DOOM Eternal

adrenalina pura

Doom Eternal is an intense twitch FPS which adds cooldown juggling to acrobatic movement for a demanding, but rewarding, combat system. It does take some getting used to, but eventually keeping all those balls in the air becomes a delightful dance. The game is also paced with exploration & light puzzle sections which are always welcome after a series of combat challenges. Even the bosses are well-designed to test the player's skill at positioning themselves and making the right calls in the heat of battle. Although I found a few moments frustrating, this is by-and-large an excellent followup to Doom 2016. If I were rating solely on gameplay, I'd give it a 4/5. However, there are three non-gameplay issues which diminished my experience considerably. First: the story becomes a self-serious talky mess about two-thirds of the way through the game. I loved being the protagonist that punches through unimaginative game dialogue in Doom 2016, so this was a major disappointment. Second: id Software and Bethesda basically stole much of the music from Mick Gordon, whose exemplary soundtrack is a major cornerstone of the game. Third: in order to play this game, even in single-player mode, you are required to make a Bethesda account so that they can sell your personal data to advertisers. This basically means you are paying for the game twice - once with your hard-earned money, and a second time with the monetization of your personal data. These artistic and moral failings make me disgusted with the developer, the publisher, and with the games industry as a whole. What good is art if the artists aren't compensated fairly and corporate executives exploit our love of art for societally-deconstructive profit?