April 05, 2021
In the heading "Direct text" The authors express exclusively their own opinion, which may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial office (or may coincide). They are free to do it as they like and in any format convenient for themselves. Everything is possible here.
Doom 2016 The formula of the first -person shooters was re -raised for years: having made enemies with sources of health and cartridges, she forced the user to play as aggressively as possible, thanks to which the battles became unusually driving and saturated. Doom Eternal continued to develop the ideas of her predecessor, only in a couple of places, turning the wrong way. But in DLC The Ancient Gods This turn “in the wrong way” became the main direction – and this undermined the outstanding gameplay of the updated series.
Put the foundation
Refusing the failed prototype of the fourth “Duma”, the adopted Call of Doom for excessive similarities with the Activision franchise, ID returned to the stage of prototyping with the luggage of experience and understanding how not to do. It was decided to put Fan at the head of the table – that is, maximize the player's involvement and his pleasure from what is happening. This was reflected in the philosophy of the game: "Make a player think, make the player move".
Based on this thesis, the developers filmed many mechanics. So, a double jump increased mobility and made it possible to be more active and aggressive. But they refused to reload: she forced to stop attacking, reducing the dynamics of battle. To motivate the player to be in motion, enemies were often forced to miss the moving goal. But the most important decision of the developers was the transformation of opponents into sources of two main resources in the game: cartridges and first -aid kits.
In classic shooters, the exhausting ammunition and low health level forced the player to be distracted from the battle for the search for the objects scattered in terms of the level (and if they were coming to an end, then alas and ah). And if there were many enemies (as, for example, in Serious sam), then the main key was not W, but S. No matter how Sam is ironic over the fact that he hates to run back, he did not have any other way out: if the proximity of the opponents promises only to get damage, it is logical to avoid.
Doom 2016 got rid of all these old sores in one fell swoop. Simple “garbage” enemies were cut with one wave of a chainsaw – and the ammunition immediately sprayed from them a fountain. They also had one shot (or even a pair of pumpkins) to go into a stunned state, opening them for brutal finishing – and it already gave the hero health. And the more dangerous the enemy was, the more generous the reward fell from him.
Thanks to this, the player always tried to stay from enemies in the doom 2016: they were too dangerous nearby, but from afar it was possible not to be in time for finishing – in this case the enemy came to his senses and regenerated. The simple murder of a stunned one from a weapon was not awarded anything, but during the animation of the "fatalitia" the hero was invulnerable.
The developers neatly acted with enemies: the majority received long -range attacks, from which it was fun to dodge. The ID deliberately reduced the number of enemy attacks in the area and forbade them to blow red barrels: when fireballs whistle past the ears, it is fun, and when you are touched by some wave, "it's like arches on the skateboard site". Monsters who aggressively pursued the hero and attacked him close, as a rule, let them go into the arena one at a time so that the player did not become too stuffy.
Completely charging the chainsaw, it was possible to use it as a cheaty “vanshot” of any enemy in the arena. Since there was no deficit of ammunition in Doom 2016, such its use was seen optimal
Three gameplay pillars were constant movement, aggressive behavior and improvisation. The first two points were necessary for survival: if the player stood still or did not run up to enemies for finishing, his chances of survival were rapidly reduced. But, in addition, DOOM did not constrain the user in choosing the means and did not indicate how to play him.
At the same time, a deliberately profitable exploit was laid in it: the switch between the guns took less time than the rollback before the next shot. It was possible in a couple of seconds to make a powerful shot of three types of weapons in a row, giving out tremendous damage. This looked, of course, like ridiculous masturbation with metal trunks, and, fortunately, it was optional. Many, in general, instead of experiments with different types of weapons, were limited to their beloved reliable double -barreled item.
On the one hand, this left the player the opportunity to choose his own style. On the other hand, many (especially the barrels mastered the juggling) The game seemed too simple. Yes, and the developers themselves clearly did not suit the situation-and they decided to fix something in the sequel.
To twist to the limit
Doom Eternal was released by the game of contradictory. For me, this turned out to be a surprise: I was delighted with her, he was breaking her to the release by the new king of the shooters and was sure that she would be met with the same enthusiasm as her predecessor. In the end, almost everything in it looked like a natural continuation of the ideas of the original. There were grenades and chainsaws on Kuldown, and then the second grenades appeared, a fist and flamethrower – new reasons to approach enemies closer. A double jerk and a hook on a double -barreled steamer were added, raising the hero’s mobility to an prohibitive level. She lost her power in power and stopped sawing large demons, but a sword-ladder filled this niche. The same, but more and more saturated.
Hugo Martin, the development manager, a sense of proportion, was a popular reason for criticizing Eternal: yes, there was more, but perhaps it was worth stopping early, dissatisfied said. Someone too tightened with obstacles with obstacles, others did not like almost a cartoon of the game of the game, others upset the emphasis on the narrative (and the canonization of the old stupid comic book about Rip and Tear). But most of all the disturbances were caused by a constant lack of ammunition: highly limiting the ammunition of each barrel, the developers tried to motivate players to switch between different types of weapons. In my opinion, this did not particularly damage the basics of gameplay: in the end, doom 2016 and so forced to constantly finish enemies for health, and the fact that now they had to be sawed a little more often, did not greatly change the state of affairs.
But other innovations could already be regarded as an attempt on freedom of improvisation. A number of enemies appeared weaknesses – aimed fire allowed to deprive them of combat effectiveness. I preferred not to do this: instead of gnawing from the demon a piece, it is better to kill him as soon as possible. Other enemies had vulnerabilities to a specific type of attacks: Kakodemon opened for finishing after one grenade, and Pinky was completely dying from one fist in the face. Although both of them could be killed by the old fashioned way, the inefficiency of this was too obvious: why spend valuable ammunition when you can feed the round -in -law of the undergent?
With the introduction of vulnerabilities, some modifications of guns became clearly more valuable than others. For example, a undergrowth on a shotgun or a targeted shot on a rifle: he skillfully demolished the vulnerable points, and killed drones from one headshot. But customization with the help of runes still gave sufficient freedom, and if desired, it was possible to pass most of the game, ignoring the desires of the developers. For example, the “Base of the Cultists”, the first workshop, accessible immediately on the launch of the game, I without much difficulty ran to “ultra-burnt”, using an exclusively double-barreled man as a weapon and nothing else. All three pillars of DOOM 2016 gameplay were saved in Eternal – but one enemy also appeared in the game, who was seriously encroaching on them.
No, not tentacles. But of course, they also tried to ruin everything: why do you need such a lack of spite at all?
Give the Marauder
This, of course, is about a looter. Never in Doom there was no such thing that the shots did not go through the enemy. Yes, Pinky had an armored forehead, and the soldiers were hiding behind the energy schools, but they easily punished behind, and if desired, it was possible to completely drill their protection with their damage. The magor is not like that: no matter how hard you try to outwit it, he will get his shield out of nowhere and block your attacks. Even from BFG.
Magor forces to play by his rules. If you are close, you will get a charge of fractions in the face and cannot do anything. If you are far away, he will throw a ray at you, and you still cannot do anything. If you are especially lucky, then he will also lower the dog on you, and you will have to deal with her-and he will still be invariable. And only if you find yourself at the distance you need, then he may be swung an ax – and will give you a whole second so that you shoot and stun the reptile … for a couple of seconds. Which is enough just to quickly switch to another weapon that gives out powerful charges. In a battle with him, the juggling of the trunks becomes necessary: the window for applying damage is too small for anything else. Goodbye, improvisation.
Yes, Splash Damage works for the looter, and theoretically you can kill him, shooting not at him, but around. But this will still require all your attention and the entire ammunition of explosive shells
The looter is the betrayal of all the ideas that formed the basis of Doom 2016, and this is especially noticeable if you listen to what the developers were guided by then.“AI in Doom is needed in order to maintain a feeling of coolness of the player. Since he must move all the time, he has no time to look at AI: while he shows the subtleties of his behavior, the player either shot this enemy, or distracted the next one, ”they said then."Doom is not about accuracy". But with the doom looter, it turns into the exact opposite of this statement: the player is exactly what is worth and looks at AI. Yes, and accuracy, it turns out, is still needed, because the looter is to indecent quickly: in order to respond to his attacks, you have a literally fraction of a second.
All three central ideas of the new doom – constant movement, aggressive gameplay and improvisation – are destroyed by a looter. You are contraindicated to be at some distance, except for the one on which it is covered with an ax. You no longer play aggressively – you are humbly waiting, when AI deigns to launch the animation you need. It is also unprofitable to improvise: any oversight – and a second window for damage will close.
When developing DOOM 2016, ID deduced four factors in the failure of the aggressive style of the game: if the player runs away from enemies, holds them in the doorway, shoots them from afar or dragging them along the arena. There are no doors on the Eternal arenas, but the drones are killed precisely from afar, and thanks to the Marauders, the first and last points became a reality. The magor requires the full attention of the player for a sufficiently long time-and if there are still some serious opponents in the arena, this does not remain unpunished. So, it is precisely what to run from the looter, until the space is free from unnecessary interference, and then spend the same combo on it. This is the most stuffy enemy in Doom Eternal, and it is good that he meets only three to four times in the entire game.
Go into a dead end and get on the wall
The Ancient Gods, an addition to Doom Eternal, fell into the same trap as many other DLCs: since it is designed for people who have already passed the game, the difficulty in it should be higher. And how can you easily raise the difficulty without introducing new enemies? Spam old. Without brakes. It used to be the developers who tried not to let more than one pursuer into the arena at the same time. They used to make the arenas spacious and entered the word "move" the basis of the game. Now you can forget about these principles. After all, this is DLC!
Go to us in The Ancient Gods! Here, at the first and a half, they are waiting for you:
- a small arena, half of the floor in which causes damage, and Archville in a narrow dead end;
- a tyrant locking a player in a tiny room;
- enemies shooting the hero while he climbs up and cannot fire;
- two looters at once;
- a looter, reinforced by a totem that cannot be destroyed;
- a five -meter patch of land and a thirty -meter tentacle, hollowing exactly into it;
- And even more looters about and without reason.
This is an unbearable stuffiness. And it applies not only to the first part of the TAG: in the master-level of the “bloody supergnezdo” the same workshop, exactly the same thing is found. When you see two tyrants and a hunter (and a few more carcasses) on a heel of scanty sizes, I want to grab Hugo Martin by the scruff and poke his nose in the words said by his wards about the concept of doom 2016. “Always think, always move” by the end of 2020, there was nowhere to run, switch the weapon as quickly as possible or die ”.
But there are also new opponents. The developers threw their previous dogmas into the garbage bucket and instead of the guidelines that they were guided by when creating Doom 2016, chose a new guide to the star of the Marass. Because all fresh enemies also force the player to dance to their tune.
The turret is vulnerable only when it shoots at the hero. It is worth looking at it longer than a couple of seconds, and it disappears – only in order to shoot in the back in a second.
Bloody drone is also always invulnerable, except for the moments. And nearby he does not make them – so you need to move away, get a rifle with an eye and wait for it to inflate. Yes, he, fortunately, also dies from one headshot, but that if you do not have time to wait for him? Then the drone will put on the arena with wide attacks on the area (yes, the very ones that they intentionally refused in 2016) – and they not only cause damage, but also slow down the hero. He, you know, decided to move! Stop and sniper!
The boss The Ancient Gods Part 1 and slows down with shots, and creates some flying eyes that also shit around themselves ao-atams. And then begins to produce endless bloody drones
Stone impressions exist solely in order to force the user to change the nozzle on a shotgun. Since Eternal made an under -barrel grenade launcher necessary against cacodemones, which means that it is necessary to introduce such enemies that will only die from the modification for automatic shooting. In a word, the developers give the player motivation with the subtlety and grace of King Kong.
Maneuverability, and the explosive wave of grenades and missiles, and the plasma that exploded the shields (however, any other damage was also suitable) helped against soldiers with shields. DLC soldiers have become impenetrable. They still do not carry great danger, they are still easy to demolish an explosive wave – just the options in the battle became even smaller.
Armored baron is invulnerable to uniform. Its armor can either be painfully and painfully gnawed with plasma, or put it with one counterattack when it swings – yes, just like a looter. The choice is obvious, which means that all the attention will again have to be paid to the ages of AI of one enemy. But this is half the age, because his armor is restored in a matter of seconds, and everything must be repeated again.
The spirit instilles in demons and enhances them, in addition to speed and survivability, giving them immunity from stunning (which was used just with a quick change of guns for endless combo). After the murder of an enhanced demon, the spirit becomes available for murder … for five seconds. Only one modification of plasma. Everything else does not work. If you did not have enough plasma for killing the spirit, you will not have time to cut the nearest zombie and return to it – it will get into the next demon, and everything will go down the drain.
Moreover, the microwave beam – the only thing he is vulnerable to – makes the player actually stand still and, as a result, flaunt from all around. And to kill all other enemies at first – perhaps not the best solution, because reinforced demons are extremely nimble: even their shots fly faster – and, as a result, it is more difficult to dodge them. The spirit prevents the player from thinking and moving, and improvised.
The enemy, invulnerable to all types of weapons, except for one, previously met only once in Doom – it was the last boss Doom 3. Great landmark, Hugo!
And when you start to think that it will no longer be worse, the game throws up the damned dumb. This is such a small and completely inconspicuous enemy, throwing from afar with snot … who, if hit by cursing the hero so that he seems to be without legs: he is forbidden to make a breakthrough. The whole screen covers green, health constantly dripped into minus, mobility at zero, and the only way to remove the curse is to smear on a villain with a bloody blow. That he is not charged? https://betti-gb-casino.co.uk/ Suffer, because even the loss of life does not take off the curse. No tip passes around the monster (that is, you can’t catch on it for it), it becomes invulnerable to your weapon, and if you try to approach it closer, it can simply teleport to the floor higher. In words, do not convey how unbearable the game makes perfumes and damned dumbbells. This is no longer a festival of cruelty named after a player, this is torture.
The only new opponent from DLC that I do not want to scold is a frail zombie that strengthens the surrounding enemies in case of death. He does not interfere with improvisation in any way, only sets the condition: do not touch it. But even in case of failure, reinforced enemies still do not prohibit playing as you want. Unlike all other newcomers.
And the final boss, which is all the same looter, only stretched for five phases, completes the sad picture. Throughout the battle, you need to painfully wait until the opponent makes the only attack that can be fended, after which it is necessary to extend its stunning and then pour in damage. But only if you miss his blow, he will be cured. Strongly. Does this make it more difficult? No. But even more prolonged – yes.
I would also like to note the last phase in which he begins to constantly call not only frail magar dogs, but also the spirits of the worst opponents – a tyrant, baron, elemental and mankubus at the same time. Since they are ghosts, mechanics of ordinary enemies do not work on them: they do not give health, armor or cartridges. In the end, the developers threw the last brick from the foundation of the game in the trash. How is indicative.
For comparison, remember the final boss of Eternal itself: complete freedom of movement and selection of weapons at constant pressure from the hordes of enemies, which at the same time remained sources of resources. The episodes were always unlucky with bosses, but it was in Eternal that ID at least succeeded
The broken trough
For a long time, Doom Eternal was the main contender for the title of game 2020 for me. But after DLC, such thoughts disappeared: the negative from the first part of The Ancient Gods poisoned the impressions from the main game. The Eternal, for which I was happy to rest, was replaced by a set of frank scractions of the level of an invisible bridge from Plutonia.
Tag1 was so sadistic that with the release of TAG2 its complexity was retroactively reduced, reducing the number of opponents and lowering their aggressiveness. Now it can be passed without cursing every five minutes, although gamed decisions will not become better from reduced complexity.
Critics of the Eternal, with whom I zealously argued before the release of DLC, were still right: the developers did not know the measure and do not understand when to stop. Only if in Eternal they crossed the line only once – with a looter – then in Tag came to the full, demonstrating contempt for all the ideals that did doom 2016 and Eternal so beloved by my shooters. I still think that doom is a game about constant movement and management of resources, but for them it is obviously already about gimming three trunks per second. We obviously out of the way.
Only one thing is comforted: in Tag2, the storyline of the new doom came to an end (and so that even the most ardent fans remained unhappy). I would like to hope that if the Hugo Martin team takes up the revival, for example, Quake , then it will begin again with a clean sheet – and it will think about the essence of the game, about its basic principles. Even if they have enough memory again for only years, then we, at least, get at least a couple more sensible games.
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