eh, I definitely saw what DOOM Eternal was going for in terms of gameplay, but I wasn't really a fan of how it turned out in the end. the previous game was definitely a bit barebones as far as innovative gameplay was concerned but that was OK—it was a solid shooter, and a somewhat surprisingly good DOOM game! some people didn't care for the "arena" combat but I loved it, each arena was evocative of a miniature Quake multiplayer encounter! and then when Arcade Mode was added after release, I spent hours perfecting my runs on a few levels. instead of just iterating on the previous game, DOOM Eternal tried a bit too hard to craft a unique "combat puzzle" design ethos, which was alright, but didn't quite click with me.

the lore stuff too felt overwrought as well—I really enjoyed how DOOM (2016) felt in that regard, it felt like you just got plopped into (the cancelled) DOOM 4, but instead of becoming immersed and participatory in the story, Doomguy didn't give a shit about anything except, goddammit, these moron scientists in yet another alternate universe once again did experiments with Hell shit and whoops yet another demonic invasion has arrived as a result—well, you know what to do, time to kick some demon ass regardless, it's what you do best! it was a good twist on the Half-Life 2 worldbuilding formula, sort of leaning on the fourth wall without totally breaking it, recognizing that players don't want a Half-Life-style DOOM 3 again, but rather, they just want to shoot some damn demons.

but then DOOM Eternal decided to play it straight and make all this overwrought lore and crap that I just could not for the life of me be arsed to care about at all. and they could've toned down the fanservice in the hub world to about 20% of what they shipped and it would've been nice without being over-the-top.