REKKR: Sunken Land

Prior to playing Rekkr, I had only beaten the first episode of the original Doom. Seeing as Bethesda gave Rekkr official status as a Doom prequel, and I wanted to get into the series, I gave this an honest try. This may well be one of my favourite games of all time. I loved it. In order from best to worst: Episode 3: Otherworld Episode 2: Downfall Episode 4: Sunken Land Episode 5: Bonus Episode 1: Homecoming Episode 6: VR-3KKR SPOILERS AHEAD I did some research, and I'm not sure if I'm right, but 1-3 may have been the original game, and I especially love the ending of Otherworld, and Otherworld as a whole, so I support this. A couple really tiring levels in Homecoming, but Downfall was much more action packed and interesting, I loved the end going down the hallway into Hell. Otherworld stomped, no question. By the time I got out of Hell and saw the snow, it'd been several IRL months of playing on and off, and when I threw my helmet down in the snow, I cried. I felt like a real hero who just went on a long, tiresome journey, and could finally rest. Sunken Land has the most interesting lore implications, seeing Rekkr gain hold of a Lost City's time travel technology --- Is this a reference to the Doom predecessor Catacomb? Perhaps not, but I remember the TIme Wizards. Either way, Rekkr saves space and time, keeps the power for himself, and in the end I thought it was a second "Oh it's my wife turning into a demon" boss fight but no, you walk in the front door, she's there, dressed in beautiful blue, blond hair flowing, staring out the window... ...And you be with her. After saving the world, time, and space, you get to settle down and be with your wife and child, all the while you have the power to go where and when you choose. What a phenomenal ending to a phenominal game. I know Bonus came before Sunken Land release wise, but it loads in as EP5 if you put it in Sunken Land so lore wise I just said I guess some demons still lurked and hid near Rekkr's property. I can see why this isn't an official inclusion, the skybox is a bit silly although pleasant, the levels are not as well made although highly enjoyable nonetheless, but there is no story at all unfortunately, I sort of filled it in myself. FInally, VR-3KKR, which is lore wise my favourite, but gameplay wise contained almost all my least favourite levels in the entire game. I did not enjoy myself, I found myself screaming at my computer several times, spam-reloading, and getting generally red-faced and irritated. The infinite eyes are really frustrating, especially when the final boss can eat your entire explosive staff's ammo from max to 0 and they just flash in front of you and cause you to die instantly (Shotgun is safer but slower, and if you are casual like me you WILL die to the eyes as you shoot so much slower). Also her machine gun version of the holy relic was the primary source of my screaming. But, after over an hour and a half, I finally beat her fair and square, so tired from yelling I didn't bother to celebrate, just shut the game off in the end. That being said: 1) I suck, this is a skill issue I know 2) The lore implications of the ending are so mysterious!!! My theory is this. Now, I doublt ol' Rekkr our viking friend is a programmer, but somehow the Lost City's technology perhaps through AI made the VR-3KKR virtual training program for Rekkr to hone his weapons testing. So, dude gets into VR. In the end though, it fails to resuscitate him, and fails to power down, so it just reboots, making VR-3KKR an infinite loop. ...Is our boy in Virtual Valhalla? Did he pass away gamering on us all in time travel VR, and his consciousness fights demons in the levels that haunt my nightmares? Or when he stepped in in Sunken Land, did it scan him and build it himself, and someone like Doomguy in the future is training using Rekkr's model? I couldn't find anyone really talking about this, so those are my 2 cents. I personally like the virtual valhalla theory and think it's a perfect post ending and made my agony nearly worth my while. Original Rekkr: 9.1/10 Sunken Land + Bonus: 8.4/10 VR-3KKR: 6.1/10 All in all Rekkr is a great game, I'm glad I played it, it's blasphemous to say but I like it more than EP1 of Doom that I played.