DOOM Eternal and DLC - The Ancient Gods - Parts One and Two (PS5)

I bought DOOM Eternal for my PS4 a while back. The original game didn't sit well with me. The platforming was tedious, the combat was similar to the DOOM 2016 version which I liked, but added a few mechanics I wasn't a fan of like invulnerable shields that slowed down gameplay and stopped playing.

Fast forward about a year, and the ray tracing version came out a few days ago. I installed it on my new PS5 and blasted through it on easy to experience the graphics.

Graphics and Performance

They look great. Performance in ray tracing mode was a pretty consistent 60 FPS. Lots of nice reflections. Sometimes there were a lot of really cool effects on screen at the same time, like when you chainsaw an enemy.

Gameplay

The base DOOM Eternal game was decent here. I eventually got used to the combat mechanics. Different enemies have different weak points, but for the most part it doesn't get in your way. 

The DLCs are where gameplay started to go downhill. New types of enemies that can only be killed with one weapon, or even worse one specific mod on a particular weapon. I don't understand why the game gives you this awesome arsenal of fun weapons, but doesn't let you use them to suit your play style.

The final boss of the second DLC is the worst example of this. The player must wait around in a boring arena, and play exactly how the game wants you to play - by not using your weapons for minutes at a time. Even worse, if you do use your weapons when the game doesn't want you to, it will punish the player by healing the boss. It is the opposite of everything DOOM 2016 was and to a degree opposite of the base game experience. It really makes absolutely no sense.

DOOM Eternal: 7/10 looks great on PS5, plays smooth, pretty fun mechanics

The Ancient Gods Part One: 4/10 removes abilities from the player to artificially increase difficulty. Still looks great though

The Ancient Gods Part Two: 1/10 it's half baked, tedious, and not fun. The only thing going for it is the graphics, but really nothing new when compared to the base game or DLC 1.

State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition (XBox Series S)

Recently I was searching for a base building game, ideally one that didn't have much of a plot. This came up in a search result, so I gave it a go.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay loop is to gather loot from abandoned houses, fighting  zombies along the way, and then dropping the supplies off at your home base. Layered on top of that basic loop are systems like character development (leveling, skill trees) and rudimentary base building (selecting about five different types of buildings to place in defined areas).

These systems are what really drove me to keep playing a couple of hours in. Tweaking different things and finding out how different systems interact with each other is pretty fun, and can reduce the tedium of doing supply runs.

As for the actual base building mechanics, as a stand-alone feature there isn't a lot of creativity that you as a player can express in this area. You select presets and options for objects like kitchens, armories, bunks... but overall the game gave me the feeling that there are only a limited number of these base building options that would ever work together. Once you find the right mix of beds/gardens/outposts in your base, there is little incentive to set up new buildings or tweak what already works.

Story

There's no story really. You complete the usual open world quests like go here and kill a guy, and about 12 hours later you'll complete the game. Not a negative really, if you keep this in mind going into the game.

Graphics

I played this on my new XBox Series S. The graphics for the game look pretty dated at times, and sometimes the FPS dropped below 60.

Definitely not a 'next-gen' type game.

Conclusion

Overall, I found the experience enjoyable enough. The grind of bringing supplies back and killing zombies was propped up with a few different systems that can at times interact in interesting ways. Base building has a part to play, but not as much as I hoped it would.

7/10