major. Having new enemies appear by themselves or with only minor support makes sense for when you encounter them for the first time and have yet to learn how they work, but that’s about the only capacity said demons appear in. Meanwhile the actual major encounters in TAG2 barely use the new demons at all. Meathook platforming is also mostly used to traverse large gaps, but almost never in combat. When it is used in combat, it’s usually as a single Meathook point above a largely flat and sparsely populated arena that already has tons of space to move around in. I can only imagine this all being a consequence of the “we’ll properly flesh this stuff out later in the Master Levels” philosophy.

You really shouldn’t be introducing too many new things at the very end of the game, as it gives you very little space to flesh out said elements. The base game stopped introducing new enemies and weapons after Taras Nabad (bosses and Makyr Drones excluded), and dedicated the remaining four levels to realizing its own potential by combining the existing enemies in different ways to create more demanding but also more unique encounters. TAG1 did introduce Spirits in its second level and Blood Makyrs in its third and final level, but TAG1 got more mileage out of both enemies individually than all new enemies in TAG2 combined, on account of not having to juggle a dozen new elements at once. It also helped that everyone knew that TAG2 was on the horizon, and that we might see even more interesting usage of the TAG1 enemies there (we didn’t). If we knew there was a TAG3 coming, then I wouldn’t be writing this paragraph.

What’s even weirder is that TAG2 already provides a solution for there not being enough time and space to play around with all the new elements, in the form Escalation Encounters. Casual players that prefer having an uninterruptible flow can simply ignore the optional and more intense second wave, whereas core players can get the challenge they crave and see aforementioned new elements being used to more interesting extents. This is also why it’s so unfortunate that Escalation Encounters aren’t used that much (only three times in TAG2), and that even then the second waves barely use any of the new TAG2 enemies.

As for the new enemies on their own; some are good, some are undercooked. The Screecher is a great addition, as it makes you be extra careful with where you shoot and how you use your AoE weapons if you don’t want to unintentionally buff all surrounding enemies and screw yourself over. The only qualm I have about this buff is that on top of buffing enemy attack and movement speed (á la Buff Totems), it also buffs enemy damage resistance. This isn’t a problem in TAG2 itself, since most Screecher encounters don’t have Superheavy demons as support, but for larger encounters in possible future (custom) Master Levels where several Superheavies are involved, accidentally getting a group of Superheavies Screecher-buffed would basically cause a massive death spiral, at which point you might as well reload your save. It’s for this reason that, just like with the Marauder, the Screecher doesn’t scale upwards well; the level designer needs to put a damper on the heavier demons when using the Screecher so things won’t spiral into absurdly difficult territory, which limits how the Screecher can be used. I believe that forgoing the damage resistance buff would make the Screecher more flexible in this regard.

The Cursed Prowler is another such enemy which introduces an interesting and unique dynamic that works well within TAG2’s levels, but wouldn’t scale upwards well in future Master Levels. Being cursed with limited mobility and having to seek out and Blood Punch a moving target that keeps running away from you is great, as it makes you improvise using a more limited toolset in the same way that the Screecher makes you reconsider how to use AoE weaponry. The problem is that this dynamic can only occur so long as the Cursed Prowler hits you. This means that an arena that holds back on enemy spawns to account for the possibility of being cursed runs the risk of being too boneless if you kill the Cursed Prowler without getting cursed, whereas an arena that doesn’t hold back at all is liable to turn into a death spiral if you do get cursed, and basically makes memorizing Cursed Prowler spawns a requirement. This is a similar problem that Buff Totems faced in the base game, where you were better off memorizing Buff Totem spawns and beelining towards them instead of dealing with the buffed enemies, which TAG1 got around by locking Buff Totems away from you and forcing you to deal with buffed enemies. Similarly, Cursed Prowlers would work better if being cursed was an inevitability (like being automatically cursed whenever a Cursed Prowler spawns, with this being telegraphed well in advance). This would make dealing with the status effect more predictable if you know when it’s coming, but this predictability should also allow designers to create encounters that are better tailored around being cursed, instead of having to design encounters around simultaneously being cursed and not being cursed. Even with that in mind, being unable to dash while cursed means you’re basically screwed against enemies like Tyrants, Doom Hunters, or Whiplashes where you absolutely must dash in order to avoid their attacks (the Meathook also works as a means to quickly GTFO, but it has its own cooldown), so to better allow for encounters where you end up being cursed against enemies like that without it becoming complete bullshit, it would be better to create some leeway by having dashes just recharge relatively slowly when you are cursed.

On another note, I also wish being cursed didn’t automatically give you a BP charge to always prepare you for killing the Cursed Prowler, and would actually deplete your BP gauge to begin with. Part of the dynamic of being cursed involves having to suddenly adapt to a limited moveset, and having to find other enemies to GK for BP’s while cursed (instead of immediately beelining towards the Crowler) could have played a great part in that.

The Armored Baron is a great albeit underutilized addition. It’s basically the Marauder Done Right; instead of only being able to wait for the Baron to give you an opening to disable its shields (like with the Marauder/Blood Makyr), you can also force an opening by shooting it with the Plasma Rifle and its mods, which also makes the Heat Blast somewhat useful for once because of its burst plasma damage. Instead of the Armored Baron being a non-factor that you only deal with after clearing out all other heavy demons (like with the Marauder), you do want to prioritize parrying/dodging its morning star attacks when they occur, because their range and accuracy is massive. The Armored Baron also occupies a different niche from the Blood Makyr where instead of being able to insta-kill it during its vulnerability window in one shot, you need to commit more time and ammo to kill it while it’s vulnerable. This is why the Armored Baron works best in pairs or together with other (super)heavy demons; other demons get in the way of you easily being able to burst down an Armored Baron while it’s vulnerable, while the Armored Baron still demands top priority when it does its morning star attack. This is also why it’s unfortunate that Armored Barons are rarely used in this capacity. On another note, I wish the vulnerability window for the morning star attacks was made a bit smaller, so you’d have a reason to actually go destroy the Armored Baron’s armor the hard way when things are getting too intense for you to easily focus on parrying the morning star.

The Riot Soldiers are supposed to be like the Doom 2 Chaingunners, but here they are just undercooked no matter how you want to try and use them. Their fast low-damage projectiles are too inaccurate to pose any threat whatsoever, and their indestructible shields are easily circumvented with only one Remote Detonation or Sticky Bomb. Riot Soldiers could work as a long-range harassment unit, where they bully you with nigh-unavoidable chip damage into breaking line of sight or prioritizing them first, but this could only work if they could actually reliably hit you and if they weren’t so simple to kill from long-range with explosive splash damage. The Challenge Restored mod has the right idea here where Riot Soldiers have increased projectile speeds, and take way less damage from explosive weapons, with the intent of using explosives to setup falters and finishing them off with another weapon. That way instead of quickly being able to delete Riot Soldiers from any range, you need to commit dealing with Riot Soldiers either by waiting for your explosives to detonate and falter them so you can finish them off at any range, or by simply moving around their shields.

The Stone Imps seem like a lazy way to get you to use the Full-Auto, but they do pose an interesting dynamic (if they’re not used only by themselves). So here you’ve got an ubiquitous fodder demon that cannot be killed using regular means. While Full-Auto does easily kill them, Full-Auto is also a mod that requires commitment in terms of deployment time and reduced movement speed when using it, so if you had to fight Stone Imps alongside heavier demons intruding on your personal space, then using only Full-Auto would be much less of a dominant solution. You also can’t easily choose to ignore Stone Imps until you take out all the bigger demons first, because Stone Imps have this homing spinball attack that’s tricky to avoid. Their damage vulnerability to the Hammer is also a neat idea in that you can expend a valuable Hammer charge to easily get rid of them in one shot. At least this would be a cool dynamic if getting Hammer charges wasn’t so easy, but more on that later. I do wish that the Stone Imp also had a damage vulnerability for other high-commitment options such as the Mobile Turret, Microwave Beam and Destroyer Blade, so you have a bit more freedom in deciding how exactly you are going to commit to dealing with Stone Imps.

Lastly, TAG2 introduces the Hammer. The Hammer is your replacement for the Crucible, and is a way more interesting tool that should’ve replaced both the Crucible and Chainsaw from the get go. The Chainsaw simply isn’t very interesting to use; with one press of a button you insta-kill an enemy for ammo, and the dynamic of being left vulnerable after a Chainsaw kill often doesn’t get capitalized on by the enemies (except for Mancubi and Possessed enemies), and even then can be mitigated by deploying the Chaingun Shield right after the kill animation ends. Meanwhile there is more depth to how you can use the Hammer as a tool to regain ammo, as a tool to stun enemies, or just to clear out fodder (kind of like DOOM (2016)’s Chainsaw dynamic of “do I save fuel to insta-kill a Baron, or do I want ammo now”, except the Hammer takes a less insane approach that doesn’t involve insta-killing any enemy with no effort). Enemies hit by the Hammer shockwave drop ammo, so the more enemies you hit at once, the more ammo you get. But you can also opt to forgo maximizing ammo gains to use it more offensively by stunning (super)heavy demons or using it to increase the vulnerability windows on enemies like the Armored Barons and Marauders, or enemies that are resistant to everything except the Hammer like the Stone Imp.

This is all great, but in practice the Hammer is way overpowered (especially once upgraded), and needs to be tuned down by a whole lot. The ammo gained per hit demon is large enough that grouping enemies together on purpose isn’t something you would really consider doing, which on top of already having the Chainsaw means that ammo will never be an issue ever. Hammering enemies that are already frozen with an Ice Bomb or set alight with the Flame Belch further multiplies the health/armor gains to absurd levels. The absurd upgraded stun duration on enemies hit by the Hammer, on top of the debuff that makes hammered enemies take bonus damage, means that you can kill most (super)heavies in one cycle (if you know how to quickswap), and is already obscenely OP on its own. Yes, it lets you very easily one-cycle Marauders which is based because they’re a trash enemy type, but that is honestly just a band-aid fix. Furthermore, the Hammer is also quite spammable because you only need to destroy two weak points or do two Glory Kills to recharge it (sidenote: having something fill up based on destroying weak points is great because it gives you a reason to bother shooting off the Revenant shoulder cannons), and even then TAG2 levels tend to litter arenas with Hammer charge pick-ups that make using the Hammer with its sheer power a brainless option. I want to use the Hammer, but its sheer power makes other parts of Eternal’s resource gathering and faltering dynamic too redundant. The Ice Bomb/Frag Grenades are about as or less powerful than the Hammer, but they’re also less spammable because of their lengthier cooldowns, and so end up being less useful on their own unless combined with the Hammer. In short, the Hammer needs nerfs nerfs nerfs--to the resources you gain from it, to the degree it stuns enemies, and to how frequently you can use it. As it is right now, it’s only suitably tuned for slaughter map-tier encounters, and way too strong for anything below that.

Finally, there’s the Dark Lord fight, which is bad. It’s basically a Super Marauder, except the Gladiator boss fight was already a Super Marauder, so the Dark Lord doesn’t get any points for originality. It’s also a much worse Super Marauder fight in every conceivable way. The biggest one is that it’s just terrible at pressuring you and testing your mobility. Most of his attacks can be avoided by simply circlestrafing or circledashing in the case of his shield bash, which you can do because the arena for the fight is ridiculously large and flat, and the Dark Lord has no fast ranged options that actually lead your movement. Compare this to the Gladiator who could snipe you with his morning stars, his shield projectile, his jumping rope attack, or by just rushing you and smacking you up close, or how the DOOM (2016) bosses would have more ranged attacks that indiscriminately covered the whole arena.

In terms of offense, the fight doesn’t fare much better. Whereas you could deal some chip damage to the Gladiator instead of having to only wait to parry its attacks, the Dark Lord gets straight up healed when you attack it when its eyes don’t flash green, even when it whiffs a melee attack (?!?!). This means there is absolutely no choice but to wait for that green flash to come, and whether the Dark Lord will do the one attack where he does flash green is very much up to RNG. Once you stagger him it’s a matter of optimizing how much damage you get out of the vulnerability time window by using the Hammer to extend the window and equipment to deal more damage, but in this context that’s not an interesting dynamic on its own. Since the fight is mostly a 1v1, applying a close-to-optimal quickswap combo becomes the dominant strategy, which is also one that isn’t that difficult to execute if you have set up some reasonable keybindings. Here the solution is obvious, is easy to execute, and must be repeated several times (for a minimum of two times for each of the five phases) with no reason to change it up, so it becomes boring. What wouldn’t have been boring if you had to find a way to deal the most damage possible while other demons kept trying to interrupt you--much like how fighting Armored Barons should ideally play out. Now depending on the situation you need to shift your priorities between doing sick combos and dealing with other demons. Charging the Hammer so you can deal extra damage is also a shallow dynamic in this fight, where instead of having to set up Glory Kills or target weak points on other demons, the enemies that the Dark Lord summons will straight-up drop Hammer charges on any kind of death, meaning there is no real choices to be had between prioritizing enemies for resources and prioritizing the Dark Lord to deal damage (and even then you can easily Meathook towards any of the static Zombies at the edge of the arena for a free Glory Kill/Chainsaw Kill).

In conclusion, as a result of trying to cram in too many new things in a small mission pack and trying to expedite properly utilizing said things to subsequent playthroughs, TAG2 ends up primarily feeling like wasted potential, and I would have genuinely preferred if it introduces less and polished what little it did introduce, than to wave all these cool concepts in our faces and do nothing with it. While introducing as many new elements as possible is great for future Master Levels both official and unofficial, vanilla TAG2 ends up suffering because of it, and vanilla TAG2 is what most people are going to be playing. I do hope that in the future id Software goes back to the base game’s approach to the learning curve, instead of TAG1’s approach of assuming the player is still completely familiar with all systems, or TAG2’s obsession with flow and increasing the intensity only very gradually over the course of its campaign.

DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two is the second DLC expansion released in 2021 to the first person Doom Eternal that was released the previous year. A sadly disappointing finale to the storyline that was set up in the first part also taking a step back in the overall gameplay quality as well.

The Doom Eternal gameplay loop is still fine and well here really. The new platforming element is a tiny nice touch here and despite the complaints with the hammer, I do like that they gave the doom slayer something new here at least. The music is also improved a little bit compared to TAG1 but it still doesn't reach the base game at all. The levels feel a bit uninspired except the last level even though it's essentially the penultimate level but in red which I did like from an art design perspective.

Despite the gameplay loop still being Doom Eternal, it's marred by a lot of awful gimmicks and new enemy designs that feel annoying and felt like created for the sake of making other weapon mods viable. They also decided to bring back slime for some reason in this expansion to the point I'm sure there's more of it in this 4 hour campaign than in the entire 20 hour base game. The hammer is definitely way too overtuned for normal play and provides way too many resources and long time stunning that along with the much lower difficulty in this expansion compared to the first makes this a much easier experience than TAG1 and it feels really disappointing considering the first expansion pack nailed several things right. The final boss while interesting in concept felt extremely anti-climatic with a lot of waiting around to really do anything along with being way too reliant on the hammer to even do anything substantial as well.

I feel like the time at Id used this expansion as a beta test of new enemy mechanics for the future game or something because it felt like they didn't have time to really play test how it would feel for the player and see if it actually changed the way you played unlike with the turrets and spirits in TAG1. The final boss took way longer than it had to and it felt like it was extremely dragged out to the point it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the next game.

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.

It's funny that right after I write a whole spheel talking about how much I love the maximalist feeling of Doom Eternal and constant adrenaline run it provides me that the second dlc pulls all the punches and delivers an almost Marvel Cinematic Universe experience and I mean that in the worst way.

I knew coming in that it would be easier (I watch hugo streams) but I wasn't expecting it to be doom eternal midgame. This would be fine, but the encounters are also extremely milquetoast. Enemies are introduced and then only fought in the same arena you see them or maybe you get an encounter that's just a bunch of them, not paired with other enemies much. You'll see a blood makyr here from DLC1, but it'll be the first thing you see that's easy to prioritize, or it'll be the only threat. Riveting.

I'm overgeneralizing, as there are a few solid encounters here, especially the optional encounters that were just absolutely major thrills that I loved almost completely. But it still feels like the trollish lovely feelings of Hugo and his team feel, well, minimized? Watered down?

I keep thinking of two things. Firstly, that this is the Doom 2 to DLC1's Plutonia. I mean this for several reasons. Like Doom 2, TAG2 perfects the roster that was already pretty good if even great after base game and TAG1. These new enemies are phenomenal even, with the cursed prowler being my favorite just for being a troll enemy done right that also punishes you just as well. They force you to use more of your weapon roster in an optimal pattern and contribute well to the "you will press these buttons and you'll press them right dammit". But, just like Doom 2, the overall design of the game is a major step down from previous. About half of the encounters are too basic, utilizing little of the synergy in waves or asking for much of what the core systems provide.

The second one I'm thinking of is Ninja Gaiden, no please stick with me. Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of my favorite games and is a pinnacle of extremely brutal fuck you blah blah blah i covered this in my TAG1 review, and rightly it's TAG1. This? It feels a lot like Ninja Gaiden 3. Something is 'missing' here, so missing that it takes me straight out of the game and makes me wonder where the soul went sometimes. It's so sanded off, devoid of much edge and made way easier. They throw a ridiculous amount of super ammo at you and then have you do a few encounters where you just spam the same move for spectacle.

If you're tired of me making analogies at this point, I guess the right wording to describe my feelings is disappointed, and rather underwhelmed. It's still Doom Eternal, something I love and probably will stay in my top 20 games for a very very long time. But the ending for it all feels remarkably... less of it. Minimal

Also PS, I respect hugo's balls to make the final boss a super marauder but this is the one time I'm going to say I wish he had no hand in this.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Huge improvement on TAG1, as controversial as that might be. This truly feels a lot more like the Doom II expansions and has a lot more variety and interest in locations and settings. Big upgrade in the soundtrack department, Hulsh and David Levy created a score that's MUCH more sludgy and distorted, definitely suiting the vibe of these new levels, and the theme for the final boss is just a masterpiece.

It also took me a while to come around to appreciating the final boss, but I really like him.

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.