Finding it really puzzling as to why this DLC is considered so divisive everywhere I read about it... I came into this thinking it was gonna be some crazy twist on the base game's mechanics, but it's really just The Ancient Gods Part 1 being refined further. It has missteps like the silly imps that exist purely to make you use the combat shotgun mod that no one likes, but like... it really is just more of the same, but harder.

The hammer was a really good addition to the combat loop, as awkward as the animation is. It provides more of a use for glory kills than as an i-frame generator. The finale is pretty mediocre, but I'm not really sure what else they could do, considering they kind of wrote themselves into a corner with the form they gave the Dark Lord.

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

A slightly less good experience than TAG1 due to a certain lack of.... creativity in the gameplay department i suppose?
TAG1 had lots of wacky combat scenarios and it felt like the designers weren't afraid of pushing the limits of what could be done on an expansion released to the unsuspecting public.
Meanwhile TAG2..... eh
But it's still Doom Eternal at the end of the day, and i feel like it's impossible to fuck up the combat loop due to how refined and perfected it is.
it has a cool hammer tho
and the final boss sucks dick

is it a hot take to say the dlc is significantly better than the main game? theres just a level of fun and intensity here i rarely got in eternal's campaign. the levels are fucking gorgeous, the musics great, and the final boss was incredible, unlike TAG1's boss. id say its just as good as ultrakill, but knowing hakita im sure layers 5 and 6 are gonna top this. but this is peak doom eternal, the people who say this is worse are liars. liars!

i had a great time with doom eternal, it was a fun couple of weeks.

There's a lot of questionable decisions in here (Doomguy riding a dragon most egregious of all), but most of them can be hand-waved with a simple "John Romero would have done this if he had the technology in '94"; even the MCU-aping 'portals' scene isn't all that far away from the original games including a bunch of barely-legal "homages" to metal music and The Evil Dead. DOOM isn't some sacred cow being slaughtered by Bethesda capital - it's always been a stupid anything-goes-fest and I respect TAG2 for recognising that and escalating it wherever it can despite working within the confines of the pandemic's peak. However, the game ending with an “always in our hearts” dedication to a ZeniMax lawyer and friend of the Clinton family who was embroiled in multiple financial fraud scandals while sat on Robert Trump's management board feels about as far from DOOM's original punk ethos as you can get. I pretend I don't see it.

I won't get into the nit and grit of the gameplay because what is the point when Durandal has literally hit it out of the park already like holy shit dude this is one of the best technically-minded reviews on the site, but I will allow myself to get smug about the Satan boss fight and say I enjoyed it very much because I recognised it for the DOOM fighting game that it is, a real "1v1 me" of timing, footsies and combos that tests how well you understand moving and grooving with Doomguy. Also, was that a NUTS.wad reference right before the final battle? Hell yeah dude.

DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 in one summary of experiences I've seen:

You either love it or hate it.

And for me I mostly love it, let's get into why

Gameplay: Admittedly, this is definitely easy compared to what we got in TAG 1 and even in the base-game in some sections. They did buff it up with a couple of updates after and it did become a little bit harder but other than that it's not that bad. Difficulty 7/10

They added a group of new enemies (mostly new fodder)

Screecher Zombie - Probably the laziest new addition to the game. I find these guys mostly tedious as hell but I will admit they do force me to be a little more cautious with stuff like breaking weakpoints, sticky bombs and rockets etc. Overall I just find the enemy mediocre 5/10

Riot Soldier - These guys don't add much to the game but of course they are the homage of Heavy Weapons Dude from DOOM II and are really cool. Overall a 7.5/10 (Wish they were in base game at the start first)

Stone Imp - These guys are kind of annoying depending on who you ask. Most players don't use Full Auto so having to use it to get rid of the enemy quicker seems tedious, for me it isn't a problem I'll do it with Full Auto or just chainsaw them (or quickswitch) Overall they aren't anything special but aren't as bland as the Screecher Zombie 6.5/10

Cursed Prowler - I'll admit, I actually like this new enemy. It's sort of bland just like the stone imp but it's an enemy you have to be on the lookout for which is something I love (Archvile's, Spirits, Blood Makyrs). And when you get hit the intensity turns up so fast. Overall 8/10

Armored Baron - Absolutely love this new enemy, you can take it out in many different ways and the overall design is sick as hell. If you don't like the Marauder this guy is like him but you also don't have to wait for a flash. He's definitely the coolest of TAG 2. Overall 9/10

Level Design: I really loved the level design in this DLC. I liked the puzzles even though they were easy. The Meathook points though are what really made this so good it's absolutely amazing and I wish they were in the base game too. Overall 8.5/10

Music: I think the music here is fine, not as memorable as base game or TAG 1 but holy shit does the Immora Heavy Fighting theme go so fucking hard. That alone makes this shit an 8/10

The Dark Lord - I have to admit I struggled with this boss on Nightmare for the first time due to his healing shenanigans. But after going back to him this boss fight is really redundant and a pretty disappointing end to Eternal. If only Covid didn't get in the way... overall 6.5/10

Artstyle and Atmosphere - This is such a beautiful way to end the game. The Earth was as colorful as you could imagine, the aftermath of Hell on Earth is what you'd expect. World Spear, Reclaimed Earth, and Immora all look insanely beautiful and have such beautiful colors. They really nailed the look of what I expected the end of the game to be (outside of Story) 10/10

Story: Yeah this is pretty disappointing to say the least. The Dark Lord is just DOOM Guy but in a buffed up suit and he's not even at full power btw. The end of the game was like some Marvel fight and I don't entirely hate it like some people do don't get me wrong, but it definitely wasn't in the same tone we got from 2016-Eternal Base-Game. The cinematics though were pretty beautiful. All in all I'm not very intrigued with the story but it wasn't painfully bad like some people think imo. Overall 6.5/10

DLC Overall 8/10
I don't think this could've been the best way the game ended but with what we got I can say I enjoyed it and the gameplay itself is good ol' Doomy Turnal that's easier than TAG 1 and Base Game.

It’s not as good as the base game or Part 1, but it still rocked.

Whereas Part 1 felt like the tallest mountain to climb in the entire Doom Eternal experience, this plays like more of a victory lap, up until the hilarious middle finger of a final boss.

The Avengers: Endgame thing, the fact that the last level is basically just High Charity from Halo 2, the dragon, the ending… I don’t really care. I haven’t really cared about the story in Doom 2016 or Eternal, so none of it bothers me. It’s fine.

The Ancient Gods Part 2 was more of Doom Eternal’s highly-engaging, active gameplay experience, with some new additions and unlocks. It was significantly easier than part 1, which is disappointing but not the end of the world.

While I still like the first dlc a bit more, this was absolutely not a disappointment

It follows the trend of TAG1 with memorable and great areas that have enjoyable platforming, samey but still excellent arenas and stellar asthetics.
The platforming is made 2 times better with the addition of the meathook grapple points but they are terribly underutilized in combat(a pattern with this dlc)

It's easier than TAG1 but still pretty difficult(on UV at least). The escalation encounters being an example of this. I loved them. The hammer, while a bit overpowered, is incredibly fun to use and a good replacement of the crucible. I wished you needed more than 2 glory kills to be able to use it tho. At least like 4 or 5.

Like in TAG1 the music is good and fitting but not that note worthy outside of the final boss
The story was dumb but in a good way. Can't express just how, for lack of a better word, epic the end cutscene for the world spear or the first cutscene in Immora were. The lore was interesting and the ending was satisfying but the plot twist at the end is pretty stupid and bad

The new enemies are generally good, even if they are reskins, but are mostly underutilized. The screechers are great and add a layer to the encouters he's in but he should have appeared in every major fight instead of a couple few.
Armored barons are my favorite enemy in the dlc. I love that you can either instantly break off their armor or microwave beam it. Plus it feels like one of the new enemies that was used the most.
Stone imps are good, it's pretty satisfying to kill them with the full auto mod but they should have replaced most regular imps in the dlc
I also really liked the curse prawler but I obviously wished he was used more and that you didn't had to use a blood punch to kill it since if it happens to curse you while you don't have it, you're just dead
Riot shield soldiers and demonic troopers are pretty forgettable. They're fine but not that interesting as the rest.

Now here's a very hot take: Dark Lord is the best boss across all of modern doom. He was incredibly tough but I really loved to learn his moveset even if it's a bit rng based. I also really liked that the enemies he spawns die quickly so the fight doesn't become a clusterfuck and the fact that you need to use the hammer to stun him is just simply fun. But I wished he didn't heal nearly as much. Nothing is more annoying than almost being done with one of his hp bars, only to do a mistake and he healing half of his bar, making all of your progress obsolete. A big fuck you moment to what is a great boss and ending to this dlc, far better than Samur, I'll be honest.

Overall, a fantastic dlc that is bogged down by underutilized mechanics. I don't think I have to say it but buy it, it's more doom at the end of the day, which is always welcomed

STOP... HAMMER TIME!!!















Jokes aside I know it isn't as hard as the previous dlc, but it's still more Doom Eternal and I love the shit out of Doom Eternal, so I still went through this whole thing with a huge smile on my face.

It's just more Doom Eternal, and I love Doom Eternal.
The final boss was mid but it's still an amazing dlc.
The plot makes absolutely no sense but that's also why it's so good, it doesn't have to make sense. It's Doom.

also it looks and plays amazingly on switch