Alright, so let’s talk another broad topic:
Continuity.
For this example, we’ll be talking about the two most recent DOOM releases from id Software: DOOM (2016) and DOOM: Eternal (2020). The former will be referred to interchangeably as DOOM and 2016, while the latter will be referred to as Eternal. There will be some story spoilers for Eternal, so that’s your one and only warning if you don’t want it spoiled— and yes, it can be spoiled surprisingly, but we’ll get to that.
So, back to the main topic at hand: continuity. There are so many forms of continuity in games, primarily: continuity in narrative, continuity in gameplay, and continuity in style & feel. These elements are important in both standalone games and game series. It is important that from entry to entry (or even element to element) there is some semblance of continuity— otherwise, these elements or entries feel off or disconnected from the others. A great modern example can be found in id’s 2020 entry DOOM: Eternal and its differences from the 2016 entry DOOM.
When DOOM launched in 2016, it had three main components that it focused on: gameplay, difficulty, and balance. Balance between the gameplay mechanics and the difficulty of the game is what made DOOM such an unexpectedly good gem of 2016, as it was a competently handled reboot of the series that put narrative on the backburner to those. The narrative was found in environmental details and logs that could be found within the environment— no pre-rendered cutscenes and very few in-game cutscenes. Many people lauded the game for its lack of intrusive cutscenes and emphasis on balanced and engaging gameplay. DOOM: Eternal launched about a week ago today. Since launch, many people have claimed that it is a significantly better game in both terms of gameplay and narrative— however, in terms of continuity, it’s rather middling.
DOOM was a balanced shooter that preferred movement over camping, but did not require you to focus on one element more than any other in order to play the game effectively. In that vein, that’s where Eternal drops the ball in terms of gameplay continuity. In terms of how it plays, it sure could be described as aggressively fine. The gameplay differs from DOOM in quite a few ways: there are a bunch of additional items that are added to your arsenal on top of the traditional weapons and frag grenade, and they needlessly complicate the gameplay loop and clutter it; there’s a dissonance between the weapon strength from DOOM and Eternal, namely in the shotguns and rifles which take significantly longer to kill even at lower difficulties; most oddly of all, in attempting to add more balance in the weapons and combat, they decided to focus even more on movement— a choice that makes the game more about running and taking pot shots, rather than running and gunning fully like its 2016 counterpart. These rather large gameplay changes create a disconnect between the two games styles of gameplay, which is jarring considering how well received and remembered DOOM‘s gameplay was and is to this day. Additionally, they increased the size of each level— which, in regards to secrets and exploration, is nice— but in doing so, they didn’t increase arena size to account for the increased mobility of both the player and the enemies.
Shifting gears, there’s the narrative. Namely, Eternal actually HAS a narrative that you have to fully experience to play the game. At the beginning of the game, you are greeted by an introductory cutscene depicting the Slayer arriving at Earth, in his flying Fortress of Doom (don’t ask, I don’t think that question ever gets answered), during a demonic invasion. In DOOM, the UAC’s corporate operation on Mars to extract Argent energy to solve an energy crisis on Earth was hijacked by fanatics who were tricked into releasing hell on Mars by those in charge of Hell— and the narrative made sure you knew that it was NOT the intention of the UAC to release Hell but only access Argent energy. However, Eternal has a bit of a retcon from the get-go: the first interaction you have with anything UAC, in the first level, is a hologram that states something to the effect of “The Earth-Hell merger is the UAC’s grand plan for saving the planet, your suffering is necessary and recommended.” Now, I don’t think you need any education in Creative Writing or Fiction Analysis to understand why that is an issue in regards to DOOM‘s narrative. The dissonance present here can create confusion in fans who are actually paying attention to the narrative of the story across both games— not to mention that hamming up the story really doesn’t make sense from any standpoint in regards to ensuring the success of the narrative.
Finally, style and feel. The game, stylistically, is wonderful. It looks great, it sounds great (for the most part, the combat shotgun and all of its attachments sounds weak), but man does it not play great. DOOM made you feel like an unequivocal badass— but Eternal falls short in that regard, due to the gameplay changes that were made between the two games. Rather than facing the demons of Hell head-on, you instead spend 10 minutes of a 15 minute fight running around, and the other 5 minutes is attempting to land shots on demons. Every movement decision feels like the game is fully calculating against you and knows what you’re doing before you’re done doing it— whereas in DOOM, every move feels like you naturally made it and the game is trying to work against you but in a fair and level playing field.
I’ll get off my soapbox for now, but I got one last comment:
On Ultra Violence it takes 6-8 shots from the Combat Shotgun to kill Possessed, whereas in DOOM it took only 2-3 shots on the same difficulty.
tl;dr – The game is made based around mechanics with no balance, and therefore it feels like it lacks just one leg it needs to be a sturdy, well made product.
2021 edit – I believe the term I was looking for throughout was “artificial difficulty.” Eternal asks that you waste more time on loading enemies with bullets rather than punishing you for not utilizing your movement skill and prowess of what weapon obliterates what demon the fastest, whereas 2016 mostly only asked that you know how to move and shoot with the right gun.
Still kinda fun though, I guess.
C. B. Irby 