Doom Eternal

Doom 2016 a truly fantastic FPS campaign, so naturally I was hyped for the sequel. As it turns out Doom Eternal is a very different game, some parts better, some worse yet, nevertheless a terrific game.

Eternal is a lot more of a tactical game (the thinking mans' way to blast demons), it keeps the same frantic gameplay from the original but now there's more to keep in mind. There is an addition of a chainsaw and a flamethrower which you need to gather ammo and armour respectively whilst glory kills net you health. It really makes you pick your spots, using the smaller enemies to gather resources, then taking out some of the large enemies, then repeat (not as boring as it sounds). I really did not like these changes at first, all I wanted to do was run around and shoot some baddies plus it made the game much more difficult early doors and I nearly gave up on it, then suddenly it all clicked and I fell in love.

There's a lot to love here. A great array of weapons which all have more to offer with attachments and all of which are still useful right up until the end of the game. This leads me to the gory nature supplied, chopping off body parts with the chainsaw, shooting arms off enemies, glory kills that could put Mortal Kombat to shame (no animalities unfortunately). There's great mobility in the arena battles as well, usually spread over several heights, with jump pads and hooks to swing off (it must be said I did keep falling off the edges, fortunately it just does a small amount of damage). I didn't mind the bosses either (shockingly), especially the last one which turned out great even though it was full of boss tropes I normally don't like (went on forever, loads of side enemies).

Some gripes. Number one, platforming. It's a widely believed fact that third person platforming always has been, and always will be dreadful. Why would anyone do this (Yes I have played Mirrors edge (it was bad and if you disagree you're wrong)). Another annoyance was the levels seemed too long. Granted there's multiple checkpoints where you can save and exit the game but I always feel like I have to finish a level, plus it means fewer interesting environments (that was the same as in the first one mind you) though it does hide some nice collectibles and useful items (namely '1 ups' (y'know, extra lives (yay 90's))). Didn't care for the story either, I preferred the more nuanced (I.E not having to to turn off my music to listen to dialogue), hidden away story in the first.

Overall I'm not sure which of the games I liked more, I would have to go back and play Doom 2016, which will never happen. Great game either way and I'm really glad I plugged away, something that normally makes me spend hours playing a game I don't enjoy because I 'have to' finish it (stupid mindset).

You may also like: Halo 3

So, Resident Evil 3 (remake, obviously) next, then who knows, there isn't really a game I'm interested in (except Gears tactics which I highly doubt would run on my laptop so gonna have to wait for the console release) until late May with Maneater, which might be delayed anyway what with everything getting delayed with this damn Corona virus, why does it have to effect videogames and football? selfish lockdown.

P.S To the powers that be, please port Bubble bobble 4 friends to PS4 and/or Xbox (also change the name as it's dreadful).

Ori and the will of the wisps

I want to talk a bit about a few games this year that I'm the most excited for this year, we'll see if I feel the same way when I'm done with Doom Eternal.

The first Ori was a great game, and as you know by now I love my 2D platformers, so I was always going to be excited for this one. In addition it's nice to see an Xbox exclusive that I'm actually excited for, even though I've migrated over to Playstation as of late I've got a lot of gamerscore to add to due to my love of the 360, my second favourite console (Sega Megadrive being first, obviously).

This game has a really sad story about Ori and his pals, including a young owl whom you save by turning in to a tree. I Just deleted a whole paragraph here to avoid spoilers (and it was boring, but mainly the first bit (and yes I know this is all boring but that deleted paragraph especially so)).

As far as platformers go, this controls great. I've been playing some not so great ones recently, namely Sonic Forces (for a second time) as it was a PS plus game, and although the 3D stuff was great (as 'great' as 3D Sonic can muster anyway), the 2D gameplay was very unresponsive (I had memories of this being nowhere near as good as Sonic Mania (the game originally released not long before Sonic Forces) of course, but crikey. Sonic Forces is so, so bad by comparison it's not even funny). This was a huge relief when I moved on to Ori and perhaps even made the game feel better to me. It is was also refreshingly simple. I find a lot of Metroid-vanias' get bogged down in way too much tracking back and go past their welcome. I really enjoyed 'The Messenger' for example, but it went on forever. That game was also punishingly tough whereas this was not so hard. Not particularly easy, but I never got stuck in any areas for too long and felt like the right amount of challenge.  

There's great style too, it looks beautiful and there are many different environments (albeit classic Metroid-vania tropes (or indeed most 2D platformers overall)  like a calm grass-landy area (like Emerald Hill), caves (like Mystic Cave), a water bit (like Aquatic Ruin) and some stuff high in the sky (like Hill Top) (Thanks Sonic 2 for the examples). The score works so well in the areas as well, nicely backing up the look, even including good sound effects. 

My one major gripe is the distance of the save points. Some are very close together, but one in particular took me quite a while to get to, which means I had to get through it before I could save and walk away (yes, I know the Xbone stays on and runs in the background but I prefer to unplug it as it seems like a waste of money on my energy bill (that's right, I don't care about saving the planet, just the money in my pocket (no I'm not being sarcastic))). I also learned playing this game that my elite controller was broke, I had been having problems with menus for a while but no problems with games, now finding that L3 didn't work and returning to the default controller it turns out the menus actually worked, and here was me thinking for months that it was because the console itself was getting old.

What was I talking about again? oh yeah. Wonderful game here, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes these kind of games, certainly one of my favourite in this genre. It took a couple of months this year for a 'must play' (for me anyway) to come out, but the first one has not disappointed.

You may also like : Guacamele 2 (1 is also good).

Next time on here: Doom Eternal (maybe).